Autopen Continues…

 I feel like a cat with a hairball - I’ve just got to spit it all out; maybe when I do, things will seem to make a little more sense…

So Charles reached out to me in the fall of 2010, as Janis was struggling back from the reconstructive surgery on her aorta. Peran & I went for a couple of brief visits but I wasn’t able to take Zach until Spring  Break 2011 - of course, C & J were delighted by my fine young man. He & Charles hit it off especially well with Charles’s wicked dark humor, not to mention many things to teach Zach about gardening, lawn care, & cooking - Charles was quite the southern scratch cook, a true gourmand even as he remained mindful of Janis’s dietary restrictions…

The next Bad Phone Call came in July 2019, just a few weeks after I lost my dad. I had gone ahead & hauled to New Mexico - my mom seemed to be on an even keel, but I was not having much luck on my rides - so I was actually coming back early when Charles called to say that Janis was hospitalized, in critical condition after going down abruptly in great pain with leg paralysis after what seemed like an ordinary session of yard work. Zach, my mom & I went for a grim visit - Janis had already had below-the-knee bilateral amputations, but they needed to do more, which of course she did not want. We persuaded her & over the next several weeks, she had three more surgeries, and finally was released from the hospital to go home on hospice care. She lasted until the first week of October. There was no memorial service; she just wanted a simple cremation.

I called Charles yesterday morning but he could barely speak. The supplemental oxygen is not doing much for him, in other words. We would not allow a dog to suffer in this manner, as I think of Charles & my many black-humored conversations about my mother, who has not gotten much pleasure out of life honestly ever since my dad died. Charles & Janis were married for 55 yrs, and Charles still holds conversations with her - they were spiritual but not religious. Fortunately, Charles‘s friend Joe from New Braunfels went down yesterday so he is not alone.

I picked Tony up Saturday morning - we went out to Benbrook Lake & rode 7 miles…Summer heat has arrived and it pretty much wiped me out for the rest of the day.  Somehow it seems important to keep on keeping on.