Wading through life

Daylight savings time is coming to an end. Sniff, sniff… It’s going to start getting dark around 5-5:30 now, and that really is annoying. So, summer is toast, as if the weather hasn’t already told us Michiganers that. Winds were kicking pretty hard today with 30 to 40 mph gusts.

But, gotta love the extra hour of sleep coming my way tonight. I’m heading to bed soon so I won’t completely negate the benefit. Just wanted to check in, say that Chase continues to do well, Michigan State gave U of M all they could handle, and I hope the Pistons wake up now that preseason is over and show the rest of the NBA what’s up.

Oh…and go Lions.

Trip summary coming soon… I promise!

As I left Mott Children’s Hospital tonight, I looked to the sky and was immediately reminded of Andrea’s comment that there would be an complete lunar eclipse tonight. It was about 1/4 complete when I first started watching it and I stuck with it until the midway point–a process that took 20 or 30 minutes (if you’re wondering what the image is, it’s the lunar eclipse. You can’t see much because the moon is… ECLIPSED).

Yeah, I had stuff to do back home and a few final innings of the World Series to watch, but having been out west for a few days, I’ve been reminded of the serenity one can find in nature. So, I just propped myself against my car in the middle of the parking lot and stared at the moon for half an hour. I swear some of the bypassers thought I escaped from the psych ward down the hall from Chase’s room.

Speaking of Chase: He’s doing simply AMAZING. I said in my previous post that his progress is truly miraculous and I stand by that more than ever having spent the evening with him. I could carry a conversation with him, joke with him, play catch with him, watch a Spider Man 2 bootleg with him…everything an uncle would want to do with a nephew.

He gets around now, but his walking isn’t natural yet. It’s still quite jerky. He fell a time or two and struggled to get up, but his spirit is great. He doesn’t seem bothered by his inhibitions. His mind seems to be ahead of his body right now in some areas and his aggressive male nature is shining through.

Andrea and Grant seem to be doing ok, but one can tell the process is wearing on them. All will be glad when the stay at the hospital is over; it should be by the end of next week.

But Andrea brought up that leaving Ann Arbor will be tough to a certain degree. It will be kinda scary in a sense because they’ve had so much professional support around them during this time and will be set free to do it on their own. Chase will see therapists twice a week, but other than that rehab will consist of stuff in home and maybe a special school until he catches up.

So be in prayer that Andrea and Grant and Shelby and Celeste and the rest of us who’ll be involved in the extended rehab process with be granted an extra dose of God’s grace and strength to tackle this head on and pour ourselves selflessly into loving and supporting Chase and one another as we work though this as a family.

A few quick things before I go to bed. First, please pray for my family as we work through another tough situation. My Aunt Joyce, wife of my mom’s brother Dennis, will likely pass away sometime within the next week. She’s been battling cancer for a few months now and she and the immediate family recently decided to forgo any further treatments such as dialysis and chemo.

She and Dennis have two daughters, Jennifer and Kris Ann. They are both married and have children. I’ll likely be traveling to Pennsylvania with family for the funeral.

Second, I spoke with my mother this evening to get an update on my nephew Chase. I guess he’s doing very well. Sounds like he’s walking pretty well and is able get around on playground equipment to a certain extent. His speech and short-term memory are progressing very well also. His progress is such a huge answer to prayer and a true miracle of God. Thank you so much for your continued prayer support. I look forward to getting over to Ann Arbor to visit he and Andrea and Grant sometime soon.

The trip to Utah, Nevada and Arizona was a great time. I won’t go into details now, but I’m inserting a few teaser images. This is a very quick and rough selection from my crop of pics. These are the pure images from my Canon PowerShot S410. I didn’t edit them in Photoshop yet, other than to resize and Web optimize so they download quicker for all you on a dial-up connection.

So, check out the mini-gallery I’ve started. I’ll flesh it out as I process the images and pic my favs.

Ok. Call me a liar. I ran out of time to create my map. But I’ll do something when I get back to show you what we did and where we went.

Quick summary: (Part 1) Kolob Canyons region; (Part 2) Left Fork region, aka Subway; (Part 3) Zion Canyon; (Part 4) Grand Canyon, AZ — north rim.

Time to head to the airport. I’m excited.

Well, our trip to Utah is here, whether we’re ready or not. I feel a bit unprepared, but I suppose it’s just a bit of anxiety. Haven’t really done a trip like this before, but I’m sure it will be fine.

Checked the weather and it looks like tempertures are going to be a bit below normal. Mid 60s for highs. That’s not too bad. Evenings will dip to around 40, so I’m glad I went ahead a got the 20 degree mummy sleeping bag rather than a 40 degree one I was planning on. They say to go about 10-15 degrees below what you think will be the coolest temperture. I also got some VERY nice hiking shoes I’m pretty excited about.

Oh–and here’s a link to our meal supply for the trip. We’ll see how it tastes.

For those of you geographers who are interested in what our trip will likely consist of, I plan to prepare a map which I’ll post tomorrow. I’m heading to bed now.