It's been an interesting week for me- moreso than usual, and I've been at home for the last two days of them.
Pull quote for the week for me came from my father-in-law. In casual conversation with him, he mentioned to me something to the effect that people my age don't think that I will get old, or believe that I will get old.
Yeah. About that.
Monday: I took my 86-year-old dad to the VA Medical Center in Asheville, NC for a shot in his knee. It was a nice drive, a quick trip, and we were back in time for the Price is Right. I changed his headlights for him in his car, and after a couple of stops, made it home in the snow. More on one of those stops later.
Tuesday I took my father-in-law to that same VA Medical Center. He had four appointments, and it took most of the day. One of his appointments was to get a new walker. That meant I rolled the walker he came in with around the rest of the afternoon. I sat entirely too long and dealt with too many extroverts. By the end of the day I could barely feel my right leg and was feeling pain in my low-to-middle back.
I guess from being bent over my dad's car, sitting and driving two days straight, my back has hurt so bad I missed two days of work. There goes any aspirations I may have harbored of being an OTR driver. (I never had those aspirations, Sheyna.)
I don't believe I will get old, huh?
I have a five-year-old girl that is starting to have an issue telling the truth. Meanwhile a girl I dated and a couple of people I went to high school with have kids with driver's licenses. One is a grandmother! Also, this is the year of my 20-year high school reunion.
I don't believe I will get old, huh?
I've been to entirely too many funerals in my life. I've sang at the
funerals of a next door neighbor, grandfather, an uncle, two aunts, and a
cousin. I found in this past year the burial site of my great-grandparents deep back off of Wildcat Road in Deep Gap. I realized then that I had not seen this country in 30 years.
I don't believe I will get old, huh?
On my way out of town on Monday I went to see Jenny. I haven't dropped by on her, probably, in this century. Jenny rests in the far corner of the Yadkin Baptist Church cemetery. She was seventeen, just three weeks graduated from Hibriten High. We were in band together, worked together at FairValue, and hung out with the work people after work. I had driven her red Dodge Neon before. I was never interested in her like a girlfriend or anything like that- in fact I took her best friend, Felicia, to senior prom- we were just friends. She was a lot of fun to be around. After I lost my job at FairValue, I lost contact with her.
The next thing I knew, she was gone.
Time has made an impact on the site. The concrete her gravestone sits on is cracking now, and has now turned a dark gray. The concrete bench at the end of her grave is weathered and worn, as well as the rabbit on top of it. Everything else there is at it was- little figurines brought by friends and family. One more thing- her mother now rests beside her.
I don't believe I will get old, huh?
At least I get the chance. Thank God for the chance.
