It has been a Monday

It has been a very full day today, in more ways than one. In a general attempt at chronological order:

I heard from my cousin Gary in Wisconsin today. I didn't know he even existed prior to 2000. I met him through his sister Carol, who I also met at the same time. Carol and I were each doing family tree research, and we bumped into each other when we both sent inquiries to the same cousin in MI. He said to me, "there's a gal in WI who would probably like to hear from you," and so it was that I met Carol, Gary and their sister Anita. The father of them all was the youngest brother of my maternal grandfather. (For whom Alex is named) Carol and I have met several times, and we write and exchange phone calls regularly. She has an eerie physical resemblance to my own mom, but they are very different personalities. I would have liked to see how they clicked in person though. My mom passed away in '94, so that never happened. Anyway, I met the 3 "kids" (all older than me of course) and my great aunt Marie, their mother, shortly before she herself died. Our group meeting was nice enough, and I have appreciated Carol's friendship ( as well as her very affable husband Bud), but I wanted to get to know Gary better. I wrote and emailed a couple of times, but never heard back. About a week ago, Carol told me that Gary has a bad case of cancer and the outlook is not long term. Today, he sent me a great email. He didn't avoid answering me before for any reason other than something else always popped up that he wanted to get done. A creative man who loved his work, he just didn't have excess time for things like reconnecting family ties. Today he mentioned that he realizes with time short, he needed to get around to that and reading his note made me feel sad and good all at the same time. Kind of like typing this blog entry does right now. I wrote him back today, and hope that it is also answered. I prayed for him, and maybe I'll know the answer to that too.

Not long after that, one of my very good friends called me. He just got back home after a trip, and experienced a very close brush with serious injury or death while out in an unfamiliar area by himself. It was warming to know that he thought enough of me to call, but less fun to know that close friends have close calls, when there is no one, including me, around to be able to help. The fact that he did NOT die or come to serious harm does lessen the level of angst of course.

Work was work. As usual, customers who demand delivery by date "x" or else find that they are not ready on date "x." and cannot accept delivery. The absolute very least favorite part of my
job is preparing monthly Job Accounting Reports which are needed to do monthly statements. These are on my desk to be done and looking at them all day did little for my mood. I don't think corporate has ever given me last month's statement. Maybe I can hold out and say, "when you guys deliver, I can get started." Yeah, that's the ticket.

Tomorrow is back on the road, cycling wise. Not sure which bike it will be, but the hills of Posey Crossing beckon and I must needs pedal up that way.

Tailwinds everybody.