Attention!

Having trouble sleeping, again, so thought I would take a moment to post a relatively complete update.

So, this all began early Friday morning, March 6. My sister Danna has been recovering from knee replacement (after 2 other unrelated surgeries) for the past few months and was just back to walking without a cane. She and her husband, Wayne, were out for their morning stroll to walk their Yorkie, PeeWee. Danna had PeeWee in her arms.

When they got to the end of the driveway at the street they noticed a low-hanging internet service cable (to their house) had been hit (a SECOND time!) and was dangling down. Wayne turned to go back to the house to get wire cutters to remove it from the street, a neighbor’s car came around the corner on their street (think big cul-de-sac curve with access from both ends) and Danna tried to signal and stop them, but they were going too fast and did not see the cable.

The car hit and snagged the cable whipping the loose end at high speed; it hit Wayne across his forearm leaving a bad wound. The free end then hit Danna in the head, she has a bruise/scar extending from the left side of her mouth all the way back to just below her left ear. The vehicle didn’t stop immediately so the force of the impact spun her around and even dragged her a short distance on the pavement after she landed face down.

The impact left the bruise on her face and abrasions/bruises around her left eye, and the fall left her with a bleeding head wound, a dislocated right shoulder, at least one broken rib on the right side, and lots more abrasions on her arms and hands.

The driver did stop to help and Danna was taken by ambulance to the hospital in short order. Initial worry was with her head wound from the fall. Doctors stopped the internal and external bleeding and her brain surgeon has since ruled out any need for surgery. She was awake and able to speak a few hours after the accident, but she has no memory of the event. She also has a hard time hearing, especially on the left, and her vision isn’t good. Her eyeglasses were destroyed (but we recovered both lenses since) and we found some reading glasses that she wears if she has too.

She is in a lot of pain, any movement causes her to great discomfort, but they had her out of bed for a short time today. Her physical progress is such that they hope to send her home today with a home care arrangement and lots of physical/occupational therapy. They say recovery, especially the shoulder separation, will take several months.

We’ve been helping transport Wayne, get groceries, clean house, take care of PeeWee, make home care arrangements, and prep to get Danna home, but there’s not much more we can do now. So, sticking to our original plan, we hope to return home later today (back in CR late tonight).

I’ll post more during travel home if possible, and maybe some photos once I get back home.

We were about 25 to 30 minutes from boarding and they announced that while we have a captain and a plane we have no crew yet.

Pretty sure now we will be leaving tomorrow.

I did manage to get in a nice long walk and a couple of train rides so I could get to the A terminal from my B gate and log some adventure labs.

I guess this must be Denver. We touched down in Denver about 30 minutes ago and made the long walk between gates. It just dawned on me how difficult it is for a Kansas City Chiefs fan to use the words touchdown and Denver in the same sentence.

If all goes to plan, we will still leave here today, at 11:59 PM.

So we are sitting at an Allegiant Airlines gate and I noticed the next flight out of here is to Tampa St Pete and it arrives many hours before our United flight from Denver. So I asked if we could make a quick change, but it is the start of spring break and the Allegiant flight is full

So, our 3rd flight cancellation of the day and now we are flying to Denver at 5:30 pm. Chicago must be a huge mess. We have a 5 hour layover in Denver then flying red-eye to Tampa with a projected arrival of 6:30 am tomorrow.

It sounds like my sister is waiting on a head scan to determine if surgery is needed to stop bleeding, but she is awake, responsive, and speaking. We think she also has a fracture at her shoulder and some broken ribs. It’s likely they will keep her for at least a couple of days no matter what the scan results return.

I will try to post more from Denver. Please look back at earlier posts if you are missing some information here. Take care.

Lots going on this morning. My sister Danna had an encounter with a wire of some kind on the street this morning outside her home in Spring Hill, Florida and she’s in the ER there with a head injury. I spoke to her a couple hours ago and she’s as stubborn as ever, but Chris and I are headed that way now to see what we can do to help her husband who is really shaken. He has some injuries as well.

So, right now we are on our way to Des Moines to catch a 330 flight that should put us in Tampa around 10 PM tonight. We will either rent a car or Uber to Spring Hill and see what happens from there.

For now, we have a return booked for Monday evening, I think it returns to Cedar Rapids like at 11 PM Monday night. I will post more as soon as we have time and as soon as I know more. Take care.

Just testing.

This might be the longest “micropost” I ever make.

A few days after my son, Ian, passed away on October 2, 2012, I desperately needed a distraction, some tangible task to keep me from the depression that seemed to be everywhere. My family and friends were, of course, gathered around and kept me going, but I remember lying awake one morning at 3 AM and thinking I really needed something “normal” to occupy my time, and mind.

So, I did what I usually do, logged on to my computer and just started poking at ideas. I wrote a little Python script to crunch some numbers, and ended up calculating calendar dates and number of days passed for events in Ian’s life. The solution I calculated was 4898 days, that number marked the span of Ian’s life, from May 6, 1999, until October 2, 2012.

I also remember calculating the “future” date that would mark 4898 days from his death, and I marked that date on my calendar (in my computer, of course) as a reminder to look back and think about what had changed in my life.

That day is today, March 1, 2026.

I am happy to report that had I not marked the date, and frankly I’m amazed that through many software updates the reminder still appears on this computer, I think I would have missed it entirely. That’s a good thing, I think… one should not live entirely in the past. Based on my experience, it’s just not healthy.

Back in 2012 I made plans to do something special today, but as luck would have it I’ve been very busy of late, and some of those people who propped me up back in October 2012 (and every day since) made plans that I’m happy to be a part of.

Another distraction, I guess, and a very welcome one. Thank you to all who keep me moving forward.

As this day has approached I’ve been thinking about IF, life’s middle name.

I miss you bud, today maybe a little more than others, IF that’s possible. IF only you were here…

Making a quick visit to the beach here at Gulf Shores, Alabama and the wind is howling and it’s cold. This is good prep for heading back north I guess.