I am not a very complicated person. While I believe the life I lead is full of adventures, I am a creature of habit and routine. When I get up in the morning, I take an aspirin, a chewable multi-vitamin (since I still have trouble swallowing pills), and drink a can of Ensure or Boost. I turn on MSNBC to watch Morning Joe, get dressed, and at 5:20 a.m., I'm out the door for an hour walk with my friend, Sean O'Donnell-Brown. During our walk, we kid a lot and solve the world's problems but of course no one is listening. Changes in this routine are coming. Within the last month, on two different occasions, I jogged two miles. The good news is I did it; the bad news is I could be timed with a sun dial. Last week, Macomb had its annual Heritage Days celebration, and I told Diane we were stepping outside of our comfort zone and doing something we hadn't done before. I drove uptown, parked the car, and we entered Chandler Park. We walked up to a vendor, and I proudly announced that we needed a funnel cake and two forks. We sat quietly on a park bench and consumed said funnel cake. This may not seem like much but last year, I slept through Heritage Days as I had just completed my treatment.
I tend to notice little things that indicate progress since I entered the world of the "new normal." I take little for granted. Last week saw appreciable improvement in my ability to taste but this week, I seem to be regressing a bit. I'm confident that they will come back again, but these things seem to be two steps forward and one step back. All in all, I think I'm getting better every day.
We all need a good laugh so let me give you one at my expense. A couple of weeks ago when Diane was in Texas, I got up at 4:30 a.m. Local on the 8s from the Weather Channel said it might rain but what the hell, I had nothing to do, I'm up so let's do the long annual walk to East Street out by Hy-Vee Grocery Store and back. I decide to take an umbrella (just in case) and get in the car and start it. It dawns on me that it is 5:30 a.m. and maybe, just maybe, I might need some money so I head back into the house and pick up a twenty and off I go parking the car in the Morgan Hall lot on Western's campus. So far so good. I hear a little thunder and see a little lightning but nothing to be concerned about.
I walk across Q lot, past Tanner and Wetzel residence halls and get to Pierce Street Liquors when the thunder and lightning begin to take on an ominous sound. I plod ahead thinking how angry I'll be if I get struck by lightning while out for a morning walk. I head around the Macomb square and decide let's go for it and head east on Route 136 (Jackson Street). I look down and lo and behold I see two quarters and a penny so things are looking up. I look behind me and it is not good--darkening skies, more bursts of intense lightning, and loud thunder but by now I'm sort of committed to find shelter and have already passed County Market grocery store. I decide Hy-Vee is it so I arrive there just as all hell breaks loose. My one stroke of good timing and by this time the umbrella was insufficient to protect me from the driving horizontal rain and wind.
Once in the safety of the store, I see some farmers drinking coffee, go back and use the bathroom, and ask a cashier if she will call me a cab. She replies that she does not have the authority to male that call. I find the manager who says, "Sure Gordy, I'll help you." It turns out she had just graduated from Western, and I had spoken to a couple of her classes. Such a nice coincidence. I wait 30 minutes for a cab but no problem as it is still pouring. The cab driver drops me off at Morgan Hall, and I give him $10. I pull into the garage at 7 a.m. just as the hail commences. It was quite an adventure.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it. I could have rolled over and heard the rain hit the roof but instead I was caught in the middle of a violent thunderstorm. What an idiot.
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