I am blessed with amazing friends

Saturday I drove down to Greenwich with my skydiving friend to spend time with two of the most remarkable people in my life. John and Estelle have been dear friends for over... well - 40 years. That's about the longest I have known anyone outside of family. This couple has been married for 63 or more years - pretty amazing. And they are cuter than ever with each other. The little things they do to support each other is a marvelous example of the importance of sharing your life with another - each one making the other look and be as great as they can be.

















Left is a picture of the two of them, on our return from dinner at the their favorite restaurant. Amazingly, the was full of black tied men and gowned women enjoying a formal evening of dinner and dancing. No indication that the stock market had been in a freefall the previous week and panic is settling into many households around the country.

Our dinner was less formal but the most enjoyable of an evening sharing stories of life experiences and an incredibly close friendship and understanding.




















To the right is a picture I took from their dining room with a vision to the west of a bright sunset over New York City. What you can't see, but I could were the lights of the Triboro and Whitestone Bridges sparkling and a vague outline of the city skyscape. It was from this point that John actually witnessed the second plane flying into the World Trade Center on that fateful day September 11, 2001. He could see the explosion, flames and distruction from 35 miles away.




My heart is still singing with the pleasure of the afternoon/evening. As always, I wasn't sure where the conversations would go - I knew we would cover subjects of catching up on the wherabouts of others and knew politics and economy would be included. We also, as always included a little religion (John told Bob of his meeting of the Pope (the last one) - a very comical and serious story). My brain was in full gear just keeping up with these two people. Humor, thoughtfulness, opportunities, talents, incredible sensitivity and honesty - that's what makes a true friendship like this last that long.


As we were leaving out the drive, John insisted on loading us up with the dahlias he grew this summer, in his newest venture in the world of horticulture. A man of great patience and understanding who has many varied talents of gentleness and nurture. These are two of the most incredible people I will ever be blessed to know in my life. I honor them here.

Moving Forward after a Setback

It's been awhile since I have updated this but now is the time. I need to record the progress of the "back" lest it becomes a blur.

I left you last with the hopes of the steroid shot working.... and the answer is - yes and no. Oh the paradoxes of life. Here's how it went. I got progressively better - a great thing. I could walk a bit farther, sleep a lot better, and move more easily. So - I went to work. The next week found me in Vermont making calls and enjoying being out on the road again. My left leg got tired and a little weak - and I was really happy to get home.

Here comes the NO part. Friday morning I woke up, showered, walked the dog.... leaned over for something and BOOM - I couldn't stand. Excruciating pain. Fortunately I had my phone in my back pocket... a word to the wise - have a back pocket for your phone. I called Christina who rushed over and somehow got me, eventually to the emergency room. This time when they asked pain level between 1 to 10 - no thought needed - it was a 10. Worse than childbirth. They gave me morphine and many many other drugs - bottom line - knocked out for 5 days - truly. And surgery scheduled for October 13th. Yep - this Monday in the morning and should be home Tuesday - and them for some time. Maybe a month.

And more good news is that - after that painful Friday, I have had little pain, am off of pain pills and stronger than in the last 6 months. Numbness in my foot and fear of a repeat of that Friday indicate that I need to follow through with the surgery. I am looking forward to having it over.

I have been working all week on the computer and phone, trying to contact customers and sell what little I can over the phone and net, but I actually think that the buying this week would have been slight had I been driving around the country. What a week!

I am trying to figure out some of the networking groups and connections on the net that might provide a way to encourage sales in the companies I represent. I sure would like to find some ways to do a little less driving.

That's the update - not too exciting but I felt I needed to document the moves forward so that I can complete the story next week and be done with it!

Happy Columbus Day - I hope you go out for a walk in the woods to celebrate - that's what I want to do.

J