Nothing like good friends

My dad sent the text and photos for this post to me last Tuesday - sorry for the delay.

As you journey through life, you meet so many people, some cast no memory, some remain for the moment then dissipate into space like a quiet flagellation, some stick around like a bad dream that continues to surface in your subconscious, and then there are those wonderful souls whose memories illicit smiles, warm your heart, draw you to them again and again, who fall within that wonderful category we call friends.

So many friends have written and extended their best wishes, prayers, hopes, encouragement, and humor, and their positive energy has cast a formidable shell around this cancer, keeping it contained and wondering where this force is coming from. I know it comes from love, faith, goodness, hope, gratitude, and a positive energy that emanates from the good souls of all these friends. Prior to my last cocktail (chemo) I had a scan of the bones after taking an infusion of some “nitro” stuff that allows the scanning machine to detect changes within the skeletal framework of the body. The doctor had told me that if it was spreading, they’d take me off the “Year” study I’m on, yet keep me on the chemo treatments. Fortunately, the scan showed no expansion or new spots on the bones! Still have two on the hips, and one on a rib, and they are not expanding or growing. So, all the prayers are working. Chemo is doing some good besides taking all the hair off my body (Babs says my legs are smoother than hers – how she knows we’ll keep to ourselves), making my legs swell, keeping fatigue as a too frequent visitor, and a few other side effects that are not worth lamenting about. All is good. They did detect a spot on my lung and took another c-scan last week and will get the results on that soon. I expect good news.

Coming back to friends, 37 years ago, I sold a home to Bob and Kay Martin in the Pinery in Colorado. The Pinery was the project that took me to Colorado and in essence was the roots of my real estate career. Bob was establishing a Dentistry practice in the then remote area of Parker. Over the years we’ve served in Optimists together, were officers of our Home Owners Assn., we’ve competed in tennis, racket ball, hiking, golf, and for more years than I can remember, we’ve bet on the NFL season. He loves to gamble and while some might consider it a vice, for Bob, it’s a lifeline of fun and adventure. We’ve coached little league teams, attended parties, welcomed beautiful children into our lives, traveled to “fat farms” to take off some unwelcome pounds, and remained friends throughout it all. Four years ago, Bob bought a cabin on a lake in Minocqua, Wisconsin, fulfilling a lifelong dream of having a place for his kids and grandkids to vacation where they would be able to enjoy, just as he had enjoyed with his father while growing up in the suburbs of Chicago. Each May, he’s invited me to spend time with him at the cabin and it’s been something I look forward to always. After last May, knowing I had contracted the big “C”, we set a date for May, 2010, and we just completed a great six days of golf. We also set a date for 2011, and I plan on being there again! Each morning, at 6:15, we’d be on the first hole. The only people we would see for the first two hours were the grass cutters. The Pro gave us a key to the golf carts and we were off before the squirrels were up. My game has gone “South” for some reason, my rhythm seems to be on hold at some remote place in my brain, and I paid him every day but one (he’d finally softened enough to give me an adequate number of strokes to offset the difference in our games). It was a very inexpensive way of paying for my room and board. We cooked in, watched movies, read, boated, bantered, and found that 6 days was about the outer limit of standing each other’s different ways. Bob’s pretty anal and controlling, however, with my ever present patience and charm, he turns into a very warm anal and controlling person. Bottom-line, we had a great time. He gave me an article about a new vaccine for prostate cancer that he wants me to explore. Adds an extra 8 mos. to your life he says, minimum, and only costs $93,000 per shot! I told him that amount of money, it should at least extend one’s existence to 9 months plus provide a daily masseuse for the whole time!

Yesterday, Bob dropped me off at Rhinelander airport, Babs flew in, and we we’re picked up by our friends, Joe and Debbie Yost. Both are Stars we met through the Star Power network and they are gifted people. The have a beautiful home in WI as well as Casa Grande, AZ. Their work is in AZ, however they operate from there as well as here in WI. So good to see Babs after 6 days and am blessed to still feel like a teenager in love when I see her. The Yosts are consummate hosts and we’re going to have the pleasure of their hospitality until Saturday. Their success continues and as I wandered through their home, I saw a number of phrases, each a guide for them and for all of us. Things like, “Believe in Miracles”, “Dream until your dreams come true”, “Everything on earth has a purpose and every person a mission” and many more. It’s small wonder they do as well as they do because they live each of these. Joe is a great cook, and they’ve opened up their home in WI to us. We slept like babies last night on what seemed like clouds, the bed was heavenly! We look forward to great conversations, eating like starved hikers, boating on glass, laughing, and sharing time with quality people. It’s fun for us to be around the people who helped us build the business and watch them at work……and play. They do both so well.

Well, that about summarizes my blog today. Got Darcie’s blog the other day, and the rabbit craze has waned with two of the granddaughters, they continue to show brilliance (wrote and performed a 30 minute plus play for their parents and grandparents), explore nature, and learn from their wonderful parents. Also went to another softball practice and my hip has hurt ever since. Will report on that after seeing doctor. It feels like a typical pain in the @%#$. (How some might describe me at times in my life.)

My brother Merrill and wife Kalle are coming to SLC in the next couple of weeks, and they’re such a treat to be around. All my brothers and their wives are getting together and we’re so looking forward to great Brinton stories, old and new, as we always enjoy each other’s company.

Love to all,

Howard