tonight

Tonight I talked to Jane, my Iowa friend of almost 40 years, who I talk to enough that we are almost neighbors (or relatives) and I talked to Doug, a friend from the same era who I have talked to so infrequently over the years that we could be considered strangers. Except we aren't and the years fall away when we laugh.

Doug and I started working together, 40 years ago, when I was a very fresh from the patch Minnesota school teacher and he was a Vietnam veteran who lived in the attic of the old house where my school was housed. He had ghosts, terrible ghosts but we never talked about it then. I didn't know how to bring it up and I'm not sure he wanted to talk about it.

Tonight, after so many years, I heard him laugh again. I have a picture of him, taken in Viet Nam, a haunting image burned into my brain. War is a terrible thing we do to young men.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

festival of winter fun

Here's a link to the Free Press site where you can find a video and a slide show with audio of the Polar Plunge. Here's the slide show of Sunday's festivities. Jane and Dick had planned to leave on Sunday but how can you pass up the Polar Plunge and a Blastfest?
Read more

being thankful

It's easy to be overwhelmed by the crap in life because there certainly is some of it. Anybody who reads the paper, listens to the news, or who gets dressed and leaves the house once a day knows it. There are so many things for which to be thankful, though, so my mental exercise this morning as I drink my coffee and watch my fireplace is to think of them. The safety of our friend, Bob, after his terrifying roll-over on an icy road near Alexandria. It took me two days to respond to his email because it was such a frightening story. As he is a good and kind person, he didn't curse the state for not sanding or even nature for sending such road conditions, but he was grateful for the kindness of a stranger and for his health. For all of this, I am thankful. A warm and well-lit house, tiny as it is. Regis and I have lived in this bitty two-bedroom, 1950's style rambler since we married 13 years ago. Most days we are overwhelmingly grateful for it's coziness and lack of st
Read more

dreams and sucking out the bad stuff

Image
I don't really know what kind of drugs I was on during surgery. I know they gave me Versed right before I was wheeled down the hall. Just a little something to take the edge off, I guess. It also does a good job of erasing the memories. I recall seeing the OR but then the lights go out. The next few days have been like this Van Gogh painting...lots of starry naps and dim memories. I've been taking Percoset since I came home. It does a good job on the pain but today it created some nausea. It also makes me fall asleep in the middle of conversations which some people find disconcerting. I skipped my 2 o'clock dose but decided about 6 that a little nausea is worth the pain control. I am not a hero when it comes to pain. I don't even like a hint of pain. This is an interesting part of my post-surgical experience. It's a suction drainage thing. The tube end disappears into my skin under my arm and is fastened there with a couple of Frankenstein stitches.I
Read more