It's a strange thing, how fluid time can be. Strange how it can slip through your fingers without your even really realizing it. Strange that your kids grow up so fast. Strange that your parents get old. Strange watching parents and friends die.
It's been a very weird few weeks, which at least partially explains my absenses from the blogging world. My father has been very ill for several months, and everyone in my family is coming to grips with the fact that his journey is nearly at an end. (Strange also that no matter how close someone is to death, we still grasp at euphemisms and metaphors for the actual final act to avoid actually talking about or saying the word 'death'.) We've all come to make our peace with the situation in different ways. My mom wants to see him no longer suffering through the constant surgeries, the growing weakness and mental instabilities. I want to remember him the way he was, independent and strong and seemingly all-knowing. My four-year-old daughter, Molly, wants to know that he'll be in heaven taking care of the baby we lost last year.
And just as we were preparing ourselves for this loss, and taking solace and comfort in our friends, we lost one of those friends. Mike Schupay, the president of the Indiana Ice and a good friend, passed away quite unexpectedly the day after Thanksgiving from a heart attack. He had handed Molly a hockey puck at the game on her birthday not even a week before.
So as you can certainly imagine, lately it's been a struggle just to get out of bed in the mornings and get moving for work. By the time I make it home it's even more of a struggle to take care of the usual household chores, much less anything extracurricular like blogging or getting the Christmas cards ready to send. I hope to improve on my productivity a bit in coming weeks…get caught up over the holiday break.
We'll see. In the meantime, keep my Dad in your thoughts, if you would. I'm going to miss him terribly.
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