Mid-Life Thoughts from Bob: June 2024

Sunday, June 30, 2024

Good news

Because I shared in this space about my son-in-law, I wanted to report that his six-hour robotic surgery this past week was successful. The doc reported to my daughter he "got the cancer" and the bag is temporary.

It was a long day, and there are bumpy days ahead as he recovers. As I write this, he is still in the hospital, and my daughter is staying with him most of the time. We are here in Huntsville staying with our grands, although today (Sunday) some friends are giving us a break. They are three adorable children, but they ARE children and I think God's design of having them when we are young is a good one!

But all indications are of a good prognosis, and we have every reason to be optimistic. Thanks to all of you for your thoughts, prayers and support.

Wednesday, June 19, 2024

Something personal

It's hard to believe I started this blog 16 years ago. I am not sure the title I came up with, "Mid-Life Thoughts from Bob," provides an accurate description of the blog owner anymore.

But given the various quirks of Blogger, I am not going to try and change the name, even though I no longer fit the definition of "mid-life."

I started the blog as an outlet for writing, a longtime passion. A few years later I got a gig writing a weekly (mostly) column for a local publication. That became the main focus for my writing, although I continued my presence here. A couple of years ago, the column ended but I moved that effort to the Substack platform and was fortunate enough to take many of my column readers with me and gain some new ones.

That is my main focus for writing today, but I still keep this blog. I do so because I made some friends here, and even though I know you only online (except for Kelly, who I have known my entire life and who urged me to start this blog), I feel a connection with the handful of you whose blogs are listed at the right.

People have come and gone from here through the years. Some have left the blog world, and some have made their blogs invitation only. For the few of you who remain, as I said, I feel a connection and it keeps me writing here and checking in on your blogs.

Because of that connection, I wanted to share something personal with you today.

As regular readers know, I have three adult children -- two sons and a daughter, with the daughter in the middle. My older son lives just outside Atlanta with his wife and two children; my daughter is in Huntsville, AL with her husband and three children; and my younger son lives in Birmingham, AL with his wife and two-month-old son. We are just south of Nashville, and everyone is within easy driving distance.

I am a family man to the core, and those folks I just listed, along with my sweet wife, bring me far more joy than I deserve.

That brings me to the personal matter I want to share. Last November, the Monday before Thanksgiving to be precise, my son-in-law in Huntsville was diagnosed with colon cancer. He was 37 at the time, and 38 now. As you can figure out from what I wrote above, he is the father of three (adorable) children. They are 6, 4 and 2 years old.

I can't adequately describe the kick in the gut I felt when our daughter called to give us this news. Sorrow, denial and anger are among the emotions I experienced. How is it fair that this awesome young husband and dad would be struck with a life-threatening disease?

He was given a good prognosis. The cancer was detected early and had not spread. He soon started radiation and oral chemotherapy, and in early February he began periodic infusion chemotherapy. For the most part, he tolerated all of this well, with his most significant side effect being extreme fatigue the few days following infusion.

My daughter has been incredible, caring for him and educating herself about his form of cancer and treatments. She is his biggest advocate. And oh yeah, she has maintained her job and taking care of the three children I described above.

Through the generosity of friends, Wife and I were provided a guest house in Huntsville to use during the infusion weeks so we can be there to help with daily life while our son-in-law rests from the treatments. It's about 12 minutes from their house, so it's easy to get there and also nice to have our own place.

His last infusion was May 14th. A couple of weeks later, their family headed to the beach for a week for some much-needed R&R, and a break from cancer and cancer talk for that brief period of time.

He had an MRI and a scope in early June, which showed while the tumor has shrunk, it is still there. He will have colon resection surgery June 27th. Cancer is still confined to the colon and the medical team is confident the surgery will take care of it.

In the midst of all of this, there have been blessings. I will share more later.

For now, I would like to humbly ask my little community here for your best thoughts and prayers for the surgery next week and through his recovery time. Wife and I plan to be in Huntsville for about ten days and will make adjustments to that plan if needed.

I will keep you posted. Thank you.

Wednesday, June 12, 2024

Out west

Wife and I were home from our quick beach trip about three days before boarding a plane for California for a vacation we had planned before we even knew about the beach wedding.

Some background is in order.

As I have previously shared, Older Son and I set out on a quest in 1994, when he was eight years old, to visit every Major League Baseball home venue. This was after our first visit to see the Atlanta Braves play, at Atlanta's Fulton County Stadium, two ballparks ago for the Braves.

There are 30 MLB parks and we have been gradually closing in on them, with much joy in the journey. As of last summer, when we visited Los Angeles and saw the Dodgers play at their home field Dodger Stadium, Older Son had made it to 29, lacking only Seattle. I was a little bit behind him, also lacking Seattle but also Oakland and San Francisco, which Older Son visited during a trip to that area a few years back.

Along the way, Younger Son and my son-in-law started joining the trips. They still have to gain some ground to cover all the parks.

Anyway, after last summer's visit to L.A., Older Son urged me to somehow knock out Oakland and San Franciso, so he and I could be set up for the grand finale in Seattle this summer. It has been 30 years since we made the first trip -- 30 parks in 30 years if we mark off Seattle's T-Mobile Park this year.

When I floated the idea of a California trip to Wife, it was not long before she had a weeklong (plus a couple of days) adventure planned that would include, in addition to the baseball games, the wine country, and Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks.

We flew out of Nashville Friday night, May 24th. We arrived in Oakland late and saw the A's play the Houston Astros on Saturday afternoon the 25h. The ballpark, Oakland Coliseum, is old and, unlike the classics like Fenway and Wrigley, has not been kept well and very little updating has taken place.

The team has been fighting with the city for years, and after this season they will pack up and move. Their eventual home will be Las Vegas, but they'll have at least two seasons in Sacramento as they await construction of their Vegas home field. But, as the saying goes, they're getting the H out of Dodge!

It certainly ranks near the bottom for me, but we still had a great time. There is simply never a bad day at a live MLB game. And getting to see Houston play was a big bonus for me.

From Oakland we drove to just outside Sonoma in the heart of the wine country. We spent the next day, Sunday, enjoying the scenery, visiting wineries and sampling wines from the region. Monday morning, we drove down Highway 1 and across the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco, and that afternoon saw the Giants play the Philadelphia Phillies.

It was at the San Francisco game, at Oracle Park, that I had my best meal of the trip -- a crab sandwich on buttered sourdough that was, well, to die for! A Coors Light came with the "meal deal." Certainly not my beer of choice, but still a good accompaniment to the delicious sandwich. Later in the day I tried one of the local favorites that was much better.

The setting of Oracle Park is breathtaking, right on the water, with home runs sometimes making a splash -- both literally and figuratively.

From San Franciso, it was on to Yosemite. I think we hit it at the perfect time, before the huge summer crowds. Yosemite is one of the most visited national parks in the country and while there were certainly plenty of folks there, it was manageable.

The mountains and rock formations in Yosemite are beautiful, with stunning vistas and waterfalls. We spent a couple of days exploring on our own and went on a guided tour one day, which was well worth it. There were 15 of us on a small bus. All the other people were great, and the guide was informative and personable.

Two highlights of the day with the guide were watching climbers scale El Capitan, the 3,000 wall of granite that's an icon of the park; and seeing a bear!

On Friday morning we drove to Sequoia National Park, where the trademark sequoia trees were stunning! We spent the night in nearby Three Rivers. Saturday morning, we drove over to beautiful Carmel-by-the-Sea for lunch and drove the famous 17-mile drive along the Pacific Highway 1, which includes the Pebble Beach Golf Links.

We spent the night in San Jose Saturday night, June 1st, and caught a plane home early Sunday morning the 2nd.

Another trip, another great time, and MLB #28 and #29 are now in the books. The stage is set for Seattle.