Saying Good Bye

Had a great dinner last night with Ellen & Dave, long time friends and neighbors from our old neighborhood.

Ellen has a great ability to make you laugh until your belly hurts. She has an effervescent personality and you never want the evening to end.

Dave's smart and one of the best people I know at solving problems in a simple and practical manner. His job is to develop systems to destroy mines for the US Navy; people's lives depend on his ability to reliably destroy these mines -- and the simpler and cheaper the design the more likely his solutions get deployed everywhere they are needed.

When Dave's son Kevin was young, he ended up in a full body cast when he broke his back by falling from a jungle-gym. Only Kevin's head, hands and feet stuck out of this body cast. Funniest thing you ever saw was Kevin strapped into the van, his body flat as a board, with one arm and his head sticking out of the window, coming home from the hospital waving to everyone in the neighborhood like someone in the Macy's day parade.

Dave built a three wheel cart to help get Kevin get out and about -- great design and very innovative. Kevin used it a lot at first but then taught himself how to walk in that full body cast - straight legged & wobbly until he could lean up against something - you had to see it to believe it. Kids are amazingly resilient and resourceful.

Saying good-bye, even though its only for a couple a months is a strange feeling. Everyone's excited and anxious to 'stay in touch'. And yet, there have been times when we've gone much longer between seeing each other when we've lived a couple of miles from each other. Somehow, just knowing you'll be on the road and unable to get together makes all the difference. Makes you immediately wonder why you didn't get together with friends and family more frequently while you can -- somehow life gets in the way of living.

Getting together tonight with Skip & Dawn for another 'farewell' dinner; we'll see if the same feeling develops......

Still planning to leave Monday for Memphis after confirming with the factory the RV will be completed on time -- can't wait.