I had a similar moment. Down the street from me, single mom.
Erik, 13, mowed my lawn. Mike, 18, used to mow my lawn, but
was too busy chasing girls. Mike bought an old car, and had
a loud muffler. He brought it to my place, we patched it
with some sheet metal. He checked his brakes, one day. Left
his four way wrench. About two weeks later, his Mom stopped
by.

After the pleasantries, I mentioned he'd left his wrench
here. She said "you didn't hear?". No, I'm always the last
to hear. He and three buddies were speeding, and wrecked. He
was in the back seat, not wearing a lap belt. He was the
only one killed.

I'm sad to hear of your loss. I know life will never be the
same. I think of Mike now and again, probably less often
than you think of Mary. Carrying a cell phone is wise, and
also working only while clear headed.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"Don Foreman" wrote in
message ...
I actually made some chips today, first "normal" thing I've
done for a
month. (Doing taxes and settling an estate is not
"normal".) A
friend and neighbor at the lake wanted some clamps made to
hold a
special ladder to his dock. They use it to enter the water
from the
dock to go swimming.

It's a very simple project, maybe more later when I finish
it. The
lake is still ice-covered but that'll change soon. They
won't be
swimming in it any time soon, though. All I did today was
make eight
1/2" dia stainless posts about 1" long by parting them off
in the
lathe. I thru-drilled and tapped one, will do the other 7
when I
return to that task. They're like threaded standoffs.
They'll mount
to an ally extrusion, and will receive stainless bolts that
snug up
stainless or aluminum crosscaps that grab the ladder posts.
The
extrusion fits the dock, came from the dock mfr. I made the
posts out
of stainless because I don't like aluminum threads around
water.
Stainless on stainless works OK.

Hm. Mary was always in the house when I was doing stuff in
the shop.
If something happened, she'd eventually miss me and come out
to check.
Maybe I should start calling or emailing one of the kids
when I start
something out there, and then call or email again when I'm
done for
the day. I never work with tools after Miller time. I
never used to
carry a cellphone but I always have one in my pocket now.
Not turned
on, of course. "Chatting" on the phone does not appeal to
me at all.

Going shooting tomorrow with my gunsmoke luncheon & social
friends,
really looking forward to that. I have technically shot
since Mary
departed but I didn't know she was gone until I got home
from the
range and answered the phone so that doesn't really count.

Later I'll visit my son and his girlfriend at their place
for dinner.
They are very good in the kitchen, I'm learning a lot.

I was alone today and tonight but I did see people today:
the dentist
and his staff, and the acupuncturist. The front desk gal
at the
dentist asked how Mary was. I broke the news to her. She
lost it
instantly and Dr. John, who was standing nearby, looked like
he'd been
sucker punched. People liked Mary and we'd been going to
that
dentist for many years.

Donna lost her hub about 4 years ago, said it took her about
a year to
recover. Man, I don't like hearing that but the story is
pretty
consistent across the sample of folks I've talked to. OK,
so I'm
8.33% of the way, 1/4 mile into a 3 mile hike. The last
half is
always easier than the first half. The longest part of an
all-day (or
multi-day) journey is the first two hours.

I tried out the new veggie steamer and rice cooker last
evening.
Excellent! The rice cooker made perfect rice with no
operator
intervention. The veggie steamer overcooked the asparagus
but it was
uniformly overcooked. I just need to back off the time a
bit. Nuked
aspergrass is never cooked uniformly; the stems or stalks
are
underdone when the heads are done to overdone. Steam is
better.
Countertop appliance is better than stovetop for me because
it has a
timer; I can be outside grilling stuff and the steamer will
shut
itself off at a preset time.

Still takin' things one day at a time. Some days are
better than
others.