Visiting the ER in Rifle, Colorado

If you need an emergency room, I don't suppose you could find a better place than Rifle, Colorado—unless you're near the McKee Medical Center in Loveland, Colorado. I'm intimately familiar with just how great that one is, too. They treated me quickly, professionally and gently. They were very nice, sympathetic and thorough. Who could ask for more? They even gave me food with my pain medication.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I did manage to break a rib. It also appears that one of my kidneys is swollen, but all other tests were negative, so no blood in the urine means the kidney will be fine once the swelling goes down. I hit hard, huh?

I was told not to go skiing (an easy enough instruction to follow, since I've never skied before) or do anything stupid... well, I promised not to ski, and to do my very best on the 2nd part, which made the good doctor laugh for some reason. I was being serious.

It's well past time for another pain pill, my first since leaving the hospital room, but Betty's going to feed us first. Everyone's being good to me, and there have been relatively few snide remarks about how I was hurt. Relatively few. Most of them from relatives. Oh yeah. Everyone here is a relative.

70% of All Home Accidents Happen in the Bathroom

Here's something that happened during the wedding trip that I intentionally failed to mention. The first night at the Grand Desert, an absolutely fabulous time-share where Pat and Betty so generously arranged for bride and groom, best man, and parents of the groom (us) to stay, along with them, I had "a bit" of an accident.

I actually hate to admit what happened, and I've tried to pretend it was going to go away by itself, but now that it looks like John will be taking me to the emergency room in Grand Junction tomorrow, I'm going to admit my stupidity. I got up during the night to go to the bathroom. That's a typical, normal thing for a sixty-something year old person to do. What I forgot, I guess, was just how big these rooms are. The bathroom was no exception. I turned, doffed my PJ drawers and sat where I thought the throne was.

Suddenly I was on the floor and my back had been slammed by the porcelain beast. I think I have a semi-permanent "Toyo Toto" bruise, and my tail bone, back, neck and shoulder really hurt, but I wasn't going to ruin the wedding for something that I thought was so stupid—and minor.

Four days later, though, and the bruise is beginning to fade, but I'm concerned about the dramatic increase in pain right next to my spine, just above the right side of the waist. It's gotten bad enough that I'm now having trouble breathing and doing little things like walking and raising my arms. I'm no doctor, but it seems like the pain should diminish with the bruise...shouldn't it?

I'm pretty sure I'll feel better just knowing what's going on inside me. I've always said I have an American Express Medical Degree. "This is your body. Don't leave home without it." Anything else I leave to the professionals. I do know I'm pretty tired of hurting, though.

A Lot of Love

Eventually there will be a slide show on the blog, but even that won't really convey just how special this late afternoon wedding was. I don't think I've ever seen a bride and groom so relaxed and just contented to be together enjoying each moment and every guest. The reception was handled the same way, and was just perfect. I'm still more than a little overwhelmed by the whole experience of watching my son get married. It was an amazing experience. Since I haven't yet processed all the feelings, I'll let some photos speak for me. The first two are professional shots. The rest are mine.

Those of you who prayed that they would make the trip safely, and worried when there were so many problems on their trip, I thank you for helping keep the faith that it would work out. For Tighe, Stacey, Uncle Ken, Aunt Kay and Uncle Joe, Uncle Pat and Aunt Betty, and those from Elisha's family who traveled so far to be with them on this special day, I want to say thank you for helping make this beginning so special for them.

Bride and groom with parents.

Jeremy's brother Tighe (best man) with his dad John.

Jeremy with his dad and brother Tighe, who was the best man.

Me and John, parents of the groom, before the ceremony.

Bride Elisha and Jeremy getting ready to enter the chapel.

The decorated car.

Elisha with her maids.

Jeremy—he's as proud and happy as he appears.

After the ceremony, before going to the reception, we drove to the Las Vegas sign for a few photos.

Pat and Betty at the reception. They're always fun...

One of Elisha's nephews fell asleep before the food was ready.

Not a traditional wedding cake, but we all enjoyed it...

And they fed each other with dignity and style.

If you'd like to see the videotape of the actual wedding ceremony, you can look online and enter the groom's name as Harrell, the bride's name as Fierro, and the wedding date as Dec. 27, 2009. Please note that we all obviously thought the cameras were turned off long before they were... Oh, well. We are what we are.

Congratulations, Jeremy and Elisha.

Wedding Update

It's been the sort of story people tell their children and grandchildren about. "You'll never believe how many things went wrong when your mother (grandmother) and I drove to our wedding..." with Uncle Tighe.

They were, indeed, supposed to arrive yesterday to spend Christmas day at Elisha's parents' home in Las Vegas, Nevada. It's now 10:20 p.m. the night before the wedding, and at last contact they're closing in on arrival--at about five miles per hour--while some kind of military checkpoint has been set up at a bridge near Hoover Dam to check each individual vehicle for some kind of potential threat.

They're exhausted. They're beyond hungry. They're also heading to Elisha's parents' home first, so we're going to bed soon with cell phone in hand. Just in case.

I do believe we'll have a wedding tomorrow. Of course, they still have to buy the wedding license first. The good news is that any couple that still wants to get married after a trip like they've just been through certainly isn't wearing blinders.

The Wedding Trip

While we had a wonderful Christmas here with Pat & Betty, there was more than plenty of drama for our son Jeremy and Elisa as they left Shreveport, Louisiana with Tighe, our oldest son and their best man. They pulled out around 3 p.m. Central time and hit traffic immediately, being Christmas Eve. They were heading for Las Vegas for the Little Chapel of the West, where Elisha's parents and all the guests are waiting to see them get married on Dec. 27th.

Jeremy said it seemed to take forever to reach Dallas, but when they arrived, they hit a wall of traffic. I'll correct this later if I'm way off the mark, but I believe it took them four hours to get through Dallas. Then things got really bad. The next morning they called from just outside Witchita Falls, where all the roads were closed due to weather related traffic accidents. They were sitting, doing nothing, and couldn't proceed in any direction. At that point it had taken them about nineteen hours to make a seven hour drive. Not good.

They finally got rolling and everything looked good. He called last night and said, "Mom, are you sitting down?" He sounded shaken, and I pictured crumpled fenders, the car in a ditch and an ambulance pulling away. Never ask your mother that question when she can't see if there's blood. Just spill the news. It's far less painless. The car overheated and broke down in New Mexico. Because it's a Prius, hybrid, only the dealership can "turn it back on" to see what's wrong, so even if it's just a hose, it's going to cost them several hundred dollars. (I feel a soap box moment coming on, but I'll save it for another day.)

Of course dealership is all the way in Albuquerque, 150 miles away. The tow truck can't pick them up until 7 a.m. That means a hotel had to be rented—very expensive in Santa Rosa. And once they get there, if the car can be fixed quickly, they still have a nine hour drive before the wedding. The wedding is tomorrow, so there's still a chance...

We'll be heading out to Las Vegas ourselves at 7:30 this morning, and keeping the faith for the best. We'll be praying, of course, and staying by the cell phones—thank goodness for technology! At least they're not out looking for a payphone...

Christmas Eve 2009

It's been a wonderful Christmas eve today, and a great visit so far with Pat and Betty. I wanted to say Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all my far away friends and family, and send this little video slide show as a simple gift of photos and music. Pastor Stan—this song's for you.

Christmas Eve 2009

Life offers a few perfect days, moments, memories. I had some of those today, and think I may have taken a few perfect photos to commemorate a day in the snow with my brother Pat.

We began Christmas Eve day by going to the Powderhorn ski resort, where we rode the lift together so he could ski and I could play with my camera. Neither of us was disappointed. Here are a few of my favorite photos, and perhaps a short slide show. We'll see how that turns out. If there is a slide show, it will be added later, so check back. It'll be its own entry for Christmas.

The view from the ski lift is wonderful, but even better is the beauty and quiet up there.

Pat was ready to hit the slopes, but I was on the lift for a round-trip ride back to the bottom with my camera.

He was faster than I was, too. His shout from below not even a quarter of the way down let me get a quick shot of him sailing past my much slower conveyance.

I was so glad my trip was slow, as it gave me time to see the tiny pines among the huge pines and aspens. I know "winter wonderland" is probably just a trite saying to most people, but we live it here in Colorado.

The open areas on the hills are amazing to me. Why are there suddenly no trees? Sometimes you can see herds of deer or elk crossing or, even more often, the hoof prints of those herds in the new snow.

One photo I didn't get was Santa. He was on Powderhorn today, taking a break before his big run tonight. He smiled and waved, but I got flustered and couldn't get the camera aimed in time. He was going up the ski lift while I was going down. He sure looked happy. I could hear his loud "Ho ho ho" echoing off the hills when he realized I hadn't been able to get his picture.