Memorable Mom

R.I.P. Mom  and Happy birthday

Today would have been my mother’s 81^st birthday.  Unfortunately she never made it to her 71^st as she was felled too early by a combination of health problems she was too proud and insular to address when it might have done some good despite a lifetime in the health care profession.  She was a complicated lady who left a legacy of contradictions for her children to try and make sense of.  She was left embittered by an ugly divorce from my father and then devastated by the loss of a daughter at an early age.  These two life events spiraled her to place it was difficult to reach.

Late 1940's

All of us kids tried but they were fairly high walls to scale.  I spent a good deal of my life either on edge or down right angry with her for the way she treated us.  The episodes of anger she directed were always superimposed on a profound love I knew she felt for all of us but was too broken emotionally to fully express.  I always thought there would be time to reach her when my military career ended but I fell two years short of that target.

Beautiful Young Lady - Here Pregnant With Her 4th Child

The years have blunted some of the hard edges and I find myself remembering the women who earned the love we all still felt towards her despite the hard years.  As a young mother she balanced a nursing career with four children and a “difficult” husband.  A beautiful young woman who reminded people of a young Elizabeth Taylor and who could be as funny as anyone I ever met.  She instilled in me my unbridled love of reading.  That’s the mother I’m choosing to remember.  For me, the saddest aspect of her young death were the phone conversations we had each night during the last week of her life.  She just come out of quadruple bypass surgery and for the first time in years I could hear the cherished mom from my early years in her voice.  She was positive and life affirming.  I was excited for my wife and kids to meet that lady but it was not to be.  So Happy Birthday Mom, thank you for the early years and for showing why life should be cherished and not shut out.  It’s too short to be angry at.

Mom and I

Anybody who saw the Patriots game yesterday knew that it was fairly frosty around these parts.  The rain and snow finally stopped long enough that I was able to address my distressed canopy frame on the back deck.  The gale force winds of the past few days had rocked it into fairly disreputable shape.  I’ve taken a lot of guff from people over the years because I tied the frame down with some fairly heavy rope.  When I untied the ropes the whole thing came crashing down as the ropes were the only thing keeping it erect. 

Tortured by the Winds

My plan was to carefully unscrew the rusted nuts and bolts holding the thing together so I could cart it off to the dumpster.  The cold wind would hear nothing of that plan which lasted only through the frustrating first leg.  Realizing I was now missing the red zone I fell back on my default position – brute force and ignorance.  I abandoned the wrench and availed myself of a nearby crow bar.  With that stalwart implement and some energetic twisting (the brute force part) in a few short minutes I had the thing reduced to its component parts.  There was nothing artful about its demise.  My wife kept taking nervous glances out the window at the attendant cacophony.  There’s a good chance anyone who wanted to sleep within a half mile of the house during that time frame was disabused of that notion by the sound of tortured metal.  If we're still in the house next summer, which is looking likelier with each passing day, I plan on building a "pergola" (whatever the hell that is) to replace the canopy.

When I took the Ropes Off

Now Clear Deck

The Result

Now back to that weather which was perfect for a Patriots-Broncos game since Lady Peyton Manning just does not like to get his tootsies cold.  He will probably go down, rightfully, as the greatest quarterback in NFL history statistically.  But anyone watching the game last night would want Sir Thomas Brady as their quarterback in a big game with less than ideal conditions.  The Patriots manhandled the Broncos and didn’t wilt when Manning started hitting some of his passes.

In Full Bloom Last Night 

This Patriots team is starting to remind me of its predecessor ten years past.  Those teams would physically beat up their opponent and impose their will upon them.  That’s what happened last night in frigid Foxborough.  My wife tried to carry on her usual Sunday sequence of loooong phone calls but was continuously interrupted by her husband celebrating another Patriots touchdown.  The best part was seeing early and often, the “Manning Face” which appears when things are not going well for the gifted pitchman. 

I feel almost guilty today because in addition to the Patriots win which is the only thing I wanted yesterday, my wife and I also snuck in another fantasy football win over my Wing Man.  Our two pet Broncos had great statistical if not scoring nights which was enough to push us ahead in a low scoring contest.  We still have one player left while Wing Man is finished and we’re ahead.  I think the operative phrase – “win:win”!

Best Quarterback on the Field Yesterday