Journey to Calm

I'm Ready for my Closeup

Anyone who’s been reading Frail Deeds over the past couple of weeks know that I’ve been more than a little concerned about the health situation of Keene Friend. Yesterday marked one week home from the hospital for him and I finally got the opportunity to get up there to see how he’s progressing. He’s almost back to normal but a persistent cough has returned which is troubling. He’s taking the baby steps back towards full health and has a full card of medical appointments in the coming week to hopefully nail down exactly what’s going on in his pulmonary system.

Keene Friend at Elm City Yesterday

It was strange to walk into his familiar house and see a huge oxygen tank and associated equipment. He also had a long line of medications he has to take daily set up in a manner to ease distribution. I wanted to get him out of the house because combined with his week in the hospital and home recovery he had to be getting some cabin fever. He’s had a whole squad of friends taking him out for errands and short trips all week but this was my turn. I took him out for lunch and for the first time in recorded history when the two of us entered Elm City Brewery I did not have a single beer. This is worthy of note in that I finally may be maturing. It was nice to have a semi-normal conversation even if we were accompanied by an oxygen bottle in case of emergency. He hasn’t had to use any of his associated oxygen equipment in over a week but he’s being a dutiful patient.

The Medicinal Lineup

We went back to his house where we watched a movie I brought up – John Wick. We’d both seen this movie fairly recently but you know – John Wick. The Cantankerous Friend showed up displaying his well camouflaged decency. He said he was only staying for a moment but ended up watching the entire movie because – John Wick. It was so nice just hanging out with my two oldest friends (they’ll love that appellation). We did get a FaceTime call from my Favorite Panamanian who tried to supervise Keene Friend’s doctor visits from 5000 miles away.

She's inherited her Grandfather's Pizza Eating Technique

A robust snow squall hit town coincidental with the movie and I kept waiting for it to turn over to the promised rain. When that didn’t happen I decided to head home. It was time anyways because the Wonder Pooch hadn’t made the trip with me and I imagined him crossing his legs while cursing me in the basement awaiting my return. The roads were pretty slick and a car had sailed off the road just outside of town but the snow never made it south of the Massachusetts border so the rest of the trip was uneventful.

But Cleans Up Nicely

In New Jersey the First Blog Reader was casting her spell over yet another of my daughter’s friends there for a weekend visit. She raising charisma to an actual physical trait, but I could be a tiny bit biased on this subject. It looks like they had a great day together. Since it was a cold rainy (typically March) day I consigned myself to the Man Cave with the now much relieved Buddy. When I couldn’t find anything worth watching on seven hundred cable channels I decided on some hedonism and stayed up to watch the other two special edition versions of both The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. I finally hit the sack around 2am – fully geekified for the week.

Great Freinds

Wingman Made it in for This One

Charm Offensive

Big Bear Gets His Daily Hug