1. I ended up in the hotel lobby for 2 hours waiting for a guy who said he'd be there in 45 minutes, but hey, he had the trailer so I was ok with that. I was thinking of you though so I snapped some pictures of the Spammobile. Thought it would make you hungry. MMMM. Spam.
2. We trailered the beast over to the only mechanic in the area that would fabricate a new cable for me. (Cables as old as mine are special order) On the way I found out that the guy pulling the trailer had never done it before. (that instilled confidence) Then we went from one end of the road to the other trying to find the mechanic's farm. Yup. You read that correctly, he has a shop on his horse farm. It was very difficult to find, we passed it three times.
3. Justin, the trailer king, said that he felt bad just dropping me off. But seemed to have no problem backing the trailer up and leaving. The Mechanic said, "I'll fix it, but you can't stand over my shoulder." So I took a seat on the porch and studied for Doubt Day. An hour later now 3:00 p.m. I paid the man $60 and was on the road again. Man the clutch handle feels tight...More on that later...
4. I went to visit my uncle Joe. Many of you know that he is sick and you've been praying for him since the request went up on the Prayer Page. When I arrived he was lying on the floor with a Nephew from the Boyer side, my great aunt Irma was there, and the condo seemed to fill up as others kept coming in. He was very sickly, and hurting. He has esophageal cancer and is living his last days at home. The Hospice nurse came and he was very nice. I'll tell you that as a minister I've dealt with Hospice workers before. It takes a special person to do their work. He was so gentle and so full of mercy it was a blessing to watch. He went through all the instructions for medication. Did a mini seminar for all of the family that was there about caring for the dieing and trying to easy any discomfort. Joe's daughter Wendy mentioned that she saw a child on TV that had a pen that said, "Cancer Sucks". The Nurse replied that it was our biggest enemy, and the room dissolved in tears because within the past two months the same family lost their other daughter (57) to cancer. Tissues went everywhere as the family wept. Those are the moments I thank God for Hospice. He continued to care for Joe. The tears were no doubt sorrow, but they were also stress. The stress of seeing a loved on dieing, knowing that there's nothing you can do but try to love them and care for them to the end. The Hospice workers help alleviate some of the stress. As you can imagine, I was thankful to have gone, but it was not a happy visit. They've given him about 3 months, but I doubt it.
Back on the Motorcycle, It's 5:00 now and the country roads of Fredrick County make me wish that I had days to make the journey back to Baltimore, but I-70 has a way of coaxing me back home in about an hour. Traffic on 100, and man is my left hand starting to hurt from clutching to shift, up and down as traffic starts to move then comes to a stop. I realized down the road that there was no accident, no reason to stop and go, just idiots who can't drive. And my left forearm feels the burn.
Off of rt. 100 finally, sweeping through the exit onto Ritchie Northbound, and a right onto Mountain Road at the Double T Diner. Mmm, food, I haven't eaten since 8:00 when I had a bowl of fruit at Bob Evans. But wait, something feels weird and as I coast to a light on Mt. Road just passed the home depot, my clutch cable breaks again, in the same place, and I'm in the left lane only 1 mile from home. I get off the bike and look at the line of traffic behind me as the light ahead of me turns green. Luckily there was no traffic in the middle of exit lane for Rt 100 so I pushed my bike over to the shoulder. Again I thought of you. (Special Shout Out to Kevin Moore who recognized me and my bike and stopped to make sure I was ok. And to Dave Stevens my father-in-law for helping me, and to Joe Harp who let me borrow his truck and trailer to get my bike back to my house.)
As you can imagine it was not the day that I had planned, but I was home safe, had a tomato sandwich, and headed to bed, dead tired, but very much alive.
--Ben
5 comments:
man, what a day! At least you got to see Uncle Joe. I know it meant a lot to the family that you were there.
Just think of all the sermon material you'll get out of that day. Dad (who shamed you into take the 'cycle to begin with.)
The picture of the motorcycle on the shoulder says it all: Sunset, all the lights going out of the day. Dad
I do have to say...Dad shamed you into taking the bike to Hagerstown...This daredevil takes a trip last weekend to Myrtle Beach and he takes his wife, mother-in-law, and Grandbaby. On the way home he drives 40 MILES with the low fuel light on. 40 MILES!!! With an eighty year old and a seven month old. I say you don't let people like that tell you when and where you drive. : )
When I'm in the car with my mother-in-law I'm "King of the World" and can do amazing feats like driving 40 miles with a low fuel light (which I've done before and knew that I could). I could have run on fumes but the fumes would have been coming off my darling wife. Sign me "Anonymous, Sr"
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