ship-jumper's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A time to reflect To again shock the heck out of some....I am back. No...not in a day or two like I had hoped in the last entry, but not SIXTY DAYS like SOMEone bet on. Sheesh! Tuned the television on last night and was shocked that Minneapolis, MN made the news up here where I'm at. Then a deeper level of shock hit as I realized the reason was due to an awful disaster with the 8-lane interstate bridge collapsing across the the great Mississippi River. My breath was delayed and I had to consciously tell myself to breathe as I watched in horror. I have traveled that bridge so many times myself when I lived in Mpls. I still know many people there and of course one's mind gets jumping to all kinds of crazy scenarios, and I needed to just sit back and calm down before deciding what to do. My family is there but thankfully on the north end of town so I wasn't too worried about the possibility of their travels on that bridge. This was validated when I phoned my mom in San Diego and had her relay that my brother had phoned and said that all of our family was fine and ok. Relief set in, despite not being overly concerned about their safety anyway. My best and dearest friend lives on that end of town, and right off of the that interstate. I was needless to say a tad frantic as I tried to find the damn cell phone that has her phone numbers embedded in the directory. I tried 411.com and unfortunately got a different person on the phone who had the same first initial and last name. Finally I located the beast and dialed her up on the land line and her cell phone but had no luck. "Patsy" (yes, tag named after the wonderful Ab Fab character that she so resembles) was not reachable, and at 10:15 PM her time this was unusual indeed. I left messages, and sat and waited while watching the coverage on CNN. Imagining the fear and horror those poor kids on the school bus must have felt, the panic sweeping across their parents, the screams and cries of those stuck in their vehicles and/or in the water waiting for help to take them to safety. Ugh. I felt so dang helpless sitting in my living room so many miles away!!! Around 12:45 the phone rang. It had the distinctive double staggered ring that signals a long distance call was coming in. Was it my family? Was it good 'ol Butthead from SD? Or was it my Patsy? A sigh of relief. Never did a voice sound so good on the other line, and as I began to speak my wonderful wife gave me a look of joy saying ok hon, I will go to bed now that I know you no longer have to worry. Bless her heart. She was going to stay up all night with me in front of that tv and telephone if need be. "Patsy" and I had a wonderful conversation, got caught up again, laughed and just hung out. It was wonderful. I believe it was almost 1:45 when we hung up the phone and I crawled into bed, kissing my honey on the cheek and saying I love you....and drifting off to sleep as I recalled all of the wonderful people in my life that I love so dearly and am so grateful to have in my life. Sad that it takes a catastrophe to remind us yet again of the simple things, and things that are indeed most important. My heart and prayers go out to those who are still missing family members and friends. May peace find its way to you soon. 12:57 p.m. - 2007-08-02 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
||||||