Good Afternoon All!
Prayers are lifted up for my Mom, Chris! She had a minor heart attack early Sunday morning. We got her to Valley Hospital and they did a great job of treating her. Evidently, there is some blockage in her aorta. She was transferred to Deaconess Medical Center on Sunday afternoon and she is there now being evaluated. More tests & an ultrasound today to see what the extent of the damage might be. The cardiologist said they will either treat Mom with medications and eventually send her home or, depending on the results of the test she is undergoing today, they may decide to do a heart catherization and possibly insert a stent or two to relieve the blockage. Please pray for wisdom and discernment for Mom’s health care providers. For a 92 year old woman, my Mom does remarkably well. She even dressed herself up for her trip to the hospital early yesterday morning! Amazing lady, for sure!
Happy 64th Birthday to my high school friend, Roger Barney! Here’s to you, Roger! Enjoy your special day of celebration today! I’ll tip one in your honor!
Also, Happy Birthday wishes go to gymnast, wife, mother & lover of Jesus extraordinaire Lily (Hoch) Larson, who celebrates her birthday tomorrow, June 11th. She’s a divine spark and shines her light to her family, friends and friends she hasn’t met yet. Here’s to you, Lily!
Happy Birthday wishes also go to one of my favorite quarterbacks of all-time, Dan Fouts of University of Oregon & San Diego Charger fame, who turns 68 today; to actor D.J. Qualls of “Man In The High Castle” fame, who is 41 today; to model & actress Elizabeth Hurley, who turns 54 today; and to Olympic gold medal figure skater Tara Lipinski, who is 37 today…Here’s to all of you!
Here’s the fact for the day:
Movie theater popcorn costs more per ounce than filet mignon! (No wonder movie theater popcorn tastes the best…the real reason I go to movies!)
Before my Mom had her heart episode this past weekend, we had planned to make a trip to Boise, Idaho to visit her long-time friend and maid of honor in her wedding in 1950, Dale Atkinson. I had to call Dale yesterday and give her the bad news that we wouldn’t make it see her. During our conversation, Dale recounted how she first met my Mom. It was in Raymond, Washington and both her and my Mom were asked to do modeling at a local women’s clothing store. They hadn’t met each other before, but struck up an immediate friendship. Come to find out, Dale worked for an insurance agency in Raymond owned by a gentleman by the name of Al Feller. It turns out that my Dad came back to his roots in the Willapa Valley & Raymond area after he completed his college degree under the GI Bill after World War II (Dad served in the Marine Corps and participated in the assault on Iwo Jima) and started selling life insurance there for a living. Dale told me that Al and another gentleman by the name of C. Bruce Albert, who was a District Manager for the Equitable Life Insurance Company of New York, heard about Dad’s work as a life insurance salesman and talked him into to joining Equitable Life as a salesman. Al & Bruce both became long-time friends of my Dad and Dad ended up in partnership with Bruce when he purchased the Bader Insurance Agency in Olympia, Washington, my hometown. Dad was fortunate to align himself with such fine men. Both Al & Bruce also served in World War II…Al in the Army and Bruce in the Navy. The way Dale explains it, Bruce was a forerunner of a “Navy Seal”, in that he was an underwater demolition diver who evidently had some hair-raising experiences during World War II as a navy diver. I’m going to look into this further and see what I can find. I always remember Bruce as a great guy and good friend and partner to my Dad over the years. I also remember going with Dad to Helena, Montana years later to visit Al Feller at his insurance agency in Helena. I think we ate lunch with Al at The Montana Club in Helena…it was a pretty impressive place with lots of Montana history pictured on the walls of the dining room there, if memory serves me correctly. Just goes to show that History reads stranger than fiction, for sure!
Speaking of History, here’s some more from my World War II adventures with my friend Harold Voltz that we had in Europe recently…
May 19, 2019
We arose from our beloved farm cottage Airbnb in Anliers/Louftemont, Belgium rather early to make the trip to the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris to start our “Beyond Band Of Brothers” bus tour of Normandy, Bastogne, Luxembourg, Munich, the Dachau Concentration Camp and Salzburg. We had a great car ride across France. It got to see the bullet train from Marsaille to Paris in action….my, how it hums along the tracks at lightening speed! Wouldn’t it be great if we had similar means of transportation all across the world…talk about being environmentally friendly! No gas guzzling cars for long distance trips! The landscape of France reminds me a lot of home. We had beautiful weather all along the way, making for a pleasant journey. We passed so many World War I sites along the way…Chateau-Thierry, the Somme battlefield and many more. Roland shared that so much of Europe’s history was one war after another. He said it was no wonder that little countries like Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg were the driving forces behind the creation of the European Union…they hoped that such an organization would prevent future wars. We made good time in Roland’s spacious Renault SUV…one place that was kick was the huge boar statute we came upon at a convenience store/rest stop on the main highway to Paris. It was a colossal and I mean colossal statute of a boar (wild pig). Evidently, wild pigs are a big deal (one of the main wildlife attractions) in this part of the world. It was rather funny to see a huge statute of a pig (boar) as a main roadside attraction…but I guess it’s a lot like big statutes we have in the U.S….like the huge pheasant in Huron, South Dakota or the Jolly Green Giant statute in Minnesota or Paul Bunyan & Babe The Blue Ox in the California Redwoods….and the list goes on and on! There must be some curious fascination with large statues of various oddities…
Well, we arrived at the Paris Airport and had to say our goodbyes to our delightful and beloved guide, Roland. I must say it was hard to bid him “adieu” as they say in French. The greatest thing about out time with Roland is that we became good friends with him…and the feeling was mutual. What an enriching experience to spend time with this man! If you ever decide to travel to Europe and would like to have a guide, Roland would be terrific, for sure. It’s worth the extra money to hire his services…you won’t regret it, for sure! Plus, he’ll do all the driving and negotiate the language barriers along the way….what better way to explore strange new worlds!
Here is the question for the day:
Q: How many mystery writers does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Two. One to screw the bulb almost all the way in, and one to give a surprising twist at the end.
Here are some thoughts for the day:
“I think the main thing, don’t you, is to keep the show on the road.”
—Elizabeth Bowen, Irish novelist (1899-1973)
“The best that an individual can do is to concentrate on what he or she can do…in the course of a burning effort to it better.”
—Elizabeth Bowen, Irish novelist (1899-1973)
And last, but certainly not least, here are the fortune cookie fortunes for the day (courtesy of The China Garden on Spokane’s South Hill…good Chinese food!). Judy & I always read our fortunes and add “in bed” at the end of each one…Here goes:
Judy’s fortune: “Good tings come to those who wait. Be patient…(in bed).”
Mark’s fortune: “Adversity is the test for strong men…(in bed).”
Here’s to a great Monday & lots of love always!
Press on,
Papa ‘a (Dad, Uncle Mark, etc.)