Past, present & plans: 12-13-16

 

Past

 

In 1985 my brother, George, was part of the remaining group of male first cousins, known as The Sad Six. I have wrote about George extensively and probably will not stop. He was the next one to leave The Crazy Eight Club, when he took his life by suicide.

 

 

My soon to be second wife, Diane, two sons and I were up from Norfolk, Virginia, visiting family in October of 1985, when tragedy struck. We were sleeping in mom’s living room the second night there, when George came in late. I said, “Hey,” he drunkenly grunted something half under his breath and went back to his bedroom.

 

George use to load his own ammo, so he could have easily design a shell to be as quiet as he wanted. Later the police thought, he might have waited till the nightly train came by, to pull the trigger.

 

 

Mom woke me up in the morning and asked me, “Jim can you look at George, I think something is wrong? We might need to call an ambulance.”

 

I walked to the opened door at the end of the hall and saw him laying in his bed across the room. I knew he was dead and yelled to mom, “Call the morgue.” Don’t know why I said it like that, guess I was in shock. I should have closed the door, went back to the kitchen, hugged mom and called the police myself.

 

I took a couple of steps toward the foot of his bed and noticed the dried streams of blood that had flowed down his cheeks. One from each eye, one from each nostril and one from both sides of his mouth. I stepped to his right, my left and saw his 357 Magnum revolver by his side, laying in his right hand.

 

Then we were, The Thirty Something Five.

 

Present

 

I had three doctor appointments today. The first two went off without a hitch, but as I was standing in front of the receptionist for my third appointment, she asked for a referral that I didn’t have.

 

By the time my family practitioner’s office faxed it over to my lung specialist, I was sitting at the local Starbucks and had to make another appointment for next Monday. I seem to be breathing much better in the cooler weather.

 

I was enjoying my tea, when I found out that I spent more money, than my checking account had in it. Crap, that’s going to cost me!

 

 

Plans

 

I believe I’ve told you guys, that I sit on the board of the local CHRISTmas in April organization.

 

 

Today another member and myself will look at four houses, that are in need of repair. The applications and our suggestions will then be submitted to the board for consideration. All that are approved will be remodeled on one day in May of 2017.

 

 

We looked at one the other day, we will look at four today and then two or more tomorrow.

 

 

It’s a good feeling to help those in need, especially with a trade I can no longer physically do, because of my COPD.