Day 7 (half way there for me and for the tour)

I came on tour a week ago tomorrow.  I have been here for seven days and I have seven left.  Dave is already calling me a quitter and I'm already wondering if I can fit another few days out on the road the first week of October...

We all had breakfast this morning at our hotel, with Willette and her family.  What great people they are.  The people we meet on tour are truly one of the best parts of this job.  We left Sioux Falls this morning and drove north to Watertown, a little more than an hour and a half away. 

No trucks ran out of fuel!!!

I've never been to South Dakota (state motto "we have more flies per capita than anywhere else") before, so I didn't really know what to expect as far as scenery.  But it was kind of nice.  Very rural, but heading up I-29 was nice.

We got in to Watertown and were met at our hotel by Tori, a 7 year survivior and a pretty sweet, very dynamic woman who is absolutely passionate about taking care of the women in her community. 

She worked us like dogs.

And that is a very good thing.

When we're on the road like this, we all want to be busy.  We all want to do home visits, hospital visits, work events or whatever.  We belong to the communities and people that bring us in. 

Let me take a few minutes to explain just how amazing the people up here are with an example...

As I said, I've been on the road now for seven days.  Seven very busy days.  I haven't had time to do laundry yet.  Now, mind you, I didn't have to go commando just yet (TMI for some, but hey, I want you people to understand what we do) but I was within days of that.  I asked the lady if they had laundry facilities and she said they did.  One of the other drivers, actually ALL of the other drivers, had laundry needs of varying degrees too.  The hotel has one washer and one dryer.  We have to be out and on the road in 30 minutes. 

Do you smell what I'm stepping in here?

I came outside and asked Tori and the FD's Battalion Chief if there was a laundromat close by and the Chief said there was one on the other side of town.  He then said to bag up our laundry and he'd take it to the firehouse and make sure it got done.

We did, he did and it did.

How amazing is that?  Cause, I'm not gonna lie, I wouldn't have done that.  I might have offered up the Wolf's services to do their laundry, but there's no way I would've done that.

Like I said though, we worked for it.  We did two parades, a hospital visit, two home visits and then this afternoon we set up near the Redlin Art Center and some local dignitaries spoke, including Tori

And Dave

And we sold t-shirts (that's how we keep the trucks on the road) and talked to people about how important it is to keep the money in the community where it's raised and all the other thing we do.  And as I walked around the trucks at one of the events, with people that wanted to sign, I saw this for the first time.  I think it's my favorite so far...

We leave in the morning for Aberdeen for twelve hours worth of events.  I'm not sure what exactly, but it'll be tough for them to beat what we've seen in Baltic and Watertown.

Pink Heals!

Peace

Day 6 (I may have to start liking people again)

What a great day.  

Even though we were on the road at 5:00 AM today (and of course, I was awake before 4:00 because, why would I sleep?) we had many highlights today,

Let's start with driving through Clear Lake, IA.  If that town doesn't ring a bell, you're either A.) too young to remember or B.) not a fan of rock music or C.) you never paid any attention to TV game shows that focus on trivia ("I'll take dead rock stars of the 50's for $500 please Alex).  Clear Lake, IA is the town Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper crashed near.  Ever hear of "the day the music died"?  Or the song "American Pie" by Don McLean?  OK, if you still don't know, fire up your Google machine and do a search. 



We stopped for coffee in southwestern Minnesota around 7:00 AM...

And as we approached Sioux Falls, actually, as we approached our destination IN Sioux Falls, This happened...

Yup.  One of the engines ran out of fuel.  If you've never run a diesel motor out of fuel, I don't recommend it.  It's very time consuming to get it back up and running.  Especially when you're new in town...

But after a little bit, Dave sent John and Grant on to the event and he and I waited with the truck til the Fire Department mechanics came and helped us out.  Along with Jodi's Dad.  Jodi stopped to see why we had pink fire trucks and Dave started talking to her about what we do.  She told us her Dad was a retired diesel mechanic and she then called him and told him to come and help us.

We finally got to join the rest of the guys at our first event at the Sioux Falls FD.  Nice people, not a huge crowd though, unless they all came and left before we got there.  The FD fed us, sloppy joes and chips (no comment)  and we were able (it was fine) to sit and chat with the crew (no really, it was fine) for a little bit.  While this was going on the mechanics tried to fix a short in the wiring of our trailer.

We headed north to Baltic, SD after lunch.  Arriving in town, we went to the local school and the grade school kids came out and looked at the pink fire trucks for about 30 minutes.  The next event, also set for the school, didn't start until 5:30 so we were left with some down time.  There's not much to do in a town of around 1,000 people.  However, the reason we were in town, a wonderful force of nature named Willette, took care of everything.  

Willette, a three time cancer survivor and the 77 year-old aunt of a dear friend of Dave's, introduced herself to a couple of guys by telling them she was up til 12:30 drinking Scotch.  This woman organized the event and, bless her heart, drew probably 600 people to it.  In a town of 1,000 people that's enormous!

Of course it wasn't a huge crowd, but it was steady all evening long.  And the folks up here are ridiculously nice.  

Especially Donna Lee and Betty Jean.  I met them in Sioux Falls, but they said they were originally from Baltic and would be there also.  They teased me that I wouldn't remember their names, so when I saw them in Baltic, I made a point of calling them each by name.  They got a huge kick out of that.  A little later, I saw them sitting in their car and I came over to scold them for not saying good-bye before they left.  Donna said "oh we're not leaving yet, just taking a break".  So when the time came for them to leave, they came up to tell me goodbye, to thank me for remembering their names and to thank us for coming to Baltic.  Dave offered to be their "boy toy" and after considering it, they told him no.  Donna did however have no qualms about resting her hand on my butt for this photo...

Finally, as we were driving convoy style back to Sioux Falls for the night, Leonard (last in the convoy and driving Karen) came on the radio and told us to watch the woman approaching us on the back of the motorcycle.  As the bike came alongside me, I immediately recognized them as a husband and wife I'd spoken to in Baltic.  Theresa was a 12 year cancer survivor and she and her husband were both as nice as could be and seemed to enjoy the evening and seeing the fire trucks immensely.  

That was proven by the piece of paper Theresa held in her hand as they passed us, southbound on I-29.

It said, simply, handwritten in big block letters...

THANK
YOU

I almost started crying on the spot.

Tomorrow we're off to Watertown, SD.

Pink Heals!

Peace

Day 5 (I have no clever subtitle)

Wow.

I'm really not sure how to begin tonight's entry.  I'm beat.  Up at 4:30 this morning (I don't often sleep well) Drove to Madison and set up at a shopping mall.  Several women from American Family Insurance corporate headquarters came by to see us, AmFam wouldn't let us on the property (probably just a misunderstanding) (probably) so the ladies came to see us.  

They were great.

We talked to them about what we're trying to do and who we're trying to reach.  As we talked to them and as Dave explained that for six years, no-one from the city of Madison has ever returned a phone call to him, I mentioned that it surprised me given Madison's reputation as a rather liberal community.  I told the ladies that in March of 2011, the pirate and I brought the Heir to the Throne up to Madison to march on the Capitol.  Told them I felt it was a civics lesson he'd never learn in school.  And I told them that, I believed, that if 100,000 people could march around the Capitol in February and March in Wisconsin, that they should easily be able to mobilize 50,000 people in the summer to march for women's health issues and prove to the city, county and state that they were the ones that demanded respect, that they were the ones that controlled the votes and that they were the ones who's voices should be heard.  

I think they're going to organize.  I'll do whatever I can to help them.

We spent 4 hours driving to Mason City, IA for our next event.  It was nice, but pretty warm and it drained me.  Short post tonight and potentially for the next couple nights too.  Lots of miles between events.  We're up at 4:00 AM tomorrow to drive 4 more hours to Sioux Falls, SD.  Three events at two locations, should be interesting.

Lucky for me I can hear the problems of the world being solved by the patrons of the hotel bar from the "business center".  Oh well.

Pink Heals!

Peace.

Day 4 (in case you hadn't heard, I love this stuff)

Today has been a little more low key compared to the first three days.  That's both good and bad. 

It's good because it's been nice to walk to a nearby super mega-global Pacific Northwest based coffee-based beverage location (endorsements opportunities available if they're listening) for a vanilla laaaaattttay (say that in a Forrest Gump voice for full effect) and make an entry here before 9:00 PM. 

It's bad because, as you may have determined from the title, I love this stuff, and as the kids say, it harshes my buzz, when I can't do it. My kids don't say that, but I'm sure somebody's kids say it.  I enjoy the interaction with people.  I enjoy the feeling that I'm doing something nice for someone that I've never met.  I also enjoy teaching new and colorful words to my fellow Pink Healers when somebody cuts me off on the expressway. 

But I digress.

So today we made a brief appearance at a place that offers support services to women in Waukesha (Chippewa for "it gets cold here in the winter") County and then went in to a very under-appreciated city, Milwaukee (Chippewa for "I don't get no respect") and the Children's Hospital.  Two of the guys got dressed up in pink turnout gear and went upstairs to visit some kids with cancer.  They said it went really well, but it was difficult for some of the guys.  We, as firefighters, spend a good portion of our careers de-personalizing what we do.  If you don't, you'll find something in almost everyone you encounter that reminds you of someone you care about.  And that will make you crazy.  But sometimes, it's not easy to do.  A lot of us can't block it out when we deal with kids.  And that took a small toll on the guys today.  It's very emotional.

So, while they were upstairs, four of us stayed down by the engines and took pictures, answered questions and found people that wanted to sign.  And that's how I met Hailey and her Mom.  They were both very sweet and Hailey is just as cute as a button.  She comes to Childrens for treatement for her cancer, and they were leaving when we met.  I talked to them and asked Hailey if she'd like to sign a pink fire truck and she said she would.

I thought that was perfect.  As they walked away, I tried to take a picture of them, in keeping with my practice of trying to keep things somewhat private, but they were too quick.  So I ran after them and I talked to Mom, asked if I could take their picture and explained why.  She very graciously said yes but as I thought it over this afternoon, even though it's a really nice picture of them and even though Mom said it was ok, I decided it would be better, in this case at least, to let them keep their privacy. 

After that we went to Miller Park, home of the Milwaukee Brewers, for lunch.  There's a TGIFridays just over the left field wall.  It was pretty cool, as seen below...

That was the view from our table.

Now we've got down time til 6:00 PM, when we're invited to the firehouse for a dinner in our honor.  Once again, I have to say, these people in Delafield have been awesome. 

The latest plan is leave Delafield in the morning and drive to Madison (Chippewa for "Madison"), a shopping center I think, for about an hour before we head off to Mason City, IA and our next stop.

Pink Heals!

Peace

Day 3 (Did I mention I love this stuff?)

What a day. 

We left Rockford this morning, around 7:00 AM headed north.  We crossed the Cheddar Curtain into Wisconsin "HELLO WISCONSIN!" (I always wanted to do that) and got escorted by highway patrol and a motorcycle club all the way into Mukwonago (common spelling) where we gathered more bikers and meandered along through the countryside until we finally got to Delafield at around noon.  As we pulled into town on the main street (not Main Street, but the main street, there's a difference oddly enough), we were met by people on both sides of the street cheering and clapping for us.  It was quite the reception.  And if I can get a little bandwidth I'll upload the pictures...

Moving right along.

We settled in briefly at a street fair type event.  John from OK and I put on the pink turnout gear and worked our magic on the crowd.

What can I say, I've been taught well.

After 45 minutes or so, two of the trucks, Me in Tonya and John in Leslie, went off to do some hospital visits.  My first stop was at an assisted living facility and the little old ladies there loved me, if I do say so myself.  I met Mae, Joan, Betty and several others, all of them very sweet.  And to steal a line from the Chick Magnet, they all dug me.  And again, if my bandwidth issues resolve I'll post photos...

But apparently photos tonight are not meant to be, sigh.

Wait, this just in... TAH DAH!!!

Joan was kind of a rascal...

Anyway.

From the assisted living place, we went to Oconomowoc (Chippewa for "there's trees everywhere") Medical Center for a brief appearance at their Cancer Center.  There I met several nice people and had a lovely piece of chocolate cake.  Actually two but who's counting.  Had my picture taken with various hospital type dignitaries and met a young lady who, when I told her I worked in Downers Grove said, and I quote "AAAHHHHHHH I"M FROM THERE!!!!!"  She grew up around 75th and Fairview (Darien, technically but hey) and thought it was very cool I was from there.  Did I mention I had a lovely piece of chocolate cake?  Well, two, but you know...

Drove back to Delafield, watched Flight for Life entertain for a bit, then repositioned and chatted with a few random survivors, had them sign Tonya and eventually rejoined the rest of the guys at the street fair.  I hate to repeat myself, but I just can't get over how nice the people here have been.  I had several people come by, both survivors and folks that wanted to sign in memory of someone, and I did my best to accomodate them.  One of the young girls that came by when John and I were dressed up earlier (see above ^^^) came back with a friend of hers and we had a really nice chat.  I told them all about going on tour and explained to them my theory on the way people should sign.  Which is...

I feel like these trucks are incredibly important to the people that get the chance to see them.  I don't feel the space on them should be wasted.  In my opinion, the people that sign should realize the importance of what they do and the impact it can have.  So I tell people-
"when I give you this pen, you'll become a nationally recognized author, because these trucks travel all over the country.  So three weeks from now, when they're in California or where ever they may be, some person is going to be looking at it.  Maybe they're having a really hard day, chemo is kicking their butt, they're losing their hair, or any multitude of reasons.  But when they see the message of hope you write today, maybe they'll think 'I can get through this today' .  And it'll be because they drew strength from you."

I ended the street fair putting the pink turnout gear and an air pack on and walking around getting my picture taken with little kids.  A great way to end the day.

Tomorrow we're off to Milwaukee (Chippewa for "what did you step in?") where we'll visit Children's Hospital.

Pink Heals!

Peace.

Day 2 (I love this stuff)

We left Warrenville this morning and drove up to Rockford, about 90 minutes away.

Today was a day for visitors, I guess.  It was also a day for changes.  Let me re-phrase that, this weekend has been full of changes and there's more to come tomorrow.  Yesterday Mike from FL and I came on.  Today Bobby O. from IL and Dave from IN both left and tomorrow as we go to Delafield, Jamie from FL and Danny from NC both head home.  All four of these guys are salt-of-the-earth (does anybody even say that anymore? Yeesh) types.  Really good guys and I'm going to miss them, even though I've only known them for a couple of days. 

So today I ran into an old friend (we used to work side-jobs together) met a new friend from the Twitter... saw a cousin and her husband, the boy child, the photographer and Beatle baby, but without question, the most impactful moment happened as a result of someone I met yesterday.

At the Aurora event on Saturday, a woman came up to me and we talked about the pink fire trucks.  "P" said she was a survivor.  A 5 time survivor (let that one sink in for a minute) and she wanted to sign the truck.  She did, we all hugged her and she spent a little time talking to a couple of the guys.  So, this afternoon, I was helping out with t-shirt sales and I looked up to see "P" walking towards us.  She saw me and said hi and told me she wanted to exchange the shirt she bought yesterday because it didn't fit.  I said "you drove all the way up here for that?"  She said "you know, in all the excitement yesterday, I completely forgot to sign in memory of my Mom, Grandma and an Aunt that all died from cancer.  I said "Let's go take care of that for you"

As we walked toward the truck she wanted to sign, a cancer patient walked past us.  She had lost her hair.  "P" started sobbing softly and I asked her what was wrong. 

"I never lost my hair. I feel so guilty"

We stopped walking and I put my arm around her shoulder.  I told her "it's ok, you don't have anything to feel bad about, you kicked cancer's butt 5 times.  It affects different people in different ways."  It took her a few minutes to regain her composure. 

It took every ounce of strength I could muster to not start bawling like a baby with her.  It was an incredibly emotional moment, one of the most intense I've felt on tour. 

After our event at the hospital, we had four home visits.  They went really well, but were very emotional as well.  On one of them, it struck me that the young children of a stage four cancer patient were in pretty good spirits, considering the way their world was soon to be turned upside down.  But a little later, one of the other drivers made a good point.  One that I hadn't considered.  They were most likely so used to Mommy being sick, roughly for a third of their young lives, that they were kind of numb to it.  It was so normal to them that the emotion was gone from it.  I guess I'm so used to the perspective of sudden loss that I tend to forget that side of loss. 

I've got a couple pictures from two of the home visits and, again, I was careful not to use any identifying shots.  Just something to show what we do.

That's John from OK (he's famous, you know) with one of our survivors immediately post hug (of course you don't know that, I haven't told you yet) and he's showing her that he doesn't have any hair either (I promise I'll tell you more about John later).  And then this one-

We met so many fighters today, and we left with so many good feelings.  Feelings that we'll all carry for a long time. 

I'd like to think I'll remember everyone we met today.  I don't know if that's possible, but we met some wonderful people and some amazingly strong women.  Here's to keeping up the fight!

Pink Heals!

Peace!

Just like Christmas morning

First day on the tour is coming to a close.  We had a great day in Aurora, IL today.  It was held at the Aurora Regional Fire Museum, a cool little museum, that I'd actually thought might be kind of interesting to visit.  We had great crowds, met lots of survivors and gave lots of hugs.  One thing kind of caught me off guard though, I was helping a lady write something in memory of her aunt and I had my hand on her back because I didn't want her to mis-step and fall, and I was in perfect position to look over her shoulder at what she was writing.  In the time it took her to write, I felt the emotion of the moment as I watched the words flow from her pen onto Leslie.  Leslie, by the way, is named for a police officer from Indiana, a young woman that lost her battle to cancer.  I had to turn my eyes away briefly to maintain control of my composure.  I don't have many pictures from today, a brief video but I'm having issues (besides my normal issues) linking to it from the hotel computer. 

I do have this though, after the event I went into the museum and saw a 1948 American LaFrance fire engine from Batavia, IL. 

I looked at the bio posted for the engine and saw that it served the community for 40 years, from 1948 to 1988.  Given those dates, it means my Uncle Bob worked off of that engine.  Kind of a cool yet random thing.  Serendipity I guess. 

Of course this whole thing would work a lot better if I could figure out how to get the photo/video from my alleged "smart" phone to the hotel computer... grumble, grumble, grumble...

OK, I'm heading up for the evening.  Getting up and out early ish to drive up to Rockford, IL for an event up there.  Breakfast at the firehouse then to St. Anthony's Cancer Center.  In addition to being excited about doing this, I also get to see an old friend who's now a Deputy Chief on the FD up there and a new friend from "the Twitter"

Sorry G, I had to, lol!

Pink Heals!

Peace

Day 1. Well, maybe Day .5

I remember a line from Jim Bouton's book "Ball Four" (a book that, fwiw, changed the way I looked at baseball) that goes as follows

"It's Opening Day!" 

"or opening day, depending on your perspective."

In my case, It's Opening Day! The tour started today!

It actually started several weeks ago, but made it's way to my little corner of the planet yesterday.  It went pretty well, I'd say.

We did a home visit, as hinted earlier and it.  was.  awesome.  We pulled up in front of the home, 3 pink fire engines and a big pink tour bus, John from OK and Dave from Indiana got out, dressed in pink from head to toe, and delivered a dozen roses and hugs to our survivor.  Then the rest of us lined up, gave her a hug, told her we loved her, and told her to keep fighting.  At one point she mentioned what an incredible lift our visit had given her.  

I had to walk away.

I didn't get a release form or anything like that, so I'm going to try and display images without giving any identity.  This first one shows our visitee talking with John from Oklahoma.

Our visitee with friends and family talking to John from OK, Danny from North Carolina and Bobby from Illinois.  The drivers, as I may have mentioned, come from all over the country.

After the home visit we had two events, one at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital (and this  will take you to Patch's site with some more photos) and one at Cheeseburger in Paradise.  Both went well, good turnouts,  with many people finding us kind of serendipitously.  And to me, that's the best way.  

 A quick word of sincere Thanks to Tom Fremarek and his staff at the Cheeseburger in Paradise for the way they took care of us last night, for their willingness to do whatever hare-brained thing we wanted to try, but mostly for their help in providing support to women battling cancer.

This is what we were doing yesterday, and it's why we, in Downers Grove, IL do this .  It's our town and these are our citizens.  We're caregivers.  It's what we do and it's who we are.  Thanks also to my guy, Dave Graybill and the fellas on this part of the tour; Jamie, John, Dave, Danny and Bobby.  You guys are my heroes and I can't wait to get out there with you.

I'm spending today at home getting my sh... I mean, my things, together (literally as well as figuratively) and I officially join the tour tomorrow morning (hence the .5 above) in beautiful Aurora, IL.  

I. Can't. Wait. 

Pink Heals!

Peace.

Prelude

Let's see if I can knock this out before work...

I spent the night at the firehouse last night.  That's not too uncommon.  I mean, besides the one-out-of-three nights I'm here regularly.  I mean, depending on what I'm doing and when I'm doing it, it sometimes makes more sense for me to stay here vs. driving an hour plus home, getting up at 5:00 AM and driving an hour plus back.  Especially with fuel prices over $4 a gallon.

I was in town last night for a Village Council meeting.  In the (almost) 20 years I've been employed here in beautiful west suburban Chicago (home to some of the reddest of the red... Ahhh story for another time) I've probably attended three Council meetings.

Maybe four.

At any rate, not many.

But last night was a little different.  In recognition of the Pink Heals Tour coming to town, we asked that a proclamation be read into the record.  One proclaiming August 23rd to be "Cares Enough to Wear Pink" day in our fair village.  And since I was kinda the one pushing for this stuff, I figured it'd be nice if I could drag my happy butt to the council meeting to see the proclamation being read.

And it was.  Is.  Will be.  Proclaimed, that is.  You get the picture.  

So since I woke at 4:30 this morning (don't ask, I don't know why) and had a little time on my hands (especially since one of the side effects of staying here is I get to sleep a little later...) I started thinking (subtly ironic, no?) about tomorrow (I mean the whole no sleep thing, not the me thinking thing) and what we're trying to accomplish with the tour stop.   And as I perused (an underused word, in my opinion) my Twitter feed I saw video from yesterday's stop in Joliet, IL (and if you don't follow ThePinkfiretrucks on YouTube, you should) and I knew I couldn't say anymore eloquently what it is we do on tour.  Kudos to Matt and Sandy for doing a great job getting the message out to their community!  As I said a few days ago we're doing a home visit.  We'll also take part in events at Good Sam and at Cheeseburger in Paradise.  

I feel like a kid on Christmas morning...

Like I said, I'll do my best to keep you all (all four of you) up-to-date on where in the world (or at least, the upper Midwest) I go while on tour.  For now, it's 5 minutes til the "wake up" tones go off and I start getting ready for work.

Pink Heals.

Peace.

I've got a little secret

No, really I do.  

Of course, the odds of anyone reading this and knowing the person that I know a secret about is pretty astronomic, but still.  I don't want to be the one to spoil the party.  

However, I also can't (generally) keep (well, maybe *can't* is too strong a word... let's just say it's difficult) a secret well when it's good news or something happy.  

Or as in this case, something awesome for someone that can use a boost. 

Let's back up, shall we?

Two years ago, my daughter-in-law (Geez I don't have a clever blogosphere name for her yet) was a videographer for the local paper by us.  She did a story on some pink fire trucks that visited cancer patients at two hospitals in the area.  The video showed survivors writing their name on a pink fire engine, getting hugs from firefighters dressed in pink, and telling how great it made them feel even if just for a day.

Where do I sign up?

That was my first thought.  It looked like something I wanted to very much be a part of.  I fired up the Google machine and found this and signed up to go "on tour" with a pink fire truck.  I got accepted and so last year, from May 14th to the 24th, I was part of the 2011 Pink Heals Mother's Day Tour.  

My first ever event was a home visit about 45 miles outside of Bakersfield, California.  A convoy of three pink fire trucks, we stopped about a half mile from the ranch where these folks lived.  A woman, just finishing her first round of chemo, and her husband, a retired Captain from the Kern County Fire Department, made their home out in the middle of farm country, a beautiful piece of land where, I'm sure, all they wanted was to live a peaceful life entertaining grandkids and working with the land.

Til cancer stepped in.  

So, as three pink fire trucks made their way up the gravel driveway, lights flashing and sirens blaring, and as we pulled to a stop in front of the ranch, the woman came out of the house with her husband.  She had no idea we were coming.  The first one off was one of her sons.  All dressed in pink turnout gear.  Then two more of us, dressed the same way, got off.  As we all walked over to her, so her son could give her a dozen roses, the hug-a-thon began.  

Every one of us, six firefighters from all over the country, gave her a hug, told her we loved her, told her to keep on fighting.

I said it for the first time that day and every time I've retold the story I repeat it...

"I'm 52 years old.  I've done a lot of cool things in my life.  This is the coolest thing I've ever done."

I meant it then and I mean it now.

So, what does all that have to do with a secret, you might ask?  No, really, you might ask that.  In fact, humor me, ask that now as you read..

Allow me to continue.

As soon as I finished the tour, I knew I wanted to bring it to the town where I work.  I've been here 20 years next month (God I feel old saying that) and I want to do something for the community that has provided me with so much.

So I talked to the guys in my local union (got full support), talked to my bosses (got mostly full support), talked to the wonderful people across the street at the hospital and their cancer care center, and talked to Dave and Lisa, the amazing people that came up with the Pink Heals Tour.  When I found out the Tour was coming to my area this year, I managed to get a stop in our town and started working on setting up local events.  We'll be at our hospital and at a local restaurant but and here's where the secret comes in, the part I'm most pleased with is, drumroll please.............

We got a home visit set up.

I just spoke with the husband yesterday, he and his stepdaughter are all in.  And the best part is the wife doesn't know we'll be coming.

She just had a double mastectomy, her prognosis is good, but her family thought we could provide a big boost to her by doing what we do best.

We care.

We support.

We love.

We're Guardians of the Ribbon.

We're the Pink Heals Tour.

I'm going to try and post a journal of sorts from the road this year. We'll see how THAT goes, lol

Peace.

I haven't told you this before, but...

No, it's true.  There are, oh... I think less than 6 people on the planet I've told this to.  And it's probably fewer than that, I don't remember.  I'm not sure what's compelling me to write about this today either.  I thought of it again yesterday, the story that is, and how long it's been since I thought of it.  Maybe that's why.  Maybe I'm finally ready to put it out there for the general public.

First a disclaimer or two...  I really don't consider myself to be some kind of delusional nut job.  I know some people have really strong beliefs about this type of thing, on both sides, but I think for me, there's too much unknown associated with it to have a real conviction for or against.

Anyway... here goes...

When the Blond Child's Mother died in 2006, I obviously had a few rough days.  Ok, more than a few.  But I really think I was handling it appropriately.  In fact, the boy child wanted to stay with me for awhile, he was worried about me, wanted to make sure I was ok, but I sent him home after a couple days.  I needed some time to be.

Just to be.

I was fortunate that I had a lot of sick time built up at work, and I took full advantage of it.  Just wasn't ready to face the well-meaning but misguided questions that always come with something like a sudden, unexpected death.

So, I tried to settle into myself for a while, tried to find my new normal.

After the Blond Child was killed, her Mother started sleeping with the tv on.  She slept poorly and when she woke she'd watch it to help fall back to sleep.  So, I became used to falling asleep with the tv on.

It was just a regular part of my routine.

One night, about three weeks after the funeral, I went upstairs to go to bed.  I walked over to the chair next to my bed, grabbed the remote, turned on the tv, set the remote back on the chair and went in to the bathroom to get ready for bed.

Took care of my business and when I came out of the bathroom, I noticed the tv was off.

I thought it was odd, thought maybe the dog had grabbed the remote and hit the power button with a tooth or some other one-in-a-million thing.

I turned the tv back on and climbed into bed, setting the remote on the chair again.

Within seconds, the tv shut off again.

I grabbed the remote, thinking I had set it down too hard and hit the power button, and turned the tv back on.  I carefully set the remote on the chair.

Again, withing seconds, the tv shut off.

"Ohhh the stupid button must be sticking on the stupid remote" I thought, so I turned the tv on again and this time I set the remote down (carefully) facing AWAY from the tv.

About 30 seconds later the tv shut off again.

"DAMMIT!!!" I said "WHAT THE"

And then, I caught myself.

And I stopped.

And I smiled.

Because, in that instant, in my head, I had a flash image of the Blond Child and her Mother.  Two of the biggest practical jokers you'd ever meet.  Looking at me and laughing at me.

They got me.

I looked at the ceiling, smiling and said "would you two knock it off!" and turned on the tv.

Now, as I said, I don't know what to make of this little tale.  I know what I believed at the time, when I needed to believe more than anything in the world that they were together again, and happy.

But as time has passed, I sometimes wonder what it might have been.  I still want to believe that it was those two letting me know they were ok.  But I think my natural cynicism may eventually push that away.

I hope not.

The tv?  It was still on when I woke up the next morning.