Walking Blisters

Relay for Life was last night. Trevor had marching band practice for the Fourth. The band opened the first lap for the walk. Cancer never sleeps so people will be walking twenty four hours to remind us all of the battle being fought.

Trevor called me after band practice to come down and join him. I signed us up as a team. Trevor named us Team Shirley in honor of my Dad who died July 1, 2009 of metastisized colon cancer. We each decorated a white luminary bag with his name on it. The back of my bag listed the last name of all his daughters and family, his legacy on earth. McGuigan, Alias, Mead, Shirley, Hausler.

At Trevor's request I took Bucky with us. Trevor said there were plenty of dogs. Bucky was a nice distraction. There were other dogs on leashes for him to great. Trevor did run into one mean dog. Bucky squatted and pissed himself with fear as the big dog stood over him growling. It was a boxer. The owner took the mean dog home. All the other dogs were really sweet and greated Bucky with friendship and nose sniffs. Bucky hid behind me any time we passed a big dog though. He has a good sense of self preservation.

We walked until dark doing four miles. After dark there was a slide show of local family members who had battled and lost to the disease, or survived. All participants circled the track and held hands. A community hug is what they called it. A bag piper played last. We left after the bag pipes. People headed off to their campers and tents for bed while their team members walked through the night.

Had we a real team I would have said Trevor could stay. Maybe next year we'll do a team in Longview. In cities across the nation, in every state, people were walking to remember and raise money for the cure. Trevor suggested we do a team McFarnham next year in honor of Riley and our other friend with a sick child. If it weren't for the grades, Trevor would be wonder boy.

Aplastic Anemia is technically not a cancer, but is treated with cancer drugs. It is kind of the anti-cancer as rather than producing cancer cells, tumors, or deformed cells like in leukemia, Aplastic Anemia produces no cells what so ever. You have to have new cells to replace the old cells in your body or you die.

I wrote a check for our Team Shirley. Trevor received a T-shirt. They offered one to me but I took another one in Trevor's size. He wanted to tie dye one and he didn't want to give up the one he had on. I don't wear t-shirts. We dropped the tie dye shirt off at the apropriate booth with a donation. This year they do it for you, which I love because it is such a messy job. Last year Trevor got to tie the rubber bands and squirt his own colors on. It is so much nicer this way. You come back in half an hour to pick up a plastic bag with your wet shirt in it. It has to sit 24 hours tied up before you take off the rubber bands and wash it for the first time. Now he has two shirts to wear, XL.

Trevor argued with me about spending the night. If I had one of those cool RVs that were parked along the edge of the field, I would be all over spending the night. But I am not so into sleeping on the grass in sleeping bags, not without a full team. I look forward to doing a team next year.

Trevor impresses me with his community awareness and service. If only he could be more organized, and dedicate even a portion of his heart to homework and school work. All his teachers say he can do better. They recommend pushing him forward.Tom wants to hire a tutor for school. At this point I just say, lets get moved first, I will discuss it later.

A friend dropped by for a couple of hours. She was on the way to the laundry mat to do a sleeping bag. She was going to stop by and bring me Starbucks. I suggested she use my laundry. My thought was that she could stay longer if she didn't have to run off to check her wash. My machine can take a sleeping bag easily.

Since I don't do coffee, I asked her to bring me a strawberry frappe, blended smoothie. Trevor shared it with me. I had a hard time keeping his hands off it. We tossed the sleeping bag into the wash, and sat talking for a while. My girl friend offered to help with my sorting and packing. She is really organized. I asked her to help me with the boy's toy boxes in the play room.

It was wonderful to have a helper. We sorted out the lego/bionicles into one massive box. She commented on the fact that she was surprised to see that our collection rivaled hers. I was overwhelmed by the numbers we had. We also sorted army men and all the other toys. When we were done. I had her carry everything out of the house for donation. I was internally twitching as I donated the toys, due to my hording instincts, but the boys hadn't touched any of them in three months. Since I put them all away in a corner toy box for the house staging.

There were some army men out, so I might go back into the army men box and keep a small selection. But by the time we had everything sorted I had found we owned enough army men to fill a whole moving box to the rim. It was a bit of an over kill. It is hard to let go, but I tell myself I am not a hoarder. I am not a hoarder. I am twitching, though, trying to resist the temptation to keep it all.

One friend said the test is if you can get it again, replace it, then give it away. The boys like new kits of bionicles, and really they have outgrown them. They are into technology. I made up a box just for cords and wires. Those we'll discard at the other end once we know what goes where. I would not want to take the chance of tossing a power cord now and needing it later.

It was a huge achievement to get the playroom completely done. I am proud of that accomplishment. My garbage is again full to the rim.

No real news on the house front so I have pushed the move off another week. The renters wont be pleased but my friends that I will be asking the favor of staying with will be relieved. July 11 is now our new moving date. I hope and pray for news soon. My house will be well sorted and organized this time. That is the difference between having a corporate move and doing it yourself. I didn't even bother sorting last time. Now I have to touch every item in the house and deal with it. I should have done this a long time ago. I am considering this motivating and a positive experience now. Especially knowing I can move the moving date again so we wont be homeless as long.

Tom says we should just bump the renters. Tell them they can't move in until August. I am tempted. August is a good month for moving and renters looking for a place. Rentals are hard to come by right now. It is a landlord's dream market. We are also giving them a low price. I am getting my head around the idea that I am in the driver's seat. I am the landlord. I am not to be pushed around by a potential tenant. They are getting a great deal. Zillow.com has our house as a rental charging $1800 to $2200, because of it's unusually large size, number of bedrooms, and location, and newness.

I am glad I told them July 8 before I could see them again. I can push off the altercation. I need to check with our property manager on the contract. See when we said they could have the house officially. August 3 seems so far away and yet so close. I am chomping at the bit to get it done. Our property manager told me to just tell them August. She thought I was being pushed around and I could tell by her tone of voice she would opt for August move in date. Forget giving them access early. She has been worth every penny during this, our first rental agreement. Of course she wants the house spotless and the yard weeds under control also. I am trying to take her advice.

Tom stayed up in Longview to golf, which is probably for the best, as I feel edgy all the time due to these pressures. I am afraid he could do nothing right in my eyes right now if he were home trying to be helpful. I would be cranky at anything and everything. I realize that my feelings are totally unfair. He even said he can't work when I am around as I hover over him and go through everything again after he is done. It's true I don't trust him to not throw out something I want. It is the hoarder in me. But he will be proud of my progress now.

Riley is off in Hood River hanging with his best friend at their farm. They have a new horse along with all their other farm animals. He made the mistake of crying out in the car while getting loaded up, when one of the smaller children touched his computer bag with small hands. As a result my like minded friend and the mother of all the children pointed out that at the farm there are no electronic devices. It is an outdoor run a round kind of place and to please leave the computer behind. The computer was unloaded into my waiting hands. I smirked. If Riley had had better manners and had been more sensitive, he might have gotten away with sneaking his computer on the trip. He can be such a selfish freak, his own tantrum at having someone else even touch his computer bag was his own undoing. Had he been quiet or handled the situation with even a bit of grace, My girlfriend would not have even known the computer was in the car until it was too late to leave it behind. Two minutes longer and they would have been on the freeway. Now Riley will have to breath outside air and ride a bike or go for a walk. His friend was no less pleased at having the computer left behind, teenagers. I can't wait to hear how the weekend went with the suffering of outside activities.

Meanwhile, Trevor and I walked four miles with the dog, for a great cause. Trevor had a fit that I wouldn't let him camp out all night. How could two boys from the same gene pool be so different.