The Last Week of July

And thus begins the worst week of the year for me, and some of my friends and relatives. On July 27th, 2010, my cousin Darrell died. He was a year or two older than me, and more like a brother than a cousin to me. He spent his last decade on kidney dialysis, going to a clinic for that about three times a week. On July 27th, 2011, my best friend of 40 years, Dave Brooks, called and asked me if there was anything I wanted him to tell my dad when he saw him. He had just gotten word that he had kidney cancer. It would rapidly spread and he would die three months later, on Halloween afternoon. He was more like a brother than a friend to me...
On July 29th, 2008, my dad died, another one of my best friends. He battled peripheral neuropathy and was wheelchair bound for his last five years, only to die from lung cancer. It was discovered at the end of June that year. My dad was buried on August 1st.
So forgive me if I seem a bit melancholy this week. And a bit paranoid. I don't trust the last week of July...

No Key Detected

Kelly decided she'd drive herself to church this afternoon to meet with the youth group as they were heading off to camp for the next few days. I didn't think her car needed to sit in the church parking lot all week, so I took Alice by the church to pick it up. Her car was in the driveway as we were leaving and mine was low on gas, so I thought we'd take hers. I got the keys to that car, and put mine back because I didn't figure I'd need them. Out in the garage she called an audible and said we should take my car, that I could get around hers backing out (and of course I could).
I had ordered a pizza from the Domino's around the corner from the church before I left the house, and once I dropped her off I drove over to Domino's, parked the car, reached in my pocket to lock it as I got out and realized I had no key. It's a new car (18 months old now), it's keyless to crank (as long as the key signal is somewhere in the car), and I hadn't brought mine. It cranked at the house because Alice had a key to the car in her purse. It remained cranked after I dropped her off at the church until I got to Domino's and shut it off. Yeah, I noticed the "Detecting No Key" message, but figured as long as it was running maybe it was just having trouble detecting the key signal. It took reaching in my pocket and finding no key to remember I had put it back on my dresser...
There was no longer a key or key signal in the car. It was in Kelly's car. Which was on the way back to the house. With Alice. Who evidently either didn't bring her cell phone with her or wasn't answering it. I went on into Domino's, paid for the pizza, went out to the car, kept calling the house till Alice got back home, ate a couple of slices while I waited, with the door to the car open because it was such a pleasant, mild summer night. But we now know there's at least one problem with a new car and a keyless ignition. And we also know what the car is trying to tell us when it says "Detecting No Key."

A Fourth to Remember

Highlights of the Gatlinburg trip last weekend for me, other than being with 19 family members in a luxury mountainside cabin: hiking trails and roads every day, in the park and near the cabin; driving the Cade's Cove loop, despite the fact I have the world's worst luck in seeing a bear (there are supposed to be bears in the Smokies, and for that matter Denali, right?); watching a movie (even if it WAS "Frozen," which I hadn't seen before and it wasn't THAT bad) on the really big screen in the cabin's theatre room - I need one of those in the house; shopping in Gatlinburg - didn't take me long to see most of the downtown shops and I spent about three minutes in the record store, which was disappointing in its stock of music and more of a head shop than a music store (I almost got a contact high just from being in there); and stopping on the way back at the KFC Cafe in Corbin, Ky., where Clark County's own Harland Sanders had his original store close by. I also really enjoyed the nightly gatherings around the firepit outside, talking and watching the kids roast marshmallows for s'mores, the younger ones and some older "kids." It's the first time we've done anything like that as a family with the whole local Bowles clan. Hopefully it won't be the last...
Now that I'm some distance removed from the trip back home, which was a nightmare and a whole other story, I can concentrate on the good memories part...