Labor Day already, huh? “Summertime done, come and gone, my
oh my”…….man, I don’t know how I slowed my life down so drastically last
calendar year to attend to my health, my fatigue, my pain……but I did….and just
like a trampoline, life came springing back twice as fast. You all know I am
Johnny Energy, so shutting it down last year was both a trial and a lesson.
Something tells me I am making up for lost time now….in
early August Sam and I, along with two other Dads and their sons, Sam’s
classmates and high end “bros,” took an Alpine hiking/camping trip up to Lake
Aloha in the Desolation Wilderness. We started with a boat trip across Echo Lake
Needless to say, I trained hard for this trip, as best I
could, in the hills behind my house, at the Club on the bike, swimming, and
then do that all over again. Understand that in March/April I couldn’t get up
the stairs at my office without big time help from the hand rail…..my sciatica
had taken all my leg strength away in my left leg, which is still thinner and
weaker than my right. But trudge ahead I did…..Sam had gone with these folks
last summer when I couldn’t walk to the front door. I was DETERMINED to make
this trip with my son, before he started HS, and to myself as a challenge that
I put out ahead of me as a goal.
And I did it…..remember, we had to come back down….as Tom
Petty says….”coming down is the hardest part.”
But it wasn’t a race, and we took our time, and completed this Alpine
camping affair with flying colors. Plus, we squeezed in a monster day hike on
the full day we were up there, sans pack but at 9,200 feet, so there!
Hell yes, I’m proud of me. And Sam was so happy to have me,
I know it. I hope he too was proud. It was great getting coached and encouraged
by him, kind of a change of duties, since I’ve been doing that to him all his
life.
So, there was a high…..I’ve got another high, but have to
touch of some lows/realities in the words to come as well……my next high comes
from a friend previously mentioned in the blog, Karl Noonan. Karl was my boss
at the bar when I worked in St. Thomas
Well, “Noons ,”
just had a very special day, a day he calls one of the greatest of his life,
when the Dolphins were hosted at the White House by President Obama just a
couple of weeks back. I was SO happy for him, so proud…..champions joining
together to share, yet again, relative perfection. There he was with his
brothers, missing a few now, but together again in jubilation. Sure wish I
could’ve joined him. Karl Noonan, #89, forever a champion in the books, and to
me.
Sam started HS this past week, on a high, excited, reunited
after a lazy summer with a few trips in it….basketball and the open gyms start
up soon. He’s out of shape, but willing to wake up with me at 6:30 on Labor Day to head to the gym
and get 300 shots in…..we have seen Mickey McConnell, since graduated and Beau
Levesque and Treaven Duffy from the St. Mary’s Gaels over there working out, so
Sam gets that champions beat the roosters to the feed…plus, they remember him
from his ball boy duties and love to watch him grow.
So, the house has been on a high, we are empowered by our
friendships, my big Client Appreciation Party on July 28th when
Kiki’s band, Dream Posse, tore it up in the backyard to a catered affair…..I am
so thankful and grateful for my health, my ability to hack my way through
“Truckin’” and laugh about it.
I am one blessed guy, and examples of why surround me…..when
I was diagnosed last winter with cancer, our neighbor and Kiki’s friend for 30
plus years, Kim Webb was also diagnosed. Hers was a very aggressive form of
breast cancer that had advanced quickly and hit her hard. After a brief remission,
it came back with a furor two months ago, and shockingly, took her life on
August 20th. She was 54 years old. She leaves behind her husband
John, and 3 sons, the youngest of whom started his junior year the day after
his Mother’s services…..read that again…..shit. We drive by her home with
sorrow and sadness every day, multiple times, in disbelief and shock, wondering
how the boys will move forward….what to say, what to do, they are still in
shock and frozen in their tracks.
So, the other two people diagnosed within 30 days of me last
year have passed away, John Bacchini from SI ’75 and now Kim…..it scares me.
I was the recipient of another CT scan last Wednesday,
results of which are due Tuesday. I figure if it was bad I’d have heard, but I
do await the call with some mild trepidation…..also knowing it is in my rear
view…so it balances out…..but now, to the most pressing topic, my brother from
SI ’75, Jerome Williams. I have known Jerome since basketball try outs in 1971,
and later a debate class, where TS met his match. Jerome can talk, persuade,
cajole, caress and magnify with every word….but he has a devil in his body now,
an aggressive prostrate cancer that affects African American men way, way worse
than their Caucasian counterparts, and has limited him in some of his options.
He needs twice the prayers I did, and I am asking all of you who faithfully
follow me to jump on board and help….help, help….send him a card, tell him he
can do it, encourage him to keep working and NEVER give up.
Cheryl & Jerome
Williams
SF CA 94112
Let’s blow his mind and inundate him with mail. Tell him
you’re on my team, and now you are on HIS. The power of the handwritten note is
huge, it helped me so much, so please, to my angels, take a minute and
encourage him and Cheryl…….you have no idea what it will mean to him.
And don’t forget Mark Petit referred to in an earlier blog.
He is in Boston
Hell, help everyone you see, just help. Open a door, say
hello, thank someone, write a note. Be that person.
It’s getting to be time for Kick-Off,
TS
