To the moon!

I'm not a scientist or meteorologist and I don't read the Farmer's Almanac. I just need to spend a day with the Up North folks to know when there's been a full moon. Yep, there's definitely been one in the past few days!

The Reader's Digest condensed version is that my dad, who turns 80 next month hasn't been doing well. He especially has aches, pains and minor injuries to his foot and leg that, due to his diabetes, aren't healing well or at all. He's getting around with a cane these days -- when he does get around.

A few days ago, he got a big load of firewood dropped off that needed to get hauled into the basement for winter. Since my weekend with the college girlfriends was called off for a family emergency, Jim and I decided to head Up North early Saturday to haul that wood! And so we did. Jim, Carter and I, along with a future, potential brother-in-law, hauled and got it done.

Then three other sisters show up and, while they were too late for the wood hauling, they were just in time for what I call a "come to Jesus" meeting with our parents. In a nutshell -- Mom and Dad are both getting old and it's hard for them to maintain a house, and we kids have concerns about the safety of them burning wood with a not-so-wonderful chimney. We relayed our concerns but Dad, just like a scene from Grumpy Old Men, stomped his cane and basically accused us of trying to kick him out of his house so we could throw away his stuff (which we view as "junk," but Mom and Dad don't!).

Talk sort of ran in circles between the house and plans for his upcoming birthday party. It was sad that there was actually yelling going on -- you know, you have to yell to get your point across, right? The louder you get, the much clearer it should be. It's not, though.

By the time we left, the hot topics had simmered down and I think things were OK. I know I'm not perfect and just as guilty of contributing to the bicker-fest. I realize, however, that even though we tried to express our concerns to Mom and Dad in at least 4 different ways, they have their perception that we are just telling them what to do. As frustrating as it is, I can't change that. And I can't change them -- any of them.

On the way home last night, I was physically and emotionally drained ... but not so much that I couldn't say the Serenity Prayer.

I was thinking ahead to when I'd see the family again in a few weeks and how things would be. I concluded I wouldn't be surprised if Dad sends us all "to the moon, Alice!" when we show up at his birthday party. Though he wouldn't say Alice actually, since we all start with R ... But I suppose the moon is a bit cooler than that other place ...