I wish you well SS Richie. I spoke to the Sheriff and he's offered you a lift to Seattle with one of his Deputies who's going there anyway. God speed friend.
Passing through Salem I offered to tell horror stories and got shouted down. It was just a joke as the spooky Salem is on the east coast. Headed towards Portland the road was good with snow ploughs working hard. We stopped in Portland for lunch and refueling. Dolly's minders kept a low key as she'd had enough excitement already. Off then to Olympia where we spent another night. Thankfully all was quiet that night except for Dolly and her musos tweaking her new song about the Bate's motel. I loved it. We stayed at a good hotel whose staff all seemed normal. Next morning we headed into Seattle and dropped off all our passengers at various stops, Dolly and crew to the Royal Rose hotel first. I was flabbergasted when Dolly gave me a hug and kiss on my cheek. Jeff and I shook hands and promised to keep in touch. All's well that ends well.
Me too. Good news on my father. He has had a stroke but thankfully is alive. His speech is slurred and his left side is paralysed. He is now in for months of rehab in hospital and at home. So I will get a live in nurse for him when he comes home to save my mother from having to do too much. You two take care.. hope to re-aquaint at some later date.
My very best wishes for your Father-in-law Craig. So sorry for you and your wife, and your Mother in law too of course, and other family. Getting outside domestic help in is the best way from my own experiences with my own old Dad. Tap into the services available. Especially now with Covid, please keep him at home. Our Aged Nursring homes are sadly bad, especially with Covid. I'm sure your dear father in law would be much happier at home. I sure would be. Onya! My eldest brother at 78 is a specialist's dream patient with his many, many ailments, including strokes too. He's teeterng at 78 but most of his faculties and movements have come back from his big stroke. He recently had an 'afterquake stroke' which he's bounching back nicely from. I can certainly tell that when we chat on the phone. There is hope. A war of attrition in many cases and with a increasing but still a downward trend vs old age. Life is finite. Such is life sadly and many find such traumas widens our hearts for love and our mind's perspectives on our own fragile mortality. We are but human. I think I am. Take care of yourself too dear friend and, if only a distraction to help heal; come back to our story when you're ready. I'm happy to go on pause, especially with being busy with Learning Dropbox, a great free way to put all your scanned photos on the clold with easy access to anyone you send a simple link to. If you want, I'd be happy to walk you through it. Maybe as a mental distraction for you and your father-in-law and others. It's easy when you know how to do it. Luckily I do now, and happy to walk you through it. I did teach. I had the usual frustrations, 2 days of it but my middle brother encouraged and helped, a bit. He didn't teach. I found it extremely cathartic as did some of the family and folk I sent one click links to. Receiving is very easy and a great way to cement shared memories memories. I helped care for my old Dad for a decade through his eventual paralysis from his WWII injuries and his awlful dementia which he told me in his late seventies was his greatest fear. Pain and immobility he could handle. He nearly made 92. I tried to see him twice a week and sorted out any diy things. My step mother took most of the burden I willingly confess. She is still an Angel. Lift cranes, meds, specialists, etc... He had a "Do Not Resus" order which was his wish....and followed through. Rarely a days goes by when I don't think of my Dad. Happy to for an ultra light and flexible Scenario Shirley that Craig can jump into 'whenever'. Cops vs Robbers for instance? Miss Marple? Father Brown? Bus route 343? Very best wishes Craig, and Shirley, Terry ,
How about a fairy tale? The Princess who never laughed Once upon a time in a place called Fairyland there lived a Princess. She wasn’t a beautiful Princess. She was just an ordinary looking princess. She didn’t have She didn’t have a She didn’t have a She had been a happy princess until a terrible blight hit Fairyland. After that, she had to stay in her room all the time or wear a mask if she did venture out. This made her so sad that she stopped laughing. It made her father, the king, sad to see his ordinary looking princess so sad. He sent word throughout the land that whoever made his ordinary looking princess laugh again would get a chest of gold. He couldn’t promise her hand in marriage because she was a strong willed princess and she wouldn’t stand for that kind of bullchit. Anyhow, the word spread across the land and all kinds of men showed up to try to make her laugh.
Terry. that was part of the end of our last story. Remember I wrote that SS Richie's mother had texted him saying his father was ill and that he was to return home asap. Mate sorry you thought it was my father.. actually you said father in law.. whom I lost about two months ago. So Craig is back on deck ready to go with a new story whenever you two say the word. I see Shirley has already started a new one.. about Fairies.
King Klop I am Count Richie of La La Land I wager I can make Princess Maizie break her frown where your court jesters failed. (actually I am not a real count. I had to say something to get inside the royal court)
As Percevil the acclaimed Jester and , from the sunny and fertile lands of the Southern Counties, mainly Autumndown and its many towns and City Belford. I might be able to help as I am a renowned Jester of many decades. Call me Percy the Predictable, you may have heard of me? My act involves silly and abstract jokes and miming an invisible juggle of six eggs no one could see. Then, I pretend I'd actually missed one but the mimicry becomes real as I fumble only to be hit by an invisible egg turned real. A simple trick really, the egg is up my sleeve! Good for a laugh usually? "The Yoke's on me!", I say! Big laughs usually. That's what I do, So, did she smile? I do as I smile my eyes and face to hers?? I softly hum an old comforting tune.
Sorry to say Percy the Predictable your famous trick was unable to get the Princess to smile. My trick is simple. I will stare at her. There will be some sort of response.. hoping a smile. King Klop has just made a royal proclamation. The person that makes my daughter smile will be well rewarded with money from the court treasury, a large manor house and the hand of my daughter Princess Mazie in marriage.
When Princess Mazie saw the fake Count Richie staring at her, she called for her guards. "Arrest him, " she yelled. "Remove him from the castle!" "How dare he stare at my royal highness?!" "And besides that, nobody tells me who to marry!" So poor Count Richie was escorted from the kingdom. But neither he nor poor Percevil gave up hope. They were more determined than ever to make her laugh or, at least, smile. Bless their hearts.
Drat. Who gave me away to the Princess mused a dejected Richie as he picked himself from the dusty road outside the castle where two burly guards had tossed him. I am determined to be rich some day and live in a mansion and have servants wait on me. Oohh my poor aching head. Those ruffians. They have not seen the last of Richie the peasant farmer's son..
Riding out the front gate of the King's castle on my old mare, with dog Kep and boy Roger, I see this man being tossed out before me. I simply flicked a silver to each of the guards? I just couldn't jest my may through, down hearted with my own failure and embarrassment. I really thought I could make King Klop's daughter Princess Mazie laugh. "Roger" my boy I say, "see how the commoners laugh at me. I'm ruined!" Hey you guards, I called putting a hand gently under my robe as I smile and say, "what's he done to deserve a kicking so?" ..and then taking a swig of my 2nd best in its silver flask, I flicked another silver into the air nonchalantly.