Saturday, July 11, 2015

Road trip to San Diego

It's been a rather dull, depressing summer for me. Carol's health is slowly slipping away. She's in hospice care and heavily medicated. She can't pay attention long in a conversation. When I last saw her over a week ago, she was back to smoking cigarettes again, with the excuse "Why should I care, Connie? I'm a dead man." 

She doesn't expect to live but a few more months. Her brain cancer is taking away her eye sight, but she still has cognitive capabilities. She's lost most of her hair but one white tuft on top of her head, like an unruly mohawk. "Go ahead, take my picture, I want the world to know what the Face of Cancer looks like!" She wanted to be photographed with her beloved cat Jazzy in her lap. I complied. In March she didn't want to be photographed because she wanted to be remembered for what she used to look like. Now I understand why. She's not the woman she used to be; so frail and tired all the time and fighting for one more day to get her finances in order.

The online Donationto fund has brought in a mere $5055 for Carol's medical fund, not even half of what she needs to save her home. We have 174 days left. I hope we can get at least half of the money collected. The yard sale netted $1435 and the jewelry collection another $700, but it's not enough. http://www.donationto.com/Carol-Wallace-Medical-Fund

Carol is the reason why I didn't make any road trip plans this summer, which is very unusual for me. I didn't want to be far away in her last moments. I wanted to see my new grandson Owen in Virginia, but that's a long drive now. Instead, my daughter and I agreed to meet in Chicagoland over this next Christmas, as she and her husband will be visiting his mom then. That may be my best chance.

My son Eric, who has been living with us for three years, is joining the US Air Force on September 1st and will be starting his new life. Although we never really spent a lot of time together while he was here, we did road trip to Chicagoland twice and Monterey, CA once. He's not much of a talker, though, so I never know what's going on in his head. He never showed an interest in hiking with me except for that one time up Carr Falls to the box canyon last fall. We never did hike up Carr Peak together. He was best for the animals, feeding them while Kevin and I were gone for the weekend and big help with the dogs, taking to Minnie and taking her on walks. She likes her walks with Eric. He's very gentle with her. Minnie likes laying in Eric's room, too. She's the only dog that Eric liked interacting with.

I decided a few days ago to drive down to San Diego for a week. I need some kind of recreation before the school year begins. If I don't do this, I'll regret spending my entire summer at home writing Amazon product reviews. San Diego is only 500 miles, about the distance to Flagstaff. and I've always wanted to visit Dog Beach on Ocean Side. I'll be taking Sadie and Minnie. I also plan on hiking a few dog-friendly hikes up to Mount Woodson and "Potato Chip Rock" (eight miles) and Cowles Peak (six miles), both which are really just hills in comparison to what we have here in Arizona.

The one drawback is the drought. California has had NO RAIN in months and reservoirs are drying up. San Diego will be in the mid 70s all next week, and inland it will be hotter, mid 80s. Woodson and Cowles are eight and sic miles respectively and both dogs should be able to make that as long as I have a predawn start. I do worry about Minnie, though, as she can't handle the heat and pants easily when it's in the 80s. I've had to cut the usual three-mile loop down to one or two miles as she can't take the heat even in the evenings.

I plan on leaving next Tuesday. I should be hiking Woodson on Thursday, Cowles on Friday, and spending a day or two at Dog beach before exploring other dog-friendly areas. I want to stay in the San Diego area, although there are plenty of other lush trails between San Diego and Los Angeles. I figured a week is all I need to regain my composure and return to what I know will be a sad end to my summer.

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