2/25/07 SundayI haven’t kept up with this journal like I should, mostly because we are both so tired when we get to this hotel room we just crash. We are still fighting off this nasty cold and woke up several times in the night to cough up the crap building in our lungs. Yesterday we went to the folks house twice. Visited for a while and then came back here to lay down and rest. Cathy had invited us over for dinner and she called at five or six to let us know they were going to buy Quizno’s subs.
As I write this I remember what we did the first visit. Couldn’t at first but it’s here now. Connie came up from her home near Columbus, Ohio, about a two and a half hour drive. She brought, Sammy, her young fireball of a son, with her. He’s going to be five soon. What a handful he can be but so can any four and a half year old. Smart inquisitive kid.
There was a seed exchange thing going on at the Toledo Botanical Gardens and Cathy, knowing we would be starting our first garden on the farm, was encouraging us to go so go we did. All of us, Cathy, Connie, Cherie, and one lone guy, me. It was great. They had tons of seeds. I took maybe ten packs of the seeds Melissa from the Homestead.org website had sent us to turn in for the exchange. For that they gave Cherie and I maybe forty tickets. Didn’t count them just know it was a bunch. We then perused the many tables with tons of different seeds, often for plants that I had never heard of. Some of them were familiar names but I didn’t have a clue what they were. Perhaps I once did but not now. So we got two grocery bags of seeds and some bulbs for a flower called a Dahlia. Many of them I will have to go online to learn about. How to plant them and care for them and then what to do with them. Eat them? Pick them? Dry them? Look at them? Or just leave them alone so they come back next year. Hey even this will be an adventure. Can’t wait to see what comes out of the ground.
After this we went back to the folks house where we visited more and that brings me back to where I started on this post. We had gone back to the hotel to get a little sleep. Then Cathy called and invited us to come over for the Quizno’s subs. We went over and talked with mom and dad for quite a while before Connie and Cathy got back with the food. I shared part of my vision for the farm, what we dream of doing and how we thought we could achieve it. I hope it gives them some encouragement for I know they worry about us and the hardships that came with this farm. I also understand their concern for their daughter who married this man of so many strange histories. That would be me. Of course the fact we had divorced twenty years before when I started acting strangely after a concussion didn’t help. Then when she remarried me after seeing me on TV, billed as Toledo’s John Doe, a homeless guy wandering lost with memory loss. Yeah, that’s what every mom and dad want for their daughter right? So I wish to provide some reassurance that I will care for my lovely wife and their darling daughter.
Cathy and I spent a fair amount of time talking in the kitchen about many things. Much of it was in response to questions I asked about the past, the time leading to the divorce. So much of this is still a mystery to me, a time who’s memories are just shattered fragments that I am piecing back together. I asked her to write about this time, to record her memories. Of course it is always good to see events through the eyes of others so one can get a better picture through the composite of many views. Some of what she revealed was totally new to me and really had me thinking and struggling to put it together. Part of it I was able to after I talked with Cherie about the event in question. That’ll be in the book folks.
We went home shortly after that. We were both tired and Cherie wiped out fairly quickly. I stayed up till about two in the morning flipping the hotel TV through the myriad of channels available, never staying on any of them for long before flipping again.
Somehow I woke up refreshed. Beats me why. Of course Cherie had been awake for a while when I started stirring. Cathy called and let us know she was making French toast and we were invited. No argument here. We got ourselves moving and, after I started the truck and left it running for fifteen minutes to melt the ice, headed over. There was a small ice storm last night, not a big deal out here. In fact the roads were pretty much cleared and the salt trucks were spreading salt on the back streets when we left. 
Cathy fixed a ton of French toast for not only us but the rest of the household. Nate and Joshua weren’t up yet but their toast was bagged for later consumption. I stayed in the kitchen as Cathy cooked. We talked about the farm and my plans for it. She has a degree and love of agriculture so I value anything she has to say and encouraged her to speak her mind. Of course she put me to work buttering the French toast as she made it and I only dropped one. Not bad for me. 
We ate and enjoyed each others company for a while but Cherie and I excused ourselves and headed back for this hotel room. Here we thought on how we would spend these few days we have in Toledo. I tried, as I am prone to do, to schedule this time but it is hard to do. There are too many variables. Cherie will go shopping with her mom tomorrow but that depends partly on what mom is able to do. She is fighting off a kidney infection which at her age, or for that matter any age, is tough. I’ll probably drop Cherie off at Cathy’s work (She teaches kids agriculture at a charter school) where she will pick up the PT Cruiser. This she will drive as they go shopping. I called Wayne to let him know we were in town then called Sharon. I encourage y’all to type in their name in the search engine at the top of this blog to learn more about these people I cared for and care about.
Cherie and I went to an antique store near this hotel where she found some doilies that she intends to incorporate in a quilt. I looked at antique planes and other woodworking tools but they were in poor condition and overpriced.
From there we went to a place called “Savers” which is a thrift store we had visited many times while we lived here. There we got a coffee maker for our hotel room. It only cost $5.00 but is better than the one we have at home. With this we can make coffee in our hotel room and that will help us start each day. Then we went to see if the Glendale Garden Café was open. It wasn’t and that was a disappointment for we have enjoyed many meals there. So we headed towards the hotel. Cherie noticed a restaurant we had visited in the past but has changed hands so we decided to give it a try. Good decision. Great Greek food at an equally great price.
I called Allen, my old friend who was one of the few I was able to remember and look up when I returned to Toledo after waking from the coma. He has had a bad run with pipes freezing in the building he is buying. He lives in the basement for the rest was occupied prior to his deciding to purchase. So everything froze last week when the cold snap with temperatures well below zero came. That means the pipes and toilets all burst. If I had still lived here I would have been able to help as I have before. I’ll go visit him tomorrow and will probably be there till midnight. Allen’s a night time person who’s day seldom starts before noon. He’s another person I ministered to. I guess I help or at least try to help everyone I know. Even when I was in pretty bad shape myself.
So what else? Just want to note that my nephew, Nate, was out riding his four wheeler yesterday. He had a spill on it that evidently knocked him out and he seems to have lost a chunk of time where he doesn’t remember what he did. The helmet he was wearing cracked. Not a good thing and always the sign of a potential brain injury so I advised the family to keep an eye on him. Cathy has been learning about brain injury through reading this blog and also the link I have over on the side to LA Publishing which is dedicated to helping and educating those involved with traumatic brain injuries. It appears Nate will be fine but the point is these things can always happen and it is good to understand. Brain injuries are often undiagnosed and not recognized because there is no outward wound. They come in varying levels of damage and effects on the mind. The old joke “He must of got hit on the head” referring to some abnormality in behavior comes from hundreds of years of observation and is not really funny in the light of our understanding of this injury.
As we watched the weather after arriving here it became evident that we just missed some nasty weather. If we had delayed our departure one day as originally planned we would have been in the midst of the tornados and snow storms. As always we are grateful for providence.
One of the events that greeted us on our arrival is the death of a police officer who was killed when shot point blank in the chest by a fifteen year old. The kid was out with others at two in the morning in an area known for crack cocaine trafficking. He ran when approached and shot the officer when he had caught up with him. The funeral will be held across the street from the house I bought with the second wife. My oldest son is a deputy sheriff so I think I’ll wait a day or two before I contact him as I am sure he will be busy with this funeral. We are so glad to be away from this. They just announced a car jacking where a one year old baby was still in the back seat when the car jacker drove off.
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