I'll Be Here...

The sun beats on the back of my neck as I head east up the alley that leads to the city park not far from my home.  It feels as if this place will never be cool in spite of the miserable winter not six months gone and still fresh in my memory.  As I walk the circumference of the park--once around equals a half mile--I find it almost unbelievable that my now departed wife and I managed to get our ten thousand steps in during those cold and snowy months that had me believing we might never be warm again.  Slipping and sliding on the ice while we shivered in the cold we told ourselves that this was the ticket to health.  Now I only wish that she were here to see that our old path is not only warm and sunny but hot.  Looking at the trees, some more than two-hundred years old, I find it hard to imagine what they have seen in the past couple of centuries of this ever mercurial Idaho clime.  Our time here is so brief!  This place reminds me of my boyhood home in Michigan where summers often would wait until mid June to appear and the dependably on time winters would bury us in snow.  California, our home for more than thirty years, had none of that and I realize now that I missed it.  Thirty-four years of "night and morning low clouds and haze with highs in the sixties and seventies" became a little monotonous.   Iowa's weather was the worst.  I spent my high school years in the northwest corner of that state and recall enormous snowfalls that required my brother and me to rise before the sun was up to shovel our driveway to allow dad to make it to work.  Massive drifts would sweep across the front of the garage and the sting from the pellets of snow hitting our faces was enough to convince me that I never wanted to live in what the weather experts refer to as a "continental clime".   The relocation to Idaho just three years ago provided a pallet of four definitive seasons without crazy cold or heat, in spite of this year's exception.  It rains a little too much, but you can't have everything.

"Do you plan to stick around?", is a query I hear often.  It doesn't bother me as I understand why people might wonder.  Having moved frequently I am inclined to stay put for as long as I can.  Lake Coeur D Alene and the folks of the Idaho panhandle have been warm and welcoming to Linda and me and were there for us through the difficulties of her battle with cancer.  Always lucky when it comes to neighbors, this place has been no exception.  The entire neighborhood had our backs and continues to keep me on course.  I could ask for no better.  I think I'm here until they kick me out.

My son-in-law took hundreds of pictures at Linda's life celebration cruise and I continue to sort through them and smile.  Here are a few more from the July 29 event.

Bonnie Buckingham came from North Carolina

Grand nephew Brian and his new bride.

Sue and Lee, local pals who also came from San Diego

New friend Paul and old pal Roger O'Neil and his daughter

Chin and Alex...out of town troublemakers, and not even radio reprobates.

Former neighbor and California ex-pat, Bill Livingstone came from Montana.

Old Illinois buddy, Joe Stannard, complaining about my cheap booze.

Boston Betty Erickson, keeper of Captain Dave

Roger looks to be getting low on wine.

Bill and Betty in front of one of Linda's pictures.

David and Dayle, two of the sweetest people I know.

Nephew Mike and his wife, Robin

Niece Debbie and daughter Katie

So many pictures of Linda...