Love Actually

I often joke that after Malcolm died I sold my truck and put my stuff into storage but it wasn't just a soundbyte.  Nothing I do or say ever is.

But after almost a decade, tucked away on the I-35 corridor in a 10x10 closet, it was time for a reckoning. That's an interesting word.  Reckoning.

Its origin can be found in old English which gave rise to such concepts of calculation and conclusion.

2014 is the 10 year anniversary since Malcolm was first diagnosed.  How many miles, how many years have I walked since then?  How many people have we touched and inspired?  How many lifelong friendships have we forged?

It's incalculable.  Just like love.

Another true joke is that in short order, in 2004 my dog got cancer, my girlfriend left me and she took the truck.  The pathetic irony is well, I'm from Texas.  But that year I was all alone I watched a movie Love Actually.

You see, I'm the last person to watch romantic comedies or really anything to do with Hugh Grant but it spoke to me about the messiness of life and love and how little I knew about it all.  But I've watched it every year since and today is no different.

Happy XMAS.  Love actually.

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YBD's Notes 1:  There was a reckoning tho - I cleaned out my storage locker most of which ended up in a landfill, the rest I've given away to friends and family.  I am unencumbered.  Except by love. 

No More

It was no choice
That set this course

Astep, astride
The road abides

And through its length
I cried,

'Oh beauty burns
Your trail etern.

The silence of your roar
That swept me neath

No more. No more.'

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YBD's Notes1:  The west coast walk was long and hard, harder than any stretch of the road we've been on before.  But the much bigger lesson here is we're in this together if we have a ghost of a chance to eradicate cancer in us and our companions in our lifetime, puppy up damnit

YBD's Notes2:  Happy XMAS

August is the Mommy G Appreciation Month

August is such a significant month in our history.  It was 08.01.08 that I first met Mommy G and she saved the walk.  I'm not there yet in the timeline of the book but my first team had down and outright failed us.  I was at Mark and Brandy's house in Memphis when I first met Ginger and I knew I couldn't proceed without proper support.  

Indeed and in fact as I fought my way through the Arkansas delta on my own, the fuzzybutts were staying with folks in Lonoke, everything began unraveling.  

Drama, dog people, doesn't really matter and I'll deal with this later but this almost ended in Memphis.  Of the two times I almost gave up on the walk, Memphis was the first.  

Ginger will tell you that Hudson and Murphy had her at 'woof' but our paths were fated to cross.  For better, if you ask me but for worse when you consider that three years ago today, her beloved dog, Pete, passed away from cancer.  It was the first dog she lost to this dreaded epidemic.  

Everyone has always said that Ginger should be sainted which seemed ironic to me since I was the one out there, on the road, risking it all for the cause.  In circumspect, I supposed she should but only because she tolerated me.  

Loving dogs is easy.  

Ginger does more than that.  

Since I met her and she lost two dogs to cancer this month, I'd appreciate your help in honoring her for her efforts and by making August, Mommy G Appreciation Month.  

Thank you.