It has been a long week.....

...... You know, no w that I am 44 years old things should be easier to deal with and life needs to stop throwing little surprises my way. Last week started out good and it though it has been incredibly hot outside I have been enjoying the opportunity to ride my bike and get a little bit of extra exercise. On Wednesday I had to drive in to school because I had been tasked to present at the New Employees Orientation at the VA hospital and between my bike and the bus it would take forever for me to get there. As I pulled into Cheney I received a phone call from my mom letting me know that my Grandmother (92 years old) had passed away. I know that she had been slipping the past 6 months or so and that for the most part she had lost what was real and what was just her mind. After getting off the phone with my mom I started to think... Wow 92 years, what an incredible life she had lived. Born in Kansas and raised in the political world of Washington DC, she had met the love of her life while he was attending the US Naval Academy. Raised three kids and was a patron of the arts. And that is just a short snippet of the life of my Grandmother. The life she led was full of adventure and mishaps. Friends and family, she was never an idle soul and was always looking for a project to be involved with. 
I will always value the gifts that she gave me, my love for reading, the arts and a strong sense of individualism. It is hard to think that she will not be around, but I know that she is no longer wondering who she is and what is real and that she is back with my grandfather and those who loved her.

On the 4th, my family and I went over and rode the Hiawatha trail. It is 15 mile that runs along an old railroad line. You start out in a 1.7 mile tunnel and from there you move along some of the most beautiful landscape you will find. The trail take you through numerous railroad tunnels over tressels and winds you down to the bottom of the valley where you are picked up and taken back to the top. A wonderful little adventure located in our back yard.