Retired Mountain Lady

This morning I am thinking about the line from the movie, Forrest Gump.   "Life is like a box of chocolates.  You never know what you are going to get."  

Last week we learned that our grandson Dylan, has multiple myeloma and it has caused a compression fracture in his spine.  This was very tough news to hear. 

Dylan's doctor is moving quickly with diagnosis and treatment and he has already had a biopsy of the tumor.   The results will tell us what stage his cancer is and what the treatment options will be. 

Dylan with son Jason - out for Jason's first sledding experience up and down our driveway on New Year's Eve, 2017.

Dylan and Jason getting ready to "go to the woods to cut up some logs and burn a brush pile".  Christmas 2019.   

We were fortunate that when Dylan graduated from high school, he got a job working on the fire crew for the Sandpoint Ranger District and during that time, he lived with us for two summers.   It was a special grandparent time for us.

As I am writing this I am thankful for all the researchers around the world who are working on a cure for myeloma and other cancers.  I have hope that they will find an effective treatment and cure. 

The good news is that thanks to scientists and researchers there are options for treatment and more than fifty clinical trials for this type of cancer.  

 Come on Science!

Science has saved many of us from Covid-19. 

Dylan with his dad, David, and Uncle JP.  Everyone in the family is ready to help him fight this and will be there to support him. 

I have not been out to take any new photos so this one is from February 2014.  We have a lot more snow on the ground this year than we did in 2014.  Notice the snow shoe trail on the right of the picture.  We were younger then.

The weatherman says that today will be partly sunny and I am looking forward to that.  The temperatures are just warm enough to work on thawing the ice, but it's not happening quite fast enough.  Yesterday as I drove up the hill on our single-lane driveway to the county road, I met another driver.  There's thick, solid ice on that stretch of the road and it was covered with water.  

The other driver stopped and I tried to stop, but my car just slid backwards down the road.  There was no stopping until the car slid far enough back down that there was a bit of gravel for the tires to grab on to.  

We were lucky that we didn't just slide into each other as there's not a lot of room for two cars to meet on our driveway during the winter.  

There was just enough snow in 2014 to cover the bridge over Cougar Creek on the Underwood property.

As I was looking through my photos, it looks like the Cougar Creek Band also played a gig at the Hope Memorial Community Center that year.  A Mardi Gras celebration and fundraiser for the center.

Setting up for the gig.

The multi-talented Linda.  Music, art and so many other things.

Our brass section, Joe, Mark and Mike.

Julie on the drums and Bruce playing bass guitar.

Our mandolin girls, Ann and Ellie.

I wonder if there's a recipe for gluten-free King Cake?  

Basin Street Blues by the king himself.  Louis Armstrong.