The boys and I dropped Husband off at the airport shuttle this morning before starting our day of pool physical therapy, lunch out with a friend, more physical therapy, and finally our traditional Friday at home with pizza and a movie.  Carter was a sobbing wreck on the car ride home and Cody got a bit weepy too.  No amount of me telling them that he would be back in a couple of days or that we could call him on the phone would help.  Do you know what helped?  Carter spotted a fire hydrant out his car window and got very excited about it.  He is big into fire hydrants these days as only a three-year old can be.

And really, what's not to love about them?

Husband is off on his yearly pilgrimage to the Reno Air Races with a long time friend of ours.  It sounds like they basically stand around on hot slab of tarmac in the beating sun for two days waiting for some airplanes to race by.  Other than watching the occasional ear-splitting plane race by, the waiting is also accompanied by lots of walking around looking at various airplanes.  I do believe there is food and beer involved in their weekend too.  Eventually Cody and Carter will be old enough to join them in their male bonding weekend but until then we have to plan our own fun.

Our weekend plans consist of an overnight trip to my parents house.  It will be a bittersweet visit since this is the first time I will be seeing my dad since he, more often than not, does not know who my mom is.  I hope he remembers me.  Alzheimer’s is truly evil.  But we will go and I will treat every second of the time my dad is coherent as a gift.  My dad is good at hiding his confusion, at least during the day, so I don’t think my boys will notice any difference.  It means a lot to my mom that we visit and I enjoy going back to my hometown and visiting them in the house I grew up in.  There are a lot of memories under that roof.

So I have three bags to pack for our adventure tomorrow and a note to write to our babysitter turned dogsitter.  I hate leaving Rosy and Dexter behind especially since they are getting older and Rosy is starting to show her own signs of confusion as of late.  But I don’t think it fair to my dad to further his own stress and confusion.  It will be enough chaos with me and my boy herd visiting I am sure.  Plus I know the dogs are in good hands and will be well cared for.  But that doesn’t stop me from having guilt.

I wrote the above paragraphs this morning during a couple lulls in the general household chaos that happens around here.  I planned on wrapping it up with a nice story about family, ageing, and our collective journey through life, once the kids were tucked into bed but, now I think I will just go have a beer.  About ten minutes into our nightly movie I get a call from Husband letting me know that he and his friend are still alive and well.  Well of course you are, I think to myself.  But then I tend to live under that proverbial rock everyone talks about and had no idea about the tragic plane crash that happened there earlier this evening.

I spend the rest of the movie mostly watching the backs of my kids heads feeling glad that I did not have to tell them that their papa was hurt or dead.  So sad.  My heart goes out to all the people affected by the awful plane crash in Reno.