Yesterday was a very good day. I had a visit with my sister-in-law, whom I had not seen since 1989. I was somewhat corcerned that we would shed a lot of tears as this was our first visit since my husband (her brother) died. We laughed, talked about old times, told a lot of stories about their childhood, and grandparents and other silly stuff. The only sad thing we talked about was the fire that ravaged "our" mountain last week. She lives a lot closer now as she has moved to Florida, so we'll see each other a lot more often now. I'm sure at some point, we'll spend a Sunday afternoon looking at pictures and talking about how we miss him, but this visit was fun
Today was not so good. I received word that an old friend is fighting for his life.

Way back in junior high school, he was my protector, my guardian Knight-In Shining Armor, my biggest fan and in lot of ways my best buddy. After the Army, he got into some trouble about some strange crop he was growing on the back side of the farm. For a lot of years, we weren't sure whether it was safe to be seen in his company or not. But whatever his troubles, he never visited them on us. A few years ago, he and his wife adopted a beautiful little girl, and he became a wonderful father and I'm sure a much better man. She became the absolute light of his life. And we saw in him a different man than we had ever seen before. A thief (or thieves) came into his business to rob him. He was shot five times. He is struggling to live. I know that often when the doctors have done all they can sometimes something else takes over and gives what doctors can't. I know what's in his heart and mind is a beautiful little girl named Summer. I hope she's enough. There are just not that many knights-in-shining armor left in the world that we can afford to lose one, especially not this one.