Roadside Picnic

Raindrops From the Sun

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 01:06:35 GMT

Bennie and my dad met at Dyess, in the Air Force. I'd heard stories about him for much of my life, and we finally met around my mom's funeral. We got along well, similar senses of humor, and exchanged phone numbers before he went back to North Carolina.

We talked a couple of times a year. Funny guy, a conservative-leaning boomer but not, you know, one of them.

About two weeks ago, I got a call from him. One of his daughters actually made the call for him. He wanted Dad's phone number, said that his new phone had lost it. We chatted for a few minutes. He sounded very weak, like a ghost, I thought later.

Dad called a few nights ago. Bennie had passed on. He and Dad had gotten to talk for a good long while. Bennie knew his time was coming, I guess, and wanted to say his goodbyes.

My own new phone didn't copy the call history from its predecessor, so I can't easily look and see when I had the last conversation with Mom. But Bennie's call is there. The last time I talked with my dad's best friend. This world we live in - there's a dead man in my phone.

comments

Always on my MInd

Wed, 17 Sep 2025 00:28:59 GMT

My last uncle on Dad's side died last week. Garland had a long history of heart problems and I guess it was just one beat too many and that was it. Dad's taking it about as well as can be expected; he and Garland were close. I'm concerned about my aunt - she's been dealing with Parkinson's for some time and it's the type that causes strong hallucinations in addition to the tremors. She's got plenty of kids and grandkids to help care for her, but there's going to have to be some kind of professional care involved.

FX's Alien: Earth has been fantastic. It's managed to introduce additional non-terrestrial critters that are plenty icky without taking away any of the menace of the good ol' Xenomorphs. Timothy Olyphant continues to be an absolute treasure.

comments

Gimme Shelter

Wed, 07 Aug 2024 21:49:10 GMT

No sense in burying the lede. One of our clients died recently.

DK was manic-depressive and his wife died a couple of weeks ago. He was put on our daily visit list, and today was my day to check in on him. Despite our best efforts, no one had been able to locate him since Friday (it's Wednesday, for future reference). I rolled in to the apartment complex and knocked at his unit, no answer. Went to see a neighbor who had spoken with me on previous visits, and after another attempt, we called the security office. This is at a public housing complex that is little more than storage for humans, and it's slated for demolition in the next 18 months. Security showed, and called maintenance to gain access to the unit. Officer went in, came back out after a minute, and motioned for me to step away from the other residents. I figured it was bad, and, well, yeah.

Talked with my supervisor, then with DK's therapist, and then with the EMS sergeant who responded. I'll probably have to talk with someone from the coroner's office, too, to provide some of my agency's information on DK. Supervisor had me come back to the office and file an incident report, and gave me the option to go home for the rest of the day. So, I did.

We're letting the rest of the team know tomorrow. I'll have counseling offers, and will probably sit for a couple of sessions so I don't look like a sociopath or something. I'm not without compassion, but ... well, ultimately this was someone that I was working with, and not one of the clients that I have real rapport with. It's a loss, and people cared for him. Poor guy. He was dead at least a couple of days, half-naked corpse on the floor of a sixty-year-old government housing building. DK was, in my experience, an okay guy, and I hope if there's something else out there, I hope he's at peace.

comments

Love Lies Bleeding

Sat, 27 May 2023 22:48:53 GMT

I've had some decent days lately. Rode around with Dad on a clumsy but ultimately successful attempt to find a boat repair place someone had suggested to him. I'm continuing to burn through the Netflix DVD queue before that service sadly comes to an end in a few months - Tubi has helped with that, too.

Got a lead on a Delta Green game, and I'm looking forward to seeing how that shakes out. I thought that last night was going to be the session, but I misread the store's calendar. Saved myself a drive when I checked again before heading out and saw that last night was D&D night, and, no thanks. So, I ordered a pizza and settled in for some reading ... and that became some writing, and hokie-smokes did that feel good.

Today started pretty well. Dad needed a few things for some baking wanted to do for the reunion today, so off we went to the grocery. After that, I felt the need for some tea and the Escape needed fuel, so stopped at the large convenience store/small truckstop for such. On the way out of the store, my clumsiness reared its head - I smacked my left wrist against a doorframe and popped the screen right off my smartwatch. Its battery had started to swell up (it's six years old, after all) and had pushed the screen up a little bit, so it was probably just going to happen eventually. Anyway, it wasn't reparable by my hands, so I just replaced it this afternoon. It's currently syncing with the phone, and I have a shipping label ready for sending the old one off for recycling.

The reunion was okay. I had pie. That was about it.

It's Memorial Day weekend. Somewhere along the line, it became a thing here in the South(ish) to add flowers and decorations and whatnot to the graves of any and all relatives. I'm not much for that, but since I failed to do so for Mother's Day, I got a nice simple bouquet for Mom's grave. It's pretty, quite colorful, and she would have loved it.

Goshdarn it, Mom, I miss you today.

The Indy 500's tomorrow, and coverage of the Monaco Grand Prix, too, so there's my afternoon soundtrack sorted out. Dad's already promised to not ask me to go to church with him.

Monday's the holiday itself, and the Honor Guard Dad's part of will have a part in the town's observance. That, I will definitely attend. He's proud of this continued service and universe knows it does my heart good to see him enjoying this.

The phone and new watch are still syncing, so I think I'm going to get some reading in (Magician: Master, by Raymond Feist, for the record).

comments

Troopers

Mon, 17 Feb 2020 16:27:57 GMT

Bub died early Sunday morning. Body to be cremated and a memorial service in Taplin sometime this week. I don't plan to go unless Dad asks me to back him and Mom up.

I hadn't considered this part. Jeannie is in her early 80s and suffering from dementia of some kind, possibly Alzheimer's. Jeannie cannot remember, for much more than an hour, that Bub's dead, and completely breaks down when she asks for him and is told that he's gone. According to another cousin, this happened several times yesterday afternoon.

comments

The Frequency of Fear

Sun, 16 Feb 2020 00:28:03 GMT

As expected, the minor flooding has arrived. The Ohio is noticeably high, and parts of River Road are closed and under water. I think the most recent forecast called for a crest on Monday afternoon, so we can count on River Road reopening around Wednesday.

I'm about to lose another cousin - the third of six brothers. 40 years of unrelenting alcoholism and a couple decades of various antipsychotics have caught up with him. This morning, his hospice nurse told the family that his lungs were filling with fluid, and he could be gone in a day or two. Mom's in no shape to travel to the impending funeral - she fell getting out of the shower a couple of days ago - and to my surprise, she understands and acknowledges that.

Got in a couple X-Wing matches last night. Lost a close standard game, and won an Epic game through the U-Wing's maneuvering.

Coronavirus COVID-19 is spreading. About 67K cases and 1500 fatalities worldwide, depending on your source. Public health agencies - including China's - are doing the right things: aggressive triaging, quarantining, pushing out as much information as possible. There are a couple of cruise ships quarantined at sea over this, and from what I'm hearing, the passengers and crew are taking it in stride. Communities are forming around social media platforms, mainly WhatsApp, and we aren't seeing the kind of freakouts that I'd almost expect to see. China has seen this before with SARS, so, while a respiratory epidemic isn't something you want to grow accustomed to dealing with, having this kind of knowledge and preparation in place is never a bad thing.

It's all darned interesting.

comments

This Again

Wed, 05 Dec 2018 00:06:27 GMT

I believe that my Aunt Jeannie's family is just snakebit. From the obituary of my cousin's widow, Karmela (died age 50):

"Karmela Rose Adkins, 50, of Clayton, NC, passed away Saturday, December 1, 2018. She was born January 4, 1968, in Logan, WV, to Shawn and Ronald Green of Bramwell, WV. She was preceded in death by her husband, Steven Edward Adkins; father-in-law, George Lucion Adkins; brother-in-law, Frank Adkins; nephew, Robert Lane Perry; and niece, Shannon Nicole Adkins."

Stevie died in a shootout with a co-worker. Lucion ... coal miner, grossly overweight. Frankie had throat surgery, was home convalescing, had a coughing fit and part of his epiglottis tore free and he bled to death right down his own throat. Shannon was 19, driving home from work, hit by a drunk driver within sight of her home.

Linked for later.

comments