Feb 27 - Hobe Sound

With rain on the way, the tree guy cancelled for the day. Rain didn't stop us from traveling to Hobe Sound, however.

It was a wet trip to and fro, but somewhere in between we passed through the front and the temperature jumped 10 degrees and then dropped on the way back. We had a good visit, as promised keeping it short. Michael was on a conference call the entire time and came into the room as we were standing up to leave. The three of us went for a walk, four if you count Abby, which gave us a chance to chat.

Uncle Phil looked better than I'd expected. Anne had prepared me for the worst. He has lost a bunch of weight and is walking with a cane due to the bone cancer pressing on a nerve, but he is strong nonetheless. He has a very strong will and is ready for the radiation to attack the cancer. They are planning a cruise in April and I'm betting that they'll make it. They are determined to live life to the fullest, whatever happens !

The three of them fly to Toronto today and Michael then heads to Boston enroute to Bermuda, where he's currently based. Their granddaughter Laura (Anne's) will be down to Hobe Sound in a few days; Maurice and Christine shortly after that -- life is going ahead as planned. Phil and Ruth will be in Toronto, however, dealing with doctors, radiation, chemo ... whatever.

I'm the only one that they've told at this point outside of the immediate family but he did give me "permission" to tell Allan and Christine, which I will do this morning. I will think about spreading the word further.

We exchanged emails with Bev about stopping in Sebastian on the way back but the timing didn't work. We'd be arriving just as she had to go out so we postponed our time together until later in March. She and Sandy had been talking about dates anyway, so we'll go ahead with that. Bruce is about to have a neck operation -- sounds like a similar problem to my Uncle Phil's from a few years ago -- where they'll likely fuse a couple of vertebrae.

Yes, we're all getting older. When my blogs are about health issues, that's pretty obvious !

Today ... going riding.

Onward !