Not All Gifts Are Free

It just seems that the reality of life and aging keeps poking its ugly head up. My uncle Parker has been in a nursing home for about a year now and will not be coming home. He had become a woodworker in his retirement. I mentioned to his son, my cousin, that when the time came to have a garage sale, to be sure to notify me as I would like to have first shot at some of his tools. He told me, that after some thought, that I could come and take as much or as little as I wanted, So, last weekend I hitched up the trailer, which I acquired as a result of my brother's passing, and headed south to San Diego. I picked up a small lathe, a bandsaw, a table saw, a 12 inch disc sander, a router (that makes 6 or 7 of them), a palm sander, some miscellaneous hand tools and supplies and a bunch of nice burl and pieces of various exotic woods. I will try to think of him every time I use one of them. He is a member of the Greatest Generation. He served aboard the USS Intrepid, a carrier, and was involved in a number of battles in the Pacific. They were hit by a kamikaze plane and he still has several pieces of the plane. He married my Aunt, raised two kids, lost his wife and daughter too soon and, from all evidence, lived a typical, hard working life that was the hallmark of his generation. There is so much more that I could write, but I don't want to make this an obituary. He is still with us, though his memory is very foggy. It seems such a shame that a person so often lives, loves, does the best that he can and looses it all in the end. I guess the blessing is, that he doesn't miss what he cannot remember. Still seems like a big gyp.