Just another day in paradise.

I realized today that I had been very neglectful of my blogger page over the last few days. I've constantly been checking Kati's page to see what she is up to (as usual) but just didn't seem to have the mood strike me to write. And in all honesty I still don't feel up to it but what the heck I have nothing else going on at the moment.

Mornings are slow here at the Hancock Bungalo. Thats not to say they aren't nice but it seems like a far cry from hiking the vast terrain of the Cabinet Wilderness by 5 in the morning. I still can't seem to sleep in past about 5 but I guess thats a good thing since I have to get back to it in less than a week. Typically I wake up and the house is absolutely silent. Mark isn't even up yet rummbling around. So what do I do... lay in bed, wide awake, staring at the umbrella that has been decorated to look like a hawaiian hut over my nieces bed. Sometimes I plug the little lights that Rebecca has carefully wrapped around the underside of it and sometimes I don't. Its a quiet and reflective time for me. I find myself having a very frank and humbling conversation with God at thesetimes of the day. Once I hear Rachel's alarm go off in the room next to mine, I start getting with the program. This usually means getting up and listening to all my joints and bones creak and crack a bit. There certainly are days that I feel much older than my 25 years. I blame it on those years of competitive sports and now beating my body against the landscape I love so much. I have a cacophony of sounds from my knees, ankles, back and neck as anyone who has been my roommate can testify to. Mark, Rachel, and Brenda are the first to go out into the world while Rebecca's school doesn't start until an hour later so she and I get to do breakfast together. Its pretty nice having our own little time together. Once she is gone the house is again so very silent. Mom and dad take their sweet time coming upstairs in the mornings though when they finally are up and about Dad and I break out the coffee as I've mentioned in a previous post.

After morning rituals are done, or as dad would say, the 3 S's. We head down to the hospital for Dad's radiation treatments. The treatments themselves really don't take very long, maybe 15 minutes at most but for dad they are excruciating. A few years ago he broke his back and he's had trouble laying on hard surfaces ever since. Most of the time he goes in pretty chipper but by the time he is done we can see how tired he is. It definately takes a lot out of him. But the good news is that Dad is down to 4 more treatments and we're definately having a countdown. There is hope and light at the end of this tunnel. I keep teasing dad about the hair he has coming back... his normally silver fringe of hair is actually darker than it was before he started the whole ordeal. I keep telling him that he's going to have less grey hair than I do by the time everything is said and done. Thank god for dye.

By the time we get back from the hospital and picking up prescriptions and what not, the girls are back from school and our evenings of cooking dinner, the girls going to swim practice,helping out with homework, and watching the normal barage of politcal commentary on Fox News ensues. I must say that I'm really sick of all the hype about the upcoming election. It seems like for the past 3 years that is all that has been on the news. Its not like its honest reporting either. Both sides are skewed so much that its more of a comedy routine than actual news. Thats me on my high horse there if you cant tell. I do get a kick out of watching Fox News with Dad though. He keeps getting so fired up whenver something about Obama is discussed. Can we say that I come from a conservative republican family or what? I like it though because its nice to see dad get worked up about it, its almost as if he saves up his remaining energy just for that purpose in the evening.

So thats my days down here in Denver. Its nothing really exciting but I have to admit that I'vc enjoyed my time with my folks and family. The time has gone by so very fast and its not exactly fair. But I'm sure there will be days in the near future that I come back down to see everyone again.