Thursday, February 6, 2014

Death of Philip Seymour Hoffman

I was saddened to learn of the death of PSH.  Yes, it is very tragic.  Yes, I wish that heroin use and overdose deaths of regular people would get this much attention.  Our kids, our neighbors, our loved ones, our friends... It would be great if we could all speak up and say, yes this happened to someone I loved, I knew him/her, I knew his/her parents....

I am getting to the age where I read the local obits.  Every time I see a young person around my sons ages that "died suddenly" or "unexpectedly" I wonder if it was an overdose.  According to my brother, a local law enforcement officer, it happens often.  I don't know that I've ever seen any mention of drugs or addiction in an obituary.  There is so much shame attached.

Tragic and sad yes, but it seems a much respected actor's death of an (apparent) heroin overdose has caused a lot of discussion of addiction this week.  The messages I'm starting to hear are 1) this happens, it can happen to anyone, young, middle-aged, old, rich, poor, famous or unknown and 2) addiction is a disease that has to be fought, not only by the addict, but by those around him/her and 3) we can be open with each other and hopefully gain support for the addicts in our lives, and ourselves.

I hope the discussion continues.

Peace.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

A New Year

I have many things to look forward to this coming year...

Hopefully a new job.  I have been job hunting, although not much happening over the holidays.  It's weird being unemployed, but restful.  It's only January, and I am already sick of this winter.  I have been stuck inside a lot, don't want to spend money, and of course I'm not leaving the house for a job.  Did I mention that it's been very cold here?  yeah, like 11 degrees today, and single digits several days over the past week.  We're expecting below zero temps this weekend.  ok, sorry that went from looking for a job to some whining about the winter.

Assuming I start a new job in the next month or so, we want to go back down to Florida yet this winter for a week or so.

Son2 will hopefully be starting a new job next week. That will be so great for them, they really need to get a better car.  He had a car accident with the icy/wintry roads yesterday.  The car was totaled and so now they need to get something to drive before he starts his new job.  His wife, C and their new dog were in the car, I'm just glad no one was hurt.  Life is not easy for those two, but all in all, they are happy and I'm anxious to meet the new puppy.

Son1 and his wife just told us they are expecting, but sshhhhhhhh, it's a secret from the rest of the family for a couple months since she is not very far along.  I am so excited!!!!!

I leave you with this pic, taken on a warm day last week after cross country skiing.  It's been a lot colder since  ;)