Umbrella Day - Seeing Ken

 

Up at 605am. Exercise (push-up day), coffee, internet, meditate, stretch, and run (ran 4.1 miles).

Raw and rainy run. About 45 degrees in moderate rainfall.

Wednesday call canceled. Still planned to work across town though. Left the house near 945am.

Long, wet walk across the parking lot and over the bridge. Thank goodness for my big umbrella.

Busy until 1pm. Left for a Lowes run. Bought two 15K bags of lawn fertilizer, one with crab grass preventer, the other plain fertilizer. They had deal, buy 2 bags and save 20%. Couldn’t pass that up. In addition to the 20% discount, I used the Lowes gift card I found a few months ago in the gutter. Still had about $10 on it. Sweet! Perused a few aisles before checking out but bought nothing else.

Back to the office. Still raining. Stayed busy through 430pm when I left for home. Kids were leaving early with Jimaken. Mindy and I planned to visit Ken at Dodd Hall, OSU hospital. Haven’t seen him since the Monday before the Oregon trip.

I needed only to freshen up before we hit the road. Figured we’d hit Barley’s too, but only after visiting Ken. Easy drive across Grandview to Dodd Hall, which is off King and Olentangy. Lori, Ken’s wife was there too. He was sitting up in a chair with his protective helmet on. Looked good, though perhaps a thin as I’ve ever seen him. Seemed a little down at first, but also very happy to have visitors. As always, he joked about a number of things, including the dent in his skull where they temporarily removed bone to allow for the initial swelling, which has receded dramatically. Should be replacing the bone soon. As it is. There’s quite a dent where the bone was removed.

We stayed for an hour or more. Ken looked me in the eyes and reminded me to not take anything for granted – even sitting up in a chair. Message received. Humbling. Lori shared that hid therapy is progressing well, but that Ken wants to be up and walking now. Realistically, she said it should be more like October. Wow! Said he will likely go home in a wheel chair, which even before Ken uttered his displeasure with that notion, I knew how he’d feel about that. Not good.

It’s hard not to leave there encouraged. Ken is one tough and determined dude. Just before we left, he introduced us to his shower buddy, a young female nurse that actually really does shower with him. Not exactly sure how she does it. Still, Ken enjoyed sharing as much.

Got to Barley’s very near 7pm. A gaggle of off-the-clock employees were gathered near the end of the bar enjoying a few beers. Actually working the bar was blonde girl. I had just one beer, a nitro porter and a Texas Barley burger, salad, and a cup of their soup-of-the-day. Mindy had a Russian imperial stout. Can’t recall what she ate for dinner. We didn’t stay too long. It was after 8pm in a hurry. Guessing it was near 815pm when we pulled in the driveway.

The kids were already home from their evening with Jimaken. We enjoyed a little family banter before calling it a night.