Suburban Musings

Does anybody really care what I did this weekend?  Probably not, but I posted to Facebook anyway…Tweeted a photo from the Purdue game, too! 

But still, I wonder…who really cares?!  On the one hand, its nice that I get comments back from friends and acquaintances who have seen my updates;  folks I don’t usually have time to call or spend time with are now more in touch with me.  But on the other hand…well, did the fact that they now know I was at a Purdue game this weekend matter to anybody?  Did it move the needle to get me any closer to Heaven?  I struggle with the overall importance of it. 

It is so easy to spend HOURS playing around online, voyeuring through Facebook and Twitter, clicking through to videos and articles that others have recommended….but its taking me away from the things I used to spend time on;  cleaning house, watching a couple of chosen programs on television, phoning friends, exercising, chatting with family, etc. etc.  The day only has so many hours!

So….while I am an active participant in all things “social media”….I still wait for the “other shoe to drop”…the aftermath of a world gone online.  I hope that the benefits of staying in closer touch with so many more people is stronger than the downsides.

P.S.  Here’s my new self-portrait, taken at about 7 p.m. on my way home from work…shadows long, just a moment before I stopped to “talk” with a doe and her 3 baby fawns…

Self Portrait, Fall Creek Trail

Its been a sad week as the news sunk in;  my dear friend has passed away.  Linda was the maid-of-honor in my wedding, my French and choir buddy, the soprano to my alto in “Do You Know Exactly How to Eat an Oreo…”and the 3rd in the “Sandy, Kathi, Linda” 3-some.  At age 24  she contracted Hodgkins disease (discovered while in Taiwan as a missionary teacher), and then again later in life.  This year, for the THIRD time! cancer showed up, now in the form of leukemia.

Linda fought a good battle through rounds of debilitating chemo and a stem cell transplant, harvested in part from her 15-year old son.  She actually was on the uphill;  had made it past the 100+ days post-transplant and doctors were positive. Then..her lung collapsed and pneumonia took over and we lost her on September 1, not quite 6 months after her 50th birthday.  We were due to celebrate our 50th’s together this fall, once Linda felt more up to the celebration….

I had already considered participating in the Leukemia Society’s Team in Training program, to help raise needed dollars for leukemia research…but this week I felt a strong nudge to commit to it, with Sept. 3 being the required “committment date”. 

So…I am officially scheduled to run in the Disney Mini-Marathon in January, as part of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training.  The goal is to raise $3500. for research, with a deadline looming just a couple short months ahead.  I feel strongly that this is a good thing to do;  LLS raised over $71 million dollars just last year for research!

Please….go to the website (<click there) and follow your heart and donate something.  Every little donation is a big help and big donations are God-sent.  I need everyone’s help to make this work. 

Here is a pic of Linda and I from 1982…we haven’t aged a bit since then   I’m still searching for other pics…