Category Archives: thinking of the family.

a fitting celebration

Today, as my friend Oren Miller is laid to rest, I can think of no better tribute than to spend time with my kids. So I had lunch with my college age daughter.  Spent the afternoon with her and David.  Then supper with most of the family. People have commented… “Who was Oren?” Oren was a humble man.  Who loved being a father. www.baltimoresun.com/health/bs-ae-oren-miller-20141028-story.html#page=1 Here is a collection of Billy Joel that a few dads put together when Oren and Beth couldn’t make a long planned concert event because of Oren’s cancer treatment. Oren brought a bunch of fathers together in the dad blogger group.  Through his example, we learned that it is possible to find Heaven on Earth. Thank you Oren.  For being you. Tweet #fighting4answrs

Home sweet home, again.

1176 miles. From home, to the residential facility and back again.  4 days. The thing about driving.  It gives a person a lot of time to think.  Ruminations about fatherhood, about things that a person might have done differently for David. I keep coming back to one inalienable truth. We did what we had to do.  Not just for David.  But for the whole family.  No one should live in constant fear from a loved one.  Forcing the whole family to live in such a way, at least in my mind, is a form of psychological torture.  I include David. David didn’t deserve to be constantly in trouble, constantly talked down to, or treated meanly because of his behaviors.  Sure they were relentless.  Sure they hurt, but they were a symptom of a larger problem. I pray that the David I spent the last couple of days with continues to grow and develop.  Regardless,

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travels with Carl

It’s me again Margaret.  hehe…   Reminds me of this old Ray Stevens classic.   So anyway.  traveling today, out to see David. We live on the edge of the Bakken oil field.  In order to get to where David is, you have to drive through a portion of the field.  It is mostly Interstate travel. Today as I was motoring along in my van, it struck me that the road for about 100 miles in Western North Dakota is all one large bump.  Or rather, as series of mini-bumps trying to pretend to be one large bump. Traveling this stretch of highway is how I imagine riding in a small ocean going vessel would be.  Just as you crest one wave, there is another right behind it. Travels have been fairly uneventful thus far, although we did get an alert from our bank that there was suspicious activity on my credit

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