Checking out for awhile...

I'm not gonna be around for awhile on here... Gotta go to Indiana tomorrow from Houston area... MIL is about to pass away. Wife and daughter are already up there. Be gone at least a week.

If you believe, say a prayer. Thanks and God bless. Yall keep 'em flying...

Thanks! OL JR

Take care, my friend. My thought are with you and your family.

Sorry to hear this, Luke.

Take care. Be strong for your family.

My thoughts will indeed be with you and your family.

Take care

Sincerely

Paul T

Our prayers will be with you and your family Luke:

Take care Luke.

I'm in Indiana and will thinking of you and your family.

My thoughts and prayers go with you Luke...

I'm so sorry to hear this. I'll be praying JR. Godspeed.

Greg

Thanks guys... We appreciate it!

Eula did pass away last night. It was rather peaceful, considering. Her children were at her side.

My mom and I were on our way up there, having left Thursday morning from Texas and spent the night in Blytheville, AR, which is about halfway. We spent Friday driving up thru Illinois and Indiana, and got a little turned around in construction in Indy and ended up losing 20 minutes to a missed exit and turnaround and comeback. Then it started snowing heavily. We got up to Peru on 31 and turned east on 24 heading for Wabash and about halfway there, we hit a 9 point-ish buck with the driver's headlight of Mom's Grand Caravan, and wiped out the headlight, which dangled pitifully by the front tire another ten miles or so until we got to Wabash and could inspect/work on the car under a streetlamp in a parking lot. Wedged what was left of the still functioning headlight into the mounting hole in the front of the car, and started out again. Within a half mile the headlight had rattled around enough to shine directly into the faces of oncoming drivers, so we doubled back for emergency repairs at the BIG R store. After buying a taillight bulb that would fit the turn/clearance lamp socket and a roll of duct tape (handyman's secret weapon!) I managed to install a new bulb in the turn/clearance lamp, tape it's socket to the remains of the headlight reflector, tape the reflector to a piece of remaining clear lens to shim it up properly to halfway "align" the headlights, and rolled up an old newspaper and church bulletin and a wad of kleenex into a "paper turd" and wrap it with duct tape to wedge in above the headlight reflector to keep the light tight in the hole, and wedged and duct taped the headlight back in place (sort of) and got back on the road. Got into HEAVY snow again, and I commented to Mom that if a bunch of snow blows in there on the exposed halogen bulb, it'll burn it out. Within about a minute, an 18 wheeler blew by and showered us with road spray and burned the bulb out. We managed to get to Goshen on one headlight to the hospital, but arrived about ten minutes after she passed away, after two days on the road. Just wasn't meant to be.

See, those rocket field emergency repair procedures WILL come in handy sooner or later!

Thanks for all the kind words and thoughts. We appreciate it. Bless you all.

Thanks! SIncerely,
OL JR

Sorry for your loss.

Safe travels back home.

Grief is unavoidable...
Sharing the grief with loved ones lessens the burden.
Be strong.

Luke,

My condolences to you and your family.
Have a safe journey back home, my friend.

Daniel

Sorry about your MIL.

Hopefully the trip home is less of an "adventure" than the trip up.

Prayers sent Luke.

My sympathies to you and your family, Luke.

I'm also glad you weren't hurt when you hit that buck!

-Kevin

Oh JR! Y'all were so close! At least you got their safe.

+1 what Troj said. It could have been worse.

Greg

Sorryto hear the news.Hang in there. As Ive been told "All things come to pass"

Sorry to hear of your loss. Please give your wife our condolences.

Hope the trip back is better than the trip up.

Mike & Michelle

Thanks everybody. We appreciate it.

Funeral was yesterday and half the town showed up. My FIL (who passed 11 years ago before my wife and I met) was a vol. fireman and local mechanic for MANY years, Masonic Grand Master and did a lot of volunteer chicken frys and fish frys for the local organizations, and was a WWII engineer on B-29's and was also instrumental in the formation of the Bell Museum (Bell of Bell Aircraft fame was born in Mentone, Indiana, and lived a good part of his childhood here). The firemen came to Eula's viewing in uniform and on a firetruck, which was REALLY nice.

Eula worked in the local Church of Christ and did a lot of volunteer work, her ladies' sewing club knitted a lot of hats for cancer patients. A collection of some 40 hats she had made for the children's cancer hospice was on display. She was active in the Legion Auxiliary and had been an election deputy in years past. She was 81. She had suffered from what was diagnosed as severe psoriasis for the last five years or so. Turns out it WASN'T psoriasis, but a very rare (and incurable) form of skin cancer that is virtually identical in symptomology to psoriasis and can only be diagnosed properly by skin cultures in the lab, usually by a lab tech that specifically knows what to look for (most doctors assume it's psoriasis). Even had she known, chemo would only have delayed the inevitable, as eventually it WILL develop into a more pernicious form of skin cancer. Had Eula taken chemo, it would only have delayed a recurrence by at most a year.

SO, take precautions in the sun, and if you have a skin problem make sure you go to a very knowledgeable and THOROUGH skin doctor! It wouldn't have made MUCH difference in Eula's case; she had a very full life, and her kids and grandkids were with her when she passed; in fact things turned out about as good as they possibly could considering the circumstances. BUT, if knowledge of the situation helps someone else, well, I'm sure Eula would be very pleased indeed!

Yall take care and thanks again for all the well wishes and prayers. Planning to return to Texas over the weekend-- somebody has to drive those kids to school!

Later! OL JR

Sounds like a really nice way to honor your mother in law!

luke strawwalker said:

Yall take care and thanks again for all the well wishes and prayers. Planning to return to Texas over the weekend-- somebody has to drive those kids to school!

Click to expand...

Drive carefully, and watch for deer!

-Kevin

troj said:

Drive carefully, and watch for deer!

-Kevin

Click to expand...

Uhhmm, double that from here. The deer here are in full rut. Our church secretary hit one last night (She's fine but the car is definitely not).

Stay safe.

Blessings on your entire family.

My condolences on your loss Luke and the families. Im not here as much as i would like these days due to business or i would have posted sooner.
Cheers
fred

Thank you all again.

Headed back to Texas on Friday (last). Got home safely Saturday night just before 10pm. Nice trip. Brought Keira (my almost six year old) and Jeremy (nephew who just graduated from Perdue w/ his BA in Aeronautical Engineering, who moved in with us at the end of the summer) back with my Mom and I. Back to school/work and things are getting back to normal...

My wife's supposed to fly home toward the end of the week-- she stayed on in Indiana a few extra days to get the ball rolling on the estate issues and stuff... Eula was very organized, but somehow she forgot to do her will, so now they'll get to spend a year or two and at least three times as much money to settle everything... Betty told me she and Eula planned to go to the lawyer when we were up there at Christmas...

SO, lesson learned-- don't put off to tomorrow what you can do today...

And for us rocket geeks who get WAY too much sun in the summertime staring up into the glaring sun watching rockets or wading around in pastures and fields looking for rockets for hours at a time... TAKE PRECAUTIONS AGAINST SUNBURN and take care of your skin!

Later and thanks again! OL JR