You'll poke your eye out kid!!!

It must have been the fact I had already made a bit too much trouble so my parents decided to get me into Cub Scouts to make better use of my time. Along with the membership in the new pack they presented me with this itty bitty pocket knife that might have been maybe one inch long unfolded. As with any toy I wanted to go outside immediately and try it out so off I ran into the front yard to carve my name into the front tree. Mom must have watched my quick travel because she forbade me to do any carving into a tree we didn't own.Not to be deterred I ran into the back yard to cut up the biggest weed I could find. I was sure she wouldn't mind if I destroyed a weed or two, she was always bemoaning the fact they grew faster than she could pull them anyway. I found one that was taller than I was, grabbed it high and pulled it down in front of me to start my attack. I placed that half inch blade on the back side of the weed and started sawing away and pulling on the knife to make sure it cut through the meat of that weed. I was putting my all into the effort and could see I was making progress. That weed was as good as dead. I could see I was almost all the way through so I put some added muscle into the thrusts.ZIP came the knife through the last of the weed and the momentum of my hand made me smack myself in the eye. The only trouble with this, was the knife was still in my hand so it was more than a smack...I had stabbed myself with that little blade. Lucky for me it was a little blade or it might have gone all the way to my brain which never had yet figured out when a dangerous situation was arriving.I immediately dropped the knife and cupped my hand over my eye. I could feel liquid oozing into my hand so I held my head back to make sure my brains didn't flow out of the wound as well. "I've poked my eye out!!" I thought to myself and immediately wondered how I was going to hide this one from Mom and Dad. I didn't really feel much pain considering how much pain I usually had when I got even the littlest piece of dirt in my eye, so I lowered my head a bit and opened my eye to look through the cracks of my fingers.I could still see!! I closed my right eye to make sure that indeed, this now wounded eye was able to see on its own...it was working just fine. I pushed my finger harder against my eyeball to see how much liquid had leaked out of my eye and I was thrilled to find it still felt firm and in place.I could see my hand was covered in blood so I figured the next step was to get in front of a mirror to actually see what the damage was. As I did this after sneaking into and through the house to the bathroom, I figured I stabbed through the eyelid and the blade went a short distance over the top of my eyeball and into the eye socket doing no more damage than cutting the hole through my eyelid.I washed off the blood and pressed the wash cloth against the wound until it had fully stopped bleeding and then it dawned on me that I had lost the knife.Oh oh...now I'm going to be in big, big trouble because I had lost the knife on the very first day it had been given to me. I quickly made my way back out to the weed patch and found my little knife laying at the base of the much shorter weed. I picked it up, folded the blade back into place and stashed the little thing into the coin pocket of my Levi's.It wasn't long after that I learned one of the first safety lessons of knife usage in the pack meeting...while using a knife, always cut away from your body...too late!! I already learned that lesson from personal experience.

My day with Mom

Today I spent the day with Mom getting her to grave sites of everyone that is buried in the area. When I went to pick her up in Tooele I found her sleeping soundly. I roused her and off we went. Lori's daughter Kim left a note saying Mom was so looking forward to getting out but that she has eaten mostly nothing for 2 days and will be very weak, which she was. I popped open a can of Pepsi for her and off we went. She held up well for the activities. I got off the center street exit in Provo and went to my store to get flowers for the grave.
Vic's daughter Amber works at the store now in the floral department so I sent her out to talk to Mom while I got the flowers. When I came out Amber turned her head away from Mom and started to cry...."I hate seeing her this way"....she said as she wiped the tears away. Mom does look all skin and bones. She is a petite woman anyway but now she looks all of her 85 years in a withered way. Amber gave us two bouquets of Gerber Daisies to put on the grave sites of Joel and Vic which we were happy to do.
After leaving the store we headed up to the court house building where Ron's office is. I had hoped to send Ron down for a visit with Mom much like I had done with Amber but his office was locked up and vacant....maybe for lunch...I'll have to talk to him later.
We went up to Dennis' grave first there in the Provo cemetery. I asked her when she had last been to his grave and she could not remember a visit there since he was buried but I know that is not correct because I have taken her there before.
Her conversation for the day was quite sharp and with good recollection until we started home and then it was evident I had tired her out with the activities of the day.
We stopped for gas before going to the Orem graves to see Vic, Joel, and Jayden.
As we visited each spot during the day Mom had no emotion at all. I was not quite sure what to expect but I was thinking she would show something at the site of Vic's head stone as she still feels his passing just was something she still can't accept...but she showed nothing.
On our way out of town I took Mom by to see Brooke. I don't know how many more chances we will have for that one last memory with Mom so Brooke came out from the middle of a hair client to smile at Mom and give her a little hug. I'd advise you all to make a visit if you can arrange it as well.
I asked her about all sorts of memories I have of past times but most of them she had no recollection of which only disappointed me a bit. It was just good to be with her for the day.
I got her back home and into her favorite chair, handed her the newspaper, thanked her for the days company and for being a great Mom.