Lots of news today

My brain is drenched in lemon goo. It lurched to a stop earlier today in protest - just before my gut registered the same "overload" signal. Because we have house guests arriving Thursday night and a jam packed week next week, I'm trying to get this small project completed and out of here. Instead of tasting things with a decent interval between, I'm going fast and furious. My co-hort Shari's mother is very ill and was admitted to Hoag hospital late last night. Shari was up all night with her and will probably be out of commission for a while.

And....Richard's oldest brother died on Monday. His death was expected as he had emphysema for years and was 82. A bout of pneumonia took him right out. Rich took off for Orlando yesterday and will arrive in time for the mass and then the military burial.  Fred was in the Air Force during Korea. As a hobby, he built a small plane and actually flew it at 80 years old - in the photo he was taking it out for the first test run. Obviously, he had a full life and was active until about six months before he died.

Another friend just called to tell me her father had died. He was a meat scientist and he named Barbara, Barbara Lorraine Thompson so that her initials would be BLT. She had no choice but to go into the food business and they used to have great fun attending food meetings and conventions together. Her Dad, Chuck, died while washing his car. I don't know if they called him Chuck before he was in the meat business or if Charles morphed into Chuck afterwards. Anyway, he just keeled over. What a great way to go! Barbara calls me her age mentor because as she goes through life and passes from one phase to another, we get together to compare notes. I was pleased to be able to make her laugh today - sometimes when you're grieving you wonder if you'll ever find anything funny again.

Lastly my friend Dan is getting a divorce from his fantastic Peruvian wife. They are both great people but just can't get along anymore. As  money is no problem for them, I asked about the possibility of setting up two households and living separately during the week- just trying the weekends together until they fall in love again. I'm still hoping they can pull the fat out of the fire.

Lots of sad news crammed into a few days.