Today is a mixed bag of sorrow and joy as Ed and Ann work on their relationship.
THE GOD GAMES: Heaven & Hell...Chapter 34...HELL
Ed's oldest son, Anders, had put out feelers to his father and had invited him to go to see concerts with him. This was the happiest that I had ever seen Ed, he just beamed when he talked about Anders, he was so proud of him. Anders is a professional musician; he teaches music in the schools and at Band Camp near Big Bear and Lake Tahoe, he is also involved in various orchestras around the county. Anders is a marvelous human being and he began to give us all manner of CDs and DVDs of our favorite musicians, and also new artists as they came out. He was also a philosopher and brought us new books and fresh ideas. We began to talk about how wonderful it would be to have Anders around more often, and then the opportunity came about where Anders was looking for a place to live, and Herb had moved out. I had moved into Herbs old room, but the living room was empty, as Herb had taken all of his furniture with him. So Ed and I invited Anders to come and live with us and, happily, Anders accepted our offer and moved in.
I came down with salmonella poisoning in 2003 from eating poorly washed alfalfa sprouts. I was so ill and if you can imagine, I had non-stop diarrhea. Ed rushed me to a hospital and saved my life. I was two weeks in the hospital recovering and while I was in the hospital Ed took care of cleaning up my mess and washing all of my linens and clothes. Ed was my hero. I know this sounds gross, and it is, but that is the whole point. Ed took care of me when I was ill and saved my life. He would save my life again a few years later.
One evening, in 2003, while Anders was away from the house and I was in my bed asleep, there was a terrible crash coming from Ed's room. I rushed into Ed's room to find him lying on his back, unconscious, and with a terrible split in his head. I screamed, "Ed! Ed!" and he opened his eyes but he was very drowsy. I knew that I should get him to a hospital but when I suggested that, he sat up and told me very emphatically that he was not going to go to any hospital. His eyes cleared and he stood up and walked over to his chair and sat down. Then he gave me lecture #10 that I was never to call an ambulance for him and that he was just fine and dandy as he was. I assured him that I would follow his wishes.
The split in his head was down to the skull and about three inches long. It took months of cleaning and bandaging to resolve the head wound and heal it back up. Unfortunately, Ed began to have small seizures, and I took him to all of his doctors but they could not see what I was talking about and did not give him medication for his condition.
Ed and I, sometimes with Anders, had a lot of fun besides the casinos. We went to several rock concerts and also to several of the orchestral productions where Anders would be playing the clarinet; Anders was really talented on the clarinet and several other instruments.
Ed and I would often just go for rides in the car into the mountains and desert. We would drive into the mountains at night anytime there were to be meteor showers, or an eclipse.
Sometimes we would go out into the desert just to watch the night skies and look for shooting stars. Ed once told me that when he was a boy they had to muck out their well once a year to keep the good water flowing. His father would send him down the well, about 100 feet deep, because he was skinny and tall and did the job well. Anyway, Ed said that when he was down deep in the well (it would be broad daylight outside the well) he could look up at the sky and see thousands of stars; more than he could normally see in the night sky when he was above ground. He did not know the explanation for this, but it was one of his favorite boyhood memories.
Ed had one goal, to get back to Lone Pine and Bishop, California. His favorite place on earth was the Portals at Mount Whitney as he and his family would camp there for two weeks or a month every summer. So many times I would buy the food and pack the car for a trip to the Portals and then when I was done he would not be able to gather the strength to go anywhere. However, one time we made it. It was almost the end of the season, late September, and we camped in camp #4. Ed was ecstatic that we had made it, but it was bitterly cold and he was most uncomfortable. We spent the night sleeping on the ground in sleeping bags, or rather, I slept. Ed could never get warm enough to sleep so he spent the night in rapture, gazing at all of the stars and an almost continuous stream of falling stars. I built him a fire in the morning to get warm by and we had breakfast watching trout swim past in the creek. Then Ed set up the boom box and played a series of CDs that he had brought from home. So we enjoyed the concert as we watched the beautiful Mount Whitney. As we sat on the bench gazing at the mountain, we noticed that the boughs of two pine trees formed a frame around the vision of the top of the mountain. It was one of those moments in life that you replay the rest of your life. We made a goal to come back to the mountain permanently and live in either Lone Pine or Bishop.
Ed's health began a long, slow decline. He had a lot of trouble with his teeth and they had found, and operated on, a large cancer on his nose. As his health declined he became more irascible and started to have some personal problems with our landlords and some of the tenants at our apartments. Ed always had to say everything he thought whether it was positive or negative and he was rarely soft-toned when he said it. Eventually, in the Autumn of 2004, we were evicted from our apartment and hit the road to live on the streets until we could find another place to live.
Tomorrow Ed and Ann are evicted and go to live on the streets...
THE GOD GAMES: Heaven & Hell...Chapter 34...HELL
Ed's oldest son, Anders, had put out feelers to his father and had invited him to go to see concerts with him. This was the happiest that I had ever seen Ed, he just beamed when he talked about Anders, he was so proud of him. Anders is a professional musician; he teaches music in the schools and at Band Camp near Big Bear and Lake Tahoe, he is also involved in various orchestras around the county. Anders is a marvelous human being and he began to give us all manner of CDs and DVDs of our favorite musicians, and also new artists as they came out. He was also a philosopher and brought us new books and fresh ideas. We began to talk about how wonderful it would be to have Anders around more often, and then the opportunity came about where Anders was looking for a place to live, and Herb had moved out. I had moved into Herbs old room, but the living room was empty, as Herb had taken all of his furniture with him. So Ed and I invited Anders to come and live with us and, happily, Anders accepted our offer and moved in.
I came down with salmonella poisoning in 2003 from eating poorly washed alfalfa sprouts. I was so ill and if you can imagine, I had non-stop diarrhea. Ed rushed me to a hospital and saved my life. I was two weeks in the hospital recovering and while I was in the hospital Ed took care of cleaning up my mess and washing all of my linens and clothes. Ed was my hero. I know this sounds gross, and it is, but that is the whole point. Ed took care of me when I was ill and saved my life. He would save my life again a few years later.
One evening, in 2003, while Anders was away from the house and I was in my bed asleep, there was a terrible crash coming from Ed's room. I rushed into Ed's room to find him lying on his back, unconscious, and with a terrible split in his head. I screamed, "Ed! Ed!" and he opened his eyes but he was very drowsy. I knew that I should get him to a hospital but when I suggested that, he sat up and told me very emphatically that he was not going to go to any hospital. His eyes cleared and he stood up and walked over to his chair and sat down. Then he gave me lecture #10 that I was never to call an ambulance for him and that he was just fine and dandy as he was. I assured him that I would follow his wishes.
The split in his head was down to the skull and about three inches long. It took months of cleaning and bandaging to resolve the head wound and heal it back up. Unfortunately, Ed began to have small seizures, and I took him to all of his doctors but they could not see what I was talking about and did not give him medication for his condition.
Ed and I, sometimes with Anders, had a lot of fun besides the casinos. We went to several rock concerts and also to several of the orchestral productions where Anders would be playing the clarinet; Anders was really talented on the clarinet and several other instruments.
Ed and I would often just go for rides in the car into the mountains and desert. We would drive into the mountains at night anytime there were to be meteor showers, or an eclipse.
Sometimes we would go out into the desert just to watch the night skies and look for shooting stars. Ed once told me that when he was a boy they had to muck out their well once a year to keep the good water flowing. His father would send him down the well, about 100 feet deep, because he was skinny and tall and did the job well. Anyway, Ed said that when he was down deep in the well (it would be broad daylight outside the well) he could look up at the sky and see thousands of stars; more than he could normally see in the night sky when he was above ground. He did not know the explanation for this, but it was one of his favorite boyhood memories.
Ed had one goal, to get back to Lone Pine and Bishop, California. His favorite place on earth was the Portals at Mount Whitney as he and his family would camp there for two weeks or a month every summer. So many times I would buy the food and pack the car for a trip to the Portals and then when I was done he would not be able to gather the strength to go anywhere. However, one time we made it. It was almost the end of the season, late September, and we camped in camp #4. Ed was ecstatic that we had made it, but it was bitterly cold and he was most uncomfortable. We spent the night sleeping on the ground in sleeping bags, or rather, I slept. Ed could never get warm enough to sleep so he spent the night in rapture, gazing at all of the stars and an almost continuous stream of falling stars. I built him a fire in the morning to get warm by and we had breakfast watching trout swim past in the creek. Then Ed set up the boom box and played a series of CDs that he had brought from home. So we enjoyed the concert as we watched the beautiful Mount Whitney. As we sat on the bench gazing at the mountain, we noticed that the boughs of two pine trees formed a frame around the vision of the top of the mountain. It was one of those moments in life that you replay the rest of your life. We made a goal to come back to the mountain permanently and live in either Lone Pine or Bishop.
Ed's health began a long, slow decline. He had a lot of trouble with his teeth and they had found, and operated on, a large cancer on his nose. As his health declined he became more irascible and started to have some personal problems with our landlords and some of the tenants at our apartments. Ed always had to say everything he thought whether it was positive or negative and he was rarely soft-toned when he said it. Eventually, in the Autumn of 2004, we were evicted from our apartment and hit the road to live on the streets until we could find another place to live.
Tomorrow Ed and Ann are evicted and go to live on the streets...
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