vicariously chris

Last night Chris was in very good spirits and we watched most of the Goldeyes (local Baseball Team) game on his TV.

Chris made the mistake of asking me how I was doing and he laughed as I kvetched about the heat n'humidity, the cankerworms denuding all the Elm trees on my street, the longest day of the year already behind us, all trite and ridiculous considering where we were...

we both instantly recognised how tedious and pedestrian my woes sounded and laughed.

I have always loved the expression,

"If I had your problems, I'd burn mine",

and if there was ever a time to invoke that adage, this was it.

I always sent Chris tons of funny/ridiculous/weird stuff and this was one of his favorites.

Last night Chris chuckled away as various hospital workers strolled by and chatted with us. We had a good laugh when one worker asked if Chris was my Dad..awkward..but I said no, he's my Grandpa!

It was great to hear him laugh because for years we would get together weekly to sip n' bitch about the same bloody things..start off with personal issues and digress our way down to the generic universal irritants: weather, traffic, global-politics, religious fanaticism yada-yada-yada..(obviously the topics and rhetoric were proportionate to the amount of discussion fluids being ingested :)

We'd rehash our ridiculously simple solutions to all of the endless circle of Life crapola and get it out of our system. My main objective was always to exasperate "Mr Devil's Advocate" because Chris would thrive on taking the other side just for the hell of it.

I had no choice but to construct the lamest, most outrageous, arguments to dismatle his veneer thin position. Once I got him to crack, laugh, and abandon his ridiculous, indefensible stance, we could move on. That was a great way to cauterize whatever "BS" Life was throwing our way that particular week.

So hearing Chris laugh means a lot to me. After a while he started to nod off..and snore...it's getting late...but he did wake up when an orderly and I started discussing the logistics of keeping Hugh Hefner sufficiently jacked on Viagra..

sneaky little bugger, Chris is always listening.

I just wanted everyone to know that Chris was having a very UP evening and it was quite a relief after the last weekend. I apologize for nattering about our relationship but when I think about Chris I think of LAUGHTER.

This week the family should get an indication of when Chris can advance to a rehab facility..it's time to move forward and everyone is hoping and praying that any of of Chris' outstanding medical issues have been stabilised/neutralised and that he can take the next big step.