"I bet Micheal's glad he didn't go," she says.
"She" also has cancer and knows the unmitigated joy of missing a regularly scheduled appointment.
In the car with 16 yr-old-living her-best-life Cassidy, they breeze by the house just after we'd returned.
Leaving for the second visit in three days for the Mayo Clinic, Che's excited for a day with Mom and Dad doing fun things together in Jacksonville while Sarah and I are "focused and prepared."
Just across the Thunderbolt Bridge, Sarah zips in for gas and notices the tire pressure light's on and pulls up to the air pump.
My wife is both buff and bad ass which is always exciting.
Putting air in the car tire, her amazing strength breaks the nozzle and air rushes out the tire. Using Super speed she puts the cap back on, drives us to Goodyear before the tire goes flat, makes arrangements for a replacement, cancels the appointments, walks us home and makes lunch.
A Wonder of a Woman, I tell you.
Che's totally bummed and sulks.
I'm as giddy as I was skipping Mrs. Johnson's 12th grade English class at Groves High School because I was totally unprepared for her insistence of completing homework before attending so I opted to drink beer with Gene Prevatt instead.
I now open a Budweiser in Mrs. Johnson (now Petricio)'s honor and my good fortune.
At the same time, Sarah's already recalibrating, redirecting her focus, preparing for other things that must be done.
Che mopes before laying on the sofa lost somewhere on her IPad.
I want to party!
Naturally, a train wreck of collapsing emotions happen over the next few hours. We live life raw, close to the bone, grasping for normal things when nothing's as it was before.
For the next two days, we hold up at home, retreating into ourselves for long bouts or squeezing tightly together to watch a movie. It's one or the other. All or nothing.
Gradually, over three days, each of us rally after fighting like hell to get back near the "normal" we were living before.
The appointments are now rescheduled, Che's a whirlwind of energy again, Sarah's doing wondrous multiple tasking and I'm back to concentrating on the two things I need to do.
Have as much fun as I can which means finding the daily joys of simply being here!
When I went back to Mrs. Johnson (Patricio)'s class, I still had to turn in the homework. I'd merely deferred my obligations.
We've recalibrated now, back in the trenches of living, fighting for joy everywhere we find it, squeezed together, giving it everything we got!
