Snerkology

Life just kind of piles things on sometimes, doesn’t it? It can throw positive things and negative things onto the pile indiscriminately, and all we can hope for is that it all balances out in the end.

Bill’s father passed away on December 10th. They’ve been estranged for longer than Bill and I have been together. Bill’s dad did a pretty hefty stint in a Wyoming prison and just got out about a year ago. He planned to come out sometime in the spring to see everyone, but he suffered a massive stroke in early December and passed away under Hospice care.

None of us were able to make it to the Denver hospital where he was being cared for, before he passed away. This is a fact that Bill and his closest sister (who has been the primary contact for the whole matter) are trying to come to terms with. Guilt plays a hefty part in the feelings of those left behind when someone passes – whether that guilt is called for or not. I felt it when Grandma died – I should have called more, written more, visited more. After Bill’s dad went to prison, and after Bill and I got together, we sent him several packets of letters and cards. None were answered. When he got out of prison, he would leave drunken messages on our voicemail – evidence that he fell into much of the same behavior that landed him in jail in the first place. So, things have been less than positive. And then he passed away. Though Bill’s dad made his life choices a very long time ago, it’s natural for things to feel unresolved, left as they were.

To complicate matters, Bill’s dad did not leave a will or any documentation on what his wishes might be. No one has any idea the extent of his estate, or if there really is one. He’s been living in some sort of RV or camper, on a parcel of land in southern Wyoming inhabited by other folks of his… what I’ll term to be “lifestyle”. If he had any belongings, they’ve surely been well pilfered by now.

So the three of us – me, Bill, and his sister – will be leaving early on the morning of New Year’s Day to make the 900-mile drive up to Laramie, Wyoming. We need to file affidavits, obtain paperwork, meet with bank managers, and go through Bill’s dad’s personal possessions. We need to see if there might be SOME sort of documentation to help clarify things. I have no idea how easy or how complicated any of this is going to be. I have no idea what the road conditions are going to be like between here and there. Do we travel straight up through Colorado, or hit Utah and come in from the West? Which route avoids the most snow?

I have no idea. I doubt Garmin does either. But we’ll be okay because…

We finally bought a Jeep!

On the Apache Trail

Balancing out the negative is the positive fact that we can now go off-road exploring whenever we feel like it. We’ve been waiting for this, planning for this, saving for this for a long time. It’s nice to set a goal and then accomplish it.

We’ve only gone out twice so far – once on the Apache Trail and once along Box Canyon Road towards Madeira Canyon (where we found the most AWESOME B&B that we want to stay in sometime). I’m keeping a Trail Log which we’ll update with the details of each trip we take. I’m also taking a million pictures (of course) and have begun a Jeep Adventures group on my Flickr page. So far, it has been a blast. We’ve purchased a book of off-road trails and have a list of destinations we want to explore. Sycamore Canyon is up next.

Robert moved out a few weeks ago, into a house in Phoenix that he’s renting with Amanda and Amanda’s boyfriend. Then he’s off in early January for a six-month training assignment in Texas with the Air National Guard. He’s hoping for a permanent post in Florida.

This means that the entire upstairs is once again unoccupied, and it’s now time for Bill and I to get busy with repairs and a few updates to the flooring and paint. One room will continue to be used for storage, while the other room is going to be converted into my office/studio, with the ability to use it as a spare room for guests.

Work – all of the work – continues to be nuts. And I signed up for my first semester’s-worth of classes at UMass, starting the third week of January.

I feel… a little overwhelmed, to tell you the truth.

So! That’s the news. What have YOU guys been up to?