Vignettes from the Road (Part V)

A brief word about Dinner Saturday with the lunatics from the Dixonverse Message Boards; it was just fantastic. Drew Geraci and his wife were gracious and intelligent hosts, and a GREAT time was had by all generally. We all agreed what Chuck’s next book to write was (I’m not telling) and decided that Prima Donnas in a workplace ruin everything. Make of that what you will.


It was while I was having dinner with my mother Sunday afternoon that she told me about my Dad. He had Prostate Cancer several years ago and had his prostate removed, but at that time refused to undergo the recommended preventative Chemotherapy. If it was going to make him sick, he didn’t want to go through it.

So he didn’t, and his prostate grew back, and grew back cancerous again. And, of course, being the medically-avoidant pain in the rump he is, he never got another PSA test for Prostate cancer.

Until last fall, when it was too late. He’s been through radiation and chemo without any appreciable results, and he’s decided to just go the hospice route. Right now he has a massive bladder infection, is on the verge of renal failure, and takes more painkillers than I’d care to think about. Fortunately he sleeps a lot of the day away, napping on and off throughout.

I’m having decidedly mixed feelings about it. My parents were divorced when I was young and Dad was in-and-out (mostly out) of our lives, just popping in long enough to cause some chaos amid the (admittedly) brief joy. As Ariane noted, “I always have had a soft spot for him. He’s my favorite bad guy.”

And now he’s dying.

There have been time I missed this man so much I wept, despairing if I’d ever see him again. And there have been times I was so furious at him, I wanted to kill him myself.

I have absolutely no words for what’s going through my soul right now. None.


We drove from Chicago without telling anybody we were coming, and surprised them all. (Julian slept a good portion of the trip; the wear and tear of the road is starting to catch up to him.) We stopped in an Oasis over I-294 for souvenirs before departing Chicago, and arrived about 4:30pm. Iowa in August is a hot, humid, horrific place to travel, so we were pretty happy to arrive relatively unscathed.


My Aunt Joanne (Dad’s sister) has been bringing over meals, so she brought extra meat loaf, peas, and noodles tonight for us as well. She was happy to see us, and astonished we’d made the trip, and both she and Dad thought it was an incredible coincidence we were in Chicago when we found out.

Well, I don’t believe in coincidence.

We all talked into the night and exchanged minituae. Dad was tickled to see all the pictures I brought on my computer, and I’m going to go make him copies at Wal-Mart tomorrow. He likes to look at pictures a lot lately.

Wouldn’t you?

More tomorrow, I hope.

~~JD~~