Home from Arizona
Jan. 6th, 2008 09:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamsharkMy mother is still enjoying life and not in a lot of pain, but she has clearly lost a lot of stamina in the past two months. In early November she was still going on half-mile hikes (albeit more slowly than she used to). Now she rarely has the energy to walk her dog. She has bursts of energy, but then has to compensate by sleeping a lot the next day. All of her 5 children visited her this holiday season, which she clearly enjoyed. But we all knew it would be her last Christmas.
I timed my visit to overlap with my brother Rich, the one that lives in Germany. It was literally the first time we had seen each other in 10 years. I was startled at how much he looks like my Dad now. Funny - my three brothers didn't used to look much alike. But Rich said that when they were all visiting Sedona this year people thought they were triplets. Which is sort of ridiculous, actually. Their ages span 8 years, and Brian is at least 4 inches taller than Dan. But they certainly do look like brothers. It turns out that Rich and I have more in common than I thought, including very similar tastes in music. I definitely enjoyed spending time with him. But we were subtly clashing a little bit, too, being the two Alpha siblings in the brood. I'm the oldest sib, but he's the oldest boy, and both of us have strong personalities.
The weather was not as sunny as I'd hoped for, but we had one very pretty day that we celebrated with an excellent hike up my favorite canyon. This time I scrambled up the huge tumble of rocks at the end of the canyon and was rewarded with one of the most beautiful views I have seen in Sedona (and that's saying something!). Unfortunately, I hadn't thought to bring my camera on the hike, so you'll just have to take my word for it. I took a few pics on my cell phone, but I don't think that camera has the resolution to pick up a view like that. Oh well.
I timed my visit to overlap with my brother Rich, the one that lives in Germany. It was literally the first time we had seen each other in 10 years. I was startled at how much he looks like my Dad now. Funny - my three brothers didn't used to look much alike. But Rich said that when they were all visiting Sedona this year people thought they were triplets. Which is sort of ridiculous, actually. Their ages span 8 years, and Brian is at least 4 inches taller than Dan. But they certainly do look like brothers. It turns out that Rich and I have more in common than I thought, including very similar tastes in music. I definitely enjoyed spending time with him. But we were subtly clashing a little bit, too, being the two Alpha siblings in the brood. I'm the oldest sib, but he's the oldest boy, and both of us have strong personalities.
The weather was not as sunny as I'd hoped for, but we had one very pretty day that we celebrated with an excellent hike up my favorite canyon. This time I scrambled up the huge tumble of rocks at the end of the canyon and was rewarded with one of the most beautiful views I have seen in Sedona (and that's saying something!). Unfortunately, I hadn't thought to bring my camera on the hike, so you'll just have to take my word for it. I took a few pics on my cell phone, but I don't think that camera has the resolution to pick up a view like that. Oh well.
