Posts in category Family and Friends

Tick Tock

Apr21
2009 Rob Written by Rob

Good day yesterday, except for Kristi being sick with (we think) a strong allergic attack that had her knocked out all day. I had a followup dental appointment to check on my progress since having four root planings done in March; my gums seem to be healing up faster than anyone really expected. People started calling back on some of the cold calls I did last week. However, the really good news was finally closing on some real business: our first really solid new client of the year, as well as a really big chunk of work and a major success with a long term client. In one day we went from a worriedly slow April to a banner month. And after the rocky first quarter we’ve had this year, it was far more than welcome.

In other news, this morning we got the clock working again. Click through for photo and story.

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Posted in Everyday Life, House and Yard, Work

Getting Along, Getting By

Apr08
2009 Rob Written by Rob

This week’s Kristi’s spring break, and the first break she’s had since December that hasn’t been thoroughly ruined by threats of imminent doom chucked on her desk as she left work on Friday. It’s been nice. We’ve been sleeping in (at least compared to our customary 6am mad scramble) and tending to normal life. Normality has been a rare commodity around here in recent months.

Over the weekend, the Taylor family gathered at the grandparents’ house to decide what was going to whom. With Virginia’s passing, her husband Bob is moving in with Kristi’s parents; there’s been a lot of furniture and keepsakes and family heirlooms to rehome and relocate. We adopted most of their living room, a grandfather clock, a heavy writing desk, a chest freezer (which we’ve been needing for a long while) and assorted odds and ends. A lot of furniture has been packed and moved around Modesto and surrounding towns in the last few days. I’ll let Kristi tell the rest of that story.

Business has been picking up lately. For a couple months there – January to the beginning of March – things were getting scary out there. The way I describe it is that it’s as though the economy had a heart attack in January, spent all of February in ICU, and is now finally at home, still weak but stable and recovering. It’ll be a long while (maybe a year or more) before we see any recovery in the job market, but I think when all is said and done, they’ll say that this recession hit bottom in January and began recovering in March. But we’ll see. The important thing is that work is still coming in and we’re still seeing leads.

On the feline front, Tuck continues to get better. He’s gained weight and is acting more himself with each passing day. In a few days we need to re-up his meds, pick up some more Baytril.. I seriously doubted whether we’d be buying more drugs for him this time. But he’s still around and he’s getting by and it’s looking more and more like reports of his demise – again – have been greatly exaggerated.

No real storytelling or blog art in this R&K entry; I just wanted to drop in and let folks know what was going on.

Last bit. Heard this morning that Aaron Draper’s in the hospital, admitted to the ER last night with breathing problems. We know he reads this blog from time to time (though probably isn’t reading it at the moment).. dude, in case you are reading this, just know we’re thinking of you and hoping for the best. Get well – your camera’s still calling you!

Posted in Everyday Life

Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on

Mar23
2009 Kristi Written by Kristi

We spent the weekend with my family in Carmel.  It was peaceful, mostly when we were out of the house.  After dropping the zoo off at the kennel and a long drive, it was nice to sit with family and watch basketball.  But the real highlight was walking on Saturday morning.

We drove down to Asilomar and pulled off the road to a long jetty.  From the road, it looked like the rocks ended at a large ice plant covered nesting area with Canadian geese.  We climbed around, looking in tide pools and decided to climb over the rocks, past the nesting area.  The rocks extended out even further and we were totally alone.  The other tourist types hadn’t ventured as far out as we did and we were treated to a lovely display of waves crashing on the rocks.  Several otters swam close by us and the water had this deep blue sapphire gleam.  It was absolutely breathtaking.   We sat for close to an hour, just listening to the crash of the waves on the rocks, the seagulls shrieking nearby and basking in the warm sun.

We both desperately needed the break, the time to go away from everyone and just refresh ourselves.  The last 2 months have been a strain, emotionally, physically, spiritually.  There isn’t an easy way to recover from loss, from death, from all that we’ve been through.  There is only time to ease the pain and for now, there hasn’t been nearly enough time to have perspective or healing.  It will come, just not yet.

Posted in Everyday Life, Travel

The Day After

Mar18
2009 Rob Written by Rob

We’re exhausted. I’m plopped down on the couch with a movie on, trying to get caught up on client work that’s been sitting waiting since late last week. Kristi’s out with her mom and other family members, taking things back to the church and putting things back together and in their proper places.

I think we’re all psychologically spent today, trying to regain some sense of everyday normality with varying degrees of success. I write and watch movies. Kristi putters and cleans and puts things away. We all take refuge in our routines.

As I mentioned in that last R&K post, Virginia passed away on Friday morning. Her initial heart surgery went well, and at first she seemed to be steadily recovering, but over the last month she was forced to fight off a series of successively more dangerous infections. Last week she was discharged from Memorial back to the rehab home, where she picked up a really bad infection that was just too much for her. On Wednesday night we went to visit her after dinner and got there just in time: we weren’t there ten minutes before she was transferred back to the Memorial ER. Kristi rode with her in the ambulance while I gathered her things and followed along in the car. That was a long night.

Thursday was spent by the family gathered at the hospital, as the infection ran riot over the powerful antibiotics being given to Virginia. It was time to make decisions, an afternoon of meetings with doctors and hospice representatives. Finally it was decided that she didn’t want this, didn’t want to be kept alive at all costs; she was a very devout Christian who had fully expected to die during surgery, and she’d been through enough. Virginia was transferred to the hospice house that evening, kept peaceful and comfortable until she passed at 9:30am on Friday morning.

Kristi’s family is big and heavily committed to volunteer service. Even by those high standards, Virginia Taylor exceptionally touched many, many lives, people who gathered at Trinity for her memorial service. The service yesterday was attended by an estimated 400 people. The rest of the family – dozens of people from all over the West Coast – spent the rest of the day gathered at the Taylors’ home remembering Virginia and enjoying each others’ company. The local paper made mention of her passing on its Op-Ed page, commending Virginia for her long service with the Salvation Army and various other volunteer activities in Modesto.

Kristi wrote her obituary. You can read it here.

Rest well, Virginia. You’ve more than earned it, and you will be missed.

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