Blogger's Block...

I can't tell you how many times I sat down at the computer this past week with the intentions of composing a post! It's just not happening folks.

I'm in a funk. I was actually looking forward to the extra hours of 'freedom' with the girls back in school but life is not cooperating. I once heard an Irish saying that "An Irishman lives a life of profound pessimism punctuated by occasional moments of extreme joy!" There just might be a little too much truth in that saying these days....

The morning the girls went back to school I got an e-mail I was long expecting but not looking forward to receiving.

 When I took this picture of my Cousin Lou visiting with my Mom at our 2009 family picnic it was with the idea that I wanted memories of my Mom who is 82 and declining in her health. Life is not predictable....six months ago we found out that Lou had been diagnosed with the same incurable brain cancer that took the life of Ted Kennedy...and now it had taken Lou. In a mad scramble I made arrangements for Patrick and the girls to handle their newly begun school day schedule without me and I hopped in the car with my sister-in-law and made the long lonely trip out the Indiana-Ohio Turnpike to Pittsburgh for her wake and funeral. Still in the grasp of my own mortality 'crisis', I'm finding it hard to climb back into the world of the young and carefree.

Now do not in any way think that I'm so 'depressed' as to have concerns! Those who know me in person know that I'm one of those Irishmen who's moments of extreme joy come more frequently than not and I will be back in the swing sooner than later. It's a balance act and right now I've had a series of events that have just knocked the pendulum toward the downer side of things but the pendulum does swing back....and the girls and their cousins make sure of that!

Even as I was recovering from my road trip we headed off to my sister's house....

with these silly guys to help....

Deirdre eat her magnificent Mad Hatter birthday cake!!!

I even watched as Julia joined with some of Deirdre's friends to have a Mad Hat Tea Party!

So right now while I see poor old Belle curled up soaking up the sun as she let's her 15 year old body rest instead of jumping on the table for a lick of cake.......

I will soon be back seeing the silly cousins loving every moment they spend together!!

 And how can I be so confident that I will ride that swing back towards joy? Just two words.....

 

my girls!