Pics From Home

I didn't have my fancy camera with me, but I still managed to take some decent pictures with my cell phone. I was born in Malad City, Idaho, and lived there the first 18 years of my life. It is a beautiful mountain valley located in the south eastern corner of the great state of Idaho. I grew up on a 700-acre ranch where we raised alfalfa and wheat and ran 300 head of cattle. This is a view of the valley:

Here is a picture from the front deck of my parents' house. You can see the log cabin where my great-grandfather was born. And way off in the distance you can see the highest mountain in the valley, Oxford Mountain. My family is a true cowboy family. Each year in early summer, our cowboy friends from around the state would join us on an old-fashioned cattle drive. On horseback, we would drive our 300 head of cattle from the base of Oxford mountain to an upper valley, where they would graze until the end of summer.

This is a view of the yard and corrals at my parents' ranch. You can see one of my mom's ubiquitous flower beds and also the John Deere swather. I used to spend 10 hours a day on one of these swathers cutting down the hay. I always felt so out of place running these huge pieces of machinery. Just imagine me plowing the field from sunup to sundown all the while listening to Broadway show-tunes, which would have me crying my eyes out!

The front side of my parents' house:

This is a view of the meadow. Beneath that tree is a small swimming hole that I used to spend hours and hours in.

More Pics From Home

The Wasatch Mountains run along the eastern side of Salt Lake City, Utah, and they are the western foothills of the great Rocky Mountains. This is the view from the 8th floor of my dad's hospital in Salt Lake City:

My mother's lawn and yard is HUGE! She has a row of lilacs that is at least 70 feet long. Plus she has flowers everywhere:

The first week I was home it was impossibly sunny, and the thermometer pushed 90 degrees. But the last two weeks were filled with big, LOUD, wet thunderstorms. Most of the time midday looked like this:

But...when the rain cleared we were left with beautiful sunsets. This is the view from the backyard of my parents' ranch:

I made it back to Nantucket

I am back on Nantucket exactly 3 weeks from the day I left, and I want to thank each and every one of you for your kind thoughts, your text messages, and your prayers. They definitely helped. My dad is not completely better, but he is better than before.

When Shay, my sister-in-law (usually a pillar of strength and not one you would want to cross...!), called 3 weeks ago, I could hear her shaking over the phone and I knew I had to go. My dad has been diabetic for over 2 decades, had congestive heart failure several years ago, and has been on dialysis thanks to kidney failure for the last 18 months. His heart normally functions at around 67% capacity ejection fraction....for those of you who don't know, 0% means you're dead and 100% means you're a miracle....and it was at 31% when I got there. He was so weak that the muscles used to swallow food had stopped functioning and we were forced to put him on a feeding tube. He was also incoherent some of the time. Talking to people that were not there and not even recognizing me some of the time. The doctors ran every test they could think of, but were not able to discover the reason for his sudden and rapid decline in health. They adjusted his medication and by the end of the first week, Dad was feeling better. He was even joking with the nurses. For instance:

Nurse, "Tom, you're looking better today."

Dad, "I ain't never gonna look too good."

Nurse, laughing, "Well, you look better than you did yesterday!"

And he did look better. So he was released from the hospital and I became his 24/7 nurse. He was embarrassed at first, but I was happy to do it. He took great care of me as a kid and I told him so. Each day he got better. I made sure he took his medicine, ate his food, hooked up his dialysis machine each night, and got some physical therapy each day (which usually consisted of walking across the yard, hopping in the pickup, and going for a long drive).

Unfortunately, he started getting nauseous by Sunday and after throwing up all night long, we ended up back in the hospital exactly one week later. Well, I spent another week in the hospital and he improved again. He is still in the hospital as I write this, but only because the doctor wants to make absolutely certain he won't be getting nauseous again. He'll be out by the end of the week.

It was nice to be able to go home and help out so much. I have two amazing parents. I was shocked at the number of phone calls, and visitors Dad received. He is a longtime AA member and has sponsored more people than I can remember. So many of those people called to lend their support and to tell me that he saved their life. How cool is that?!? It makes me proud to be his son.

I do wish he was better than he is and I feel guilty about coming back here to Nantucket. But my mom and brother said it was time for me to go, that I was a Godsend. I don't know about that. I'm real happy to be back with Michael again and we do really need to make as much money as we can this summer...but I'm ready to fly back at a moment's notice.

Thank you so much for all your kind thoughts. You really helped me through this.

-Ernest