#77 - Pearson Metropark - a.k.a. Mosquito Central

My youngest wanted to go on a hike today, so I looked at the list of Metroparks and found that Pearson Park had an intriguing Black Swamp Trail to hike on.  We packed up some snacks and supplies and headed out.   On the trail we were swarmed by  thousands of mosquitoes and walked through as quickly as possible.  I had the adult strength bug spray and got 4 bites, but the kids had the safer, but less concentrated, stuff and got dozens of bites each.  It was not fun, but we felt closer afterwards, as if we'd been through war together.  We enjoyed the indoors, air-conditioned Window on Nature building where we ate our snacks and watched critters enjoying theirs at feeders and a pond outside the windows.  There was a nearby playground that the boys played on for a little while before we headed back.  Maybe we'll be back in the winter to check out the sledding hill, but for now, we've had enough of Mosquito Pearson MetroPark

#3 - Letter to Mark

My brother lost his wife last year to breast cancer at only 31 years old.  While she was his wife and the mother of his 3 kids, she was my sister-in-law and my friend.  Losing her took a big toll on my life and I feel like my family and I are still recovering from it.  Mark is having some changes in his life that are private, but that prompted me to write him.  I've done lots of talking about Melinda's death to my wife, my other family, my friends, my colleagues, my patients - I even started a blog about it to share some of the joy that Melinda brought to all of us that knew her.  Who I hadn't talked to, was Mark.  Because of how busy work had gotten, we hadn't seen him since the funeral.  We had talked on the phone about the kids and how he was holding up and things we had done recently and upcoming plans, but we hadn't talked about my feelings about Melinda.  I figured he had his own cross to bear in this regard, so why should I burden him with mine.  After breaking down during a radio program about cancer victims, I decided I needed to write him.  I'm so glad that I did. We both got a new perspective on where we were, and I believe we grew even closer.  Now it will be important to keep that communication up.