Thank you

The beginning of a month seems like as good a time as any to start writing again. First, I'd like to thank everyone for the kind, sympathetic words that have been sent my way over the past week. The comments here on the blog, e-mails, and phone calls have all been extremely thoughtful and comforting. I appreciate them more than I can really describe.

This past week has been a blur, as we try to slowly and surely put everything back into place. After my father's memorial service - which was an amazing event, despite the possibly misleading impression such an adjective might imply - Mis Hooz and I drove to Iowa, so I could pick up my stuff and move back to Michigan. (By generously offering to fly in from New York to accompany me for the weekend, Miz Hooz helped me more than she might realize.)

The trip was rather uneventful for the first 150 miles. Then I felt the steering wheel on my moving truck pull to the left. One loud rubbing noise under the truck later, I was pulling off the highway. When the suddenly flat tire hit the grooved pavement on the shoulder, the damn thing just shredded apart. Here's a shot from the Mis Hooz camera phone, apparently given to her by Andy Warhol:

Purple, pretty, yet pulped.

Here's an even better photo. It looks like John Hurt's stomach after the Alien burst out of it. If you get up close, you can smell the burned rubber. I think that odor is still lingering in my nostrils.

I got your holiday weekend right here.

The rest of the weekend was pleasantly normal. We even finally saw that "Star Wars" movie all the kids are raving about. (And I have to say, I was a little disappointed by it. Did my current frame of mind influence my opinion? Oh, I suppose that's a possibility. But I don't think so.)

And I think I'll end on that note for the evening. Again, thank you to everyone who's been checking in on me over the past week. You've made it much easier to cope with this.