What's up with Buford?

Well folks it's been awhile since I've had an opportunity to sit down and do some writing. So I was sitting here watching these Country Music Awards and out comes my old buddy Kris Kristofferson, looking better than he has any right to, I think we're the same age? Let me tell you that old boy put just about anything down his gullet in his day. It got me to thinking about why some things happen to some folks and some things never happen to others?

You've heard me talk about Dan who comes by and checks on me now and then. About 3 weeks ago, Wendell was doing his motor paper route so Dan was doing some double duty, he said he'd take me to my hypertension checkup if I had time to ride along to the eye doctor appointement that his wife had. I said that would be fine, I've always enjoyed laughing along with Ms. Stephanie and an eye appointment would surely bring some laughs after they dilated her eyeballs! Fun stuff there.

So, we drop Ms. Stephanie off at the eye doctor, Dan and I head over to Casey's and grab some coffee then head back to the doctor office, sit in the parking lot and enjoy the sunshine & beautiful morning. Pretty soon here comes Ms. Stephanie out the door and she's just about to the car when a nurse comes chasing out after her...soon they're looking pretty serious and heading back inside. Well Dan gets out of the car and heads into the office to see what is up.

I'm waiting in the car and about 10 minutes later here they both come and said "We're heading to the hospital" Stephanie is crying and upset and Dan is driving about 100 miles an hour down the interstate.

We get to the Methodist Hospital in Des Moines and they've got a wheelchair waiting for Ms. Stephanie.. They roll her into the John Stoddard Cancer Clinic. Dan and I sit and wait for what seems to be forever and here they come.. They are checking her into the hospital. She's got something major wrong with her...

We walk about 5 miles down hallways, Stephanie in a wheelchair and they check her into a room.... It was a few hours of doctors, nurses, blood transfusions and the whole mess... About 3 hours later they think it's her spleen, then about 4 hours later they think it's her kidneys, then about 48 hours later after they took about 3 quarts of blood from her, they diagnosed it as Leukemia.

Well Dan and Stephanie are stunned... How did a simple eye appointment turn into a blood cancer? That was the question that both of them asked over and over.

Well where they are at today is Ms. Stephanie had 7 days of Chemo and came through great. She's been in that hospital since October 19th. She needs to get her blood count up to a certain number before she gets to come home. They feel confident that they can knock the lukemia into remission and Ms. Stephanie will come out of it just fine.

Well I've been pretty quiet about it all and offering what support I could. I noticed Ms. Stephanie talked about her experience on her website here I'm sure some of you know her as the ass-kicking Iowa Harley Girl.

Old Buford would appreciate it you could swing by her website and offer up some thoughts, prayers and provide a little inspiration. She celebrated her birthday and their wedding anniversary in the hospital yesterday, on her own, as Dan ended up with the flu and cannot expose her to anything since she has no resistance to any sort of bugs right now.

I've been a little un-inspired lately and haven't been doing much writing as you can imagine. Tonight when I saw my friend Kris Kristofferson walk onstage I thought, if that old outlaw can walk onto a stage after his rough an tumble life, I've no doubt that Ms. Stephanie will be getting back on that Harley as soon as she gets outta that hospital.

So, thanks for reading this. I know you probably expected something a little more thoughtful and insightful but I've found that sometimes you've got to clear the pipes out before you can let things flow freely... I'm just doing some pipe clearing.

Thank you to our Vets and those serving right now. All over this big old dangerous world. You allow us to do whatever we want to do because you are willing to stand in sand! Thank you.

I found this little saying on my friend Jerry's facebook website today, I didn't write it I don't know who did but I thought it was pretty fitting given the situation.


Move . . . dance . . . play . . . sing. As the butterfly moves its wings . . . so must you.

Buford.