The Dark side Chapter 2

It is Sunday December 19, 2010 and we just got home from our second sacrament meeting of the day. We first went to Karen’s (Colleen’s older sister) Roy 11th ward meeting to hear Karen in the ward choir. What a wonderful treat that was, they have an awesome ward choir. We made it home just in time to get Colleen’s medicine and needs done and head for our meeting. We made it to the final song, and then had to leave quickly to get Colleen home to her cough assist machine. That along with the suction machine and we were ready to finally give her morning feeding. It is hard to get everything done when you have time lines to meet, and try as we might, no one will hold up a meeting for us to get there. Yesterday we had our family over for a Christmas party. We did it this weekend as Danny had his girls for the weekend and that way all could be there. It went well, and when it was over Danny and Scott and some friends went up to the base and bowled in Casino night. We used to go and bowl with them occasionally but not for a while now. Well back to our story, where did I leave off?
I believe that I stated that Colleen could hit the softball a country mile, which was no exaggeration. We played a lot of Co-ed softball over the years, and back in those days, they did not have the 150 foot line that outfielders could not come in front of when a lady is at bat. This played well into Colleen’s game, as the outfielders would move in to just behind the infielders when she came up, and she would promptly ask them to show her their backsides as they chased the ball out to the fence when she hit it over their heads. She said that she learned how to hit the ball so hard by hitting a tire with a bat in her backyard. Glad that tire could bounce back because if she hit me, I don’t think I would bounce, except maybe off the cement as I hit it. We played ball together for many years and I well remember one game where our team was down by 20 runs and came back to win the game and fielders turning tail and running to get to a ball that Colleen hit to the fence during our wild rally to catch up and go on to win.
Colleen also loves the outdoors and our most favorite place to go is to Flaming Gorge. We visited our favorite place as often as we could, and our kids have grown up knowing how to run a river. We have owned rafts since we were married 2 years. Prior to that time, I used my dad’s raft. The Green river below the dam, is not a major river for rapids, but if the water is up high, it can give you some really good rides. Unfortunately it is not that high very often, but we have found that if you venture over there in early June that it normally is as high as it will be for the summer. I have been going to Flaming Gorge since I was about 8 years old. I fell in love with the place then and have maintained that love affair ever since. Thank goodness I found someone who loved it as much as I did. Back in the days when I went to the gorge with my family (before I married), I remember that Greendale was dad’s favorite campground, but we would camp in any campground that was available, and the memories I have of Greendale are fond, but foul. (Referring to the outhouse) Dad used to call it the duck house, because it was so fowl. The only reason for bringing that campground up is that Colleen’s family had bought a membership to Camperworld, which had a private campground at the gorge, right behind Greendale, and we have been camping there ever since. We have added our own family membership so that we can get additional camping spots as we always seem to take a crowd over there with us. From rafting, boating, fishing hiking, geo-caching and just relaxing, that is one of my favorite spots to be in the outdoors. If you are not familiar with the phrase geo-caching, and wonder what in the world that is all about, you can go to geocaching.com and learn all about it. My son Scott introduced it to me in 2005, and I have been a fan ever since. Not that I am breaking any world records in caching, but when the opportunity presents itself, I definitely make the most of the chance, and log a few caches. As of this writing, I am sitting at 503 caches, but have also hidden 14. I like to place the larger caches out for younger kids to have the opportunity to learn and enjoy geo-caching. Our user name is BrandCo (can you figure out where that came from?) and in our family we have the following cachers, Scottypiper, Frog Lover, The Dancin K’s, The Snooper, The Quiz's, Guatamelon, and Kelsyboowho. We started our oldest granddaughters (The dancing K’s) geo-caching on New years day 2006 at about 12:15 AM. We decided that we wanted to quickly get out first cache of the year, and it happened that it was a cache that had plenty of items for the granddaughters to trade so we had them hooked immediately. We have done some crazy things in geo-caching, but had some great times. Scott and I did a 24 hour cache where we wnet down around Payson to Orem area to see how many caches we could find in one day. We logged 86 (I think) but that was in about 22 hours minus time for eating and other necessities. There is a reflector cache over at the gorge that you have to do at night, you hunt for reflectors in the night. We have been to that cache about 4 times over the years as we always wind up with someone new who has not been there before. This is by East Park lake, and it it so far removed from the main areas that the peace and silence you hear when out there is unbelievable. And stars, you can see so many stars out there it is hard to imagine. One time after going to that cache, we decided to do another one that was ab out a mile away, and while retrieving that one thought we were in the middle of a den of coyotes. There were so many coyote pups howling you could not hear yourself think. We also have placed some caches, including a reflector cache , at the gorge, our second home. We were actually looking for a possible place to buy over there, but the right opportunity has never came up. The last two years that we have been there, Colleen has been in her wheelchair, so our plans have been adapted to the times. Where we used to river run, swim, fish and hike, we have added going out on the lake on a pontoon boat that we can get Colleen on in her wheelchair. Of course we have done some geo-caching of caches that are only available by boat while we were out, what kind of cachers do you take us for??? More to come in my next installment.

A Note from the Dark Side

You may be wondering what this title means................
It means the other side of this couple, yep me.... The hubby.

I don't know exactly what I should be talking about, but it is time that I added my 2 cents worth to this blog.

Colleen is still able to function very well considering how much she has lost the ability to use her limbs. Her legs have been gone for over a year now, that is not saying that she didn't lose some of them before, it's just when she could no longer operate independently using the walker when needed. She has been fully dependent on someone else moving her for the last 13 + months now. She has shown great courage and a beautiful spirit as she has struggled with her ALS. She always has kept smiling and brightening up everyone's spirits. Imagine that.. The one who has the most to worry and complain about is the one who lights up our lives and lifts our spirits. All of the posts that she has been making has been done at a great effort on her part. She has maybe 20% of her left hand and arm left and that is it. She has had to do everything with an on-screen keyboard from her Dynavox voice computer.

Some people may not know our whole story so I will give you the first small installment here, and tell you how we met.
In 1974, I was working at Utility Trailer in Clearfield's Freeport Center. My older brother, Jerry, also worked there. He approached me in late April one day, at lunchtime, to ask what I was doing after work. I was 19 at the time and had been working there since January of that year. I told him I had no specific plans, so he asked me if I would come and help him coach his ladies softball team (ASA fast pitch for Clinton City), as his assistant coaches were out of town at the time. I told him I would and went to Clinton Elementary school ball field with him, and started something new. I was a softball umpire and basketball referee, doing mostly church games, but had not coached softball before. There was a particularly pretty girl there, who caught my eye immediately, and of course, I had to tease her throughout the whole practice. After we finished for the evening I went home and did whatever for the rest of the night. At work the next day, I hunted my brother down to ask him who the girl was. When I described her, he kind of laughed and said her name was Colleen Fisher, and we had nothing in common..............
Obviously we did find something in common, and have been together 36 1/2 years (yesterday), since our first date. She was only a Junior at Clearfield High when we met, but neither of us dated anyone else since that first date on May 18th 1974, at Ye Lion's Den in South Ogden.
Colleen was a very very very very very good softball player, and we played Co-Ed softball together for many years, playing in many State tournaments. The year we were married, 1975, Colleen was only 18, and as such could play in the 18 and under league for ASA. The coaches of the Sunset City team, Clinton City team and Layton, put all their 18 and under girls together, entered them into the State ASA tournament, which of course they won, and she got to travel to the nationals that were held in Binghamton, New York. They did not win, but they had a great time, and she was the only married member of the team. She could hit the ball a country mile and put the ball out of a men's field in a tournament in Moab, Utah in 1975.

Well, I won't go into a lot more at this time, but needless to say, she was quite the athlete and raised her kids to be pretty good athletes also.