December 13 Bonus Blog, 2006
With the funerals I have attended in the past month I have been feeling somewhat agitated about our mortality. I started making a concerted effort the last two weeks to contact the people I love and tell them just that. My father’s older sister, Doris (Bell) Jones, 85, is in an assisted living facility in Osage, Iowa and when Minnesota Mike and I drove through there several years ago I stopped and brought her some flowers. Her son Michael and I were always pretty close (we made 8mm movies together on Grandpa Bell's farm, most famously, at least in family circles: "The V2 Rocket Farm."). Recently Mike forwarded me a joke and I sent back an Email asking about his mother and for him to send me his mother’s Email address at the Lutheran Home. He did and I sent my Aunt Doris the following Email last week:

Dear Aunt Doris,
Mike contacted me this week and we are going to try and get together over Christmas out here in Arizona. It was fun hearing from him.

He tells me you are as sharp as ever and that doesn't surprise me. Hope you have a nice Christmas season. Our family is going to Mexico from Dec. 16 thru the 23rd. Our kids are bi-lingual and we all love Mexico. We're taking the train from Chihuahua up to Divisidero and Copper Canyon then down the Pacific slope to Los Mochis and the Gulf of California.
—Robert

On Monday I received this Email from Mike:

“Bob, my mom died last night. She received your recent e-mail, which we discussed about 2 hours before she died. She finished her Christmas cards, and went to bed. She was dead about 20 minutes later. The funeral is Thursday 11 am. I am trying to get in touch with Glen and Claudia."
—Mike Richards

Let's see, who else do I need to contact, and more importantly, who should you be contacting?

“Life is a short ride, so don’t dilly on the dally.”
—Old Vaquero Saying