"Sometimes we get so caught up in our troubles and our problems and we let life sort of slip away and life is precious. One must try to take in as much of it as possible."

I heard that tonight while feeling down and sorry for myself. It resonated with me and I wrote it down right away. That first part kind of encapsulated my life for a while. I'd been caught up in my troubles and problems. Not so much anymore.

When Hannah was sick, we did try to keep a relatively normal life. We still did things that families did. We went shopping, we went out for dinner, we visited family and friends and tried as much as we could to not let our situation overtake our lives completely. It was hard at times and got harder as Hannah's health deteriorated. After Hannah passed away it was the same. We still tried to be a family that didn't cut ourselves off.

After Kathie was diagnosed, it was even harder to do but we managed to keep some things 'normal'. Between stays in hospital and treatment it was hard to take in as much as we could.

After Kathie passed away, I got caught up in my troubles and problems. I was letting life slip away. Lately I've been trying to change that in different ways.

There may be things I try to do or words I try to say that may or may not work out.  There is a good chance of getting it wrong and hurting someone I care about or myself or both. But I think I'm getting to (or maybe am at) that point where I need to do or say those things. Some will be easier and some harder. Sometimes you just have to do or say those things. And sometimes things happen without you meaning them to and you have to go with it and deal with it as best you can.

One of those easier things is something that I've always wanted to do and that Kathie said that I should. In July I'm off to San Diego to spend four days at Comic-Con. For the uninformed Comic-Con is a huge (125,000+ attendees) convention about popular entertainment. Comics, Movies, TV shows, Toys, video games and more are what it's all about. So if anyone wants to join me, let me know.

The harder things will be just that - hard. Some have come and gone, others are yet to come.

Anyway, it's getting late and my thoughts are getting to deep to really put into words. And for that matter really put together coherently in my mind. So I'll end it there.

Tore