Back from Arizona.

It has been a rough and rotten trip. My aunt was elderly, mid eighties to be exact. She had alzheimers, as well. She was a lively woman, fun to be arround, full of joy and spirit. While I know her daughter and family miss and mourn her, I want to celebrate her life, so she is not the object of this post.
My brother rented a car for the trip. It seemed smart, why wear on one of our vehicles for this?
We started out from homedown I35 to Wichita. On the way we encountered a healthy storm with plenty of hail rain and lightening. No problem, we've driven in worse.
just south of the Oklahoma state line we stopped for fuel and discoveredwe had a tire going flat. After airing it, we proceeded with caution. We didn't get a repair because we were lucky to find a comrpessor in that town. As we neared Oklahoma City, it became painfully clear the tire was going to be a serius problem so we spent the night in a motel. we got in arround 3 a.m. Rising as usual at 6 a.m. we grabbed a healthy breakfast, what else would they serve in the midwest, then headed for Walmart for the tire repair. In all we lost 4 1/2 hours in OKC, no big deal, but now we would have all day driving in the sun.
We approaqched Payson AZ around 8 p.m. 25 miles out of town we encounters a vehicle stopped beside the road. The couple in it had hit an elk. We gave them a lift into town so they could call the police for help. We ended up delivering them to another suburb of Phoenix. They were wonderful company, great christians and fun.
We were now four more hours behind schedule, but hey, time is no big deal right now.
My aunts funeral was well attended. Since most of her family live in northern areas, the only ones to show were her daugheter and grand children, her brother from the east coast, and us nephews, plus about forty folks from her congregation.
IN the middle of the singing, my phone rang. I had it on vibrate, so no one was disturbed. It was the wife. She said she was jsut checking to see how I was, and when I said it was the middle of the funeral, she said to call back afterward.
When I called back, I learned that she had suffered her seventh stroke. Needless to say, New Mexico will need to repair several hundred miles of scorched interstate 40, as will Oklahoma.
Blogging may be sparse, but I will try to keep everyone informed.
The stroke was a mild one, she did not lose any movement. She is weakened a lot though, and since this one is on the left side, I am doubly scared. her strokes have always come in pairs. I am dreading the falling of the other shoe so to speak.