A Good Title Eludes Me

Today you're getting four for the price of one. Happy/sad stew, if you will:

My mother is hard to look at right now. She found out a bit ago that she has pre-cancerous cells growing on her face and is currently at the tail end of a round of topical chemotherapy. It's like getting a chemical peel everyday for two weeks. She can't go out in the sun. She's not even 50 yet and today, as we were sitting in the shade planning for our camping trip next weekend, I stared at the varying degrees of skin erosion and thought non-stop about how much this needs to work so she doesn't have to go through it for nothing. Because, if she's just going to have to go through intravenous chemo, couldn't she have done it with every layer of her beautiful face intact?

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I've taken up golfing and am horrible at it. I'd be even worse if we didn't play with special rules. When we want to use a special rule, we must say "I invoke-" and then:

"-the 5 foot rule!" If the ball lands anywhere between 5 and 15 feet of where we were standing when we swung at it, it doesn't count as a stroke.

"-the throw me another ball rule!" If our drive blows when we tee off, we can go again (up to 2 additional drives!) and not count it.

"-the mud puddle rule!" If it rained at some point and the course is damp, it will likely have puddles somewhere. If the ball lands in a puddle big enough to make a splash, as it would in a pond, we can remove the ball from the puddle and drop it, like we would if it landed in a pond.

"-the I should've got that in rule!" If that ball is only 3 inches from the hole and I still don't make it, I'm counting it as in. Period.

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Today I said goodbye to my brother, his wife, and my nephews. They're leaving to make a new life in Tennessee. I know that's what people do, but it is so hard to see him go. No one in my family has ever left before.

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Thursday I say hello to Grau Geist and Friday to Delilah. Yay for MyFriends and real-life meet-ups!