Memories of Margaret

Friday, May 28
Twelve days of rest, off trail from the Four Corners Loop was worth remembering 45 years of life my mother gave me. An amazing 19 years of my life was spent with my mother Margaret. She gave birth to me, a kid with a very large head so I was a struggle from the beginning. She reminded me I was a pain in the butt but then said I turned out all right. This is due to her values she instilled in me, values that range from hard work, to telling the truth, to loving, to appreciating others, to good communication and my favorite of all how to make a good graph chart and tabulation of data. I remember she always had a ruler and a pencil making custom tables for her to put information into. This continued up until her passing away. This past 12 days I was looking around the house she had a list of information everywhere she even had a daily list taped to the bathroom mirror reminding her of when to take a shower went to wash her hair and then went to take a shower and then went to wash her hair. It gave me a smile my organizational structure that I have within me, I definitely got from my mother.


She did not stifle my freedom to roam. Allowing me the freedom to roam Denver on my bicycle, exploring every bike path. This allowed me to not to have a fear of the unknown but instead to have a drive or just a longing for what was not known. This is what allows me today to walk into the desert with very little knowledge of what lies ahead. So, the freedom she gave me allowed me to grow into the explore I am today. Thank you mom for this freedom.


Gardening: People who visit our house say to me wow you have a green thumb. I’m going to thank my mom for this also. She was an expert gardener when we were young, growing everything from giant carrots to giant pumpkins, the whole time allowing me to play in the dirt like a child should. She even allowed me to dig what I might embellish as a 15 foot deep hole out by the railroad tracks. There was no fear of lawsuits but when my dad came home from his weekly travels selling slaughter machines, he worried that somebody would fall in this hole and sue, so he made me fill my hole with yard debris. So you may have seen in the past year how I dug a 5 foot deep hole/trench to bury The power cable from my garage to my house. I think people wonder why I did not hire this labor intensive job out. The reason why I dug this massive trench this past year at home, was because it reminded me of digging holes in the ground when I was a child and this reminded me of my mom and the freedom she gave me to dig. Washington Trails Association gave me the nickname “The Mole”. Thank you mom for giving me the freedom to dig.


Spelling: If you have read this, you may have come across an incorrect spelling of a word or maybe even some bad punctuation. My mom gave me the freedom to spell as i chose, and the freedom to punctuate as I wanted to. A story she tells when I would say “ mom you are not my teacher”. I was a very resistant boy who did not want mom instructing me. In fact you’ve probably told me something and maybe I was resistant to it, so I thank my mom for giving me the freedom to spell as I choose, to punctuate as I choose, to do as I choose. I hope you’re laughing about this. I don’t think I was an easy kid to raise and I am the way I am because my mom just kind of gave up on me in a loving way because I think she knew everything would work out. Thank you mom for the freedom of bad spelling. (Note - I am making efforts to actually try to approve my bad spelling habits.)


With my mom‘s passing I cannot conjure up a memory of anything negative. Yes myself and my sister did get grounded for nine months for leaving a message on somebody’s answering machine asking them to pose for Playboy when we were like 10 years old. This memory today actually makes me laugh, I think it’s funny how we received “friends visiting hours” after six months. To embellish on the story more, because I forgot the details, this past week my sister reminded me, it was me who asked her to leave the message on the answering machine because I was mad at a friend. So it was my sister who left a message requesting somebody’s mom pose for Playboy. I did not remember this and I looked at my sister and said Kelli I’m sorry and apologized to her. She excepted my apology. I will always remember my nine month grounding from my mother in a good positive way.


Margaret was an excellent mother she did everything one has to do to raise two awesome kids. She was an excellent seamstress the amount of an amazing Halloween costumes she custom sewed for Kelli and I was out of this world. One year I was the Michelin Man for Halloween, people that know me know I never get cold and I just don’t need to put on extra clothing to keep warm. Can you imagine me as the Michelin Man with about 6 to 8 inches of tubular white stuffing surrounding my entire body. I have never sweated so much in my life. On Halloween it rained and this thick layer of stark white polyester tubing surrounding every inch of my torso, my legs and my arms absorbed the rain and I was dripping in heavy wetness and yes I was warm. I was also expected to carry a black tire with me all day long. The stuffing in the polyester tubes was so dense I remember I can barely sit in my tiny chair at school.


I got so much from my mom, I could go on and on with story after story. I will now stop here with my beautiful view of the red rocks, I will kick back relax at the café, and look at the view with a crying smile because right now I feel my mom is omnipresent within everything around me and I choose to relish this moment and this feeling I am having with her.


The Animal