My Aunt Joyce passed away last week and I just thought I should mention it here.  She was a dear lady who had been in poor health for quite some time.  I remember her as a gentle woman, full of grace and humor.  She had a charming smile and a mischievous glint in her eyes.  Here's the obituary that they ran for her in the papers.

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February 20, 2009

Joyce M. Hiday, 81

Joyce M. Hiday, 81, of West Lafayette, died at 1:10 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009, at Heritage Healthcare in West Lafayette.

Born in Harlan on June 22, 1927, she had lived in West Lafayette since 1936. She attended Morton Elementary School, West Lafayette Junior High School and graduated from West Lafayette High School in 1945.

She was married briefly in the late '40s and early '50s.

Mrs. Hiday worked at Purdue University for 40 years, first in the chemistry department (1952-1959), and then in the forestry department (1959-1992). She had also worked at Lafayette Life Insurance Company and Indiana Associated Telephone Company in the revenue accounting department.

Her memberships included Federated Church in West Lafayette, Home Hospital Auxiliary, and the Business and Professional Women's Club. She volunteered at Home Hospital and Lafayette Adult Resource Academy.

She enjoyed gardening, counted cross stitch, biking, reading, traveling and playing bridge.

Surviving are her son, Michael E. Hiday of West Lafayette; three brothers, Keith Amstutz (wife: Helen) of West Lafayette, and Robert Amstutz (wife: Norma Jean) and Vaughn Amstutz (wife: Marie), both of Lafayette; and a sister, Elizabeth Greenwald of West Lafayette.

Also surviving are numerous nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews.

Memorial service is 1:30 p.m. Monday at Federated Church, 2400 Sycamore Lane, WL. Interment Tippecanoe Memory Gardens, WL. Soller-Baker Funeral Home in charge of arrangements, leave condolences at www.soller-baker.com

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I'll never forget her.

-B-

P.S. Stay tuned for some happier news... (Hi Auden!)

The other day I was waiting for something and to kill time I decided to play a little Solitaire on my SmartPhone (as I sometimes do when I'm stuck somewhere with nothing else to do).  I play Vegas rules so after three passes thru the deck you're done, and I had reached the end of my third pass and it looked pretty bleak.  But then, just as I was about to give up, concede the loss and click "New Game" to deal again, I saw a tricky move I could make.  Pulled this card to here, moved that card to there, ooh, that opened up a column...pretty soon cards are moving all over the place and whaddya know....I won.

What does this have to do with life?

In late December things looked pretty bleak for me in my personal life.  Without going into details (those of you who need to know, already do) I had come to realize that certain things I'd been wanting to happen in my life just never would and maybe it was time for me to give up and resign myself to the loss.  It was a dark time and I didn't see much hope for light. But then around New Years I decided, hey...what if I tried this and that and the other?  And one of those things was taking the step of inviting to lunch a young woman I'd been corresponding with since August.  She said "Yes" and suddenly things are looking a heck of a lot brighter and more hopeful...

Well, whaddya know, after several lunches and dinners and movies....I won.

And the lesson?

I'm going to spare you the "You'll find love when you least expect it" platitudes.  I think that's usually just something people say to try and make lonely people feel better.  (No offense to the many of you who have been saying it to me for far-too-many months.)  I've never walked into a room and said "Golly, I think I'm going to find love in here!"

No, what I learned is that, in the words of Yogi Berra, "It ain't over 'til it's over."  Before you throw in the towel and resign yourself to just being alone and sad, take a step back, take another look, and make sure you aren't missing something.  So things may not go the way you planned.  Maybe that job or that house or that person that you thought was going to be your future isn't going to work out after all and you may well and rightfully be pretty sad about that.  But...maybe there's something (or someone) else that you hadn't really considered before.

In my case life isn't going to go the way I hoped it might.  But guess what...something new and unexpected happened and it's wonderful and exciting.

I won. (And I hope she did too!)

-B-

A few random ramblings to catch up...

• The eHarmony and Match.com folks are awfully persistent.  They're STILL sending me e-mails, even though my accounts at both were canceled in mid-January now that I'm happily in a relationship.  I'll have to check to make sure they aren't still charging my credit cards.
• While hanging out at Barnes & Noble on Sunday I read "Little Known Facts About Disneyland" which was pretty neat.  Among the facts cited:
• The guy who has done the voice of Mickey Mouse for about the last 25 years and the woman who has done the voice of Minnie Mouse for roughly the same amount of time...are husband and wife in real life too.
• The woman who played the part of Tinkerbelle at the beginning of the fireworks show and slid down the wire high above the park for the very first show...was 71 years old at the time.
• There are two food items that are not sold within Disneyland: Alcohol and gum.  Walt Disney hated stepping on gum in amusement parks so while you can bring your own gum into the park, they won't sell you any inside.  Alcohol is officially not sold; though it actually is sold inside Club 33 (the private club located quietly above Pirates of the Carribean.
• Pirates of the Carribean is the most visited ride in the park.
• From 1995-2000 the Disney employee manual forbade male employees from having facial hair.  That means that Walt Disney, who sported a moustache, would not have been allowed to work at his own park.
• Disneyland is located within the city of Anaheim.  There are more officers in the Disney security force (most of them plain-clothes) than there are in the Anaheim Police Department.

Races and Running-type Stuff

My training for Kona Half-Ironman is officially underway.  Did a long swim yesterday in which I covered the full distance of the race (1.2 miles) and did so in well under the cut-off time. (Yes, that was a concern for me).  The fact that I can do that already, when I still have 12 weeks+ of training to do is very encouraging.  That was an ocean swim; I'll be in the pool tomorrow for some drills after weight-lifting.

Today I took Keira (that's what I've named my bike) out for a quick ride.

Good thing I've resumed training in earnest because today I registered for THREE more races this season:

• The Waterfront Triathlon (formerly Iroquois Point Triathlon).  It's a USAT-sanctioned sprint-distance race that will be a nice tune-up before Kona.  Plus it's almost shouting distance from my house so I sort of have to do it.  (Seriously.  It's about a 5 minute drive from my front door.)
• Haleiwa Metric Century Ride.  O.k., technically this is a ride and not a race; but the 62 mile ride along the North Shore should be another good tune-up before Kona.
• Chicago Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon.  It's August 2nd and I'll be in Chicago anyhow to speak at the ABA conference the day before.  It's a month after Seattle Marathon and a month before Kauai...but heck, it's only a half and should be fun.

So now I have Haleiwa Metric Century Ride on April 26th, Kona Half-Ironman on May 30th, Seattle Rock-n-Roll Marathon on June 27th, Chicago Rock-n-Roll Half-Marathon on August 2nd and (probably) Kauai Marathon on September 6th.  Wow.

O.K., back to work...

-B-