Intermission

040511:  Fishing boats waiting for fishermen.  Seagulls waiting for fish remains from fishermen.

A Lifetime of Learning

040411:  You may start out reading this post and think, "What does this have to do with Topaz?"  Bear with me, because it has everything to do with Topaz...  And if you haven't read this post first, this one won't make much sense.

I'm a private person.  You may not have surmised that fact since I write a blog where post photos and tell silly stories, and I run a very public business.  But there are very few people that really know me on a personal level.  Why is that you might wonder?  Well, it really doesn't matter because I am who I am and, more importantly, I am okay with me.  However, we found out something recently that has gotten me so twisted and turned inside out that I hardly know me lately.  In continuation from my previous post, we found out that Tony Ennis has cancer. (Insert sound of bomb dropping here...)   It's been really sudden and really devastating for Tony, his family, well.... everyone. 

Wait, you know what?  I'm not going to be nicey, nicey about this, because cancer is not nice to anyone so why should I be nice about it?  CANCER SUCKS!  That's a rather juvenile approach, I know, but I don't care because it's the truth and I can't put it any more succinctly.  There is nothing good about this insipid, horrible disease.  It nearly ripped my own family to shreds twice when my own mother was fighting against it.  And were it not for the glue we call "Dad" and the incredible well-of-patience that is he, I don't know what would have happened to our family.  Don't get me wrong, we all pulled together during her treatment, but the after affects since her treatment have been just as difficult to live through, too.  And time after time my dad has shown that he wears a big ol' teddy bear suit but underneath he has tiger blood running through his veins!  (Charlie Whats-His-Name is nothing compared to my dad.) 

Okay, enough of that... When we heard about Tony a ton of emotions came flooding forward for me....  the past.  The Past.  THE PAST.  Now Tony?  Not Tony!!!  Why Tony?!?  And why am I feeling this way now?  I've known too many people to count that have had cancer.  So why is Tony's diagnosis affecting me so deeply?  I walked around like a zombie for days and days trying to process my emotions so I could get a grip on what was happening and then one night I had a dream about literally fighting cancer.  Literally.. like in a boxing ring.  It was Team Cancer vs. Tony and his team.  And I woke up saying the words,  "Team Tony."  And then I started to understand.  I was beginning to answer some of my questions.  And from there an idea grew.  And then I really started to think....

...to be continued...

It's a Sign...

040211:  In late 1962 my dad, who had joined the Los Angeles Fire Department earlier that year, cut his big toe off.  Well, if truth be told, my mom did it.  But not maliciously!  It was an accident!  She accidently ran over him with their boat in a lake after he fell waterskiing.  (Does anyone remember what waterskiing is?  I will have to write about that one day...)  Shoot, I'm not really making my mom sound too good here, but the point of this story is about life changing events.  You see, having just joined the fire department my dad was considered a "rookie" and all rookies are on "probation" for their first year.  Now, my dad's toe is okay, but back then it was touch and go.  He knew that if he lost his toe he would lose his job on the LAFD. 

AND (this is where is gets interesting...) if he had lost his toe and, thereby, his job in 1962, he never ever would have met Tony Ennis who was also on the LAFD.  And if he never met Tony Ennis, whose in-laws were building a little trailer park on a lake named Topaz, we never would have started coming to that little trailer park in 1967.  And I wouldn't be where I am and who I am today.

In the past, we have laughed about how, if Dad had actually lost his toe, it would have changed our lives.  However, I've known all along that my life and what it is today is not because of an almost-lost-toe but because of my dad meeting a man named Tony.  That is the actual, seemingly ordinary, event that changed my life.

Now, of course, I realize that events in our lives are all intertwined and who is to say who, where and how caused what!  But, I'm telling you confidently that if my dad had not met Tony our families would have never become friends.  We would have never come to Topaz.  My parents would have never bought the little trailer park years later when Tony's father-in-law passed away.  I would have never moved up here to finish school and start my career.  I would have never met my hubby through my career.  And we wouldn't have bought the this little trailer park from my parents 11 years ago.  It's as simple as that.

You see, I've had the opportunity over the last eleven years to tell this story often because I've been asked many times in some form or another, "How did you end up owning an RV Park?"  Well, now you know.

Can you trace the pivotal points in your life?  Sometimes "things" that seem so ordinary and normal can impact your family and future in ways that you would have never imagined.  Think about it and you just might be surprised.

....to be continued....