Bobby, I am soooo glad you have those grandbabies around!  Alex talked to
his Grandma Cleveland in Fla. yesterday and barely knew who she was.  You're
building some wonderful memories for those kids!

Doesn't Saturn have some kind of free roadside assistance?  I can't imagine
anyone doing that for you here.  Even the cops look the other way half the
time!

Had a couple of great talks with Adrienne on the way back.  The first one
was late, late Saturday night, and because the hotel bed was so hard I had
to sleep on my back.  Adrienne was sleeping in the other room and I could
hear her yelling, "Dad! Dad!  Wake up! Dad!"   I got up in a panic, thinking
something was wrong, but she said, "I've been lying here for hours trying to
sleep, but you're snoring."  So I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep,
when she asked, "What does it feel like to limp without being hurt?"  That
precipitated a one hour conversation on the physiology and psychology of CP
and having CP."  Man, I wanted to go to sleep so bad, but how often do you
get a chance to talk deep with your 19 year-old?

The next day we were talking about her memories of the split between her mom
and me and she blew me away with, "Dad, why did you try to get me to hate my
mom?"  Of course, my initial reaction was to say that I never would have
done that and that I always encouraged her to respect her mom.  Instead, I
took about three seconds to let fifteen years of living zip past and
realized that, while I never overtly said anything bad about her mom, there
had bee lots of subtle signals in that direction.  So, I replied, "I don't
know why I did that.  I guess I thought I was protecting you by trying to
get you to see where your mom was doing damage.  It was wrong and I wish
that I had done things differently.  I wish I could change the past.  I hope
you can extend me some grace on the issue."

She was expecting the "I did no such thing" reaction, so she was speechless
when I pretty much said I had screwed up big time.  I think it will be a
watershed moment in our relationship.

I hope you live long enough, Bobby, to have those kinds of cool talks with
your grandkids.  I know that I was able to talk to my granddaddy about
things I knew would just upset my dad.  There's something really special
about the relationship of grandparents and grandchildren.  Maybe it's
because expectations are not as high on either side.  Anyway, enjoy Gus and
Emma and the rest (can't remember their names right now).

Kyle

-----Original Message-----
From: BG Greer, PhD [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2003 3:02 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: I'm ba-a-a-a-a-ck!!!


       Hmm hmm PA roadkill cafe! I am sorry about the hard trip. A tire went
down on my trip to take my Mom to lunch Saturday. By the time we got to the
access road, the tire was ruined. A Hispanic woman stopped and she said she
lived close by and would go get her husband to put the donut on. Thank God
for friendly Texas folk! We drove to a tire place and got a new tire. Years
ago, I could have changed the tire myself, but not now. I am typing this
while my granddaughter, Emma is bending my ear playing on my old Mac.

Bobby