Tuesday, 05 October 2010 -- Day 289 (302)

They say horses only go down when they're sick, well this workhorse was down for the day.  I rarely take off from work.....mostly b/c it gets us behind on the material we need to cover, but I just couldn't imagine sitting through 24 speeches today w/ a pounding head.  Being sick, no matter how old we get, makes us long for our mom's, and for just an instant today, I thought how Mom would be able to empathize w/ my cold and achiness.  Then I remembered that I can't tell her how I feel.  So it was encouraging tonight when I talked to Dad to hear him say, "You take care of yourself" just like Mom would've.  I've noticed the last few times I've talked w/ him that he chokes up when we say "good-bye."  Mom used to do that the last year of her life.  Dad said she would be so sad after talking to us kids on the phone, and I can only guess the reason.  There were times when I thought about not calling her b/c it would just leave her sad in the end.  But I knew that not hearing from me would've made her even more sad.  I guess even though she wasn't afraid to die, she was afraid of all that she'd miss in our lives.