I’m going to try to participate in Wednesday Hodgepodge this week where Joyce From This Side of the Pond has weekly questions for us to ponder. That first question was a zinger for me and my elaboration went on and on…

1. When did you most recently need to ‘think fast’? Elaborate.

On Saturday November 5th. At 1:30 in the afternoon Dear (Greg) and I were eating tacos and he spoke up and said, “My left hand doesn’t want to work”. I said, “Are you having a stroke?” I called our son and when we determined he could not walk, a couple minutes later, I called 911 and asked for help. The Fire Chief and paramedics arrived quickly and assessed him and they saw classic stroke signs. While Greg was being cared for by the professionals I made a series of fast texts to our ‘groups’ First letting all our kids know what was happening, then copy and paste to my siblings, copy and paste to Greg’s brother, copy and paste to our close friends copy and paste to our church family prayer chain. Our oldest Josh and dear Laura had just landed in Cancun when they got the news about their dad having a stroke. From the moment of the stroke until we laid our heads on our pillows that night we were thinking fast. Some of these fast thought moments, our son was on duty so he had to call his boss, get to our home, leave his work vehicle there and drive me to the hospital behind the ambulance. Our daughter in law had to call her mom to watch the kids and meet us at the hospital. Our daughter and her husband started to pack to drive to our side of the mountains but the passes were closed so they scrambled to get flights. After Greg’s condition was assessed by a neurosurgeon over a computer screen she made arrangements for him to be admitted to Sacred Heart Stroke center in Spokane. No helicopters could fly at this time because of weather so an ambulance was lined up to transport him. Dan and Jamie quickly booked a hotel room in Spokane for me. When Greg was wheeled out of the hospital Dan, Jamie and I had to think fast yet again. Dan drove me home to grab a suitcase of who knows what and to pick up his work vehicle to drop off at his station and get his own vehicle and drive home. Jamie went to their house to get ready and pack a backpack for Dan and Jamie whipped up some food for Dan and me to have on our trip to Spokane. After locking up our place and throwing the suitcase in our car I drove to Dan and Jamie’s to pick Dan up for him to drive us to Spokane. I received the sweetest long hugs from our dear Grands who sensed something out of the ordinary was happening.

I have previous posts about Greg’s stroke and care during the week of November 7th-14th.

2. The Hodgepodge lands on National Fast Food Day. What was the last fast food you ate?

Probably a pizza sometime in October…

What’s your favorite fast food?

Taco Bell Bean Burrito with extra green sauce, tomatoes and lettuce.

How often do you grab fast food? 

Not often at all.

3. Life in the fast lane, get nowhere fast, on the fast track, not so fast…pick one and tell us how it applies to your life in recent days. 

I’d like to say on the fast track for recovery for Greg. It might be more like, not so fast.

4. Are you a fast walker? NO fast talker? NO fast worker? YESISH, (depends on the task) fall asleep fast? NO! stay fast asleep without too much trouble? NO!

5. What is one ‘hard and fast rule’ in your house? 

At our country bungalow we have a NO DAIRY OR FATS down the drain because we are on a Septic System.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

We posted the following on Facebook yesterday.

Greg thanks you all for your prayers and encouragement and care. He’s doing well. Starting therapy to hopefully regain use of his left hand. So grateful for all the love extended to us.

“The LORD gives and the LORD takes away, blessed be the name of the LORD”

Quote of the day from Greg “the greatest blessing through this trial to date is that I am not married to Job’s wife”

Greg never lost his wit through his whole ordeal. God gave me such a peace and calmness from the beginning. I wasn’t even shaking when I dialed 9-1-1. I praise God for that. God’s peace truly is not of this world.

Thanks again and again to all my bloggy friends who prayed and encouraged me, too.