How far would you go to save a life?

I've been on the Organ Donor Registry for about 30 years.  I signed up before most states gave you that option on your driver's license.  It was a no brainer as they say, and what could it hurt?  I would be dead by the time they came to collect.

I've often thought about being a living donor.  I donated blood for years before a doctor diagnosed me with Lyme's Disease and said I shouldn't donate any more.  Although recently, another doctor tested me for Lyme's and I came back clean.  So I will probably start donating blood again, once I get off the meds for the auto-immune issue I developed because of the statins I was on.

Anyway, back to being a living donor.  Donating blood isn't that hard.  I've wondered though, do I have what it takes to donate part of my liver?  A kidney?  Bone marrow?  That involves more commitment, more pain, and more risk.  I think I might sign up to be a bone marrow donor, once I have a clean bill of health.  My thought is, what's a little pain or risk, if it means you could save a life?

All good things . . .

 I had an awesome visit with my son, daughter, and her fiance.  Plus my niece and her two children came up for an overnight.  We spent a day in Canada (despite the pouring rain) and did the boat ride up to Niagara Falls, took the incline railcar, had a fabulous lunch, hiked around, and then the next day we did the U.S. side of the Falls, a lot more hiking, and had lots of fun talking over meals at the kitchen table and sharing laughs. 

After they left today, I walked back in the house, saw all the empty chairs in the kitchen that we squeezed around the little round table.  We have a huge dining room table that we all could have eaten around, but chose to squeeze 6 adults and 2 kids around a table meant for 4.  We made good memories, but the sight of all those empty chairs seemed too abrupt for my heart, so I turned around immediately, grabbed the dog and went to take him for a run.  I'd deal with the empty, quiet house, and these emotions later.

Yay!

via GIPHY
I just found out both of my kids will be here to visit me this weekend!

Niagara Falls, Canada and other preoccupations

I'm still finding it difficult to find time to write/post.  Every weekend since July 1st we've either been out of town visiting people, or people were here visiting us.  That takes a toll on a person's free time.  I've loved every minute of it, but I've got work to do! 

This past weekend friends came up from Maryland to see us and we took them over to Canada to ride the Hornblower/Maid of the Mist boat up to the foot of Niagara Falls.  I took a film myself, but it was not good quality since there was so much water spraying at me from the Falls.  I'm attaching a professional video for your enjoyment. 

In between working on putting the house together, cleaning rooms for guests, then cleaning them again for the next set of guests, and working on the on-line class I'm teaching, I have begun writing a book.  It's fiction.  I'm not very far into the writing of it, because of how little time I have to work on it, but when I do get a moment here and there, I am working on it.  I'm also toying with the idea of working on a history book.  I probably won't get to start on that until well into the Fall or early Winter because I can't begin the research necessary for it just yet.  So if I seem to be absent on the blog, just know, I am still keeping busy, always busy!

Sites around Niagara Falls  -  The first Falls they show in this video are looking from Canada across to the American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls on the right of those.  A few seconds later they pan across to the Horseshoe Falls of Canada.  We took the boat ride up to the base of each of the Falls that you see in the video.