Breakfast in Estacada
2014-10-05 20:53![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
asher553I've mentioned my friend Patrick a couple of times here. He is a Navy vet and he's now battling cancer in the esophagus and brain. Not long ago, his oncologist gave him two years at best.
More recent reports, though, have been cautiously optimistic in terms of giving him at least a slightly better life expectancy; and he's able to move around and do stuff again.
Patrick and his wife Abby and I had planned on going shooting this morning in the Mount Hood area; Patrick had it all planned out, and sent me the GPS coordinates where he wanted me to meet him by 7am. He said he would bring paper targets, frames, and extra ammo in case I was short.
I was a little apprehensive about the whole thing - my shooting arm is still a little gimpy, for one thing, and I'm still new to driving in the area. Plus I wasn't keen on the idea of hiking around in some unfamiliar wilderness - what if I tripped and broke my arm again? But I agreed to go, and set out this morning around 6:30, the earliest I could manage to drag myself out of the house.
I called Patrick at 7 to let him know I was on my way (I was about halfway to the destination by then) and he said the road was closed, and why don't we meet in Estacada for breakfast instead.
So that's what we did. We met up at the Cazadero Inn and had good conversation over a diner breakfast and coffee. No shooting and no trekking around the wilderness got done (for which I was secretly grateful) but we had a great time. And it got me out of town - I haven't driven outside of the city since I've been back in Portland, and I needed a change of scene.
I invited them over for dinner at my place, and we agreed to set it up as soon as it's doable.
More recent reports, though, have been cautiously optimistic in terms of giving him at least a slightly better life expectancy; and he's able to move around and do stuff again.
Patrick and his wife Abby and I had planned on going shooting this morning in the Mount Hood area; Patrick had it all planned out, and sent me the GPS coordinates where he wanted me to meet him by 7am. He said he would bring paper targets, frames, and extra ammo in case I was short.
I was a little apprehensive about the whole thing - my shooting arm is still a little gimpy, for one thing, and I'm still new to driving in the area. Plus I wasn't keen on the idea of hiking around in some unfamiliar wilderness - what if I tripped and broke my arm again? But I agreed to go, and set out this morning around 6:30, the earliest I could manage to drag myself out of the house.
I called Patrick at 7 to let him know I was on my way (I was about halfway to the destination by then) and he said the road was closed, and why don't we meet in Estacada for breakfast instead.
So that's what we did. We met up at the Cazadero Inn and had good conversation over a diner breakfast and coffee. No shooting and no trekking around the wilderness got done (for which I was secretly grateful) but we had a great time. And it got me out of town - I haven't driven outside of the city since I've been back in Portland, and I needed a change of scene.
I invited them over for dinner at my place, and we agreed to set it up as soon as it's doable.
