A trippy Pilothouse story

[Jeff Balazs]

I thought I would share this. Perhaps some of you may appreciate this.

 

Last night about 9pm I got a phone call. A voice I did not recognize sort of croaked my name. I am racking my brain trying to figure out who this is on the other end of the line. Finally there is a response.....another croak asking me if I got my truck done yet. Ok.... that narrows it down a bit but I still don't recognize the voice. So I ask "Who is this ?" to which the voice croaks a wise _ss answer that could have only come from an old buddy of mine named Chris.

 

I've known Chris for about 15 years. He had a woodworking shop down the row from me that he had to close about 3 years back due to serious health problems. He has had a number of spinal and back surgeries that have not gone well. Probably partially due to being a severe diabetic. Worn a pump ever since I have known him. And he is only about 50 years old.

 

The last 3 years have been especially bad for him. He is in so much pain that he spends about 90% of his time in bed....and that is with huge daily doses of pain killers. A lot of the time when I have visited with him he is so doped up all he does is repeat himself. Late this summer his Dad brought him by my shop for a visit. That day I gave him a short ride in the truck which he really enjoyed.....I guess more so than I ever realized at the time.

 

So last night when I asked him how he was doing ..... out comes this story. Wednesday he had a truly major and invasive surgery. He had mentioned the possibility of this last time we talked but it did not sound too likely. Well he had it and it was so invasive that the team that worked on him put him into a an induced coma. He woke up about 2/1/2 days later. Last night was the first time he felt halfway decent so after his family left for the evening he calls me.

 

Funny thing was all he really wanted to do was to talk about the truck. I had to drag the story of the surgery out of him. Took me 45 minutes to piece together what had happened to him. He kept asking about specifics like what I had done about the brakes and how did the interior turn out.

By the time we were about done talking he started sounding like his old self. I finally asked him why would you care about what was going on with the truck right now ? His answer was classic...." I been thinking about it because it keeps my mind off this other stuff.......and I want you to take me on a trip with it."

 

I had a hard time sleeping after that. Been thinking about that call ever since. It's funny how the human mind works. Here is this guy...laying in a hospital.....just out of a coma. And all he can think of is my truck? It blew me away. I sure hope we get a chance to take that trip.

 

Jeff

Edited November 17, 2013 by Jeff Balazs

[Jim Roach]

Very touching story Jeff. It is true that working on our trucks has a tendency of puting us in a place that makes it easy to forget about all the crazyness in the world today. It's almost like therapy.

[HanksB3B]

Jeff,

Sorry to hear about your friend Chris's health problems.  It's so true what they say "If you have your heatth your have everything".  It's so easy to take life for granted.  They also say that depression hampers the recovery of patients.  It may be your truck or more likely your friendship that takes his mind off his health problems.  If you can make the time to spend with him be it going for a ride,  or just a short lunch time visit with Chris and your truck it'd be a good thing. 

 

Hank 

[Jeff Balazs]

Thank you Hank;

So true. I fear it is going to be a long while before he is up to moving around. Hopefully he heals well this time.

 

Jeff

[bach4660]

. I sure hope we get a chance to take that trip.

 

Jeff

 

me too

[rkldesign]

Better yet try to visit him with your project picture album if you have one.  Lying around in a hospital is the pits.  Too bad he is not closer to the bay area. 

 

Richard