The Kids Clean Up After Us

It was a large chest of drawers, worn and aged to the point that it required disposal.

We hauled it out of the abandoned apartment and across the lawn to the dumpster. My son Ben tipped the chest, allowing the many drawers to fall to the ground.

Jaye Hard at Work

Then this muscular young man picked up the heavy wooden piece and heaved it into the air. He threw it. Simply lofted it skyward.

When it came down, it broke into a thousand pieces, reasonably sized for the dumpster. It fit so well that there was room for one giant television set, a bunch of household goods and a quantity of yard garbage.

Where was my camera? It would have been so memorable to get a photograph or two of the young man destroying that chest of drawers.

Monica - we should have had a dust mask for you!!!

Benjamin, who lives near Seattle, was one of a team of family members and friends visiting helping over a period of a couple of weeks.

My daughter Jaye came from Indiana to visit – and to add her mind and muscle to the cleanup project they decided to do. My daughter Monica came from Florida to do the same.

Jaye’s friends Terri and Randi came from Idaho – thinking to visit Jaye and her family here, not necessarily expecting to do hard physical labor.

But they pitched right in, removing several dumpster loads of weeds and yard trash, toiling under the hot Colorado sun.

They all worked up a sweat. All four of my children are hard workers, good workers, seemingly tireless workers.

Benjamin models Grandpa Woodall's uniform

The “team” did a huge volume of work that would have taken me and Laura weeks. They gave us a beautiful head start on the job.

In addition to all the work, we still had time in the evenings to drink beer and wine, listen to old-time music, eat huge meals, to laugh – and cry.

It was unworkable for daughter Tammy to come from her home in New Zealand, but we’re hoping for a visit one of these days.

What a reunion. What a way to spend the time – working! Ain’t we grand?

Life

The man who vacated that apartment had called it home for 50 years. Fifty years. He moved there with his family when he was about five years old.

A few months ago, our longtime tenant suffered a tumor on the back of his neck. Brain surgeons removed the growth – but there was a cost; a result of the surgery was similar to stroke.

Now the man resides in an assisted living home, and endures therapy, striving to return to health. His family came and sorted out his personal belongings, but a lot of the cleanup was left to us. He isn’t coming back.

Materials of a lifetime went into the dumpster. The bed, the couch, the plastic dishes, the worn-out remnants of a life lived frugally, all gone, all disposed.

A trip to DIA

We left Greeley at 4:30 a.m. Monday to taxi Ben and Shana to DIA. The shuttle doesn’t leave that early, so we drove the antique Ford.

Never had I approached DIA by car at that hour. It was eerie, spooky at dawn. The “vibe” was just . . . evil.

A great blue horse with the bright red eyes appeared in the pink sunrise, dominating the horizon. A sculpture intended to entertain the masses approaching the airport, the huge structure didn’t welcome us that day. It frightened us.

“Idolatry,” I said. The first word that came to mind was “idolatry.”

I was ignorant at that point. It was my mistaken belief that the great blue horse had to do with the Denver Broncos.

Later, I was told the sculpture does not have to do with the sports team. But how would I know differently?

Idolatry. I saw that evil statue and I thought “golden calf.” I had the same reaction Moses must have had when he returned from the mountain. I have that same reaction when I see all the Broncos paraphernalia – bumper stickers, hats, rear-window decals. Idolatry.

The sculptor died making that giant structure. It fell against the artist and he died from its immense weight. But the thing was evil even before it murdered its creator.

At various times, the whole family, all of us, had to pass inspection under the gaze of the red-eyed blue horse. Godzilla himself couldn’t be more frightening.

If I had a vote, I’d vote to replace the blue horse with a statue of the Blessed Mother, or Jesus, or Abraham Lincoln. Or Moses. Hey.

Home safely

Everyone who came to visit, everyone who passed the image of that evil equine beast on the way to the Terminal of Tepees on the Plains, everyone has arrived home safely.

Laura and I got home safely as well, and even though we were exhausted from the visit, we worked that day. We worked hard.

Can’t let that head start go to waste.

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Word of the week: Megalomania. It’s from Modern Latin, megalo meaning large, great, or powerful and mania, fear or insanity. To us, megalomania is a mental disorder characterized by delusions of grandeur, wealth or power. It’s a passion doing big things – hence a tendency to exaggerate. Megalomania produced the statue and the tepees at Denver International. Delusions. Idolatry. To say nothing of vanity.