Woody Cavenaugh

Yesterday I was writing this entry on my dad. I realize that it is dated the 19th, but I wrote it yesterday and back dated it to fill a hole. I like the five entries a week format. So yesterday I wrote it, all day I had to go back and put in things I forgot. Even last night on the drive home I had "Oh yeah!" moments that had to be included.

I get home and there is a letter in the mailbox from mom. There was on the phone the fact that she had called about an hour earlier. I figured this call was about the letter. I listened to the messages and in a matter of fact overly calm voice she asks me to call her. I could tell from the tone of her voice that it was urgent information she had to impart to me but she didn't want to panic me. I had to chuckle as I dialed her. I knew someone was in the hospital, it was just a matter of who that she would tell me when I called. She picked up on the first ring and put on her best poker voice. At least she thinks it is her poker voice. She brought me into this world, thus, I can read her like a book. So there was a short moment of casual chatting with each of us trying to outcool the other and she finally got around to saying, "oh by the way, your father has had a heart attack."

Its a funny thing about Cavenaugh's. If you've ever seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail you know of the Black Knight. "Its only a flesh wound!" He was a Cavenaugh. There are two facts about Cavenaugh's that you should probably know. One, Cavenaugh's are completely incapable of recognizing when another Cavenaugh is wrong (unless it is Cavenaugh against Cavenaugh then it gets really tricky). Two, Cavenaugh's do not admit weakness. They will gossip about one another's weaknesses, but they won't ever complain about themselves. Denise Leary once joked "John Wayne had cancer twice. Second time, they took out one of his lungs. He said, "Take 'em both! Cuz I don't need 'em!" That is the Cavenaugh mentality.

When I was a child I was spending a week with my grandmother. I had brought my motorcycle with me and about halfway through the week I finally let my cousin drive it. He is maybe a year older than me so he was probably 11 or 12 at the time. He drives us 30 miles per hour strait into the side of a house. I'm not kidding. To this day I won't ride with him. So we're laying on the ground writhing in agony. "Agony", you say? We are Cavenaughs barefooted, shorts, no helmet. The first thing to hit the building was the front wheel which stopped instantly, the energy went into the bike which hinged on the front axel, the second thing to hit the building was my forehead about six feet off of the ground. At this point there is still energy to be lost and nowhere else to go the bike then hinges on its steering column, the remaining energy is disapated from the bike slamming sideways into the building. My cousin who had only been riding for a week fell off the moment the front wheel hit. I had been riding since I was eight, I rode it like it was a rodeo bull all damage to the side of the bike was cushioned by my leg, the side of the bike took no damage, I limp when the weather changes to this day. All the forward energy is used up, the bike falls down on my cousin's leg. My forhead swelled up so much that not only did I have two black eyes, I could see my own forhead just by looking up. I was certain my leg was broken at the knee. My cousin stubbed his toe, and from where the bike landed on him he burned a patch of skin on his inner thigh about six inches by eight inches.

First aid consisted of a cold washrag on my head and a glass of tea. No hospital, no X-rays. It was a week and a half later when my cousin was taken to the doctor for his burn. It required skin grafts. A week after that his big toe nail fell off. It was six months later when I went to the doctor about my knee. He thougth I was making it up.

Yesterday dad had a regularly scheduled doctor's appointment, I will never know what for. If I find out any information about my Dad's health I have to rely on gossip. Or I can ask him about his new scars.
"What's with the scabs on your face."
"The doctor was burning off some skin cancer."

"Where did you get those stitches?"
"Hernia operation."
Yesterday dad had a regularly scheduled doctor's appointment and the doctor told him to go strait to the hospital in New Bern. Dad replied, "nah, that takes too long, I've got stuff to do." (Fishing or gardening) He then proceides to drive himself to Morehead where he is now being treated for a heart attack. They have to run test on him to figure out if they need to make any corrective actions. Mom casually mentions to me that his heart isn't beating correctly but she couldnt' remember what terms the doctor used." "Arrhythmia right?" I asked. "I'm not sure." was her response. Yet later she tips her hand by saying she's looking up stuff on the internet about what's wrong with him. I'm educated, she knows I am educated, and she knows that I could get the answers before her if I have any information to start from. Poker.

Cavenaugh's deny injury because injury is weakness and a Cavenaugh is never weak and seldom a coward. People married to Cavenaugh's cover for them. Perhaps not because they actually think a Cavenaugh is invulnerable, but more likely to protect the tender feelings of the Cavenaugh who actually believes he or she IS invulnerable. Sometimes I wonder if Cavenaugh marriages aren't so much husband and wife as they are a joining of hero and sidekick.

So here mom and I are talking on the phone trying to outcool one another as we negotiate when I am comming home. There will be no test results until 7:30pm Friday night so she sees no need for me to miss a day of work. I teach on Saturdays, so I'm trying to figure out if I am going home first thing in the morning or after my class. We agree that we can't know that until we get the results of his tests. I don't mention that I would have to cancel class if I have to come home first thing, I am teaching solo this week. If she knew that, she would lie to me about the test results tonight. So I tell her to call me tonight during fencing on my cell phone and tell me what's going on. I figure if I can out cool her, she might be more honest and forthcomming about the information she has. My other thought is that I could just get up this morning and go home on the downlow and surprise her. "Hi, I'm here, you can fess up now." I decited even before bed that I wasn't going to do that, but it was on the table.

This morning on the way to work the left rear tire on the car blew. Now I have to go replace a tire before I can do anything else. There goes lunch. At least I made it to work in time for my performance review with my boss.