Lew Pitcher's blog

I've just been informed that my father, Nathan Charles Pitcher, has been admitted to the ICU at Dartmouth General Hospital with breathing problems.

He is currently sedated, and has been intubated on a respirator. The doctors are trying to determine what has put him into respiratory difficulty, and intend to slowly "wean" him off of the respirator.

More news as I get it.

Well, I did it. I retired from TD Bank after 31 years, 1 month and five days of continuous employment.

Now, I can spend my time as I like; travelling, reading, working on my hobbies, going back to school.

Wish me luck.

OK, so I haven't said much in the past few months, but I've been travelling again.

First off, in November, my partner and I took a week and went to an all-inclusive in Cuba.

Next, I went to visit my cousin in BC over Christmas.

Finally, my partner invited me on a Jazz cruise in January.

More on all that later

Ok, so it isn't as radical as all that. Today (October 15, 2007) I formally announced my intended retirement date. In four months, on February 15, 2008, I will have retired from TD Bank after 31 years of service.

Wish me luck

I'm making some changes around here - the first of which is that I'm going public

Over the weekend, I finally got my first true flying lesson.

I've been taking "ground school" for almost a month now, but every "hands on" lesson I book gets cancelled due to weather. Well, I finally lucked out, and the weather was good for this weekend.

Both the instructor and I did the pre-flight walkaround, and the preflight checklist. I taxied (poorly), and he handled the take off. This lesson was "Attitudes and Movements": learning how to make the machine go in the right direction once you get into the air. I practiced 10 and 20 degree climbs, 5 and 10 degree descents, and 10, 20 and 30 degree turns. We climbed to 1300 feet, then up to 4000 feet, circled around the practice area several times, and finally (a half hour later) descended to 1200 feet for the landing.

It's been six months and two days since Marya passed away. Life has changed a lot for me, some of it good and some bad. I find that each passing day has it's challenges and I'm often overcome by the sheer magnitude of my loss. I'm not certain of whom I can turn to for support and help.

You see, I don't want to burden my friends with my problems; they've got enough problems of their own, and I don't feel comfortable adding to their load. Besides, with some of them, I'm not sure of how much leeway I have. Perhaps they are tired of my woes, and just wish I would "get on with it". I don't know. I do know that some of my friends have begun to avoid me. I wish I could bring them back, but all I do is chase them further away. For what it's worth, I haven't heard anything from my relatives, and I have to make all the phone calls.

It's been just over three months since Marya passed away. While the fabric of my life is starting to knit together, there are still huge gaping holes that won't go away soon. I shared my life with Marya (as did she with me) for 25 years (half of my life), and three months isnt nearly enough time to fill in the void that her passing left.

My friend Kathy's daughter is in the "Junior High" division of the Youth Singers of Calgary. Recently, they were in Toronto for a competition, and I managed to attend one of their performances.

Marya passed away on March 25, and that's left me with a hole in my life. I now have a number of (somewhat distastefull but necessary) things to do, like taking care of her estate, and distributing her belongings. These tasks don't give me much direction or purpose; I'm just a caretaker to her memory now.