Last June, over a year ago, a good friend of mine, Glenda Taylor, was killed while warming up at the Kansas State Time Trial Championships.  She was hit by a pickup truck while warming up. She was thrown over 150 feet and died at the scene.  A true tragedy.

The driver of the truck was charged with reckless 2nd degree murder.  He pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and unlawful passing of a bicycle.   He will be sentenced on January 9th.

I can’t really comment on the whole criminal process here.  I really don’t know enough about it other than my friend is dead.   The guy that hit her is 38 years old and will serve some time in jail.  I don’t know how long and really don’t care.  No one wins here.   It is a bad deal.

Our cycling group, here in Topeka, actually, all of Kansas, really misses Glenda.  She exemplified what is good about our sport.  She was always a joy to be around.

It is strange how you take friends for granted until they aren’t around.  Then you feel bad because you just assumed that wouldn’t possibly be the situation so soon.  It’s a hard way to learn how life works.

Anyway, I think about Glenda a lot.  A lot recently.  She used to come over for Thanksgiving.

In reality, the deal is that  I miss Glenda. It is as simple as that.

This is the group from Topeka out in Colorado hiking. Bill, Vincent, Catherine, Glenda, Brian and Keith.

Glenda was the head of the art department at Washburn University. She made beautiful pottery. I am lucky enough to have some.

I slept 5 hours, so am up pretty early.  I’m historically not a early morning person.  I have gotten way more stuff done late at night in my life than way early morning.  That being said, maybe I am a morning person now, which is just how it might be.  I have a couple pies to make, so I guess I’m going to accomplish something other than gathering knowledge.

I really like Thanksgiving.  I’ve spent the day in many different countries, but in reality, think that being home is probably the best way to do it.  We historically take a pretty good ride today, but I can’t this year, which I understand, but don’t like.

I looked back upon some other posts that I’ve written over the years on Thanksgiving.  It is hard to explain the holiday better.  I like it.  It is my favorite.  Eating good food with a bunch of friends and family is a hard holiday to out do.

I have this house in Central Topeka.  Central Topeka isn’t the best place to live in our country.  I bought it years and years ago and the neighborhood has deteriorated since.  It isn’t a very safe place to call home.

Since I’ve been out of commission for 5 weeks, I went by there to make sure everything was okay.  I saw that a new lock was on my garage and knew something was wrong.  I have my first car, a 1964 VW pickup truck in the garage and was worried about it.  So I came home and got a pair of bolt cutters and a new lock and heading back to see what was up.

I got there and the lock was off the door and it was standing open a crack.  I opened the door and there was a woman standing there.  I said hi and asked her what she was doing there.  She told me she was living there.

It was a little cold, in the 40’s and wet out.  I told her that it wasn’t a good place to live.  I told her the weather was only going to get worse over the winter and that it we had a great, warm fall, but it is going to be cold.

The woman was nice.  She said she was from Arkansas and explained some of her problems.  I talked to her for maybe 15 minutes and said that I’d try to help her find a safer, warmer place to live.  I told her she could stay in the back of my pickup truck, which she had made up like a little nest with blankets.

I went home and called around.  I found a shelter which would take her.  They would let her live there and feed her.  But she had to agree to come between 1 and 3 pm.

She said she was going to the library,  I drove by and the lock was on.  So I drove to the library to find her.  No luck.  I searched around for a couple hours, but couldn’t find her. My window, 3 o’clock passed, so I realized she was going to have to spend another night there.

I went by again at sunset, a little after 5, but the lock was still on the door, meaning she wasn’t inside.

Now it is Thanksgiving morning and I feel distraught.  I feel like I should go there as soon as it is light and make sure she is alright.  The shelter told me that she couldn’t check in today, so she has to spend Thanksgiving homeless.  I guess that is correct.  Probably many people throughout the world wouldn’t call it homeless, but here, that is the case.  I think I’ll go over to and check on her this morning and see if there is anything I can do for her.  I’m going to explain the shelter situation and see if she might be good with that.  If not, I’m going to have to come up with another alternative.

I think all Americans should realize how fortunate we are being born here.  No matter what your economic situation is, we’ve already won the lottery compared to many places on this planet.  Even this woman staying in a garage is potentially better off than the majority of people in certain places like Africa, China, Central or South American.  It is sort of sad, but the truth. We should focus more on what we appreciate and less on our shortcomings, so we can be a more cohesive society.

Anyway, I have a lot to be thankful for.  I appreciate my luck in life and even more appreciate my friends.

Today, Stacie and her family are driving her from Louisville.  They started yesterday and are going to be here this morning.  We’re going to ride indoors, then eat later this afternoon.  Keith and Catherine are going to Kansas City to have Thanksgiving with Keith’s family.  I’m going to go get Catherine’s mother to have Thanksgiving dinner with us.

Tomorrow, most of my cycling friends and such are going over to Keith and Catherine’s for a post Thanksgiving gathering.  It is supposed to be pretty nice weather here, so I’m sure there will be some rides scheduled.  I’m just gonna stay inside and take it slow.

Anyway, have a good day, enjoy the day and the food.  Don’t take it for granted, it is special.

Brian and Michelle stopped by yesterday for breakfast on their way back to Colorado. I miss those guys.

This is Jenny, the homeless woman. She is very nice.