A Reminder of Mortality, A Colorado State Open Thread, 3/9/2026

An oldie, but a goodie?

I just looked at the correct time. Oops! Sorry.

I’m back at my Estes Park abode. I was down in Denver today, visiting a friend who has given me a reminder of my mortality. He apparently had a stroke a couple of weeks ago or so. I was not able to really talk with him — he’s in a hospital recovering and he’s able to speak with the nurses some, but he’s still groggy from his medication and he has some major paralysis going on. I honestly don’t know what shape he’s in. He’s about ten years or so younger than I am. It’s a stark reminder, though, that no matter how fit one might be, and he is/was in excellent shape, that can all go south in a moment. I don’t even know how long he might have been suffering before he got assistance, all those kind of things. He has a couple of sons living with him, I think, but that is a situation that changes sometimes. Nobody was around to answer those questions for me when I went down today to see him and his old coach (my friend still plays rugby in a senior league) stopped by but didn’t know those kind of details either.

How thankful I am that my health, even with Type II diabetes, is still in relatively good condition. I need to take better care of myself, and this is a reminder to pay better attention to advice from doctors and to be glad I have a doctor I can go to. Also it’s a wake up call to make calls to my congressmen (my particular ones are all male up the line) to advocate for the ACA and to not let them coast on letting them think Colorado doesn’t care about having health care accessible to them. I think my friend has policies for his family through the ACA but he is self-employed and he’s not making money hand-over-fist as a single parent.

I will go ahead and post so you can start posting comments. I will add some notes in the comments myself, but please, let me know what you experienced this past week. The floor is yours...