The Headless Angel

When Jim and I were first married, we both took continuing ed classes - he took "Repairing small engines", during which he fixed an entire snowblower, and I took a stained glass class. I am the sort of person that goes gung-ho on everything for about 6 weeks. And then...that's it. After experimenting with a thoroughly enjoyable hobby, I insisted that I need an entire stained glass studio. Jim sort of snorted and told me to hold my horses. Our last project in Stained Glass class was creating an angel. I got all the way to the head, and I guess my internal timer went off (around 6 weeks of classes) and I stopped my angel. Years later, we found my headless angel and Jim laughed himself to tears.

So the running joke in our house is about headless angels. It's pretty common to say "this isn't going to be another headless angel, is it?" When Jim wanted to get scuba certified (which, by the way, is a very expensive hobby), the first thing I said was "please don't let this be your headless angel."

Boy was I wrong! What started off as a potential headless angel has exploded into a full-on obsession, complete with the purchase of two scuba suits (on my Dad's part - Mom's not too jazzed), compasses, knives, neon dive lights from my brother, and a bevy of other things. Jim spends most nights on the Web looking up potential dive sites, planning next week's Mexico dives, and perusing websites for shipwrecks in the Great Lakes. Not to mention the endless phone calls about diving - he spends a lot of time chatting it up on the phone. He's like a teenage girl.

Jim's friend Tom, also a diver, sends a care package for Jim every single treatment. Today's gift was a very generous dry bag for Jim's dives. You can probably figure out from the name what a dry bag is supposed to do. Jim was delighted. In the world of headless angels, Tom has officially put the halo over the angel's head. I get the sneaking suspicion that Jim's silent thought is "nanny-nanny-boo-boo". And he's on the phone again, calling Tom, to talk about...diving.

Even if this whole diving thing turns out to be a headless angel (which I don't think it is), it's giving Jim something to look forward to. He's making plans, having fun, and working toward some really interesting trips.

I don't think he's going to be as sick this round. Treatment went well today. He's not nauseated yet, which is a good sign. We're mall walking tomorrow. And he'll be sitting in the warm Mexican sun in eight days. It's good to have something to look forward to - whether it be a vacation, spending time with family, reading a good book, woodworking, or creating a new headless angel.