Today is the National Night Out. A day when communities get together and introduce themselves to their neighbors. And grill tons of hot dogs.

Lisa's parents have had a party on National Night Out for the past 30 years. No Kidding, 30 years. The local newspaper has done many articles on them because it is one of the longest running parties on National Night Out. The Fire Department and a Police car always show up for the kids. Local businesses donate for raffles and door prizes. Last year, there were over 200 people at their house. Not at a community rec center or a town hall. People who have moved out of the neighborhood still return to their party to catch up with old friends.

We will be going there for a few hours at Lisa's Care Conference at Bayshore. It should be interesting. We don't have any real concerns for them. Lisa still has her feeding tube, but it has not been used for weeks. The Speech Therapist was working on getting it removed but we no longer see him. Lisa's speech is 95% clear and therapy isn't required anymore so the feeding tube is kind of in limbo. Our other concern is, of course, her release date. She was shooting for Sept. 1 but now has pushed it back another month to Oct. 1. I'm sorry, but with the improvements Lisa keeps making while at Bayshore, I hope she decides to stay that long. For someone who all the doctors told me would never walk again, she might be using a walker by next week. How can I argue with the progress Lisa has made while at Bayshore. It has been remarkable. On the other hand, Lisa is understandably homesick. Who wouldn't be?

Butch