Long Day

Don’t you hate it when you read someone’s blog (or any social media) post where they talk cryptically about something but don’t give any specifics on what they are talking about and go out of their way to not share any details at all?

It was a long day. I left the house at a little past 11:00am and went to the hospital to stay with my father. I left at 7:00pm. I don’t know what tomorrow will bring. There may be a family discussion tomorrow and if there is it may be rough. That’s all the detail you’re getting.

I am home with the love of my life now. My bride and our two psychotic cats. I am where I belong, even if I feel the need to spend time just sitting with my father during his time of trouble.

To quote the band Traffic from a song from their brilliant self titled second album, “who knows what tomorrow may bring?”

More Bad Extended Family News

It never rains, it pours. My mother, Ellen, had two sisters and a brother. Her older sister, Joan, passed away in November after an illness that was alarmingly similar to what my mother went through. My mother passed away six days ago. Her brother, Jim, has been ill for a while and has been in and out of the hospital over the last three weeks or so. We are not sure, but we got some news today that makes it look like things may be turning for the worse for him.

I feel so bad for my Aunt Nancy. She lost both of her sisters in a three month span and now her brother’s health may be failing as well. As painful as it is for us, it must be so much worse for her.

Sick Day Update

How’s it going, sick person?

I feel better. Not all better, but better than I was when I was doubled over in pain while I was trying to take a shower this morning. I feel like I got my ass kicked by a locomotive or something, but my stomach isn’t hurting like it was before.

I managed some food. It was sort of like breakfast at lunch time, but I ate some scrambled eggs. I’ve had some water too, and in 13 minutes I’ll be able to have some more. I still feel pretty dehydrated, but nowhere near as bad as I was when I wrote the last post.

It’s a safe bet I won’t be hitting my protein and liquid goals again today, but now it seems like I won’t get virtually shut out like I did on Thursday. I just missed a bunch of time while I was hurting and I don’t think I will be able to make it up. I’ll get as close as I can without overdoing it and just let it go from there.

I’m also not sure what to do for today’s photo a day thing. I will probably used the bathroom construction again. I could use xmas decorations but I’m tired of that. I’m pretty tired of the construction stuff too, but what can you do. We also need to find things to put us into the holiday spirit. I don’t know about the rest of you, but getting sick twice in December has put a damper on my festiveness. Jen found this yesterday though and it might help:

I wonder why our house isn’t on the list?

Kidding.

There’s also a light display at the Stone Zoo. That feels more like a weekend thing to me though. Maybe we could wait for the kids to be home for that one.

The Black Plague: Day Twenty-One

It’s official.  The flu/cold/plague symptoms have now been with us for three full weeks.  Hoo-freakin’-Ray!

After visiting the emergency room last week, Jen was not seeing any improvement so she went to see her primary care.  He gave a better explanation of the situation and prescribed yet another new antibiotic (her fourth since this all started) and a steroid.  Nice.  My wife is going to smash the long ball, just like Barry Bonds!

I’m still congested.  I still have a cough.  Neither is as bad as it was three weeks ago, but they are all still sticking around.  I had a bit of a tough night sleeping last night.  The cough woke me up a couple of times.  Last week I thought I was 90% well.  Now I’ll put it at 70% well.  My health is currently getting a C-.

We are having a post-holiday, holiday party with Larry and Mike and families this weekend.  I am going to be well enough to go to that party, even if it kills me!  My health needs to be at least at a C+.  I can do it.  Hear that, immune system?  I have confidence that you can stop sucking just enough for me to spend an evening with my family and my friends all in the same place together.  You can do it, immune system.  You can do it!

Did you hear that hockey is coming back?  (yes, that was a sudden change of subject)  Baseball pitchers and catchers are less than two months away from reporting to spring training as well.  The days of no sports to watch but football (yawn) and basketball (zzz zzz zzz) are coming to an end.I am still furious with the NHL.  That is not going to go away.  When it comes to holding a grudge about pro sports labor disputes, I am the king.  I am still fuming over the 1981 baseball players strike.  Because of that stupid thing, the stats on my 1982 Topps baseball cards did not include 162 games for that season.  Dwight Evans only got to play something like 104 games.  That sucked and I’m still pissed.

Anyway, I think one of the reasons why I am so much more upset about this lockout than the last one (don’t get me wrong, I was steaming with rage last time too) is that last time I had an AHL team to distract me.  The Lowell Lock Monsters.  Eric Staal.  Chuck Kobasew (sp? sorry Chuck).  Damn, what a great team we had that year.  While everyone else was boiling over with rage about not having hockey, there were maybe one thousand or so people in the Greater Lowell area who had Monsters season tickets.  No, it was not the same as having the NHL, but it did keep our hockey minds occupied for that black hole of a season.

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I could have followed Worcester, or Providence this time, but I still have that old Lowell loyalty. Be it the Lock Monsters or the Devils that replaced them, I loved AHL hockey in Lowell. For the record, there was no way I would ever have followed Manchester. That would be like rooting for the Yankees in the Red Sox absence. It would never, ever happen. In fact, I talked to my gorgeous wife Jennifer about maybe going to a game in Manchester, but I made it clear I would be rooting for the visiting team.

Lock Monster hockey, it’s alive! (or at least it was back then when I needed it)