Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Once a month, like it or not

So, you've all been busy I see. Good.

Me too. Sorry there's been no updates here, I comment more than I update. Is that like saying "I like to watch" ? b/c that's not what I mean. Maybe it's a perfectionism thing, if I'm just commenting here and there, who cares? (Except for the poor folks whose blogs I'm littering all over.) It's just that there are so many spectacular blogs out there and I feel that mine is just a bit more like a diary sometimes. I don't have a lot of web skillz, but I am a good student and could figure out a lot. If only I had the time. Plus I'm too cheap to sign up for a Typepad account so I can give my blog a catchy web address. Meh.

Whazzup? Lessee, last month Annie turned 40, I hope. Who's she? A girl I went to school with for grades 1-12. I don't know why, but I can always remember her birthday (March 7). I never really had a crush on her. Maybe it's an Oedipus complex derivative. Her mom was one of my favorite teachers in Junior High. She didn't take shit from anybody.

Last month I also turned 40. Huzzah. Birthdays don't seem fun anymore. At least not this year. Wifey had my birthday 4 days early on a weekend because The Boy and I were headed out West to go skiing later that week and it would probably be too hectic.

Man, was she ever right.

Wifey's father had a quintuple bypass two days before we left. He needed an annual checkup, and part of the process is an *ahem* "internal exam". Well, at his age, before they give you that special treatment they want to make sure you're tough enough so they also give you a stress test to make sure your ticker is up to shnuff. He failed that, so they wanted to do a heart cath. They did that on Tuesday, and said "You're not leaving, you're having an emergency bypass tomorrow morning. Make things right with your maker." You can imagine the alarms that type of situation sets off. Wifey left early that next morning, so how to get The Girl to her after school let out for Spring Break? Thankfully, her friend was headed in that direction so that part worked out.

Grampsy did well at first, got released from the hospital after 4 days when it was expected that he'd be in for a week. Three days later there were numerous complications so he's back in, but making some progress. But here's the kicker: in 2 days nearly her entire family (ours included) leaves for Ireland. On a trip that Grampsy requested two years ago. In honor of their 50th wedding anniversary this year.

He can't go.

In the night before the bypass, he and Nana talked and decided that we all should still make the trip without them. I say "Bully!" but since I'm outside "the circle of trust" so-to-speak I can't really voice an opinion. It just doesn't make sense to me to take the trip; it was his idea, his wish, to go in the first place. He should go, so the trip should be postponed. Plus, I fear that things will take a turn for the worse while we're all over there as some of the complications point to congestive heart failure. Since we went to Colorado, The Boy has not had a chance to visit Grampsy yet, and I'd hate to have the worst happen without him having a chance to see him just one more time as The Girl got to see him since she was there with Wifey. What to do?

So, Colorado was fun. Nebraska was great on the way out, it was dark the whole time we were driving through so there was no wind. Payback was on the way back, of course. But the wind was slightly at the tail so it was manageable. The weather while we were there was nice, maybe a bit too warm and slushy at the base but we can deal with that. We got a bit of snow on Tuesday, but the real stuff greeted us on the morning we left to return:



Is it difficult to see why I didn't want to come back? SERENITY NOW!