Living In the World, Not on It

This week was the worst week in a long time. I lost a good friend. Over the weekend, Todd went fishing, had a great time, came home, played with his kids, went to bed and did not wake up. He had a severe cardiac arrest (not sure if it was classified as a massive myocardial infarction, but those are most often the silent killers when it comes to the heart). Any way you slice it, whatever you call it, a wonderful, warm, intense person died at age 42. Death stinks. It isn't often as much for the deceased that we grieve as much as for the survivors: his wife, a sweet person who is suddenly bereft; their two kids, 5 years and 2 years; his parents and siblings; his coworkers and friends. We are all devastated and lost because someone we called friend is gone, irrevocably taken from us. It is unfair, it is wrong, it is horrible. Nothing can be painted as positive in this save for the fact that his death was a peaceful as one could want. It came 40 years too soon, but other than that, he h...

What is it that hospitals can't all be like this? I took Ray into Hackensack Medical Center for the second time this year. As usual, I was impressed with the lobby, the halls and the Surgical Admissions area. The waiting area was its usually nicely decorated but subdued hues with fancy coffee and some tea right there and ready. I fell asleep sprawled on one of the couches there for a time, but mostly I spent the time reading. That was only slightly marred by the Swiss Family Tacky (as I called them) a boisterous group comprised of some very abysmally stupid people... proven when one asked the rest of the group, "What's a muse?" and the response was, "Well, uh, it's something inside your head, that, uh..." Oh, please stop. In Greek mythology, there were nine muses, each of whom ruled a specific area of creative disciplines, such as music, writing, art, memory, astronomy etc. One was Mneme, another Polyhymnia. They were directly related to Zues, maybe daug...

It's always easier to post on the day of the events, but sometimes that just isn't possible. Vacations definitely make that harder. I did log in a few times, but never was able to really collect my thoughts and put them down - it was late at night and I was too tired. The days were packed and we had a great time. Who wants to blog with all of that going on? We are back now, and that in itself was an adventure, but I am getting ahead of myself. Always better to begin with the first part. We got to the airport after a rocky start with the driver and traffic. The driver talked too much, which was a little annoying, and the traffic on Route 24 East at 1630 was hideous - normal rush hour traffic combined with a zillion people getting an early start to their long weekend. We would have sat in it but the driver knew what to do to get around the mess. We made it to the airport at 1715 and checked our bags in, did the security, and then got onto the Terminal C concourse. We had a bite t...

I was up right when the alarm went off. I was showered, shaved, dried and happily ready to go to work right at 0542. I had a perfect drive in this morning, had a nice start to the day; and it just kept getting better and better! I did the Orientation in 45 minutes, half the time I normally Manage it. However, I fumbled and stumbled my way through it instead of being my usual confident self. A little awkward, but still good. And then I set up a new employee and finished the Wachovia stuff and well... the day just kept getting better! I cam home on my perfect day, picked up some needed groceries across the street, put them away, and then sat in my swinging chair in my newly painted, newly decorated sunroom to finish reading The Clan of the Cave Bear . I wanted to begin reading The Valley of the Horses also by Jean M. Auel, but found only books 3 and 4 - The Mammoth Hunters and The Plains of Passage . Those books are no where near as well written as the first two. Once the main characte...

The first part of the day was amazing in one sense, but the latter part of the day was the best in terms of personal fun. I love the city of Philadelphia and my favourite part - and I go there every time I visit - is the foutain in Logan's Circle. It is a really wonderful piece of artwork. It's actual name is Swann Memorial Fountain, and there is a lot of meaning to it. It represents the meeting of the three major rivers in Philadelphia: the Delaware, the Schuykill and the Wissahickon Rivers. The artist, Alexander Stirling Calder, designed the characters representing the rivers after Native American gods. The young girl leaning on her side against an agitated, water-spouting swan represents the Wissahickon Creek; the mature woman holding the neck of a swan stands for the Schuylkill River; and the male figure, reaching above his head to grasp his bow as a large pike sprays water over him, symbolizes the Delaware River. Sculpted frogs and turtles spout water toward the 50- foot (...

Yesterday was a really big day for me. A lot happened while nothing happened. It was huge. The whole reason to go to Philadelphia was to see Dr. Carsten Bonnemann, at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He is a specialist in neuromuscular conditions, especially limb girdle muscular dystrophy. My aunt went there with her daughter and met with Dr. Bonnemann some time ago, maybe in the fall or summer of 2007. We finally made an appointment about mid-February for yesterday. We had an 0830 appointment and got there about seven minutes early (the traffic in Philadelphia is absolutely horrendous ). We filled out the paperwork, got Ma registered and waited in the room with a million kids. OK, not a million but way too many. You know me, no kids is perfect. One child is livable but not ideal. There were at least six or seven in there. I must say that they were more behaved than most. Maybe it is because they are there with neuromuscular issues from minor and not obvious to the patently...

Ah, let the madness begin! The spring season has arrived with its usual fanfare. It's rainy and crappy out but surprisingly warm. I was quite taken aback when I went outside after work and it's beautiful out! It must have been 70! Amazing. Today was a good day. I got in early, got a lot done, got the payroll reports out and the bills to the Business Office, then home to let the guys in to paint the sunroom. The sunroom! You would not recognise it! The walls are no longer institution beige but now a beautiful light blue. The ceiling no longer shows every single flaw and grey areas - it is now a beautiful white ceiling. It looks gorgeous. They will put up the shelf I brought home in the one corner, my little shelf from the Pennsylvania Dutch Country in another. It will have the furniture from this room in it (too bad) and this room (the living room) will have the corner unit in it. It won't be the best furniture in the world in the sunroom, but it will do for now. We'll g...

I can finally return to work on Thursday. I hope I am more up to it. I went to the doctor yesterday and I have the flu and a sinus infection. What a winning combination that is. I feel so drained of energy but totally full of mucus! And the cold is now moving into my chest, so I will soon be coughing a lot. It takes most people three weeks to shake the cough... which means it will take me the better part of six weeks to kill it off. Luis gave me quite a scare this morning. We were both awake after midnight and Luis had been to the bathroom a hundred times (it seemed) in a short period of time. He kept going in there and I finally asked him if he wanted an Immodium (for diarrhea) - I figured something must be wrong. Well, something was wrong. He kept feeling a very urgent need to go to the bathroom. Around 0110 he said to me, "I need to go to the hospital: I now have pain." We got dressed and EMT took over and I drove a steady 80 MPH to Morristown Memorial Hospital. I dropped ...

The day began at 0700, with me in the shower and dressed and ready (even fed) by 0835. Renee was not so quick (she is more of a night person, not an early morning person). We managed to leave by 0900, but had to go back to get the ticket for me that was in her bag all along. But they needed a couple of other things, so it was not a trip in vain. We were back on the road quite quickly, chatting the whole way. The weather was gorgeous, just lovely. It was beautifully clear, sunny, a nice breeze, just so gorgeous. We parted at the gate, and I made my way to the front and Renee and Alex went into the faire to be prepared at the Maypole for the dances that she would be calling out. The actors were of good character and cheer and did their parts well. The royal procession was gorgeous and had many beautiful horses in it. The royalty looked like royalty. The cast at the NYRF still has dresses from when I was first working there. These people looked much more like the real thing. I loved it. T...

Well, my vacation has gotten off to a good start! The trip down was both great and bad. I picked the worst weather (short of snow) to come down in - I left work at 1107, and under lowering grey skies headed down the Garden State Parkway. Around mile marker 67 it began to pour - I'm not exaggerating, it was horrifying. After that 12 mile squall, I ran through four more: one in Delaware, three in Maryland. Delaware is a "blink and you've missed it state". I loved going over the Delaware bridge (and the toll - what abject greed -was $4!) but other than the bridge, there was nothing much to say about that state. When it wasn't pouring and the visibility was good, it was a fine trip. The weather certainly was odd. I would be driving through a squall with thick heavy ominously dark clouds and suddenly the clouds got much lighter in colour only and it would still be raining and then the steam coming off the roads combined with suddenly bright light and mixed rain and s...

Eating dinner out is not a new thing for us; we do it fairly frequently. Going out to eat with Pam, Luis' ex-girlfriend from a million years ago, happens about once every two years, since about ten years ago. The first time it happened it was awkward, as you may well imagine. That was a long time ago and it is not awkward for me anymore. I'm the one who is with Luis, and Pam is married to someone and has a three-month-old granddaughter. She was quite upset when she found out that her 26-year-old, irresponsible, not-long-with-a-loser boyfriend who split the second he found out she was pregnant. Yikes. So now she is on welfare with a tiny baby, working part-time and living with a guy who is just stepping in and being a father. She's quite happy - Pam is. I don't honestly know how the daughter feels. I guess it is hard, but she wouldn't consider something like that. Most wouldn't, but I am terribly pragmatic about these things. Being in a poor financial position i...

Another day, another headache, another triump! A day full of the good, the bad and the ugly and I loved it. Loved it! The day prior, I ended with having work done on my teeth. Baby's fourth crown... not exactly an amazing homage to my caretaking of my teeth. I always hated listening to my parents about that, and I took not-so-great care of my teeth then - and that was with them watching over me! Imagine what happened when they weren't... I didn't. That was fine until I hit around 15 - between that and the endless amount of candy I ate, I began to get cavities. Admittedly, I did not get my first crown until a couple of years ago. Last year was my first root canal. And they were all completely painless. This one... was not. My mouth hurt on waking, and increased as the morning wore on. It was not pretty, and I was a complete wretch. Most people didn't notice it but I was very quiet, and stayed in my office when not getting tea. Mitch noticed (which was very nice) but then...