That sucks. I hope you get to see her, and she you, before she passes.
I was too young to remember the passing of my paternal grandparents, but my maternal grandfather kicked it last June, of his own volition. He’d had a stroke years before – the thing he feared the most – and was just tired of it all, so he decided to stop eating and drinking, and just wait for the end.
I probably got half a week with him before the end. He couldn’t speak anymore, and he was a pale husk of man, but there was still a spark in his eyes. My uncle, my grandmother, my immediately family and I were right by his bedside keeping watch.
Finally, about an hour before the end, his breathing got shallower and more rapid. Everyone gathered by his side and sang his favorite hymns; he’d been a minister for 50 years. During the chorus of a particularly appropriate tune, he just… stopped. And that was it.
Yes, it was singularly heartbreaking, but it was also amazing, humbling, and awe-inspiring, to be in his presence as he slipped away. I wish he could have told me what he was feeling.
tromik
1564
Had my septoplasty and some sort of sinus scrape on Monday. Everyone told me it was a routine, almost painless operation and that most people are discharged within a few hours and are back to work in a couple of days. Of course, I’m a bleeder so decide to admit me. Luckily I had my DS and my laptop, so I was able to get some Wifi in the cafe.
There’s still a lot of discomfort, but they gave me percocet, which makes everything quite tolerate. My face is swollen so much that I look like Pearlman’s Beast.
Oh, and if you’ve never had packing removed from your nose, I highly recommend it. I wish I could have filmed it. What a horror show. The nurse just grabs the tail end of the gauze dangling out of your nostril and gives a smooth, steady tug. And when you think “Ok, that’s it,” it’s still coming out. Still coming out. Still. To top it off, it’s coated in a combination of some sort of surgical lube, wet clotted blood, dry blood, and snot. Wonderful stuff. Those first ten minutes after it’s removed are heaven, though. The pressure is completely gone, until more blood and mucus takes the packing’s place.
I’ve got to say that having the wisdom teeth pulled was far worse. Much more painful, less post-op care, worse drugs (Tylenol 3, pfft, after the septoplasty they gave me morphine!), more nausea.
Since getting home I’ve been taking it easy, watched a few movies from the Comfort Movie thread, watched a couple of episodes of Carrier, caught up on a few Hell’s Kitchens, and watched some baseball games I’d recorded.
Here’s a recent picture of our possum, just to cheer you all up.
My wallet, which was stolen on Friday, was found and dropped off in the mail by some unknown person, arriving today with all contents intact save for the credit card, which had already be canceled and is due to be replaced in about a week. Not having to recover and replace all of my other ID and cards is a major relief. Thank you, unknown kind person!
Saw a girl on the bus today. She looked exactly like Megan Fox (the chick from Transformers), except blonde and not so anorexic-y skinny. She really was exeptionally beautiful.
I also found my first grey hairs.
I’m now officially a dirty old man.
sigh
Respectfully
krise madsen
Rimbo
1569
that’s the cutest possum i’ve ever seen. (although admittedly that ain’t sayin’ much)
Chris
1570
My dad passed away Tuesday. He fought long and hard but finally everything ganged up and it was time. He was a gamer, although a bit more old school. We used to play everything from the 2600 days through Wing Commander, Their Finest Hour, Diablo, on up to his most recent favorite game, Stronghold and it’s sequels.
Condolences man. He sounds like he was an awesome guy. You were lucky to have a dad who shared a passion like that.
Chris
1572
Thanks Demon, he was at that. One of my favorite memories is playing Diablo from start to finish with him on Father’s Day. We had a blast.
ElGuapo
1573
Man, that is totally freakin’ awesome. I’m sorry for your loss.
Sorry to hear that, Chris.
JonRowe
1575
OPossums are ungodly ugly when they get older. At least the kind we have in Wisconsin.
Edit, nevermind… this is the much cuter kind.
I fucking hate the fucking airlines. I was supposed to leave this morning for Minneapolis, and one hour before I left for the airport (2.5 hours before the flight), the airline robot called to let me know that the flight had been canceled.
They have one flight available to book me on today. And that gets me in late enough that I’ll need to spend the night in Minneapolis, as will the folks I’m riding with.
Or I could leave tomorrow morning and then spend 8 hours in the airport waiting for a bus.
We’re starting to get nice weather, so I get to take my increasingly cute daughter outdoors.
Rward
1578
and they you put her in a bucket to lower down the well?
Cute kid Gallant’s!
We closed on our townhouse yesterday - we’re selling, not buying - so we’re pretty excited. We were on the market for maybe 2 weeks before we had a bunch of people interested in grabbing it. The real estate market certainly isn’t dead here! If you factor in inflation and closing costs, we about broke even on it.
In related news, we love our new house and after a month it’s starting to feel like home. Like it’s real, you know?
Well, the boats are burned now so there’s no moving back!
That hat is pretty rockstar.
Congratulations! I’m actually thinking about moving down there. In fact, I’m taking vacation at the end of August to come check the place out.
