The past few days have been full of excitement – some parts
better than others. It all started on Thursday, the day before my doctoral
defense. My parents and the kids were set to come up that afternoon to install
a new door and do some general fix-it things around the house. Instead,
Wednesday night my mom felt ill and ended up spending the night in the ER.
After several tests, the doctors determined it was her gall bladder and that it
needed to come out right away. She went right into surgery Thursday evening and
stayed in the hospital until Friday. With dad not being able to talk, Kevin and
I alerted the masses and were able to get the family on board pretty quickly.
Then, Friday morning was my doctoral defense - I passed! I gave this event its
own post.
After a few more meetings I had my car packed and was ready to head to FL to see mom and try to take a little break from school. On my way between school and the house I stopped at Brendan’s and as soon as I got out of the car I hear all of the air spewing out of my rear tire – it went flat! After Brendan changed the tire in the 1000 degree heat I headed over to Goodyear to get a new one. I decided not to travel at night and postpone my drive for Saturday. Then, Saturday I got up and started my drive to FL. About half way down, my car overheats! I pull over, add water to the radiator and reservoir and continue my drive. It continued to run hot all the way home and I had to stop several times. It took me almost 2 extra hours to get home. I was hot but poor Tank was in the car with me and he was really suffering. Every time I stopped to put water in the car I had to get him some water too. Needless to say we made it home safe and I will be taking one of my parents’ cars back to Athens when I leave.
Mom is doing well, recovery seems to be pretty quick and she is in very little pain. Dad is also doing well. He doesn't have a voice but I think he is pretty easy to understand. Maybe I just know him well enough to be able to predict what he would say. I also try to always find food that he can eat and so far this trip I've found re-fried beans, guacamole, butterscotch pudding (one of our favorite flavors), mandarin chicken, chow mein noodles, and beef/broccoli.
Here's a video of dad telling Dewey to do tricks. It is pretty impressive to watch Dewey respond even though dad can't talk. One of Dewey's go-to responses is to howl when dad wants him to do a trick but funny enough, dad can't 'speak', Dewey doesn't either!
After a few more meetings I had my car packed and was ready to head to FL to see mom and try to take a little break from school. On my way between school and the house I stopped at Brendan’s and as soon as I got out of the car I hear all of the air spewing out of my rear tire – it went flat! After Brendan changed the tire in the 1000 degree heat I headed over to Goodyear to get a new one. I decided not to travel at night and postpone my drive for Saturday. Then, Saturday I got up and started my drive to FL. About half way down, my car overheats! I pull over, add water to the radiator and reservoir and continue my drive. It continued to run hot all the way home and I had to stop several times. It took me almost 2 extra hours to get home. I was hot but poor Tank was in the car with me and he was really suffering. Every time I stopped to put water in the car I had to get him some water too. Needless to say we made it home safe and I will be taking one of my parents’ cars back to Athens when I leave.
Mom is doing well, recovery seems to be pretty quick and she is in very little pain. Dad is also doing well. He doesn't have a voice but I think he is pretty easy to understand. Maybe I just know him well enough to be able to predict what he would say. I also try to always find food that he can eat and so far this trip I've found re-fried beans, guacamole, butterscotch pudding (one of our favorite flavors), mandarin chicken, chow mein noodles, and beef/broccoli.
Here's a video of dad telling Dewey to do tricks. It is pretty impressive to watch Dewey respond even though dad can't talk. One of Dewey's go-to responses is to howl when dad wants him to do a trick but funny enough, dad can't 'speak', Dewey doesn't either!
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