Wake me up when September ends

This is the car that rear ended Justin TODAY.

This is the back of the RENTAL CAR Justin was driving at the time.

It was one of those moments where you’re stopped in traffic, look in the rear-view mirror and say out loud: Oh, that car isn’t going to stop.

And it doesn't.

Thankfully, everyone is OK (again), though Justin’s neck is a bit more sore this time.

In the words of Green Day, wake me up when September ends.

A Tale of Two Mazdas

It's a good thing we have only two cars.

I'm not sure how many more stress knots our backs can handle.

And I'm also sure that our insurance representative wouldn't answer the phone if she saw our number pop up again.

Over the course of two Fridays, last Friday, Sept. 10th, and yesterday, Sept. 17th, we've managed to send both of our rides, the Mazda 3 and the Mazda Tribute, to the Mazda repair shop. Thankfully, only the cars had to go to the hospital. Neither one of us or the other drivers did.

This is the Mazda 3 that Justin was driving Friday, Sept. 10th:


He got front-end T-boned by a gal with a learner's permit, who was accompanied by someone with a suspended license, as she turned to cross 4 lanes of traffic, only to find that not all the lanes had stopped to let her through. The impact, which wasn't at a high rate of speed, thank goodness, pushed the car up and onto a curb and into a pole. The other side of the car had a flat tire and the bumper is bent out a bit.

Outside damage doesn't look too bad, but there are a few things to deal with inside. Thankfully, Justin left without a scratch, as did the two ladies. He was just a bit sore for a few days.

This is the Mazda tribute that was parked innocently on the side of the road on Friday, Sept. 17th, while I was working away inside the store.

I would like to point out that I had in fact parked within the real parking lines, so the Tribute was pushed up a good 4 feet or so, with the emergency brake on.

A fellow apparently ran into the Mazda. Some of the store employees heard it, saw the truck leave, and came inside to deliver the bad news. We all assumed it would have been a hit and run, but the fellow came back, we chatted and he left again to go get his insurance info.

In the meantime I called the PD to ask for someone to come by in the event we needed a case report or something. The kind officer simply facilitated the exchange of our information, said she enjoyed shopping at our store, and then went about her business.

We had the Tribute towed to the fix-it place because the damage was near the gas tank and things had been pushed up near the tire and I wasn't too comfortable with the idea of driving it over to the East Bay to our friendly repairman.

So now Justin and I each have a rental car. He has a silver Ford Fusion and I have a blue Nissan Altima. By the way, State Farm and Grange Insurance have been wonderful to work with during these events.

It's been a fun ride. No pun intended. We're just thankful all drivers involved are ok!

Oh the 17th

Though it's technically the 18th, I, along with a few others, think of the 17th as the day we lost Matt. It was the 17th in the U.S., but the 18th in Iraq.

I miss you so much, Tiller!!

(Matilda is what I used to call Matt from time to time. I eventually shortened to Tiller, and he would answer to it, so it stuck!)

Today is also Steven's birthday. Miss you too, bud!

Chronicles of the Open Hearted

Dad's recovery is still going quite well and we are so thankful! Overall, he was in good spirits in the hospital and as I said in an earlier post, dad sure does know how to butter up the nurses! He even got some of the most hardcore, tough-as-nails nurses to warm up to him after a while. I have a feeling that doesn't happen too often.

Dad moved from the ICU to a general recovery floor after a few days so we were able to go to and from his room more freely. (The ICU is kept locked and you have to buzz in and out, asking for permission each time. And I'm glad they do -- you don't want just anyone walking into the ICU.) He had a few more visitors once he was in his new room, including this lovely lady:

She was a gift from my mom's ladies group. She kept the nursing staff entertained, too, but after a day we had to take her home because dad kept startling himself when he'd wake up and see a near-naked lady at the foot of his bed!

The day before dad went home, it was just the two of us in his room as mom went to work. In between his naps and pain pills, or over lunch, we'd chat about this and that, and there were a couple topics that dominated our conversations (pain pills may loosen your lips, but they do not enhance memory). One topic being the material on TV these days, and the other being the hospital food.

Every once in a while, dad would flip through the TV stations, find something somewhat interesting, and then doze off. When he'd wake up, the show had since changed or he had pushed a button in his sleep, so he'd usually wake up wondering how in the world he'd ended up watching a strange cartoon or why he had settled on BET or the TLC network. His just out-of-a-nap confused look was usually coupled with, "There really isn't anything good on TV these days, is there. We have all the channels in the world and there isn't anything decent on here!" Which was usually followed by "Zzzzzzzz."

The other topic, the food, was always good for a laugh. I think that knowing he'd soon have to follow my mom's new heart-healthy diet on a regular basis, made the flavorless hospital food that much more flavorless. Right before they brought him lunch the day before we went home, he started singing:

"I love non-fat food
I love non-fat food
I hate hamburgers
I love turkey burgers
I hate pizza
I love Mrs. Dash, even though it tastes like the dust from the air after I've mowed the orchard.
Boooo Hoooo!"

Then he offered me his minestrone soup saying, "Chris, do you want my soup? It doesn't have any flavor, I'm sure. I mean, they don't put any salt in anything in this place. I haven't had enough salt in the last 4 days to give a slug a backache!"

So I ate his soup. He was right about the no salt, too.

We got him home without a hitch on Tuesday the 31st. Here's a pic of our guy in the car on the way home, all strapped in with his heart pillow.

It was wonderful to be home during his first few days out of the hospital. I helped get his medications organized and made sure he did what the doctors wanted him to do daily (take his medication, write down his weight & temperature, practice his lung expansion machine, etc.). He slept most of the time, so I just sat at the opposite end of the living room doing my work and paying close attention to any changes in his breathing, waking him up and asking if he was hungry or needed another pain pill.

Aside from the pain pill part, I'm sure this is similar to what one does the first week home with a newborn.

Eating was the tricky part, simply because the doctor said he can eat whatever for the first week or so as he heals, but mom has mostly heart-healthy food in the house, and I didn't feel right slathering butter on a piece of white bread for a man who just had 5 bypasses. Eventually, we did find a few things to eat that rode the fence in terms of health and he was a happy camper, especially after mom brought home Kaiser rolls so dad didn't have to eat the "14-grain bread that smelled like what I used to feed the steers on the farm." :)

I had more of an appetite than dad did the first few days home, and during his naps I found my mind preoccupied by a bag of Cheetos I'd spotted earlier in the week in the "candy drawer." I sat there and stewed about them for the better part of his second day home, thinking about how it wouldn't be nice of me to sit in front of a heart patient and munch on a bag of Cheetos.

It got to a point where I told myself it would be better for everyone if I, the one person in the house who had not had open heart surgery, ate the Cheetos.

Plus, I'd gotten to the point where I swore I could hear Chester Cheeta calling my name, so I tip-toed into the kitchen to rescue the orange delights.

I opened the bag as I walked from the kitchen back to the living room...I couldn't be bothered with waiting until I was reseated...but wouldn't you know it, I was overcome with excitement and opened the bag using too much force, which sent the Cheetos flying all over the dining room.

Serves me right :)

I ate them anyway.

Then I swept and mopped the kitchen and dining room floors that night.

Besides that, by the time I went home, I'd proven myself as a bona fide nurse for ol' pops and he let me sign his heart pillow...on the side he reserved for hospital staff only :)

On Sunday the 5th we left for home. Justin had been able to rearrange his vacation schedule so he was in Washington the same week I was, but just on the other side of the state visiting his family. He drove over to Grandview on Friday the 3rd, helped with a few odds and ends, like mowing part of the orchard and rewiring the TV/stereo, and then we drove back to California together.

We've been back for a week and a bit now, but I'd really rather be playing nurse and eating sneakily Cheetos in a dark corner of my parents' house.

Thank you all again for your prayers and well wishes :) As I said, Dad is healing well, but his legs, where they "harvested" the veins for the bypasses, are giving him a bit of pain. The legs bothered mom, too, as the blood and veins have to reroute themselves after they're removed, so not only are the incisions a bit painful, the insides of his legs are in pain as well, but they'll get better!