DLand - Hang in there, Bea. I know you're tired.

Ms. Bea is in the hospital. Some of you may remember her back from Daddy Byron's passing away almost two years ago. Apparently, she complained of shortness of breath Thursday night and had a heart attack at some point that night or Friday. She's been in the intensive care unit all weekend. Her kids talk pretty doom and gloom but Mom and I are optimistic. She's 75 years old.Mom and I went to see her this afternoon. You can't stay long in the ICU and you have to call first but we figured we could double up and give her a two for one visit deal. It's been a little while since I've seen her and I was struck at how small she was. Ms. Bea is perhaps 5 feet tall in shoes. And while she's a little plump I was just so overcome by her tiny little feet. We stayed with her for about 15 minutes or so. She was sedated and had an air tube but could nod her head yes and no. I put lotion on her feet and Mom ran her fingers through her hair. She has the softest skin. In addition to her size, I was dismayed by her silence. Ms. Bea is rarely at a loss for words. Her eyes did perk up a bit when I told her when she got home I would come over so she could fuss at me for never visiting enough. But it was very sad to only hear the hiss of her oxygen and the quiet steady beat of her pulse on the machines. Daddy says that there's a three year rule. That when one half of an elderly couple dies, the other half will rarely last longer than three years after that. I can't imagine what it's like for her. Despite all of their bickering and fussing, Ms. Bea lived almost all of her life with Daddy Byron. They raised three boys in that house. Definitely a good 50 years. His absence must be overpowering at times for her. Loneliness ought to be a valid cause of death for any medical certificate. Regardless, I'm not ready for Ms. Bea to die yet. And based off our visit today, I don't think she is either.

DLand - Mic Check - Nothing Interesting Here

Testing ... testing ... is this thing on?Ok, everybody, let's give this a whirl. I have had tons of entries in my head lately. And none of them make it online. I even wrote a very long post about the PATRIOT Act but it just annoyed the crap out of me. If you want my full opinion, just ask me. But I didn't feel up to the debate at the time. Overall life has been grand these days. I've had one of two low point, but in the grand scheme of things, I'm extraordinarily happy. Mundane updates ... My windshield is being replaced on the Mini because they cracked it while installing my roof rack (it's a very cute roof rack, by the way). Unfortunately, my rain sensing windshield is like the Rosetta Stone of BMW parts so it's taken them a week to get the part ordered. Ah, well. It will be nice and clean and beautiful once I get it back. Work has improved steadily. It's still busy as all hell, but we all seem to be getting along really well and that has made vast improvements all around the office. I haven't spent a weekend at home in over a month. Needless to say my poor little car has quite a few miles on it. Picked up my power kite from Jeremy's house on Friday. Need to check the lines and then hopefully use it maybe this weekend. It's the perfect time of year for it. I've been watching a hell of a lot of hockey lately. Between Rich's playoffs and the Leafs winning last night in second overtime, I feel like I dream games in my head now. It was painful to watch Jeremy Roenick wallop Mogilney in the kisser, though. I was pissed the Flyers were whupping up on our top scorer, but found it hard for Roenick to do any wrong in my eyes. He's like the second dreamiest hockey player in the universe. Ok, lunchtime is over and it's back to the mines. Hopefully I'll have some more insightful info soon.

DLand - Trying to Keep My Priorities Straight

I'm just ... weary. But I don't want to talk about why. It's the same story about work, only a different day.I want to talk about the great times I've been having when I'm not at work. It's hard to know where to start. I could list all the neat stuff I've been working on. How I'm feeling good because my own medieval hobby life is shaping up the way I'd like. I'm making good progress on the pavilion. I'm going to teach a class on hosen. I've come up with some ideas for the Oak newsletter that get me all jazzed. So I've been getting lots of good SCA vibes - at least in my tiny corner of the medieval universe. I try to ignore the crappy things going on that I don't like. I've been spending a lot more time around good friends. It's quite a joy. I've had several weekends now where Sunday night I lie in bed thinking “holy crap, what a great weekend. It doesn't get any better than this.” It's the closest I've come to using an ostensibly religious word like “blessed”. Makes me think about the ficticious city of Coolville - where all of your dear friends and family live within 10 miles of each other. It would have to have mountains and oceans and tall buildings and dense forests to make every one of our friends happy. But if Coolville could exist, man it would kick ass. Spring began on Friday and it really did seem like perfect timing. It was more than just the weather but like a fresh start or the beginning of a new season. The weekend was full of great memories. Playing video games that scared the crap out of me where boys yelled “nice shot, Pussyfoot” at me. Riding around in the sun with my bare feet on the dashboard. Desperately trying to convince Jake to cut her hair and dye it red while Kevin was at the event fighting. Calling Jason just to tell him I missed him. Reading BBC news reports out loud in the car. Starting an extremely intense discussion in the car with Rich about the nature of the Order of the Rose as a Peerage. Showing up to Corby and Thjora's in time to cuddle Regan then cuddle a bottle of merlot. Wearing Susie's WAY TALL shoes and not falling on my ass. Being too drunk to take care of myself and having someone there to take care of me. Falling asleep Sunday afternoon with the sun on my skin. Having far too complicated debates about comic book characters. Eating dinner with so many friends. Falling asleep curled up like a kitten after a long day of chasing string. I can see that my work week now is spent thinking about what the next weekend brings. I much prefer that to spending the weekend worrying about what the next work week brings.