Worrisome times

Eric has been doing better than I thought he would about losing Lee-Roy. He doesn't think he's doing so well. This came out because we had a call from his sister-in-law. I swear, his family dynamics are all screwed up. It seems like Shelly and I have to prod our husbands to be supportive to their dad. In the meantime, Eric's sister is stuck with providing all the support for their dad because she lives in a nearby town. Don and Shelly live one state away and have two girls in school.

We knew Dad M. was having symptoms of congestive heart failure. He didn't tell us a test he had showed he'd had a mild heart attack. He said he might have had one and said the doctor said he had a problem with one of his ventricles. That didn't sound right to me and my family has had a lot of heart disease so I looked it up. The ventricle is the space within the heart, not a functioning part. I'm wondering if he has a bad valve or something. It's so hard to get accurate information from any of them since I don't think most of the folks in Eric's family there saw any use in finishing high school. They don't know which words to use half the time and will say ones that sound like the one they really meant.

They're going to do an angiogram on Feb. 13th. That's Eric's birthday. It was his mother's birthday, too. Shelly is pushing Don to go because Sis is freaked out about taking Dad to the exam that day and maybe having to make difficult decisions that are legally Eric's to make. His dad has given him full power over everything when the inevitable happens. This is heavy on Eric's shoulders, especially given the distance between California and Kansas. His sister doesn't feel knowledgable enough to have the responsibility on her shoulders.

Shelly asked, on Don's behalf, for Eric to go to Kansas for this. He burst into tears and said, "It's too soon after Lee-Roy." He says ironically, his next appointment with his shrink is on the 14th. I suggested he could have his appointment sooner. After all, he pays for it out of his pocket so the insurance company has no say and he is having a rough time. That's what shrinks are for.

I checked out ticket prices. Nothing great, but there's always priceline.com. If I push myself ahead in school, I could probably miss a couple of days without a problem. I've already gotten a week ahead in my networking lab. With the shape Eric's in emotionally, I can't see sending him by himself.

Shelly can't go because her dad just had bypass surgery a few weeks ago and has to go the same day for an ultrasound.

Jonathan called last night when I was rewarding myself for finishing my homework with a voyage on puzzle pirates and as we talked I suddenly started getting IM's from either Shelly or Don. (I think it was Don) They were asking for a decision from Eric. Twice I had to tell them I was on the phone. The second time I had to tell them, "On phone. Can't multitask." Just try sailing a ship while holding a conversation and the IM window keeps taking over your computer! Eric saw my reaction of "Ack! Ack!" as I tried to find my stylus to gain control of my windows and suggested I pretend I wasn't on the computer. I do keep my status as "invisible" so I don't have these problems normally. *sigh*

Ugh. Oh no! Look at the time! Gotta scoot. I'm helping with a big NASA educational seminar for kids today.

Exhausted

This was a good day. I volunteered at the JASON project today. Since I never got a confirmation fo which day would be good from my mentor, I worked with the other intern to make sure one of us would be at work every day this week and I did my volunteer day today.

For walking in without telling them I was coming I ended up with an interesting job. A wildlife preserve had a game booth where teams of kids worked their way through a "game board" all about salinity. I was the first person to talk to them and it was my job to pump them up and make them excited to play. After four hours I was too tired to be excited anymore and the person who invented the game took over. She had given me a couple of breaks in that time too. But my voice was starting to go.

The game was one of discovery, adventure and chance. There were six sets of squares. Each set was 10 to 15 spaces long. Each set represented a different place in and around the San Francisco bay. The kids were given a one foot square box that was taped closed and had narratives on each side along with instructions to move forward so many spaces or back two. They had to read the instructions out loud to their team and follow them. The game started them in the Pacific ocean battling the giant breakers in a boat of some kind. I couldn't remember the name of that boat for the life of me and had to look at the printed script every time. In our section they had to bail water, rescue someone and sleep overnight (30 seconds) while waiting for smaller surf. At the end was a door frame with blue mylar streamers and a drawing of the Golden Gate Bridge on top of it.

In the following stations they kayaked across the bay and up a slough where they discovered two different marshes and tested the water for salinity levels. They had to build a pyramid of the food chain that had salt marshes on one side and fresh water marshes on the other. There were actual tule and pickle weed plants for the kids to touch and explore. I forgot to ask about the pickle weed. I've made pickles in the past and don't remember using any of that.

Did you know some places in the bay are saltier than the ocean? I didn't. But then, maybe I should have. I know they used to harvest salt from the salt flats.

When 2:15PM rolled around and we were dismissed, my knee was aching big time. So is my lower back and my head. My throat hurts from shouting over the roar of hundreds of kids and the amplified ukelele a lady was playing near us. Even so, I loved it and would go back if I could.

During a slow time I remembered the big black raptor I saw last week. Did I post about that? I think I forgot to. One of the buildings our group moved into is right next to the runways and has a field of grass between the parking lot and the runway itself. All the lawns in the area are filled with endangered ground squirrels. They're so cute! I parked my car facing the runway and as I got out an ENORMOUS black bird came gliding over the lawn, about six feet up. It was so close I got a really good look at it. I expected to see a red head because the only black birds I've ever seen of that size were turkey vultures but this one had the head of a hawk! WHOA! It made me wish I knew my birds better because I had no idea what kind of hawk it was. Well. the wildlife lady had an idea. She said I should consider myself very lucky because she thinks I saw a golden eagle! They're the only raptors that hunt ground squirrels because the squirrels will bite the feet of any bird that tries to pick them up so they get dropped again. Only golden eagles are big enough to have the strength in their talons to kill a ground squirrel instantly. WOW! I SAW A GOLDEN EAGLE!

Cool! She then asked me if I wanted to volunteer at their preserve and handed me a newsletter listing volunteer openings. Man, I wish I could. Maybe if I have less units next quarter I could manage it. She asked if I was coming back for the rest of the week but I had to tell her I wasn't. I think I made some new friends today!