halfbrown's posterous

Dancing Outside of a Restaurant

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 18:40:39 -0800

The title says it all. With a 35 minute wait for a table we have to entertain ourselves. Our 5 year old is a nut. Clearly he's my son. :)

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First session at @in_nw

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 09:38:32 -0800

Excited to start the day here! There's good info being pumped out an we've just begun!

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New rear window means new stickers.

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:57:44 -0800

This is my favorite one. :)

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KISS Army

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 20:35:00 -0800

The year was 1977, maybe '78. The place was Guam. The child in the picture is me. Proud member of the KISS Army. What I wouldn't give to have that little plastic guitar today...

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Look what I woke up to this morning!

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:22:47 -0800

Some jackass decided it would be a good idea to smash out a dozen car windows in our neighborhood, and I was one of chosen ones. That's just what I need. *sigh*

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Trying to sort out my hiking gear.

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:56:05 -0800

I'm hoping to do some more hiking this year since I didn't do much in 2011. I've got to go through everything, get rid of expired items (med stuff, etc.), and fix or clean anything that needs it. Also, I need to get a new tent.

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I love my mother, but...

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 08:59:00 -0800

... the woman is clearly insane. :) OK, maybe not insane, but I think all of this lung transplant stuff she's going through is starting to affect her mind.

This is a "mostly accurate, though not exactly verbatim" conversation we had last night as I drove her home:

Me: Well we could ask Dawn M. to help out.

Mom: Who?

Me: Dawn M. Our old neighbor. It doesn't matter, I was joking anyhow.

Mom: Who?

Me: The lady that lived across the street from us when I was in high shool. She had a little girl and a husband who died not too long after dad.

Mom: Oh, I thought you said "Don", and I was wondering who Don is, because I don't know a Don.

Me: Um, yeah, I said "Dawn".

Mom: Right, but I don't know a Don. I thought you were talking about a man, because you said it like D-O-N, but you said "Dawn" like D-A-W-N.

Me: But... they're phonetically identical. I've never heard anyone pronounce them differently. They sound exactly the same.

Mom: No they're not. They sound totally different. One is "Dawn", and the other is "Don".

Me: Are you messing with me?

Mom: No. They sound nothing alike.

Me: OK, well we have to stop this conversation, because I don't speak "Crazy".

Mom: Don't be an asshole.

Me: Ha-ha!

Yes, she was completely serious. She started trying to emphasize the "w" in "Dawn", and that's just silly. I've never ever heard anyone do that before.

And yes, that is a picture of me, my mom, and my dad circa 1977 in Long Beach, California. See why I'm "halfbrown"? :)

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Leave the Dr. Walk at the crosswalk when it's our turn. Silver Lexus damn near hits my son & I. Time to leave Puyallup.

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:26:37 -0800

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...At home!!!

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 13:10:00 -0800

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Rough afternoon for us at @Mary_Bridge

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:31:40 -0800

This post may have some TMI, so consider yourself warned.

As some of you know, our youngest boy had surgery yesterday to fix a problem with his bladder. The surgery itself went well, and now "T" and I are staying at Mary Bridge Children's Hospital in Tacoma for a few days as he recovers.

Today started off pretty well. T seemed in good spirits, but by about 1:30PM he started to hurt. Between the catheter and the surgical site, coupled with a lower dosage in the epidural, he couldn't fight back the pain as bravely as he had been. And he's tough for a 5 1/2 year old. This is the same kid who cracked his head open last year and took 3 staples to the noggin without batting an eye.

Oh, he tried to play it off at first, but a parent knows when something isn't right. Five minutes later... Waterworks. Big time. And of course it was when all the nursing staff was busy, so he had to wait about 10 minutes before anyone could check on him.

That's the worst part as a parent, not being able to do anything but hold his hand, kiss his forehead, and try to reassure him that help is on its way. (But not knowing *when* it will come) It's hard to keep your cool when your littlest one is howling in pain and there's nothing you can do to help. I'm an Aries, we're action takers, but in this situation I'm effectively neutered, so it's doubly worse inside my head.

Luckily our nurse, Amy, was able to break away from her other chore and get to T. He wanted to use the bathroom, but once he got out of the bed the pain hit a new high and didn't stop. So there we are, Amy and I, trying to wrangle him onto a toilet with a bajillion wires coming off of him, and all the moving and streching is taking its toll. And that's when the worst fear and pain of all hits him.

I won't get too explicit, but let's just say blood isn't supposed to come out of certain places and it freaked his freak. The nurse and I were both a concerned, to say the least, but we knew we had to fight through it. We finally got T back in bed, but not without a lot of tears and begging me to make the owies go away, and other words you don't want to hear your child ever say again because you, too, just want to magically make it all go away. Any parent would gladly make a deal with the devil just to make it all better in those moments.

I'm happy to report, however, that after all that, the pain started to subside and he slumped down in the bed and took a much needed nap. (Which is where the attached picture came from) And instead of breaking down in front of him, I blog about it, because the last thing he needs is to see his father crying.

Doctors and nurses keep coming in, checking on him, and telling me everything is OK, so I'll just continue sitting next to him and keeping him as comfortable as possible. And crossing my fingers and hoping we'll be home for Christmas.

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