:: George's Blog ::

:: Saturday, November 13, 2004 ::

Today would have been my dad's 77th birthday ... so, Happy Birthday, Pud!

Melissa was hired by Cendant in Parsippany and started her new job on Friday, November 12th.

:: George Jones 8:15 PM [+] ::
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Uncle Don died today at St. Mary's Regional Medical Center in Lewiston, Maine at 1:15 am. The hospital web site is: http://www.stmarysmaine.com/

Melissa and I joined Susan and Sarah Smith in travelling to Maine in Susan's company car, a 2004 Jeep Liberty. The Liberty may be a fine vehicle, but it should not be anyone's first choice for any trip exceeding 20 miles. It was uncomfortable and rode hard - it does not seem to be very far removed from the Jeep Wrangler in terms of sophistication.

Anyway, the trip took us about 3 hours since we didn't make a single stop. We found our way to the hospital despite the lack of signage - apparently, road signs are not much of a priority in the great state of Maine. There was a solitary hospital sign at the end of the exit - but that was it. Fortunately, Sue had been there the two weeks earlier so she had an idea of where to go.

Of course, just finding the hospital didn't mean we had actually found Don. We entered the hospital in search of the hospice, but were directed across the street to a large brick building that is actually a convalescent home. The front desk of the convalescent home had no record of Don so we were left to call Pauline for guidance. It took a good 15 minutes standing in the chilly outdoors before Pauline arrived to collect us.

Don was up on the 2nd floor and that is where we finally met Paul, Pauline's son. Paul is about as delightful a human being as you would ever find and I liked him immediately - we all did.

Seeing Don for the first time was a shock. His mouth was agog and he was unintelligible. He was lucid to be sure, but he couldn't articulate words. Clearly, he was in pain - and it was distressing to see this. Sue, Sarah, and Melissa all kissed Don's head before I took my turn. I leaned over and asked if he was tired of people kissing his head. He shook his head and said no as best he could. We eventually left him alone with Susan and joined Paul and Pauline for a trip to the cafeteria.

We stayed at the hospital until about 3-3:30 pm and left to return to Connecticut.
:: George Jones 5:08 PM [+] ::
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Got the results of my physical this past week. My blood pressure is 130/80 - which is higher than it has been in the past - as is my cholesterol count at 231. My pulse rate is 80 - again, higher than it has ever been. The extra 40 lbs. I've been carrying around since 1999 is having its effect.

:: George Jones 7:18 PM [+] ::
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Last weekend I traveled into NYC to help Bill and Anita Baraw move Billy into his new apartment. Billy will have several roommates: Doug (from Canada), Ken, and Nikki (from California).

The move was an absolute ball-buster. The temps were in the teens and the apartment was on the fourth floor without a fucking elevator in sight. A couple of trips up those goddamn stairs carrying furniture just about killed me - at one point I thought I was going to absolutely collapse. I actually did sort of collapse - had to spend some time sitting in the living room catching my breath.

Still, everything did get moved - and Bill and Anita did all they could to make the apartment livable for Billy and friends. They didn't leave until 8pm which made for a long day - they started at 9am - in NYC.
:: George Jones 6:20 PM [+] ::
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Christ is it cold! The temps, according to the news shows this morning, ranged from zero degrees to as high as 3. With the wind chill the temps are -20 degrees Farenheight.

This morning I learned that while I had hot water at the sink, I had none in the shower. I've been boiling water and tossing it against the front wall of the shower in the hopes that the radiated heat will resolve what it likely an ice log jam somewhere south of the apartment. I've been at this for a couple of hours now with no real success.

I called and reported the problem to the Oakwood Village management office.

We had another episode with Oscar earlier this week. Melissa took him to the vet the other day for a full exam. The vet prescribed antibiotics and some new food. We've switched him to the new food and injecting antibiotic pills into his mouth twice a day now since that visit.
:: George Jones 8:13 AM [+] ::
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I left work yesterday at about 12:30pm because the snow was starting to fly and the Impala has, essentially, bald tires on the rear. Even with 150 lbs. of added weight in the trunk - plus a full tank of gas - I still had trouble getting up the small hill from the northeast parking lot at work. The ride home was worrisome; there was no telling when the rear of the car might step-out on me. Thankfully, I made it home with no mishaps.

The wind is really starting to pick up outside. We are expecting blizzard conditions today and a total snowfall in the range of 10-15". It looks like there is about a half-foot of now out there now.

Courntey is in Florida with Dawn, Rick, and Rick's daughter Tiffany. Dawn humiliated Courtney by announcing that her feet smelled badly and made her get new sneakers while at DisneyWorld. This is just one more in a lifelong history of Dawn making Courntey miserable.

I spoke to Lyndsey the other night; she told me that the poem she read us at our wedding reception was included in a book of poetry. Unfortunately, the book is not commercially available other than via www.poetry.com - sugesting this "acceptance" of her work is nothing but a sales tool. I suggested that Lyndsey submit a remarkably bad poem to see if it gets "accepted".

We had a trial with Oscar on Wednesday morning. Melissa woke up and found Oscar wasn't in bed with us. Then she noticed numerous nickel-sized spots of cat-shit all over the place. She found Oscar out in the living room moaning and trying to crap himself every few steps.

Melissa bundled Oscar into a large towel like a papoose and off we went to the emergency veterinarian clinic in Randolph. It was 4:30 am.

At the veterinary clinic Steve and, ultimately, Dr. Holland treated Oscar to an enema which seemed to prety much do the trick. We got Oscar back home at nearly 6:30 am - and then I went off to work. Oscar spent the better part of the next 2 days either under the bed, or under the covers on the bed.

Well, it is Saturday now and Oscar seems to be pretty much himself. He is a little bit mellower than he was before all of this started, but otherwise seems as healthy and lazy as he was before.
:: George Jones 8:17 AM [+] ::
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Thanksgiving was great this year. It was held at the Baraw's because mom has become a bit too weak and tired for all of that cooking.

I picked up Billy Baraw and his friend Doug at the Port Imperial ferry landing in Weehauken so that I wouldn't have to drive into Manhattan and possibly get stuck in all of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade preparations which, as it turns out, was occurring a few blocks from where Doug and Billy live. Anyway, the trip to Connecticut was a lot of fun - the boys always have interesting adventures to report, none of which should be spoken of here. Nyuck-nyuck.

The food at the Baraw's was unbelievably good. There was a lot of laughter and I think everyone had a great time.

I brought Doug and Bill back to NYC on Sunday, 11/31. The ride back was great, too. I stopped at Anthony's in Rocky Hill so we could load up on grinders and soda for the trip.
:: George Jones 8:24 PM [+] ::
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Last night we went to dinner with Bob and Irene Lewer at Redwood's restaurant in Chester, NJ. The food was fabulous.

The weather has turned colder so it looks like true fall is starting to settle in. We had a small emergency here in the apartment; the absence of hot water in the bathtub caused the expected concern. Fortunately, the on-call guy at Oakwood Village was able to fix the control valve and we now have hot water.

:: George Jones 10:43 AM [+] ::
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