Tuesday, May 15, 2012

oh heart, i just died in your arms tonight

So far so good with my dad - he got out of the ICU this afternoon, and has been walking and sitting up as ordered. This is all v. good news, obvi, so we're all pretty happy with that. I won the 'stay at the hospital overnight' lottery for tonight, so I'm holed up in a chair beside his bed, which isn't that bad since the chair can lie down flat and I have a pillow and a blanket for some modicum of comfort...

But today started back home, where I woke up at 6:15 and was just as surly and bitter as I always am at 6:15, which was unfortunate for [censored] since he was trying to talk to me and I was having none of it. But a long shower and some Philz Coffee (thank goodness for French presses and for planning ahead by bringing coffee with me) somewhat revived me, and I was on the road by 8:20ish. I brought my dad's truck up to Des Moines, which was a grand adventure; he drives a gigantic diesel crewcab, which is approximately a million times bigger than my RAV4. I had to wait to leave until my brother unloaded the various tings that could be stolen out of the back end, none of which I would have seen any value in (a pitchfork, a log chain, a shovel, etc., but apparently log chains are like $60 - who knew?). But the truck has adjustable pedals, which meant that I could bring the pedals closer to me rather than moving the seat so far forward that I risked decapitating myself with the airbag -- really, I should probably get adjustable pedals on all my vehicles, since I'm pretty sure an airbag is more likely to kill me than anything else.

As was the case with last night, the drive went totally fine but I failed the bonus round. In this case, the bonus round was putting diesel in my dad's truck -- I successfully remembered to get diesel instead of gas, and to get clear road diesel rather than red farm diesel (not a problem in San Francisco, but red diesel is for off-road farm use only and costs less due to lower taxes, but is dyed red so they can catch you if you're using it for road purposes). But the gas tank is approximately level with my breastbone and the diesel hose is significantly larger/longer than a regular gas hose, so it was pretty unwieldy to pump -- so much so that when I was trying to hang the nozzle back up at the end, the guy on the other side offered to just take it from me rather than watching me look like a tiny idiot. Sigh.

sssanyway, I made it back up to the hospital around ten a.m. and spent the rest of the day trading off with my mom, hanging out with my dad, typing on my ipad (jhoke), and getting hyped up at the hospital Starbucks. But now, I really must sleep -- I'm exhausted. Goodnight!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

So glad you dad is doing well. I just find your posts so darn funny and witty, even the most mundane things such as driving a truck or fill the gas make me laugh! Keep the posts going!