More on Dad

Tuesday evening I went up to the hospital to visit Dad. There were several others there which was nice. I'm sure he was glad to have the company. I chatted with my sister yesterday (Wednesday) and she said that he had slept fairly well Tuesday night, and that the doctors have determined that there are no neck and spinal injuries. They did another chest x-ray and have found that more fluid is building up on his lungs. They said they will probably do an epidural so that he can breathe more deeply and be able to cough, etc. to get rid of the fluid. They also had to start giving him some blood pressure meds as whenever he would blow in the little device to determine lung strength, his blood pressure would rise. Due to the extra lung fluid, he was kept an extra night in the ICU unit room.

My son had a rough day at school yesterday. He had brought home a Social Studies study paper he filled out to help him with a test he is having today (Thursday). He didn't know he had to return it to school on Wednesday, and we had him leave it at home so he wouldn't lose it and we could study with it. Well, he brings home a note from the teacher (he has a different Social Studies teacher than his normal teacher), stating that he will lose 50% of the grade on the study paper since he didn't bring it in AND she made him sit out in the hall during the Social Studies hour because she didn't want him hearing the answers to the study sheet questions as she didn't think he had it filled in. He was pretty upset all evening and so my wife stayed home with him from church last night going over it all and studying. Kind of a bite as he was going to get the Royal Ranger of the Month award last night at church. Oh well, guess it helps introduce him to responsibility and a small thing called... LIFE.

I finally got my maintenance installed for that mainframe application we've been having problems with. I dialed in from home at 5am this morning to install it in the production system after running it in our test environment most of yesterday.

It's also my second to last Casual Day today. Tomorrow is payday and our last Casual Day. I'll miss 'em.

Blessings!

Update on Dad

Finally got a hold of my sister and she said that my Dad is okay, but is in a lot of pain. He's currently in the surgical ICU unit at the hospital with some broken ribs and possibly fluid on the lungs. They want to keep him in the hospital for a few days to make sure pneumonia doesn't set it since he can't really cough. He said that he doesn't remember anything about the accident. He said he was waiting to make a left turn at the intersection and the next thing he remembers is waking up at the hospital. Reports say that he was involved in a five car accident. Mom says he's lucky to be alive after seeing the car (which was totaled). Thanks for your prayers.

Blessings to you!

From Bad to Worse

This week isn't going so well. But first, let's start with the weekend review. Saturday, I mowed the yard and reseeded quite a bit of the backyard that had died during our Summer drought. We've been getting some good light rains, so I hope that helps get things growing again. Sunday, was pretty much the normal routine except this was my week off in the TV ministry, so I got to sit with my lovely wife. Okay, we've got that out of the way now.

Monday afternoon, one of the mainframe application products I support abended (abnormally terminated) twice! A simple recycle of the product brought it back up, but there are no guarantees that it will continue to run. I contacted the support center and they have identified some PTFs (fixes) for me to apply.

Today, I got the fixes downloaded, but I'm having problems getting them applied due to it needing some older maintenance that I can no longer get. I'm working with the support center, but it's just taking awhile and getting frustrating.

Now, on top of that, I get an IM from my brother-in-law that my dad has been in a car accident. He said he was okay, but he wanted me to contact my mom. I've been trying to call her cell phone and her home phone and I can't get ahold of anyone. Please say a quick prayer for my dad incase this is serious. Thanks.

Blessings!

Slow week... but it's Friday!

Alas, it is Friday once again! It's been a pretty quiet and slow week. Not much to report except for the pretty wicked storms we had earlier in the week. There is going to be a Viking battle re-enactment at a local park this weekend. It sounds pretty cool as they said they will be using real weapons (blunted of course), along with volleys of real arrows! Sounds neat. Not sure if we'll be able to make it or not as my wife mentioned that she really didn't care to see it. Um... Maybe I can take my son and go. My wife really wanted to get together with a few girl-friends tomorrow for a brunch, but the first girl she asked couldn't make it so she cancelled it (basically she didn't ask the others yet.) So, I guess we'll have to try to find something fun to do (Viking battles sound fun to me! Ha!).

Yesterday was the first day of Autumn. Hurricane Rita is about to hit landfall in Texas. Massive evacuations are clogging highways and it sounds like another mess. Levees have already broken in New Orleans again too from all the rain. Please be praying for all those folks down there.

Blessings!

Just Another Wednesday

Monday night we had another really bad storm rip through the area. Heavy rain, strong winds and LOTS of lightening. It seemed like two storms actually. One came through and I thought it was pretty much over. Then it seemed to pick up again as another system came through. There were reports of funnel cloud formations in a nearby town, so it was a pretty scary night for awhile. Everything turned out okay for us, but there was power outages and some trees down in town.

Tuesday night, I had a church board meeting which thankfully went real smooth and didn't last too long. My family went to the local nature conservation center as they were having some kid programs. So it worked out that they had something to do while I was gone.

I forgot my lunch today, so I went to the cafeteria and got a Taco Salad. It was actually pretty good. Maybe I subconsciously forgot my lunch cause I knew today was taco salad day... :-) My wife got the car inspected, oil changed and tires rotated today as the license renewal is next month. Hopefully everything passed okay... After work I go get my haircut. It's a little overdue as I called for my appointment too late and had to wait an extra week.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot... Right before lunch we had a fire in the building. Well, kind of... actually, not really, but the alarms did go off and everyone had to evacuate. The weather is pretty nice today, so I don't think anyone minded. Too much... :-)

Got church tonight. We're still having computer problems there with our main editing computer. I think one of the video harddrives is going bad. We're working with our dealer to figure out the problem. We're getting a little behind in our editing and I guess I'm getting a little frustrated with all of it. :-)

Blessings!

Weekend Recap

Friday night was our big date night. The baby sitter showed up right at 5:30pm and we were off to Applebee's soon after. We had ordered pizza for the kids and the sitter so they were taken care of too. While we were waiting for our food, a good friend of mine who I hadn't seen in a long time came into the restaurant with his family who were celebrating his dad's birthday. It was so nice to see him and his wife. When the waitress brought our food out, she hit my soda glass and it spilled all over the table. Thankfully I didn't get any soda on me!!

After dinner we headed on over to the theatre to see the play "Merry Go Round." It was about the lives of five people who met in kindergarten. They pinky-promised to meet at the playground every 25 years for a reunion. The play ended with the people now in their 80's... It had a lot of humor in it, but it also showed how we really cherish the important things in our lives.

Saturday we had the most excellent weather. We headed to a nearby town to attend the Hertiage Festival. They had Lewis & Clark stuff, authentic Indian dancing (by real South Dakota Indians), crafts, wares, and a 1890 "town" setting. We had a nice time looking at all the stuff, and one older gentleman performed an old-time puppet show for our kids. After we got home, I mowed the yard and also planted some grass seed in a few areas that got scorched during this summer's heat wave.

Sunday, at work they were putting a new version of our mainframe's operating system. There was a network problem and I was getting a few calls before church. I dropped off the family at church and then had to come in to work. We finally got it working after an hour and made it back to church without missing too much. We were suppose to have our annual church picnic Sunday afternoon, but because of the forecast of all day rain, the pastor cancelled it. After the morning rain shower we had, it stayed pretty much sunny the rest of the day. :-) Oh well, we had a nice evening at home.

Blessings!

Date Night!

Tonight I've got a hot date with my lovely wife... And it's almost free! Gonna be using my Applebee's gift card I received back when I did the last Missionettes Honor Star videos. After dinner, we're headed to the theatre to watch a play. Someone in our church bought all the seats and invited everyone at church to come (there's only 134 seats at this theatre, so first come first served... we got our reservations in early!). The only cost of this date will be the babysitter and pizza for her and the kids. Nights out with the lady and no kids are far and few between...

Hey, and it's Friday... can it get any better than that? :-) (Well, only if it was a three day weekend.... ha!)

Blessings!

Big Storm

About 9pm last night, we had a really bad storm come through the area. Very high winds and lots of rain. Power was out to about 10,000 city residents (we didn't lose power thankfully!). Quite a few trees where down around town too. Lots of lighting and thunder too...

My son had tests today in Science and Social Studies. Due to that, we were studying with him quite a bit last night. It's either being in 5th grade, or due to being in this new school, but there is sure a lot more homework and they are pretty tough on the grading for tests/quizzes. He scored a 12/13 on a Social Studies quiz and got a 'B.' On a math test last week, those that didn't get an 'A' had to take the test over again. Ouch! As I'm writing this, his school day is over, so I wonder how he did... Guess I'll find out pretty soon... :-) Tomorrow, he has another math test... Friday is his weekly spelling test and memory work.

Blessings!

Tired... Need Sleep....

Ugh... Our 3 year old daughter woke up at 3am this morning and come down to our room and woke us up. Thought she might have to go potty, but she wouldn't even try. She won't stay in her room by herself until she goes to sleep, so I finally had to go up there and lay in her room until she went back to sleep. I didn't get back into bed until 4:15am. I was surprised that she woke up again a little after 7am while we were eating breakfast.

I started work on a new client's website today. It is for a lighting and sound company. Got a rough draft done on the front main page and now just waiting for their approval.

Getting some rain this afternoon/evening... And after today, a cool front is passing through and we'll be getting highs around 80 for the rest of the week.... Nice!

Blessings!

MONDAY!

UGH! It's Monday already... Where did the weekend go? :-)

As I mentioned in my last post, my son attended a sleep-over birthday party for one of his friends. That was kind of nice only having one child for the evening. We were able to put her to bed and my wife and I got to finally watch a movie that wasn't a cartoon or one with puppets in it.

Saturday, my wife went to have her hair done and go grocery shopping, so I had a little "father/daughter" time with my little girl. We spent about 2 hours outside that morning swinging and playing in the sandbox. Had to give Sam our dog a little attention too. :-) That afternoon, after my wife picked up our son from the birthday party, I went out and mowed the yard.

Sunday was the usual church schedule although this week my wife had to work in the nursery and I was scheduled to help out in the TV ministry. My wife really hates working in the nursery as she's a stay at home mom having to deal with our daughter all day and really looks forward to the break from her during church time. Having to miss the service to deal with even more kids sometimes puts her in a bad mood. They should get people that don't have kids to work in the nursery so that parents can have a break! :-)

One of our associate pastors, Bob, preached last night. He's a newer pastor, but he did a really good job. He's also over our TV ministry and has really been able to get a lot accomplished in helping us out in that area. Thanks, Bob!

My wife wants to go attend the first PTO meeting at my son's school tonight. Looks like I'll be home with the kids tonight... :-)

Blessings!

FRIDAY!

Yeah! It's Friday! The end of the work week! My son will be going to a sleep-over birthday party for one of his friends tonight. If we could just find someone to watch our daughter, my wife and I could have a quiet evening for a change. Thankfully we do have something planned in October... More about that as it gets closer.

Today is one of my nephew's Fifth Birthday. Happy Birthday Raymond! Time to start requesting those big boy toys now! :-)

As I reflect again on the devastation by Katrina, I remember that it was September 11-15, 2000 that I was in New Orleans for a technical conference for my job. I walked Bourbon Street, ate a couple of authentic "Nawlens" restaurant, went to the Aquarium of the Americas, and all the other tourist stuff. It is still so sad to think about. Unfathomable...

Ah... The weekend is almost upon us... Guess I'll still have to mow the yard tomorrow though...

Blessings!

Mission 2 Completed

Today I completed transcribing almost 1100 names from the 1934 death certificate index. My job this time was the 'Mc' names (McDonald, McNeely, etc.). I just sent off the Excel spreadsheet off to the state archives office. Last month I completed doing a group of names from 1940. The archive office sent out an email last month stating that the whole death certificate project was about completed and may be online by the end of October. Feels good to be part of a neat project like this.

Management today is deciding on whether to enforce a new "core hours" policy here at work. The core hours would be 7:30am to 5:30pm. That means that someone would have to stay until 5:30pm... My supervisor mentioned that our group would probably rotate that "responsibility." No one is very happy about it. We're suppose to hear the verdict by the end of the day today or tomorrow. They've already taken away our Casual Days (beginning Oct. 1st), so here is just one more way they are messing with us. They are giving us an Ice Cream day tomorrow.... Oh boy!

My son had his first math test of the school year today... I wonder how he did... :-)

Blessings!

Labor Day Weekend Overview

I stopped by the gas station on the way home from work on Friday as with the Labor Day weekend, I figured the gas stations would be jacking up the price. Well, around here it had gone up to $3.09 a gallon, but I heard other places around close by were higher and even hitting $4.00 a gallon. Ugh. I wasn't even able to fill up the tank in my truck... I just stopped at $30.00... Just too depressing to go any further.

We didn't do a whole lot on Saturday. After I got the yard mowed, we all went to the local PetCo store to get a harness collar and chewtoy for our dog. Since we don't have our dog on a leash very often, when we did, he was always choking himself by pulling so hard. The vet recommended a harness type collar.

Sunday we just had a special one morning service due to the Labor Day holiday and we had no evening service. Because of that, we got together with three other couples and went to a local park and had a picnic. One couple brought a Washers game and we all had a mini-tourney. I must say I did pretty good! :-) We all stayed until dark and had a great time.

Monday, Labor Day, was actually "labor day" for me... I dusted and vacuumed the house, swept and vacuumed the back porch, and did some other cleaning while my wife cleaned the bathrooms... All before lunch too! Since we had eaten a later breakfast with pancakes, etc., we all went to the local Barnes & Noble bookstore to look around and then headed to the mall's Cafe Court to eat lunch. After getting home, I helped my son go over some math problems to practice for an upcoming math test on Wednesday. I also finally got around to fitting the harness collar on my dog and tried it out on a little walk. I couldn't believe how still he sat as I was fitting it to him. :-) It worked out really well, so I think we'll take a longer walk tonight.

Just found out today that Bob "Gilligan" Denver passed away on Friday. He was 70 years old. Good bye "Little Buddy" and thanks for the laughs...

Today is also the 50th birthday for my cousin Sue.... I heard from my aunt that they took her out to eat yesterday and got her black balloons and a red hat. Happy Birthday, Sue!!!

Blessings!

Sad

It's really sad to see and hear what's going on in New Orleans. Although things are looking up somewhat, it seems like everyone that can help is just sitting around doing nothing. The mayor is just plain fed up and frustrated and pleading for help from the Feds. It really is a shame for this to be happening on our own soil. Please continue to pray for those in the middle of all this mess.

I'm just glad today is Friday... Just haven't been able to "get with it" today. Guess my heart just isn't in it today.

Tomorrow is my sister's 36th birthday. We usually get to chat online almost everyday, so we're able to keep in touch even though she lives 40 miles away. Happy Birthday Sis!!

Due to all the mess in N.O., gas prices have jumped to $2.99 a gallon now. That is just ridiculous. Our state's governor has asked the state attorney general to check into price gouging... Sure seems like it's happening to me...

Since Monday is Labor Day, I get the day off! Yeah!! I think we're trying to get some other couples together to do a picnic or something. Hope it works out so we aren't just stuck at home for 3 days with nothing to do. :-)

Blessings!