Visit the kelpforest....

Happy birthday Dad. I like to think you're watching a John Wayne marathon, with the occasional Clint Eastwood and Steve McQueen movie thrown in for good measure (and maybe some Star Trek and Harry Potter), and Stimpy just joined you to get his feet warm. I forgot to put a flag out today but I think John took care of it - you know him and his flag collection, it's how we can't ever forget your birthday. ;)

A few years ago my dad had me sign him up for Tin Can Sailors - a group for people who served on naval destroyers. I think I mentioned before he served on the USS Stormes in WWII. This morning I got an email from someone in that group who'd put up some movie footage of that vessel - although 12 years later. I emailed him back thanking him for it and wished I could show it to my dad. He knows someone who may have been aboard the same time my dad was, and they might have known each other. I linked him to some pics of my dad in earlier journal entries here although after almost 60 years, who knows if someone would remember.



Dad would have also liked that there was a Navy Week this past week in San Pedro. We tried going to see the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln Wednesday when I had the day off, but it got shut down early for security reasons. So we went to the Maritime Museum instead, which I haven't been inside of since we took Dad there for his birthday when my mom was still here, although I drive by it every time I go to the docks. Then runsamuckwas starving, so we had some lunch at the Crusty Crab (not the Krusty Krab; this one's been there since before Spongebob) at Ports O' Call.



I had to work Thursday, but the rest of the fam damily tried again on Thursday, along with some friends from school. They left about 8 am (ships didn't open until 10 am) to secure parking and get aboard the mandatory shuttle to the ship. It was all a self-guided tour, but the most exciting thing, I hear, was the plane elevator from the lower deck to the flight deck. Quite the E-ticket ride, I understand. Gareth took some video of it, but being 11, excited and not a trained videographer makes for a rather motion-sickness inducing recording (plus it takes freaking forever to upload); but I may put it up later. Some photos here.

I have a number of things I want to post about, but I have a couple of work deadlines I have procrastinated on for way too long and now I feel like Garrison Kiellor's Winged Motivational Products™ are glaring down at me from my cube walls. Gonna have to wait until at least the first one is finished with, but at least need to get something off my mind. To do:

• Concert.


• Spokane.


• Brothers, sheesh.


• ?

Meanwhile, today is my dad's birthday. I was aware, but runsamuck mentioned it to me after dropping the kids off at school as well. Every time I do something for the first time since he died, I remember he was here the last time I did this. Almost every time I take a can out of the cupboard, I remember going with him to Smart & Final and arguing about the checkbook. The frozen burrito I brought for lunch today he was charging around the store pushing the grocery cart for, disdaining his walker. It's Flag Day and I never remember to put the flag out - that was always a good reminder of what day it was.

My work family (and people here do seem like a family, especially those of us who've been here a long time) not only made a donation in my dad's name to the American Heart Association, but also sent us a tree seed from Seeds of Life. It's a Canyon Live Oak, a native Californian, as he was, so it's very appropriate. They even grow around Oxnard and Moorpark, where he was born and grew up.

We planted it in its biodegradable pot a couple of weeks ago, and the acorn is sprouting! Very exciting!

I don't know if we're going to be able to plant it here at the house, once it gets big. I'm wondering if maybe the Shipley Nature Center in Central Park might let us plant it there? Then it would still be here in HB, and we'd have a nearer place to go and visit.

One of our last walks around the block before he went back in the hospital. It was a gorgeous day, having rained that morning; you can see the clouds in the background. He saw me taking these and told me, "Eh, you don't want me in your nice pictures." I assured him that I did, very much so. Then we went home and I packed to go to the Bay Area for work for the weekend. The next Wednesday, after an xray by his doctor, he was admitted to the hospital once again; he'd only been home for about a month and a half.


The following is an account of my father's death. I'm leaving this public because after my mother passed away, I found similar stories comforting, but maybe I'm just morbid. Please skip if you find such things distressing, or if needed I could make a filter, because there's likely to be more related stuff here for a while.

Alternatively, other entries from this journal about my dad are here - or by clicking Dad in the tag cloud on the right on my LJ page. They may be happy or not so much. Also, I had made a journal for him where I was transcribing some of the stories he told me at deadwood_bob, although I always intended to write down more of them. If you knew my dad and have a story about him, I would love it if you could write it down and send it to me, and I'll include it there as an entry.

( Read more... )

Robert Stephen Laughlin
June 14, 1926 - May 1, 2011

( Pics you may have seen before... )

Dad's been put in ICU again. I have not been able to to talk to his doctor, but it seems while the CHF cleared up, his COPD complicates things. He's got pneumonia again and his oxygen levels are not improving, so they putting him where they can keep a closer eye on him. He is stable and the nurse who called me said he was alert and joking (flirting was the word she used), so I guess that's positive.

Kids are out of school this week.

I stopped by to see my dad in the hospital after work yesterday - stressful enough in itself as I'd forgotten to get back to someone who'd requested a data summary of me, I couldn't get hold of my boss all afternoon, and had a newspaper call about shark populations - I hate media calls, and oh btw, must remember to submit a media contact form! :p He told me, after a course of stronger medication than he's been taking at home, the doctor told him he's much improved and should be able to come home soon, maybe even tomorrow.

That's a relief...

So have a funny...

( Where do new fake tree cell phone towers come from? )

Happy Groundhog Day! If we had groundhogs here, they'd fershure be seeing their shadows, as it's sunny but blowing gusty Santa Ana winds (do gophers work instead?). And by the way, Groundhog Day is one of my favorite movies.

( Dad update... )

He's also finally expressed a bit more interest in reading - so far, he hasn't wanted to, but did like it when Doug and I read short stories to him. My brothers and I had talked about going in together on a Kindle for him since he's been complaining that books, especially hardbacks, just start getting too heavy to hold up and start hurting his hands. I decided to go with a Kindle rather than a Nook because of its text-to-speech feature. If he gets tired of holding it, it can read to him. We got our tax refund recently, so I went to Staples at lunch yesterday and grabbed one for him. This is actually a really nifty gadget! Does all kinds of things besides e books! If he decides he doesn't like it, I'll keep it myself. Man, the accessories are where they get ya, though. It doesn't have a backlight, so if you want to read where it's dim, you need a light for it and also a cover to keep it from getting wrecked. It was about the same price for all of them separately or a nice leather cover with an integrated light that actually runs off the Kindle battery ($60). And I suckered for the extended warranty, too. John always tells me they're not worth it, but we're hard on batteries and we're hard on gadgets.

I played around last night, looking for some free James Fenimore Cooper to put on it for him, and also found I could forward Word and PDF documents to it, so I tested that out with the thresher sampling plan proposal I need to make comments on. Pretty cool!

Apropos maybe: Seven Ways Electronic Books Can Make Us Better Readers. by the CEO of Levenger (I like to drool over their pens). I seem to be what he calls a preservationist - but I don't write in my books so much because I can't bear them being marked up, but more because when I'm reading, I'm in an absorbent mode. I might think of questions or notes later, but not usually during.

After his surgery on a Wednesday, Dad spent through the weekend in the surgical ICU because he still had some fluid in his lungs that they wanted to be sure was cleared up, so it didn't turn into pneumonia. Then he spent two days in DOU, and another couple back on the Telemetry floor, waiting for a bed in a convalescent home to open. On Friday evening when I went to hang out with him for awhile, he had just arrived in the room twenty minutes before, and they'd moved him during dinner time. It was going on 9 pm and he hadn't had a meal yet. The nurse managed to find him a turkey sandwich and some milk and applesauce. However, he took two bites and declared it inedible; it was plain, but I tried it - the bread was fresh and the filling was the same kind he usually buys when he goes grocery shopping. He just does not have any appetite and everything tastes awful to him. I remember my grandmother complaining of the same thing after she was moved to a senior apartment with a dining plan, and we wondered at the time if any of her meds were affecting how food tastes. I wonder if the same thing might be happening with Dad - he's also lost nearly 20 pounds since being in the hospital, although part of that is several days of not eating at all, diuretics, and probably losing muscle mass from being bedridden as much as he's been (although he was fairly sedentary before this).

He's now been moved to a nursing home, which seems to be a fairly nice place - recently renovated in any case, and much closer to our home - but on trying to verify the address to give to my brother I found this, which is rather concerning:

http://www.calqualitycare.org/providers/nursing-homes/060000054.aspx?cat=1

It's actually improved to "below average" from "poor" when I first found it yesterday. There are links to the state website, which lists citations it's gotten, but I still have to look up what the code violations are. We'll be watching this place very carefully. On the plus side, there is no age restriction for visitors, so the kids have been able to come and see him. They've missed each other, I think. Animals are welcome, too, but I don't think the cats would find it very fun.

Anyway, he's getting cranky being in bed for so long, and since the move, as of last night, he hadn't been out of bed since he got there because of the current place "needing to do its own evaluation." In the meantime, he's lost a couple days of progress he's made with physical therapy and walking, but supposedly that's supposed to start tomorrow. He still doesn't feel up to reading or anything, but Doug brought in an anthology of "Historical Whodunits", which we've read to him and he's liked that. We were thinking of the three of us going in together on a Kindle or a Nook for him, because he's also been saying books, especially hardbacks, are getting kind of hard on his hands. Plus a lot of free older books that are out of copyright is a plus; I'm leaning toward the Kindle because it also has a text-to-speech function - not quite books on tape, but at least he can listen instead of using his eyes (although he does say he tends to fall asleep). Doug also finished a pair of stripy wool socks while visiting and decided to just give to him. They have one blue toe because he ran out of green and was tired of ripping them out and redoing them; toes are almost always inside your shoes anyway, right? ;) We just have to remember not to put them in the dryer.



We've asked how long his stay here is expected to be, and apparently that mostly depends on him. I've told him recovery is something he's going to have to work at; he can't just lie there and expect to get better. I want to sign us up to go do this with him this summer, so maybe that'll be some motivation for him.

http://www.lanevictory.org/cruiseOverview.php

Dave had to return home the next day after this surgery because of his work schedule (he does network security for one of the big power companies back east), but Doug has been coming down from LA, 2-3x a week. It's been nice to actually gets some one-on-one time with each of them. Meanwhile we're going to have to clean up and rearrange Dad's room so it's easier for him to get in and out (not to mention the rest of the house) - John's already taken out an entire recycling bin of boxes from he's mail ordered out of there, but a lot still remains to be done.