Visting Mom

Yesterday my mom went into surgery at the hospital. They planned to remove her thyroid to help her breathe. I was jammed up and could not visit her until today. First I went to pick up my bro and dad. On the way there, I got into a traffic jam. A car on the side of the road was on fire. Great. I thought the thing might blow up. So unlike everyone else who crammed into one lane, I stayed in the lane on the side of the burning car. I sped past it.

Went had to wander past the intensive and critical care units to find mom. She was in a specialized critical care unit. She could not speak. Luckily I brought my planner and a pen. She could communicate with us by writing in my planner. Mom was unhappy that they left her in this unit for a long time. I tracked down the nurse who seemed busy helping another patient. Like magic, mom seemed to get moved to another room.

Moving mom was a significant feat. She can't breathe on her own. She also has other tubes connected to her. A weird sounding technician did all the work to transport mom. I saw the doctor who operated on mom for the first time. He cleared up a lot of misinformation I had. The surgery was to correct the problem to help her breathe. I thought it might have been something or one thing of many that they were trying.

The doctor was able to remove the whole thyroid and some of the cancer her found. However the cancer was aggressive and was growing into mom's trachea. For now, mom needs to recover and learn to deal with the tracheotomy (she breathes through a tube instead of her mouth). The doctor said mom can leave the hospital next week if all goes well.

After recovering, another doctor will study the cancer they found and determine the options. We left mom in her new room. She was trying to get used to the new environment. It is tough when you are struggling to breathe. I had to return to work. My bro planned to return again later to visit mom. My little bro has stepped up to the plate to take care of my mom and dad's needs during this ordeal.

The Visit

Little Kat just got tickets from his dad to visit him for two weeks this summer.  Little is so excited.

Usually, he spends the whole summer with his dad but things have been tough for his dad and Little has been waiting for this moment since school let out. I guess his dad finally got everything together.  Little leaves in two weeks.

We haven't finished his "highschool" room makeover yet and if we are lucky we will have most of it finished before Little Kat leaves on his summer adventure.  I am hoping to have all of is room completed while he is gone so he will not have to worry about it when he returns.  I am not sure that Little will think that is a good idea because he seems to be pretty private about what he has packed in his boxes.  He didn't want anyone helping him pack and we discovered a few suspicious items perchance.  One can only speculate on what he has hidden in his boxes of stuff. 

Car Maintenance

My oil change has been overdue. Just been too busy these days. Yesterday I tried to go to the local Jiffy Lube. They were closed. Figured it was due to the holiday. I went back today at lunch. There were people there. But they were out of power. Go figure.

I recalled there was another Jiffy Lube by my office. So I went there and got lucky. Only one guy was in front of me. I told them to change my oil. They tried to upsell me on a lot of products. I denied most of them. Then they said my coolant was low. They offered to top it off for four bucks. I agreed.

Many people came in after me. The guy told each of them the same story. Coolant was low. Four bucks to top it off. Typical scam. I got to be more vigilant to say no to these things. I don't blame the guys who work there. They apparently are required to upsell one out of every four customers. Otherwise they are fired.

There was one interesting moment today. En route to the first Jiffy Lube, I was going down a one way street. I wanted to make a left turn. So I checked the lane next to me. One guy was turning. Seemed like an opportunity. The guy behind him sped up though. Then I noticed him hitting the brakes. That was odd. But I found out why. Some car was coming down the wrong way of the one way street. Ooops.

Slow Cooking

Yesterday I woke up just in time to start work. It helps that I work from home. I make sure to leave my computer on and connected to the network at all times. That way I can get up at the last minute, go downstairs, and be working. Little Kat got up some time later in the morning. He fixed a pot roast meal in the slow cooker. This thing started cooking before lunch.

\ I had a busy day. So I did not get to lunch until almost 3PM. That's okay. I needed to drop by my bro's house to pick him up. We visited my mom in the hospital. She needs surgery on her thyroid tomorrow. We did not stay for long. My mom was getting overheated. It was a bad reaction to some steroids she is on.

When I got back to the house, there was some hot pot roast waiting for me. Momoko was starved because the roast took 8 hours to cook. Luckily I had a late lunch. Usuually Little Kat serves me his roast with some hot sauce on the side. However the beef and potatoes were so good, I needed no extra sauce. Even Kit Kat, who dislikes roast, ate up her portion and inquired about seconds.

Money Matters

Little Kat is getting old enough to start thinking about good financial habits.

 Black felt that Little Kat needs to be in control of his own money for him to be successful. I think Black is right.

 Step 1: Operation Bank- I told Little that I wanted him to open a savings account and he could pick the bank that he liked the most. He was very excited. He asked for help understanding bank terminology as he researched local banks. He compared the following banks: Suntrust, Capital One, Bank of America, PNC, TD Bank, and BB&T

Step 2: Money- We went down to his bank of choice and opened an account. He had to gather all the needed documents and talk to the person in new accounts. He put in $30 and was excited to find out that he could get an ATM card as well.

 Step 3: Let it Ride- The rest is up to Little. He can put in or take out as much as he likes. I am hoping he has a goal and keeps up with his savings account. I will make sure he sees me doing the same thing. I want to lead by a good example as well.

Suspicious Behavior

This morning I got up and started working from home. Little Kat came downstairs a few hours later. Apparently Momoko woke him up and he proceeded to start his laundry. I said hi to him. Then I went and retrieved the laundry I had completed the night before. At lunch I ran some errands. Finally, at the end of the day, I went to turn off the laundry room light that Little Kat had left on. I stepped into a very wet carpet in the hall that leads to the laundry room.

Immediately my mind thought that the fridge upstairs had sprung a leak. I came upstairs and noticed that the fridge was not directly above the wet carpet. It could not be the fridge. Then I did what anyone in our family should do when encountering such a situation. I called an emergency family meeting. Kit Kat already went to work. So the meeting was with Momoko, Little Kat, and myself.

Little Kat said that he noticed some water in the laundry room as soon as he started his laundry. He also stated that he dried that water with his towel, and decided the problem was solved. That made no sense. Why would Little Kat be mopping up water he discovered on the floor? And why didn't he tell anyone about it? I was in the room right next to the laundry room.

We reconstructed Little Kat's day. It turns out that he came back down to drop off some Coke 12-packs. He also returned back down to complete his laundry. When pressed, Little Kat confessed that he discovered the wet carpet on these subsequent visits. Those times, however, he did not try to dry the water. Little Kat's story really makes no sense. I suspect foul play.

I traced the water back to 2 jugs of distilled water on a small shelf. They both were suspiciously punctured. Momoko thought that perhaps they burst when our power went off. The cuts in the containers and the locations of the cuts makes me think otherwise. We may never find out what actually happened. All I know for sure is that there was some extremely suspicious Little Kat behavior.

Cici's Denied

The family had scheduled to do yard work early Saturday morning. It was a tough day. Grass needed to be replanted. That required chopping up some top soil. The sun was hot even though we started early. I got up extra early to buy more grass seed at the store. I returned home just about when the family was coming out to do our work.

Momoko worked until she felt dizzy. Then she needed to go in to cool off. Kit Kat also felt ill at the end of the work. I stayed out a little longer to water the grass. Everyone took a shower. I was very hungry. So was Momoko. So we changed our afternoon plans to eay first, then have a family meeting. I took suggestions from the family on where we would eat. Little Kat suggested Cici's pizza. Kit Kat and I agreed. Momoko was not exicted, but would go with us.

Before we left, I checked whether Little Kat completd his "wake up chores." These are a few tasks that Little Kat must do as soon as he wakes up. They are supposed to be done before everything else. They should have been completed before our yard work. Apparently he did not. Momoko also warned Little Kat to complte the must have chores after he took he shower. Instead he just lay on the couch.

Momoko asked what we were going to do. It was simple. We had to leave Little Kat behind. It was sad because we only visit Cici's about once a year. On the ride there, Little Kat texted the whole family that he had completed his chores. Unfortunately he was too late. Turns out Little Kat then got depressed a took a nap. The rest of us enjoyed Cici's.