Monday, October 30, 2006

Weekend Round-Up

Is it just me, or is everyone exhausted? You’d think with Falling-back, and all, we’d be caught up on sleep. Still, whether it’s the changing weather or the shorter days, I and everyone I know seems weary of late.

After the wedding-related hijinks in the ATL, night of the long knives at work and emotionally draining visit with J last week, I was so tuckered out I had to take Friday off and rest. Well, mostly rest, but I had to do stuff for work, too. Damn them.

Later that night we went to the annual Halloween thingamajig at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. They decorated the place up with fog and spooky lights, showed Nosferatu with accompaniment by an organ (I don’t think it was the big pipe organ, as last I heard it was still being repaired after the big fire, but whatever it was it sounded great playing Bach’s Tocatta & Fugue in D Minor), and had the annual “Procession of Ghouls”. My camera batteries were dying, but I snapped a few pics. This, combined with the week’s candy corn and watching It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown made me feel like I had actually done something festive for Hallloween, to my satisfaction.

Mrs. Nator & I were actually pleased when we received a call saying that our leaf-peeping cruise up the Hudson river was postponed from Saturday. This was because, one, we were so friggin’ tired and two, it was raining with wind gusts of 50 mph. The only leaves we might see in that weather from a boat would be whipping past us or on the bottom of the river with our cold, drowned corpses. No, thanks – we’ll do it next weekend!

Had a nice conversation with my father, until he told me that his wife has been diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. That’s a lung disease that they basically have no clue how you get or what to do about it. It involves the lungs becoming fibrous and stiff – losing elasticity and thus function. There’s no known effective treatment and prognoses vary widely, although the average survival period without lung transplant is thought to be around 5-8 years. Being 60-plus years of age, I’m thinking my father’s wife will not be high on any transplant lists.

Crap.

Sigh.

Fuck.

After that I felt more tired and cranky. Brewed up some mulled cider and lugged it and a pumpkin to some friends’ Halloweeny brunchy-thing. Many in that crowd have toddlers and babes, and some were in costume, which was adorable. Took some photos there, too, but haven't uploaded them. Ate waaaay too much food, and everyone got too damn tired to carve pumpkins, loaded down with all those nummies and diaper bags. Now I’ve got a perfectly shaped pumpkin at home, and I’m trying to decided if I want to carve it Jack'o-stylee after all or sacrifice it to the Pie Gods. And bread and soup gods. It’s a big pumpkin.

Mmmm… pie.

Grumbled over TiVo messing up my football games, watched Jarhead and went to bed a bit depressed afterwards - that was it. Work is still weird, today. Mrs. Nator & I still avoided going to the gym and are tired. I don’t know if I want to go to my neighbourhood parade tomorrow night and take photos or if I am too old, tired and grouchy. We shall see.

Tell me how your weekend was. Also, tell me what I should do with my life. I need a new direction. One with more lounging and vacations. And cats.

Happy Monday.

5 comments:

FirstNations said...

my weekend?
well, we took the father in law to the hospital again because he died again (something he likes to do occasionally, all the vital signs dissappear and then reappear...)
and then we ran around doing errands for him, and us, and then we went back home, then drove allllllll the way back out because the hospital kicked him loose....
the excitement is killing me.

claire said...

That St. John the Divine thing looks Ohmygod so cool. I haven't ever heard of that, but wow. They do that in a church? Those pictures are so incredible. Must check that out... hmm... where's The Google...

Also - you are having a rough week. Take some more time off and make pumpkin products. The god of pie will vouch for you.

Helen the Felon said...

My mom got her lung transplant at 62 1/2. (She's 69 now and doing great.) The national cutoff for recipients is 65, so if they place your dad's wife on the list now, she has okay odds of getting a lung. They prioritize more by severity of illness than age, and beyond that it's all about location and a matching donor.

University Hospital in Denver comes highly recommended.

Nancy said...

I'm sorry about your dad's wife. Pulmonary Fibrosis is a nasty-assed disease. My dad died of it a month ago. I learned a lot about the disease and got a lot of support from this online group www.huff-n-puff.net. They seem to have their fingers on the latest treatment approaches and they offer a lot of support. Maybe this would help your dad. I think the thing that helped me is just what you're doing here, writing about how you feel. I did a ton of that this summer in my blog. I was sitting by Dad's bedside and it was the only way I could let it out without freaking out completely.

Good luck,

Nancy

Da Nator said...

Thank you for the link to huff-n-puff, Nancy. I haven't yet brooched the topic with my father, as he tends to be the "pretend everything is fine and dandy for the kids" type, but I think it might be helpful for him and his wife.

I'm very sorry for the loss of your father. Hang in there, okay?