Good Day

Dad says Mom had a good day. She was cheerful and cooperative. She was able to follow instructions with no problems. He thinks she was moving the fingers on her right hand - her left side has been fine, but she's had less movement on the right. And she wouldn't stop kissing him.

Dr. Joe ("He told me, 'Mr. A., just call me Dr. Joe.'") says that he thinks it'll be a long haul, but that she'll be fine.

At work, I have been trying out a new way of documenting my time. My composition book has served me well, but it's starting to be cumbersome and the busier I am, the harder it is to document how busy I am. Instead, I am working within our company-wide electronic "to do" list. When I finish a task or move a project forward, I copy and paste what I've done from the to-do item into a week-long log, with the amount of time I've spent. I'll forward that log to my manager weekly, instead of writing up a report in Excel like I've been doing. I think it will be adequate, and it will save time. It will also make use of the tools I'm already using.

Also at work, WXRT from Chicago's internet simulcast was not working today, so I registered on www.live365.com and set a couple of presets of commercial free rock. Good times! I heard "Smoke of a Distant Fire" by the Sanford Townsend Band and "Angel Eyes" by Jeff Healey; two great songs I hadn't heard in years. One of the best things about working at home is that I can turn up the volume really loud, and sing along really loud, without bothering anybody. Although Little Boy asked me to stop being so noisy when he got home from school.

Step Down

Mom moved into a step-down unit yesterday. She's medically stable, and the step-down unit is going to wean her off the respirator and start physical therapy.

She seems to be aware of what's going on, and she's frightened. The respirator prevents her from speaking. We won't know if she's able to speak until they take it out. It'll probably be about three weeks.

Work has been a godsend. I've been very busy, and they've been kind about my long lunches.

My cold ranges from unbearable to barely noticeable.

I'm going home Sunday morning.

Rough Day

It was rough seeing Mom today. Last night, she teared up when she saw me. But today, I don't think she recognizes me.

Dad said the same thing when I got home.

It's hard to be optimistic.

And to top it all off, I have a terrible cold. My face hurts and my nose is running like a river.

Tomorrow can only be better.

More About Mom

Mom had a brain scan Thursday or Friday, and the neurologist told dad that all areas of her brain are showing normal activity. They have kept her on the ventilator for so long because they think she's had pneumonia, but they are weaning her off this weekend. Dad told her yesterday that she's getting better, and she shook her head "no." She's mad at him. He says that's a very good sign.

Also, the MDs and nurses say she responds to and follows instructions, which is also a very good sign - she understands English.

My father is optimistic. And so, so am I.

I'm traveling up there Monday. I will work out of the office during the day and see my mom in the evenings.

Two weeks ago, my husband volunteered to proctor senior comprehensives for the majors in the department where he teaches. He forwarded me an e-mail that offered "the prayers of a grateful nun" for volunteers. Yesterday, he caught up with Sr. Grace Mary, the nun in question, and asked if she could please direct those prayers to my mother. Sr. Grace Mary took down her name, and said she would post it at the convent, and at the shrine of St. Katherine Drexel, founder of her order.

So a dead Roman Catholic Saint, members of said Saint's order, and a bunch of live Saints in Baton Rouge are praying for my mom. Add to that the good thoughts and wishes of so many of you, and that adds up to a lot of positive energy being directed Mom's way. Thanks to all of you for your care and concern.

Mom

Almost two weeks ago, my mother had bypass surgery on three arteries in her abdomen - the renal, the hepatic, and something else. She came through the surgery well, but had an unexpected setback the next day. Eight days ago, she had a stroke.

The original diagnosis was "a small stroke." Yesterday, the neurologist advised my dad that it was in reality a serious, bilateral stroke.

She has been heavily sedated for much of the last week, and on a ventilator. Two days ago, she was no longer able to move her right side. Yesterday, they started weaning her off of the ventilator and the sedatives. She was able to move her left side just fine, and her right side, too. She wasn't able to acknowledge that she knew who my dad was.

Today, she was very actively moving (as much as she could when restrained). My daughter and my father were both very encouraged by how she was today.

I'm going up for a week on Sunday. I hope they have her off the damn ventilator by then.

I keep wanting to pick up the phone and call my mom.

More Geek Stuff

Microsoft now offers a free download of Microsoft Visual Studio Express. It's a single language of their full-blown Visual Studio application, designed for students, hobbyists, and novices. It's good for one year.

They offer a choice of one of the following languages:

• Visual Basic


• Visual C#


• Visual C++


• Visual J#

I only get one year, and I want to do something that is feasible. I think VB is not useful in the Real World, and Visual C++ might be more than I can handle. Visual J# is java-like, but not -like enough. I think C# is the best choice.

What do my geek readers think?

Pocketmod

I have been looking to expand my interests. I am not exactly multi-dimensional. I stumbled across a website called 43 Folders. It's about getting things done, for geeks. Lifehack.org and lifehacker.com are similar, but 43 Folders just sort of jumped out at me - Mac focus notwithstanding.

I found a link there to a very cool thing: www.pocketmod.com. It turns a sheet of paper into a customized mini-planner. There is even a pdftopocketmoc utility that works with the .NET Framework that would allow you to convert your own files, after they're turned into PDFs, into a pocketmod.

Try it. It's fun.

I already have tickets

Bruce Springsteen is playing Jazzfest.

Weekends are short

I worked really hard this week; it seemed that I was constantly crunching from one task to another with persistent attention to a difficult problem as I could. I've made huge progress with the difficult problem, and stayed on top of a lot of other things, but at the end of the day, I'm always fried, with a stack of stuff still to do.

I really, really love my job.

But as for the weekend, two days is simply not enough. Yesterday was spent on taxes and grocery shopping. We also went to look at carpet, but the sales person apparently lost interest when she realized we weren't going to make a decision yesterday. I lost interest in buying carpet from her when, after we spent 20 minutes waiting around and looking around while she helped another customer until that customer left, she left us after ten minutes to go talk to another customer.

I have a pile of stuff I want to get done today. Sunday dinner is cooking, and I'm working on the family room between paragraphs. I have four lbs. of strawberries to clean, and lots of laundry to fold (once DH starts washing it!) I also want to clean the vanity in our room, and somewhere in there, work in a nap. And play with Little Boy. Very important, that last one!

My mother had surgery Friday. I didn't go to Ohio, because what could I do? I've been staying in touch with what's going on through my dad and my daughter. My three brothers are also on the scene. So far, the recovery is going well. I haven't been able to talk to mom yet, and I don't think I can for at least several days.

I learned a new phrase recently. The region where Older Son son attends school is in the "Gulf Opportunity Zone." You get extra tax breaks for going to school there. Positively Orwellian.

Words fail me

Monday after work, DH, Little Boy, and In-Laws and I drove into the city. I have been to New Orleans twice since we returned, but both times have been at night. This was my first visit to the city in the daytime.

We drove through Chalmette. 12,321 houses, destroyed.

Chalmette was a middle-income, mostly white suburb in St. Bernard Parish. I use the past tense deliberately. Chalmette is gone. Eight square miles of destruction. It's like somebody came in with wrecking balls and bulldozers. We drove through a fairly upscale neighborhood of 2000+ sf houses and they were uniformly demolished. No windows - they're all smashed. Garage doors broken in. Roofs collapsed. Brick walls shoved aside like Legos.

I have never seen anything like it. I saw it with my own eyes and I still can't believe it.

The main drag through Chalmette, Judge Perez Drive, becomes Claiborne when you cross the parish line. This is the famous Lower Ninth Ward. If anything, Lower 9 was worse than Chalmette, because the houses are closer together, smaller, and made of wood. The destruction was more complete - the houses were crushed into smaller piles, more difficult to recognize as places where people lived and worked and played and raised families and had roots.

Every house we saw in the Lower 9 had the symbols of last year's house-to-house searches. I don't know what the symbols meant. Numbers with circles and crosses. One house had sprayed on in green paint, "Dog Underneath."

Driving northwest on Claiborne, we crossed the Industrial Canal - one of the canals that was breached. On the other side of the canal, the landscape changed. The houses weren't demolished. I saw multiple waterlines on the raised foundations, but the houses were still standing. A gas station and a grocery store were open. A tent city made of bright blue FEMA tarps was set up in a vacant lot next to an aid center.

Miles away is the Sliver by the River. Uptown, the Garden District, the CBD and the Quarter: the high ground. Endymion rolled. Happy costumed people threw beads, while other happy costumed people caught them.

I understand the need for Mardi Gras. New Orleanians need to celebrate what makes the city unique. For all the folderol about "Royalty," Rex and his Queen, what dresses the members of the court will wear, and who is related to whom among the Upper Crust, Mardi Gras is really about The People. Without Mardi Gras, without crawfish boils and roast beef po boys and king cakes and Bacchus and Zulu and jazz and the blues, the people who make New Orleans work as a city have no reason to be here. Mardi Gras binds us, and brings them home, even if only for a day.

Today is Ash Wednesday, and the party is over.