My blog. Personal thoughts, anecdotes, and musings.
I’m taking a few days off of work to go up to New Auburn to see my parents. I think it’s important to be with my dad at this time and I need to be with my mom. Thanks to everyone for their support and concern. I am truly blessed to know all of you.
Linora is nearing the end of her time with us. The hospice nurse visited her today and thinks that Linora will be with us for a couple of days to maybe a week. We had a wonderful holiday season. Linora’s mom and Earl, along with Brian , Carissa, and Ana spent Christmas day with us. Mary Kay, Ben, and Sharon joined Brian and his family and Mom and Earl on New Years day.
Dad called tonight to say that anyone who wants to see Linora should do it as soon as possible. We did the stupidest thing we could do by rushing out head-on into a snowstorm to get up to my parents’ place. Mom’s on oxygen and Carla says she’s weeker than she’s ever been. The hospice people were here today saying that we are nearing the end. It is only a matter of time before she will not be able to physically swallow her medication anymore.
Dad was told today that we probably only have a few weeks left.
Santa came to see Ana this year and brought some neat toys. After we did some Christmas stuff at home, we went up to see my parents. Christmas has always been my mom’s favorite holiday. I think she was saving up for this. She was really tired and we had to break out a wheelchair so she could save some energy. She needed help moving about the house and I had to help her take her pills.
In case nobody wants to give out their info to the Leader Telegram, I’m posting this here. I’m sure this violates some sort of copyright or something, but I don’t care. It’s about my mom, and I didn’t get a paper copy of this so I want this here for my own personal benefit anyway. One more Christmas As the holidays near, terminally ill patients and their families pray for some extra time together Jennifer Schmidt
Dreamhost servers were killing off my new application and so I did some digging and found this great hack by a nice fellow named Gary on the Dreamhost forums. Modify ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-0.14.3/lib/fcgi_handler.rb or ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-1.0/lib/fcgi_handler.rb: def exit_now_handler(signal) dispatcher_log :info, "asked to terminate immediately" ## force to restart dispatcher_log :info, "but we will restart" restart_handler(signal) #exit end
Alan’s memorial service was today. It was a very nice service, highlighting some great moments from his life. After the service, we had lunch and I talked with Titus and George for a while about old times. It was a strange feeling. Titus looked like he was doing his best to put on a good face for everyone, but I still wish I could do more.
The party was a mild success. We made way too much food this time around though. We were expecting a bigger turnout than we had, but we learned a lesson: Next time I think we’re just going to plan a bit smaller. Chris and Katie came with the cute little Ava. It was nice to be able to catch up in person instead of over the phone. After the party, we cleaned up a bit, watched some shows, played some games, and played with the baby a bit.
I just heard this morning from my parents that Alan Seilheimer passed away this week in Marshfield. He was undergoing a treatment for cancer. Alan is the father of Titus, my good friend of more than 20 years. He’s like family to me and I’m truly saddened by this. Right now I don’t even know what to do, though I want to do something. Titus is right. Cancer sucks.