More Tuesday

Kristie and I visited Dad last night. He seemed back to himself some. He was talking and animated. It really was a change from just that Saturday where I'd sit with him and he'd doze off and wake up and barely utter a word. But I think this might be the effect of the morphine they are giving him. It gives him the illusion, or at least the sensation, that his lungs are full of air instead of feeling like he is slowly suffocating.

Dad had quite a few visitors yesterday. His sister, an old friend, another old friend and his wife, my brother and sister and then Kristie and I. I think all the company did him good. But he was pretty tired when we finally made it up to see him. He was finishing his supper. I noticed a new throw blanket wrapped around his shoulders. I guess Barb thought he looked cold so she bought it for him. Sure enough one of the first things he had me do was take it off him. Then he began to argue that Barb didn't need to get him that and that people should stop focusing so much on him. Same old Dad.

Today started off horribly, but it has picked up nicely. First, I finally sat down with a really troubled student. He is in foster care and had an 8% going in my class. I just explained to him that he couldn't use the computers until his make up work came in since it was obvious that he wasn't using his time to write. So everything from now on had to be hand written. That combined with his desire to get out of foster care really lit a fire under him. He turned in two essays and brought another 'home' for homework. By the end of the class he had changed his grade to a 46%. Still failing, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel now.

Then Gilbert, a former ninth grade football player of mine who I've never actually had in class and who always comes in to give me a hard time, came in and handed me a poster of Carson Palmer (the quarterback for my favorite team). He got it at Scheel's over the weekend. He wants me to hang it up in my room. I will gladly.

The day ended on a high note with my College Comp class. I spent the entire hour reading their latest essays and then handing them back. They scoured over every note and argued every point I deducted. They care. That makes me care. That's good stuff.

Tonight -- rest. I'm still dragging from the flu. Maybe I'll read some.

Poor Kristie is in turbo drive. In addition to Dad's health and her brothers being up and her grandmother's health, she also now has her best friend's mother in law in the hospital with a brain hemorrhage, a lot of stress at work, and roughly four hours of volunteer 5-6 grade basketball to get through this week, and her dad and step mom are coming up at the end of the week. Add to that her brothers' birthdays this week (three of the four children in her family have December birthdays - Kristie (15th), Eddie (20th) and Brian (24th) and my sister wanting us to come over for supper to see my aunt who is up from Texas. Never seen anything like it.