Ahh well, the fun never stops.

Sunday, as I was getting ready to drop by dad’s - father’s day, you know - the phone rang.  It was dad.

“You’ll never guess where I am!”, he said.
“Okay”, playing along, “Where are you?”
“I’m in the hospital.  I’ve been throwing up blood.”

So I scraped myself off the ceiling and had him tell me the story.  Turns out he’d been vomiting blood for two days and Sunday morning, around 3:30 AM, decided he should probably get himself to the emergency room.  Not that he’d call me for assistance, heavens no!  Kenyons don’t do anything as weak as asking for help… And he drove to the hospital.  Not to the local one about 10 minutes away but to the VA in Boston - about an hour away.

Sigh…

He’s been keeping me at a distance (all very jolly and good natured of course) and not letting me come down to visit.  He says I shouldn’t waste the gas and that it’s too hot for me to be driving around.  That more or less translates into “I don’t want you to see me in the hospital but you can call every day if you like.” I know my father and since I still judge him to be of sound mind (if only barely sometimes) I decided to honor his wishes. 

From what he tells me, the situation has cleared up - though he lost a significant amount of blood - and he expects to be home tomorrow.  He has not told me what his physicians think caused the problem in the first place which makes me a bit jittery.  Either they haven’t told him, he hasn’t understood what they have told him or they don’t know yet.  Most likely he hasn’t understood what they have said; dad is a very poor listener.  If you watch, you can see exactly when he tunes out and starts trying to think of a smart-ass response.

Stay tuned :)

I laboriously tinked the shawl back to the mistake (lifelines, I know...), got that fixed and proceeded with the next pattern repeat only to drop stitches another four rows down the line and have to tink it all back again.  This shawl apparently hates me though I’ve never said an unkind word about it!  Actually, I suspect my beloved Options needles. I think they’re probably too slick to be knitting lace with.  I should probably go with wooden or bamboo needles for this - but I hate to give up those wonderful pointy tips.  I suppose Knitpicks Harmony needles would be something to try too.

Anyway, I seem to be on my way again and hope to finish this later this week.  Despite the jade green being a very unusual color for me, I have to admit it’s very pretty and I’m very pleased with the shawl - despite my apparent attempts to destroy it :)

Ev tagged me for a meme, so I’m playing along :)

The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?

I had just been promoted to IT (tech support) from the executive secretarial position I’d started in and I was thrilled out of my mind :) I loved that job and I loved my boss and I still miss them.

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today?

1.  Work on the shawl
2.  Watch The Shootist - one of my extremely short list of things that’s a better movie than a book.
3.  Try to decide if I can justify going to the mill shop to buy more yarn :)
4.  Start trying to write out the pattern for the shawl.
5.  Further develop my new Blood Elf Mage, Satsuki (World of Warcraft)

3) Snacks I enjoy:

Cheese and crackers, scones, shortbread cookies, cherries, anything with peanut butter on it :)

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

Set up yearly donations to my two favorite charities - one local, one international.
Buy or build a house with rooms, space and accoutrements to suit everybody - including the bazillion pets we would then probably acquire :)
Fulfill my fantasy of going into a yarn shop (a good one), coming in the door and announcing, “I’ll take one of everything!”.
Send my dad on the cruise of his dreams.

5) Places I have lived:

Massachusetts, Missouri and Illinois.  I have yet to see the west coast.

6) Jobs I have had:

Technical Support
Cab driver
Bartender
Waitress
Distributor (dresses, lingerie, sportswear) for Marshall’s department stores
Executive Secretary

I won’t tag anyone, but please feel free to play along should the whim strike you!

The temperature got up to 100ºF this afternoon - a record in this area.  We’re supposed to get some relief tomorrow which will be welcome.  We do have the AC running, to be sure - but errands don’t run themselves.  Really, I don’t think I’ve experienced this kind of temperature since I was going to college in Southern Illinois!  I will not be sorry to see it moderate - bring on the thunderstorms!