and a peanut butter milkshake to go................

Saturday was the last day I was ever going to see my grandpa. He died that morning at 10:30.

Unfortunately I was not in time to see him before he passed. I shouldn't have taken time for granted.

I guess the begining of the end really started on Christmas day 2009. My grandpa fell at our condo on the way to our place. He went to the hospital about 2 hours later. No head trauma and nothing broken although he didn't remember anything about that morning. After a week in the hospital and another week in a live in rehab facility he was back home. A little tattered but still here. Getting around now with a walker and hooked up to oxygen at a rate of 2 litres.

Well after being home for two weeks he fell again. This time in his bathroom. He didn't set the brake on his walker. One of the aid car drivers remembered him and asked him if he remembered seeing him Christmas day. When asked how he felt compared to Christmas day, my grandpa replied: "a lot better".

It was serious this time. A femoral break at the head of the ball joint. This was going to require surgery.

Well that was delayed for about 5 days. The hospital felt that he was not well enough to safely do the surgery. The combination of his erratic pulse and the pnuemonia was making the situation bad to deal with.

The pnuemonia cleared up and a readjustment of his meds made the surgery possible a few days later. Hourly updates from the mom-unit brought some reassurances that day.

It was afterward where things started to drastically change. He never did fully wake up. He wasn't able to speak and his breathing was getting more shallow. He had been put on oxygen only a few weeks earlier after his first fall.

I really should have gone to the hospital this past week. I'm just not good in places like that. Never have been. I don't like doctours and I don't like hospitals. I don't visit people in hospitals and the one time I was in one for a surgery I was so high on meds that I don't know if people came to see me or not. Not sure I want to have people visit me in one. Obviously if you're visiting someone in a hospital they are not having one of lifes finest moments.

So in a period of less than 5 days he went from surgery ward to being placed in hospice. He was not able to physically eat becuase of a herniated esophagus. The hospital was not able to get a feeding tube into him becuase of this condition as well. His only nourishment at this point was from an IV drip. That was not proving to be very promising. He was given between 7-10 days. No one figured it would be far less than that.

Saturday February 6th:

I woke the sound of Scotland The Brave. It's the "generic" ringtone I installed on my blackberry. As a piper and someone who is part Scot it's a must. So anyway for the next hour and a half I'm getting call after call from the mother unit with upates on my grandfather. The Paisley and I have some brief discussions about getting to the hospital sooner than later in the day. Unfortunately sooner came quicker for grandpa than later. At 10:30 I got my last phone update on my grandpa. It was over. He was gone.

This is my last grandpa. I lost my first one in 1990 (on my 20th birthday) and the other in 1996. The math is wrong here if you're paying attention. Yes three grandfathers. This one is my step dad's father. He was the one that I just happen to be closest with becuase we lived so close to him. My other two grandfathers were on the other side of the state and I really only saw them during summers.

I had done things with this one that I had never done with the others: build things in the garage, fix cars and even go to work with him before he was retired. When I was 5 he took me for a ride on his motourcycle. First time I had every been on one. His driving scared me. I think I actually pissed myself and the bike. His driving scared a lot of people. It's one of my best memories of him.

It was very much like a scene from a scary movie walking into his hospital room yesterday morning. He was pale and jaundiced. He had died with his head back and his mouth open. It was as if he was in a permanent position for snoring. He did that very well and very loud. He and grandma had not shared a bedroom in the 35 years he had been grandpa becuase of  his snoring and probably had not shared a room for an even longer time prior to me being in their lives.

Maybe his head was back and his mouth was open for his soul to escape. Maybe I watch too much Dead Like Me.

It was creepy too. Eyes closed, head back and mouth open makes for a situation in scary movies. It gave me the willys. I felt myself hesitating to enter the room any further upon seeing him this way. My son was the most upset by this of my two kids. Grandma is a rock. She has her religion as her foundation. She was upset and crying, but dignified. As my wife stated: I've never seen grandma lose her composure."

My mom was acutally crying.

I am concerned about my step dad. Like me, he's the only kid. Unlike me, he's never had to deal with anyone close to him dying. This was his dad.

If I don't think about it then it doesn't bother me. I wasn't this upset with my other two grandpa's. Why? Was it becuase they lived so far away and the social and generational interaction was limited compared to this one? I can only suspect that as the cause. When I think about it, I become and emotional rollercoaster. I'm actually choosing to block this right now. I'm sure there will be plenty of emotional breakdowns later this week.

Grandma will have a service for him at their church later this week. There will be a final one at the military cemetary about 20 miles away. As a retiree of the United States Airforce and someone who served during two wars he qualifies for a military burial.

Grandma told us all in the room that morning that all grandpa wanted when he was lucid and awake was a peanut butter milkshake. It was his favourite.

I waited for everyone to leave the room. I closed the door a bit and approached the bed where my grandpa lay. I said my final goodbye to him as I grabbed his hand and squeezed it one last time. He wouldn't be squeezing back this time.

Taco Del Mar

So the other nite my wife and I went to the local Taco Del Mar for a some of their extremely generous mondo burritos.

In and out, quick and easy as always. The food is great and the portions huge. Well sad to say that will be our last trip to Taco Del Mar.

Last nite my wife was balancing the check book and seeing what charges had cleared and what was still pending. Taco Del Mar cleared for $2 more than what our receipt had on it. Hmm.

Well the Paisley put in a call to their store and asked to speak to someone in charge. The voice on the other end stated he was in charge and when confronted with this information, all of a sudden he was no longer the person to speak with. As a matter of fact he suddenly didn't have a name either when repeatedly asked what his was.

She finally asked who the manager was and how to get ahold of that person. The employee gave her a first name only and a phone number for the owner of the franchise.

When she spoke to him he accused her of lying. Seriously. It's $2. Why would anyone lie about such a small amount. So I called the owner and spoke to him. Of course he had a different story and said he would check it out. I also let him know that he really needed to apologise to my Paisley for being rude and accusatory to her. She has yet to get her apology call.

Meanwhile I have contacted their corporate office with an overview of the happenings in their franchise store. The franchise relationship manager emailed me pretty quickly, but seemed to dismiss my claim as an "unfortunate incident" and as an apology offered up gift certificates to keep us as customers and too pass along our comments to the franchise owner. I"m not satisfied with this and let her know that. It's not about the $2, it's about being stolen from by a business that we frequent and to be called liars and brushed aside when we call them on it.

So after consulting our attorney, we did as they advised. Stop dealing with the store. Called out bank to dispute the charge for the $2. They of course credited out account themselves and will conduct their own investigation. Our attorney and the credit union both advised that we call the police.

The police advised that we try to work it out with the store. So Paisley and I went to the TDM to get the $2 and to get a photo copy of the store receipt. After much hassle we left with both. Just as we suspected: the added amount for tip on the receipt was not my wifes handwriting. The employees on hand last nite had no comment. The corporate office has had no comment to this at this time.

I personally would urge people to skip over Taco Del Mar. Not based soley on the theft, but also the mishandling of the situation by the owner and the corporate office.

Goodbye Zelda Rubinstein

We all recognise her and love her from such films as Sixteen Candles and Poltergiest.

Zelda Rubinstein died yesterday in L.A.

I guess I'll have to make sure my next house wasn't built on an indian burial site.

We'll miss you Zelda

Steampunk Blog

My favourite blogger has started another blog. Roland Hulme at Militant Ginger has just started Steampunk Generation. You will find a link to his blog on the left sidebar or just click here.

What is steampunk?

Glad you asked!

Take today's fun little gadgets and people and place them back in a late 1880's-ish time period and you would have Steampunk. Just take a look at the work of Jules Verne for instance. Read his books and you'll have a better understanding of what steampunk is.

My wife and I joined a local group called the Seattle Steamrats. At first we just started attending the Monday evening get togethers so we could meet other members and get to know them. Some folks come dressed in their period steampunk clothes every week and some do not.

As the Paisley and I continue to add to our wardrobes and participate in the local events held by our group we will post some photos and chat up a bit about the events and fun items.

Here I am last weekend at Gasworks park for a caledar photo shoot organised by a fellow Steamrat member.

Here we have a common Star Wars Jango Fett blaster. This is the before I modified it into a steampunk weapon.

With a little paint and some subtle placement of some bits I added to it and........voila!! One Steam-Fett Blaster.

Well I'm done for now. Please click on Roland's link and enjoy his new blog and if you haven't read him before now please be sure to visit his other blog, Militant Ginger.