So here's a short recap:
Whither the editor: On Tuesday, I overheard something the editor was saying on the phone. Putting two and two together, it sounded like she was talking about moving away. She had gotten divorced recently and hadn't been able to fine a place to move into. Frustrated about that. When I asked her, she said she had decided over the weekend to move back to the Chicago suburban area, where she came from, moving back in with her mom for the time being while she looked for a job.
That led to a long, sleepless night. I woke about 3 a.m. and started wondering where the paper would be going now. We can barely get the work done with three people, and I am stretched absolutely to the max the way it is. I can't absorb more assignments, especially since the major news assignments I agreed to take on "temporarily" back in 2002 or '03 are still mine.
There's the task of breaking in a new person who doesn't know our systems or software and who likely would need massive amounts of training. There was plenty to worry about as I tried to go back to sleep.
The next morning, when I came in,
Nursing home: Early in the week, the nursing home called me at home, telling me that my mom had to go to the hospital to have a scan taken on her back. We did that on Thursday. I spent most of the day away from the office. It was warm enough that we went out to get the chicken sandwich and strawberry shake she had been looking forward to quite a while. No news on the results of the scan yet.
Also early in the week, we got an e-mail from one of my wife's sisters, telling her that their father was in the hospital with pneumonia. More about that later.
62 years later: Also on Tuesday, I did an interview on a World War II vet for an annual special edition we put out each year. He's 82. Way back when, he was aboard one of the carriers that took part in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, off the east coast of the Philippines, in October 1944. It was a major battle ... and then, a half hour after the Japanese fleet broke off the battle and headed north, his carrier was hit by a kamikaze plane, which penetrated the flight deck and exploded airplane fuel and the munitions below deck. The ship was doomed ... it sank a half hour later. He escaped (obviously) to tell his story ... to me, 62 years later.
I enjoy interviewing the World War II vets--have done a number of features about them--but they are dying off rapidly. This fellow was aching physically due to the switch to colder weather ... and emotionally due to his wife's death two years earlier. They had been married 57 years.
Draft Day: Friday and Saturday were mostly concerned with the fantasy baseball league I run as commissioner (and have run since 1989). But my interests have changed, and this year I decided for the first time not to have my own team in the league.
It's just that I have so many demands on my time now, from so many directions, and I just don't have the time to do all the research needed to run a team. Or the interest. Very frankly, I am much less of a sports fan today than I was a few years ago. Times change with everything, and the changes in the world of sports are not to my liking. I have decided I will continue to follow NHL hockey (which I still follow closely) and back off from everything else.
Regardless, I decided to run the league again. It really doesn't take a lot of time during the season, and the guys like me and count on me to run things well. So I had to do the pre-draft preparations for Draft Day itself, which took place on Saturday. Started at 9 a.m. and ended about 4:30 p.m.
On Friday night, most of us went off to our pre-draft "owners meeting," which involved a trip to a strip club about 40 miles away. I had written about it last year at this time. This year, it was amusing for about an hour or so. After that, it was terribly boring. The girls were pretty to look at, but they're way too young for my taste. I'm 57, the age gulf was obvious, and the girls didn't come around me except when they made the tour after their dance, looking for dollar bills.
The other guys are in their 30s and 40s, but I don't know. Judging by the way they carried on, I'm the only one of the bunch who has a sex life. Another guy and I tried not to be be too obviously bored, but I was.
The drive over there and back was fun, though. Several of us have iPods, and we all seem to like blues music. So on the way there, we listened to John Lee Hooker and sang along to "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer." A great song. Someone wished he had "Sixty Minute Man" on his iPod--and was delighted to find I had it on mine.
Anyway, Friday night I was gone until 1:30 a.m., and I left for Draft Day at 8:30 a.m. That lasted till about 4:45 p.m. So Saturday night, my wife and I stayed home, watched some hockey (Penguins vs. Maple Leafs) together and then went to bed early for some snuggle time.
My FIL: On Saturday, we got an update about my father-in-law. It seems the pneumonia has gotten worse, and the docs are trying a different antibiotic. My SIL's e-mail sounded worried.
He just turned 79 and has lived longer than anyone in his family. My wife and I talked about it and decided we will make the trip to visit him in the hospital some time this week, depending on what I've got to do at the office--it's expected to be a quiet week--and the weather (which is going to take a more winter-like turn in early April--several inches of snow is forecast for Tuesday).
Cripes ...
Just a minute ago, the e-mail tone on the computer sounded, so I went to see what's new. It's from my SIL. My FIL had a rough time of it Saturday night. Turns out he was allergic to the newest antibiotic and had chest pain--needed a nitro pill and morphine. Though it wasn't a heart attack, the doctors told her his heart has lost about 1/3rd of its strength.
I just came upstairs after a short talk with my wife. We are currently making plans to drive down to the hospital in Marshfield (about 160 miles away) on Monday after work or else Tuesday morning, before the snow gets here.
Wish us the best. Wish him the best.
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