Best Laid Plans…

I think I mentioned the last time I was here that my Dad was coming to visit.  He wondered if the Cowboys jacket would be a problem in Philly’s territory… I don’t think he’ll mind if I tell you he celebrated his 81st birthday while he was here.

For the first weekend we planned for our kids in MA to come down to visit.  I figured we’d spend the weekend doing a little work in the garden (no sense passing up on cheap labor), quick and easy meals to cook, eat, and clean up, and then a whole lot of time spent playing cards and visiting.

What we did that weekend was no garden work, and we ate most meals out.  We did play cards a lot - just not where we had planned.

We hadn’t planned a trip to the ER and a Hospital admission for my Dad when we made our weekend plans.  The good news is that the pains my father had experienced early Saturday am were not associated with a heart attack, or blood clots… but we had to wait until all the tests were completed Monday afternoon to know for sure. 

So we made ‘Lemonade’ out of that weekend.  We couldn’t have been more pleased with the courtesy and kindness from the hospital staff – not to mention the professionalism.  We took over the family room down the hall and the hospital staff came there to check vitals and dispense meds.  When the announcement came that visiting hours were over… we just closed the door and dealt a new hand… and nobody blinked.  We left at 10:30 PM Saturday night and 9:30 PM on Sunday.

The Cardiologist said that he had people half my dad’s age that couldn’t do the full 9 minutes of the stress test… he was impressed… and so was I.  There was however no good idea what actually caused the pain… but I suspect it was related to some gall stones they noted in the CAT Scan.

After his release I put him to work in the garden…

Here is the Herb Garden my Dad and husband built for me… Daddy’s doing his best impression of a Scarecrow… LOL

On the next Saturday we went to surprise my brother who earlier that morning had returned from a 6 month assignment (contractor) in Iraq.  He’s standing there still talking to Dad on the phone… “What are you doing here, how’d you get here… I don’t believe this… how’d you get here?”  We had driven down to VA and Daddy called him on the phone while we stood outside… then we starting ringing the door bell over and over and over.  LOL

My sister Lori from NJ spent a good deal of time here with us as well – she and my husband spent a day touring Gettysburg with Daddy.  You could easily spend a week there so we’ll have to make sure to visit again during Daddy’s next visit.  He did say that knowing he’d passed his stress test with flying colors made climbing those towers a lot easier… LOL

We had a great time and I sure hated to drop him off at the airport… those 2 weeks went by very quickly!