I’m back at my couch post. My mom, who is constantly hot, and can’t believe that I’m fine, is upstairs with her window air conditioning blasting. She ran necessary errands today. I feel like when I’m “off duty” that I probably should be helping my mom clean up and organize the house. The thing is, I just did that to my own house that we unloaded. It really sucked. When it was over I felt like a huge burden was lifted from me. What the hell universe? Is this just a ironic coincidence?

The nurse came today to change the bedding and give him a bath. It’s our least favorite nurse. She’s rough. We keep having to remind her that he has a broken neck that never healed. In the middle of the procedure, he said he was in pain. We never thought of giving him the morphine before she came. We gave him the drops and sat with him and fed him ice chips. He was trying to sleep but couldn’t so we gave him the sleeping drops also. That was at noon and he’s pretty much been asleep since then. It’s 11:30 p.m. now. He’s woken up a few times for ice. He’s breathing heavier than I’ve heard before and even though he’s sleeping, doesn’t look very comfortable.

It’s so strange to know that he won’t be here anymore. Sometimes it just seems like if we could feed him a little and give him the right medicines, he could just be normal again. Today my mom and I were sitting around the dining room table and recounting stories about “crazy Bob”. I know your only supposed to say nice things about people in this situation, but Bob, besides being a “bit of a pill” was (is) also a bit of a loon. In attempt to show I don’t mean to disrespect or want to disparage the dying, I’ll say, and mean it, he’s our loon and we love him.

When Andy and I decided not to have kids (did I mention that before?) Bob was beside himself. He got it in his head that the reason I didn’t want to have them is because I didn’t want to “ruin my figure”. He said that Andy was going along with what I said because he didn’t want me to leave him. I was sent thick letters about the joys of children peppered with bible verses. He tried to bribe me with cash, and told me that cesarians are very in right now and that all the celebrities are having them.

He told my cousin and her family at dinner at my grandmother’s house that they needed to watch out because the French foreign exchange student that they were having come and stay at the house was only there to get Alexandria pregnant so he could get a green card.

There was a great story about Bob and my mom coming to Vegas somewhere in the archives that I can’t find. We had rented a scooter for Bob so he could get around easier. He didn’t quite know how to control it. They were staying at the Las Vegas Hilton which has a Star Trek themed casino. Andy and I were showing them around the casino. As we were walking, Bob started going too fast. He gripped the scooter handles which only made it go faster. He put his feet on the floor trying to dig his heels in as he shot down a ramp full speed heading straight for…..wait for it….. a giant floor to ceiling replica of the warp core. We all sucked in our breath as he careened wildly. At the last possible second, he let go to brace for impact and the scooter came to a full stop. He was unharmed and we all laughed until tears came out of our eyes.