Thoughts of a 50+ father

1:26:04 PM MST
Hearing Christmas

My PC has been giving me a lot of grief lately.  I have had it in to the shop twice in the last 6 months.  Each time I have to pay more than I would like.  So this time I went out an purchased an iMAC.  With that I got software called iWeb.  It allows you to create your own website.  So I tried it.  I like it a lot better than the AOL blog area.  So I started blogging again.

If you are interested in catching up with the Harpool family come visit the site.  If you want to keep in touch leave a comment and I will make sure you get an annoucement when I update the blog.

We are very excited about Kara's pregnancy.  We found out last week she is having a girl.  I was really glad.  My wife has been out buying pink baby clothes ever since she found out Kara was pregnant.  I just knew we were going to have all of these baby clothes that Kara could not use.  Well as usual Joyce was right. 

Any way if you want to come over and vitis the new Harpool web site I would love to have you.  The link follows. 

http://web.mac.com/dharpool/Harpool_Family_Web_Site/Welcome.html

I wish you all a very Merry Chritsmas and a joyous and better 2008 than your 2007.

Written by dennis647 Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 3 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

10:23:59 AM MST

Here it is two months later and Joyce is still in Utah taking care of her mother.  Her mom is better but healing is going very slow.  She still cannot drive and is now suffering from shingles as well.  When I talked to Joyce she seemed to be very tired and frustrated about the lack of help family is giving.  I wish I could help her.

You know when you have been married for 30 years, being a part this long certainly makes you feel like there is a big hole in your life.  When you are together  you take each other for granted. You both go about doing your own thing and your daily routines.  For me that routine was going to work, coming home late, then coming home and sitting on the couch and zoning out.  On the weekend Joyce and I would go to a movie together and do our weekly food shopping and run other errands.  I would mow the lawn and help clean  up the house.  With her gone the house seems huge to me.  Just having her in it brings me a comfort and security that is hard to explain.

Those of you that read Kara's blog know that we had Wyatt's 3rd year birthday party.  It was fun.  He was so excited.  He went from gift to gift - ripping off the paper, looking at the gift and immediately grabbing another.  The look of pure excitement on his face was pure joy to see.  I have attached a montage of the pictures I took during the party.  It takes about 5 minutes to watch so I apologize in advance for being proud of my grandson and his parents. Hope you enjoy.

Wyatt's Third Birthday

Written by dennis647 Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 5 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

1:17:35 PM MST

What a world we live in.  My thoughts on the last week.


Nationally -

The horrific massacre that occurred at VA Tech.  The victim's family, the family of the shooter, they will never be the same again.  It truly makes you appreciate what you have now.  In this life there is no guarantee about what is to occur the next minute of any of our lives.  My heart goes out to all those affected by this terrible event. It reminds me to cherish each minute of  my life.


At Home -

Joyce is still in Utah with her mother - another reminder that you never know what is going to happen in your life.  Her mom is doing better but still in a lot of pain.  The MD said she broke 3 ribs.  She is at least up and moving around,  all be it with quite a bit of pain.  Joyce tells me she is tired but is glad she could be there to help her mom out.  That means Katie and I are here alone.  Kara called us yesterday and said they would be on our side of town looking at houses and thought it would be fun to go to dinner together.  So we did.  It was truly nice to be with her, Wyatt and Katie.  We went to Red Lobster.  We hadn't been there in a long time.  Family is important and we need to cherish them every minute we get, you never know what may happen.


At Work -

We finalized our annual Technical Services Director Meeting.  It will be in Chicago this year.  That means I will be gone all next week at that meeting.  We decided to hold it in conjunction with the America'sBlood Centers (ABC) annual Technical Directors Meeting.  We did this because I am on that planning committee as well and the speakers and topics we came up with are the same that we would have done at our annual meeting.  So this saved us some time.  So we will hold our business meeting the day before the ABC meeting.  My talk is something I gave about 3 weeks ago in Salt Lake City.  So that makes it easy since I didn't have to prepare something again. 

What is not so easy is I am a member of the AABB Distance Learning Planing Unit.  The AABB is an international organization that sets the professional standards for blood banking.  They work closely with the US Food and Drug Administration which is responsible for blood banking laws in the US.  Any way we are planning the 2008 audio conference schedule.  I ended up with 3 programs.  We have to have the programs defined and speakers locked in by June 8th of this year.  There is always to much to do.  However, the fact that I am busy means I am still a live and blessed and have a job that provides for my family.  

Written by dennis647 Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 1 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

6:10:58 PM MST

Today is Sunday and I just returned home from a business trip to Washington DC.  I was a little worried about the storm on the east coast delaying my flight but in DC it was only raining.  So, the plane I was on left on time and even arrived on time.  It was a pleasant relief to have no problems at all. 

While I was in DC I received a phone call from my grandson Wyatt.  I was in the middle of a meeting and saw Kara's name pop up on the cell phone screen.  I always get a bit nervous when I am out of town and see one of the kids call.  It was nothing serious.  Kara wanted me to take Wyatt to the movies on Saturday.  She didn't know I was out of town.   Of course being out of town made that impossible.  So she put Wyatt on the phone so I could talk to him.  When Wyatt got on the phone he said he wanted me and "Nanny" to take him to a show.  Well Nanny is also out of town.  I will get to that in a minute.  Just because we were out of town was not a problem for him.  He simply said when you and Nanny get back you take me to a show.  So that is what we will do.

Now, why is Nanny  (My wife) out of town?  That is the bad news.  My wife's mother fell about a week ago and broke her ribs and punctured a lung.  She had to be hospitalized for a few days.  It seems that she not only punctured her lung but bled internally as well.  They had sent her home but she kept complaining that she couldn't breath so Joyce took her back.  They admitted her again and found she had fluid in her chest cavity that was pushing on her lungs.  They drained her chest cavity and gave her a unit of blood.  Joyce called and told us she is home again and feeling better.  She even said she was up walking around.  It looks like Joyce will be gone for several weeks taking care of her mother.  That is OK though because that is what we do for people we love.  I miss her but know she is where she needs to be right now.

Katie, has been great helping us out.  Katie is our middle daughter.  She took care of our two Mastiffs, two birds (a conure and an African Grey) and our desert Tortoise.  Speaking of our tortoise, Elvis, he didn't wake up this year when he should have.  That has been happening a lot the last few years.  I think we have figured out why.  His borough is in a very shady part of our yard.  It very rarely gets sun light.  So Katie, actually took the top off of it and pulled him out. She put him out in the sun and magically he started moving around and began eating clover.  So it looks like we need to move his borough.  That will be a project for next weekend. 

My other two daughters, Kara and Devin, have been looking for a new place to live.  What is exciting about this is they both are looking in areas much closer to our home.  Devin and her husband Tom have found an apartment that is about 10 minutes away.  They will be moving in May.  Kara and Seth made an offer on a home that is also much closer - not 10 minutes but definitely closer than were they are now.  Unfortunately the seller wouldn't come down into their price range.  They were only 5K off.  Oh well. They plan on looking some more in this area so I hope things work out and they will be closer to us as well.

Well that about covers what I have been up to this last week and 1/2.  So I will end it for now.

 

Written by dennis647 Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 4 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

10:29:24 PM MST

The weekend is over and another work week lies in front of me. 

I did have a nice weekend though. My wife and daughter wanted to go see the movie "Blades of Glory" so we did.  One of them set on each side of me and they both laughed all the way through the movie.  I laughed as well but not as much as they did.  The movie certainly spoofs the ice skating world.   We went on Saturday morning so we started the weekend off with a laugh and laughing is a great thing to do.

After the movie, we went grocery shopping, always a fun thing.  We ended up buying some Alaska King Crab legs.  The lady at the store said to put slits in the legs and grill them.  They are already cooked so they just have to be warmed up.  We did this and also grilled asparagus and had a backed potato.  I must say it was really good and really simple.

We then spent the rest of Saturday cleaning and washing clothes. 

This weekend was also the general conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  This is a large meeting where the general authorities or leaders of the church talk to the members.  I always enjoy this because they are all great speakers and they really inspire me to be a better person.  Also the Mormon Tabernacle choir always sings and I enjoy listening to them. 

Sunday evening we went over to my middle daughters (Devin) house.  Kara, Seth, Wyatt and us were all there.  We had pizza, salad and brownies with ice cream .  After we ate we all played Wii and the Guitar Hero game.  I must say I am not a bad 56 year old rocker.  However, my daughters and son-in-laws are all better.

Well it is late for me so I had better close this up and get to bed.  As the saying goes, you can't get up for work until you go to bed.  Well maybe that is not a saying but certainly is true.

Written by dennis647 Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 4 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

6:19:38 PM MST

Well, I finished up the work week after coming back from vacation.  Even though it was only 3 days it felt like a full week.  Lots of messages to return, and project updates to receive.  All in all it wasn't bad.  It is annual merit time so I got to pass out increase notices as well. 

This weekend was spent cleaning and going to a hockey game.  The poor old coyotes.  They played Dallas, a team they have not beaten all year, and they had a 3-0 lead in the 3 period.  I thought they might actually beat them this time.  But they didn't keep up the intensity in the 3rd and allowed the Stars to tie it up.  That led to a 5 min sudden death over time.  No once scored.   So that lead to 3 rounds of penalty shots.  no one scored.  That lead to 7 rounds of sudden death penalty shots and the Stars scored so we lost.  At least it was an exciting game.  I only wish the out come would have been different.

Before the game we stopped at Kara's to see Wyatt.  He was just waking up.  He cried until Papa played peek-a-boo with him and then he started laughing and wanted me to hold him until he woke up.  After he woke up he wanted to go out and sit in the PaPa car (My VW Beetle).  I opened the moon roof for him and he stuck his head out and waved, while calling for his mom, nanny and aunt Katie.  They came out and took some pictures of him.  We didn't get to stay long and he cried when we left.  So I stuck my head out of the moon roof and waved at him. 

This week I also went and say "Wild Hogs".  It was really funny.  It is a male mid life crisis movie about these friends that go on a cross country Harley trip.  I enjoyed the movie.

Tomorrow starts another work week.  I have to fly to Salt Lake City to give a presentation on "The flexibility of automation in the face of change".  Snooze, Snooze.  The seminar is being sponsored by Fenwal (a major blood bag and collection instrument manufacturer) and BCA (Blood Banks of America).   It was a hard talk for me to prepare.  I hope it goes OK.  The good news is I am flying up on Monday evening and coming home as soon as I finish talking.   I will have to practice and practice Monday night. 

A member of our church leadership came by today and asked us to head up a dinner and talent show night on April 25th.  Unfortunately I will be out of town on business that night. However, Joyce and Katie agreed to take it on.  They are both very talented in that area.  They are already planning an "American Idol" take off, minus the mean Simon Cowell.  I bet it is really fun.

 

Well I had better rap things up.  I will write again next week. 

Written by dennis647 Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 3 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

5:28:34 PM MST

We made it back.  The 7 days were absolutely wonderful.  No worrying about making your bed, cleaning your house, what to eat, evening entertainment, getting to work, work projects, employees, just no worries.  My wife and I got to know each other all over again.  Now that she has been feeling better it was like being with my old sweetheart.  Well old is not the right word.  Maybe I should have said my young sweetheart.  I think you all know what I mean.

We spent 7 days on the NCL Sun on a cruise to the Western Caribbean.  It was actually Central America.  We stopped at the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico), Guatemala, Belize and Cozumel.  The weather was great for the time of year, highs in the  80's and 96% humidity.  That was something new for us being from Arizona.  We are only use to a high humidity of 30% so that zapped the energy from us and kept us wet. There was usually a breeze so that helped out a lot.

The main reason why we took this cruise was to see the Maya ruins.  We got to see 2 of the 3 we planned on visiting.  The third site we were unable to get transportation to. I have included pictures of both the Maya sites we did visit up above.  The first set are from Kohunlich, on the Yucatan Peninsula and the second set are from Belize (Tamania).  The two are divided by picturs of the rain forest we visited in Guatemala.  The Kohunlich site was beautiful.  Here is a picture of the plaza area.

There were very few people there and the grounds were exquisite.  It is in the midst of a jungle area but you would never know it from the pictures.  I even included some pics of howler monkeys that were up in a tree on the top of the pyramid. 

The Tamania site was truly in the jungle.  We had to ride a speed boat 39 miles down a rive to get to to the site and then hike for about 15 minutes. I have some pictures of the water lilies on the river in the group of pictures attached. These ruins were much larger than the other site. The guide told us the area had 30,000 people living there. I even got brave at this site and climbed to the top of the tallest pyramid.  I must say that took a little out of me.  Though I shouldn't admit it going down was even harder.  The stairs were so steep.  I had to schooch down on my butt. Here is a picture of the pyramid.

It was a wonderful trip.  In Guatemala we went to a rain forest.  You can tell the pictures from this area because they all have water in them.  Here is a sample.

My wife did struggle with her sugar levels on the trip.  She was diagnosed with diabetes just before we left and they gave her a pill to take that would help increase her insulin levels.  We had a couple of times when her sugar dropped really low.  She always carried a box of raisins with her and that seemed to bring it back up.  We do plan on talking to the MD about this.  I don't think this happened to her before she started taking that pill.

We enjoyed the entertainment on the ship as well.  They had a 19 year old jazz singer that was fantastic.  If you like jazz I strongly suggest you check him out.  His name is Chantz Powell.  He has one CD out called "Stories of Me".  We bought the CD while we were there and it is great.  It is the big band sounding jazz like Duke Ellington wrote and Sammy Davis Jr sang.  The kid not only sings but plays jazz trumpet and tap dances.  He put on a great show.  You would never know he was only 19.  Check it out.  It will be worth your time.

Now that we are home we are getting the clothes washed, and I am getting a hair cut to get ready to go back to work.  We are also getting ready to lose the pounds we picked up on the cruise.  There is food everywhere on those ships.  You can eat anything at anytime.  If you are to lazy to go to the food you can pick up the phone and they will bring it to you. 

Well it is nice to be back in Arizona where the air isn't full of water.  I am excited about seeing our daughters and grandson, not to mention the son-in-laws.  I guess the one thing I am not excited about is going back to work.  Oh well I must remember work is what allowed us to take that 7 day break from normal living.  I guess I will just have to save up so we can do it again.

Written by dennis647 Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 4 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

4:29:44 PM MST

I have been very sporadic about doing my entries. I have definitely not given up!  Sometime with all the issues we deal with in life it seems like I have nothing but negative things to write about and I don't enjoy that.  So here is an update on what has been going on.

My wife has found a very good Psychiatrist to help her with the depression.  He has completely taken her off all the medication the other MD had her on and has her on only one medication and he says that he will keep the dose as low as possible.  He did a batter of blood tests on her and it seems her thyroid is not functioning properly and her blood sugar is really high.  She took the results to her regular physician and she has not put her on thyroid medication for hypothyroidism (I have that so I know what that is all about) and she also told Joyce she has diabetes.  So now she takes her blood sugar levels multiple times a day.  They sure go all over the place.  She is trying to follow the dietary standards and is doing a real good job.  they did put her on a pill for diabetes that she now takes once a day.  I am now wondering how much of this tiredness was due to the thyroid and diabetes and not so much to the depression.  I truly hope we are on the right path to getting her healthy.

We had the girls over last night to play games and eat pizza. I think everyone had fun. I know I did and I am sure Wyatt did.  He laughed and played with everyone.  We have the Wii game systems and had fun playing that.  It sure is fun to watch people play.  We played the WarioWare Smooth Moves game, Sports and some Wii Play games.  They are multi player games so we were all involved.  My daughter also has the Play Station 2 player and we took turns playing the Guitar Mania game.  It was really a fun evening. We even took some secret videos of Devin, our middle daughter, rocking on on the guitar.

Tonight we have a hockey game.  The team is very different from the one at the beginning of the season.  We have a lot of very young players.  They are really trying to make sure they are noticed and they are fun to watch.  Since we are out of any playoff contention that is all we have now, is watching the new players and trying to figure out what management is going to do.

Joyce and I are also heading out for vacation tomorrow.  I got very worried first thing this morning because I could not find our passports.  We looked everywhere for them and of course they were not where they were suppose to be.  Joyce remember that the last time we used them I had them in a carry on bag.  So I went and found the bag and sure enough they were there.  That was a huge relief.  I could just see us not being able to go on vacation because we could not find our passports.  Our plane leaves at 6:30 AM so we have to be up and out of the house by 4:00 AM.  That will be hard for me.  We fly to New Orleans and then board a ship for a cruise.  We will be stopping in a couple of cities in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize.  We will be seeing a lot of the Mayan ruins.   

Well that is it for now.  I will check back in when we return.

Written by dennis647 Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 2 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

7:39:54 PM MST

It has been a little more than 2 weeks since I sat down and made an entry.  I guess I just haven't taken the time to do it.  During that time I have managed to complete my tax return, go to a couple of hockey games, celebrate valentines day, visit my grandson a few times, and have a family get together with all our girls (and families) where we grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and played the Wii. I took time to read Kara and Seth's adoption web site and must say I shed a few tears reading all the wonderful things people had to say about them. I even managed to take in a couple of movies.  Gosh, when I write all this down it sounds like things have been pretty good.

Things are not always picture perfect at home but whose is. Sometimes living with depression and other issues, whether it's yours or not, feels overwhelming.  (I got carried away and wrote some additional thoughts about this but felt I got way to personal so I decided to change the entry.)  Suffice it to say that that I hope I can contribute in a positive way to the lives of the people I love. 

 Now a dramatic change of subject.  My wife, Katie and I have really gotten hooked on the TV show 24.  If any of you watch it, you know how fast that hour goes by.  The plot twists are amazing. It is one of the shows we TIVO to make sure we never miss an episode. 

We have also had beautiful weather here.  It has been in the 70s.  We have even had a couple of days right around 81 degrees.  The weather man has been nice to us and sent some rain our way.  I think I have said before that us native Arizonans really like the rain.  It is a special treat when you have 300+ days of sunshine a year.

I guess that is it for now.

Written by dennis647 Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 6 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

6:54:14 PM MST

EYE SURGERY

The eye surgery went fine.  This was the first time I had ever been sedated by IV for anything.  I really don't remember anything. One minute I was talking to the staff in the OR and the next they were telling me I could get up and set in a chair. They said my wife would be joining me in a minute. At some point while I was talking to my wife I realized my eye was patched with a metal strainer like device.  My wife said it looked like I had a fly's eye.

To be honest, I was nervous about this. However, it seems it was for naught.  My eye feels much better now.  I have to wear that special eye guard, or should I call it a "fly guard",  at night so I don't accidentally scratch it. I also have to put two different kinds of drops in my eyes 4 times a day. If I am late I can sure tell because the itching becomes worse.  The good news is I don't have the sensation of something being in my eye anymore.  Now all I feel is an itching sensation where the stitches are and sometimes the stitches poke me. Either way it is better than what it felt like before.

WORK UPDATE

Today I returned home from a business trip to Albuquerque NM. I know, I know, my wife said I was a fool to go right after eye surgery.  However, I did check with the eye surgeon and he said it was OK for me to fly. So off I went.

The trip was to pilot a training program introducing customer service standards to our hospital service staff.  These are the people that take blood orders from the hospitals and deliver the ordered blood components to them.  The staff had very little to add to the program so I think we did a good job of developing the program and standards. The staff will now have 3 months to work with the standards and help define them better. They will then send me their input and the group working on this project will fine tune them.  Next week I will be doing the same thing in Reno Nevada. 

These trips aren't bad to make. They are just overnight trips;  fly in, teach two classes, get the feed back, go to bed, get up, teach them again and then fly home.  I like short trips like this. The ones I don't like are the full week trips.  They are just too long.

MY WIFE

My wife met with her MD today. 

I called him this week to voice my concerns.  He told her to tell me that she was so severely over medicated from the previous MD (The one who had to give up her license because of alcohol and drug abuse) that she is still trying to clear the drugs from her system and she is going to be very tired for quite a while. The more we learn about what that former MD did, the more angry we become.  The new MD told her that the old MD had her on a combination of drugs that could very easily trigger seizures.  Oddly enough she has been experiencing a trimmer that comes and goes.  Now we are wondering if the combination of medications is what caused it.  At any rate he told her that it could take up to 6 months to clear the old medications from her system.  That means withdrawal symptoms for that long.  I feel so sorry for her. I don't know what to do to help her out. 

The new MD told my wife that he is a minimalist when it comes to medications. He believes in giving only what is needed to deal with the issue.  He explained to her that her blood work shows that there are definitely some things that are messed up, but luckily her kidneys were not damaged. Apparently they could have been.  She is taking the results to her regular physician so she can see if there is any thing she wants to do with them.

You know it is truly frightening the trust we put in physicians.  We trust that they are doing the right thing for us and then something like what happened to my wife happens and you wonder......

Life goes on. We enjoy time with our daughters, sons-in law and grandson.  We enjoy our time together at our hockey games (we won last night against Nashville, one of the best if not the best in the NHL), going to movies and laughing (My wife is truly a very funny person).   It is wonderful that there are positive things to balance out the bad. Maybe balance out is not entirely accurate. It is more like remembering and focusing on the positive things in life when you have negative things to deal with. 

Written by dennis647 Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 3 comments: Show Recent | Add your own