The Sapphire Gazette

The Spumoni ice cream is in memory of a great woman, my Aunt Mildred, who would have been 97 years old in a month. You can read a bit more about her here.

Pop is in the hospital, and it's not exactly wonderful news. He seems to crest, plateau, and then plummet, rising up again to drop once more. There's a blood clot in his leg. There's an IV in his arm. He's not eating well or drinking much.

I'm behind on e-mails, so apologies to all. Things are kind of cluttered right now. I did manage to get out of jury duty. Tiger's Eye is going to be fine, we think. The lesion they found is a benign one and is filling in with the right stuff now that he's getting older. The meniscus separation didn't correlate to his pain, so they're a bit cautious that he doesn't disrupt more ligaments, because he's done this once and it really didn't affect him and we can't pinpoint when it occurred. He's wearing a brace on alternating legs, and that's the best we can do until I convince our FSA people that we can justify our medical spending with our receipts, which they can't seem to read no matter how much I blow up the receipt size and enhance the darkness. Frustrating. I'm still trying to get physical therapy set up in order to get his legs stronger where they need to be to keep pressure off his knees. There's a problem with his patellae tracking like they should, so that means strengthening his muscles in his thighs. I can't do it for him, so I hope he cooperates for his own sake.

I did get a new window unit for our room. My fingers no longer look like they came from a Jimmy Dean box, and my typing speed is up. It's nice to have it too cold and shut if off, even in weather with 105 degree heat index. Oh, yeah. It's some wonderful stuff.