Grandpa Update

Grandpa will spend another night in the hospital as he still has a fever. There seem to be no other symptoms and his temperature goes down when he has Tylenol in him, but goes back up when the medication wears off. The concern at this point is how weak he is.When we visited this afternoon we suggested he try to go for a short walk, with our help. He said he was too tired and would try tomorrow. A physical therapist showed up while Jim and Grandma went to the cafeteria for a cup of tea and she wanted to take Grandpa for  a walk. He said, "no." I asked if there was  chair that he could sit in, thinking that that would be an improvement over him laying flat on his back. The PT left the room to track down a chair and sure enough came back with one. She put the chair on one side of Grandpa's bed and made him get out of the other side and walk around to the chair. It was all he could do. She told him he could get back in bed after sitting up for a half hour and he had it timed to the minute and called for a nurse as soon as 30 minutes were up. Grandma is pretty tired these days, but did get to the YMCA this morning for some exercise. I will update the blog with new info as we get it. I took this photo of Grandpa, with his permission! I'm not the paparazzi! 

This morning I had my third spinning class and I may have found the spinning wheel I would like to own. In the two and a half hours I was at class today, I spun two bobbins of single ply yarn and the plied the two strands together into a 2-ply yarn. I have 62 yards and it is great! It is off-white since the fiber is in its natural state. I could dye it if I want, but at this point I think I will focus on spinning and not try to learn about dyeing too. I felt so comfortable in front of this wheel and was able to solve my own problems as they arose. I will post a photo of my skein of yarn in the near future. 

Before going to the hospital, we went to the Barnes and Nobel in Pittsford for a presentation and book signing by J-Mac. For you out-of-towners, J-Mac is a young man from Greece, who rose to fame when he went into the last basketball game of the season for the team for which he was the student manager and scored 20 points in the last four minutes of the game. J-Mac, or Jason, as we knew him, has autism and was a much loved team manager. We knew him and his family because he also ran Cross-Country and track. The coach called the opposing coach in the days before the game and asked for permission to let this boy play as a reward for years of service to the team. The coaches agreed that he could play near the end if the outcome of the game had pretty much been determined by that time. With 4 minutes to go, the Greece Athena team was up by quite a bit, so the coach signaled for Jason to go into the game. This was the first game he wore a uniform and the fans knew that he might get a chance to play. He missed his first shot, then hit a 2 pointer, followed by 6 consecutive 3 pointers! The fans and his teammates were going crazy! The video of these last 4 minutes is a real tear-jerker! The local news picked up the story and then it ran on the national evening news stations and ESPN. The coach, a PE teacher in the district was given a leave of absence to deal with all the publicity as a result of those magical 4 minutes. J-Mac, as he is now called, was nominated for and won, a national award from ESPN. Book and movie offers came pouring in. Magic Johnson came to town to meet J-Mac and talk about doing a movie about Jason's life. When President Bush was in town, he wanted to meet J-Mac. Jason has become a spokesperson for the Autism Society. This week was the release of his book, The Game of My Life, so we went to get our signed copies. Below is a photo of J-Mac signing a book for Corey, who ran in many races with Jason. Corey, he wanted to know how you were doing, as did his father. The book signing was very well attended and we are glad to have a copy for us and for Corey. If you want to read an uplifting story, go buy a copy. It will benefit a great kid. 

On our way home from the hospital we stopped at Davinci's for dinner and near the end of the meal we commented that we hadn't seen anyone we knew. Five minutes later, I looked up towards the front door and there are Gram and GrandDad waiting for a table! 

Have you voted for your favorite Valentine treat? If you voted for "Other" and can or want to share what else you would like to receive for Valentine's Day, leave me a comment. Remember this is a "G" rated blog!

Stay tuned for Grandpa updates.

Hope all is well.

RGH

Grandpa is in the hospital. He woke up with a fever of 102 yesterday and was very lethargic. After speaking with their primary care physician, Grandma called an ambulance which took Grandpa to Rochester General Hospital. He was given a bunch of tests and there is no clear diagnosis or reason for his fever. He spent the night last night and will be there again tonight because he still has a fever. He says he is feeling stronger now, which is a good thing. Hopefully he can come home tomorrow because he misses his cats. Grandma had dinner with us tonight and went home shortly after our meal because she was very tired. We will check in with them tomorrow and give you an update. 

Grandma bought herself a cell phone and was having trouble getting it to work. The customer service people she talked to on her land line phone couldn't help her and told her to go to Radio Shack  to get some "in person" help. While I was at at the hospital this afternoon I took a look at her cell phone and was able to get it to work and show her how to use it. We will need to call her a couple of times when we know she has the phone on so she can practice using it. 

Here's one of those things that makes you think you are having a good day: I was driving to the hospital and picked up Ridge Road at Mt. Read Blvd. I then made all the lights right to the hospital!! There must be at least 10 lights in that stretch-and they were all green, no yellows or pinks!

Today was a Professional Development Day for school staff. All the PE staff in the district got together and played Dodgeball - no just kidding!!! We had several presentations and participated in some workshops. It was  a pretty good day as far as Professional Development Days go. 

Here is a photo from the Jump Rope for Heart event at our school yesterday. We had about 170 kids stay after school and they raised over $3,700 for the American Heart Association. It is a great event and it gives us one more opportunity to talk about how to have a healthy heart and why that is important. Have you done something good for your heart today?

Below is a photo from the Jump Rope for Heart event of me and one of my favorite students! He is a great kid and the really cool part is that we share a birthday! He gets so excited about it each year and every day in the month of March he gives me a count down until our birthday. Last year I found a card at Hallmark to give to someone who has shares your birthday, so I will have to look for something like that again. 

Tomorrow is spinning class and once again, I am very excited about going. Hopefully I won't have any near-tears experiences! 

Let's do a Valentine's Day poll. Check the upper left corner of this blog for your chance to vote for what you'd like to receive for a Valentine's Day gift if you were to get something.

Hope all is well.

No Phone, No Internet

Boy are we roughing it! The phone and internet stopped working yesterday so we have been getting by using "Neighbor" net for an internet connection. It can be very fast service or it can hardly seem to make it to our house, but it is all we have right now. The telephone service people were here today and discovered that the line from the pole to the house was damaged so they will be replacing it - tomorrow.

It is pouring rain, hail, ice, sleet right now with the promise of a couple of inches of snow later tonight. Hopefully the phone people will not be called away tomorrow to fix downed phone lines from this winter weather episode. 

Yesterday the power went out at school for about 40 minutes. It is pretty exciting when all the lights go out in the gym and 23 kindergartners start crying that they are afraid of the dark!! I had the kids back under control by the time the principal came into the gym a couple of minutes later to see if we were all OK. And we were! 

Jim and I went to Yoga again last night and Jim had a much better experience. I think he actually enjoyed it.

Tomorrow is my Jump Rope for Heart event at school and I am always amazed at the generosity of our families. They raise a lot of money for a good cause. 

Guess that's all for now. Time for me to knit and Jim to get the computer back and use "Neighbor" net.

Hope all is well.

Let the Sewer Work Begin

I came home today to find the front yard dug up and a Water Authority sawhorse marking the area. We have a temporary black top sidewalk and a good muddy driveway. There was a note on our front door from the Water Authority stating that our water had been turned off for awhile so to expect some discolored water and sputtering from our faucets. We thought the work was going to happen when the ground was frozen, but apparently someone was anxious to get started. We'll see what things look like tomorrow when we get home.

Congratulations to all the Giants fans out there. The Super Bowl was a good game, and I was happy for the Giants, but really would have liked to see the Patriots have a perfect season. I thought it was pretty poor sportsmanship by Bill B. to walk off the field with one second left on the clock. He has such a great football mind, but seems to lack some social skills. I didn't win any money in school football pool, but my hopes were not too high on that one.  Thanks to all who voted in the poll. And then there was Tiger Woods, coming from 4 strokes down to win another golf tournament. That was pretty exciting. I cheer for him, too.

Yesterday I started knitting a scarf out of 2 different variegated yarns and I like the way it is progressing. I needed a project that was fairly mindless for times when I wanted to knit, but could not concentrate on the lace pattern for my socks. I will put up a scarf progress photo when I have a bit more to show. 

Got a note from Jeannie saying that Britni was settling nicely into her training for her new job with Burlington Northern Railroad. Britni has been issued her own hard hat and steel-toed shoes! You go girl!!!

Hope all is well.