ladynox25 | (no subject)

I drove to HS this weekend. While there, I was planning to get my car inspected, since this needs to be done before the end of March. I go to start it on Saturday to drive it to the local place, and no dice. The alternator turns over, the battery is clearly engaged, and the car has a full tank of gas, but the car doesn't start. I suspect something in the fuel line. Unfortunately, the local place doesn't do fuel line diagnostics on Saturday so my dad & I towed the car to the service center & they will look at it first thing Monday. Meanwhile, I'm driving my dad's pickup. Oh joy, oh rapture.

Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful that my dad will let me drive his truck so I don't lose my transportation. But this is not a good time to be having vehicle problems, considering that I will be needing my Explorer's haulage capacity repeatedly in the next few weeks. Hopefully, it's just a clogged fuel filter. That's my guess, anyway, based on the symptoms, plus the fact that I usually top off my gas tank at between half and a quarter tank. This time, however, I wasn't able to make it to a gas station until I was on my way to HS, so my tank was down much further than usual when I filled it up. Then, too, my car's getting close to its next maintenance, so the filter was probably already dirty. Putting in 3/4 or more of a tank of gas probably stirred up the sediment that's been collecting in the tank and then, during the drive to HS, it overloaded the filter. Anyway, we'll see.

My grandmother is doing as well as can be expected, given that she's dying. They took her off the glucose because her kidneys shut down and all it was doing was making her edemic. She's peaceful, though, and they're giving her painkillers so she's in reasonable comfort. My parents and I talked about it (and they had talked it over before I came up for a visit) and we've decided that we are not postponing the wedding, whatever happens. We may end up postponing the bridal shower scheduled for April 1st, though.

All in all, I think her death is peaceful, and people are being given the chance to let her go. And once she is ready, she will let go. Any prayers, though, are of course appreciated.

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I saw your earlier note about your grandmother, but was too crushed with work to have anything coherent to say. I won't drone on about my experiences, but, like others, I thought it was well-said. And having gone through a solid (estimated) period of 25 years wherein at least one grandparent was always dying... I got pretty much the same conclusion from it. Without being completely hedonistic, you do have to live for yourself-- living for someone else, despite the best of intentions, ends up living for no one.

Good luck.

Thank you; I was thinking of your experiences this weekend.

And, no, by the way-- it doesn't actually get any easier. You just get better at dealing with it. Which in some ways feels like a bad thing, but isn't.

Sending thoughts and prayers.

Thank you.

*hug*

Grandpa just started hospice care this week as well. Call me on my mobile when you get a chance tomorrow.