Monday 4/30, Went to Home Depot after work to see if I could order trim pieces and some doors for my kitchen but they couldn’t give me a definite answer and said they would call me back. At home I did some taping off of the walls in the kitchen then didn’t do a whole lot else…except pay some bills and balance my checkbook, which I really love. I edited some of my blogs from 2005 and laughed at some of the stuff I’d forgotten about, like how Susan and I thought Andy was going to punch her in the face that night at Neighbours for not revealing her bartender but he was really just reaching for his coffee behind her head. I went to bed fairly early because I was exhausted.

Sunday 4/29, I woke up at 6:30 and couldn’t go back to sleep so around 7:00 I flipped open my latest issue of Details and read the Orlando Bloom article then got up and showered and got Kassie moving. The three of us went to the little café in town for breakfast and had a nice meal and headed home to pick up Dad’s stuff and for him to move my fridge so I can paint behind it then set off for the airport. Kassie talked to Mom and there was going to be a family meeting with the doctors about Grandpa at noon so we decided that after we dropped Dad off to head straight down to the base. We got checked in through the visitor’s center without any problems and headed up to Grandpa’s room. We were up there with him by ourselves for about 40 minutes and just sat and talked to him for a long time and noticed how much better he seemed. He had a lot of color in his face, his hands were very warm and his breathing was so calm and a complete opposite from how it was on Friday. It was so quiet and peaceful. It looked like he could have woken up any minute and walked right out of there. Kassie and I alternating between crying and not believing this was the end and laughing and joking at things Grandpa would have found funny. Kima showed up next and talked with us about his condition and that his blood pressure was better because of the machines but that he was running a fever as a result of the brain damage and is quite common…not a good thing though. Dad was next and gave both Kassie and I hugs because we had very obviously been crying. Lastly Auntie Lauryn and Grandma showed up, which was the hardest part of all because Grandma instantly started crying and you could see she was as shocked by all of this as the rest of us and couldn’t believe it. The doctor asked us to all come into this room to talk to us and basically said he had 0% chance of recovering and returning to the man we all knew. It had been decided before that if the report wasn’t good that they would remove the breathing tube and the machines…so that’s what was decided. We waited in the room while it was done so that he was unattached by the time we went in to say goodbye. They warned us that he may live for hours or even days. His breathing was back to being very rough and I couldn’t be there anymore so I told him I loved him while I held his arm and said goodbye. It was so painful and traumatic to watch so I went out into the hall and cried and Kassie followed a few minutes later, then Dad to check on us. Kima came out a few minutes later to tell us he had passed. It happened so quickly, which I suppose is a blessing. We know he didn’t suffer. If you would have told me a week ago that my Grandpa would be dead in the next week I would have said you were smoking crack. It’s unbelievable. I can’t believe it. I’m in shock. Who’s going to take care of Grandma? Who’s going to finish the family tree? Who’s going to bring the apple cider to our Sunday family dinners? Who's going to come over when I blow a fuse or can't figure out why flipping the breakers won't make my microwave come back on? How did this happen? Anyway, it was hard and eventually we all stumbled out of the hospital and headed toward home. We went to Mom’s to check on her and actually had a nice afternoon, considering, talking and joking about Kassie’s engagement ring (a pinecone). Auntie Lauryn came over and we ordered three pizzas for dinner, ate up then saw Grandma and AL on their way. Kassie and I took off too and watched a little AFV together before she left to go out. Susan called and I talked to her for a little while then watched EHM and bawled…not just about the show naturally. I showered on a commercial and cried more then watched Desperate Housewives.

Saturday 4/28, I woke up at 6:00, got ready, gassed up and hit the road to Plain. I arrived at 8:45 so it took me 2 hours exactly, mostly due to it being early and no one on the road. When I got there I grabbed some gloves and started helping Dad by keeping the burn pile burning. I took some pictures and got quite a bit burned and cleaned up so that was good. I helped Dad wash Mom’s car and do other things then laid on the deck because it was warm and so beautiful while Dad packed up his stuff and finished up. We rolled out of there at 1:00 and went to 59er Diner for lunch. We made pretty good time back as well since it was a Saturday and out of season. We took inventory of what we needed once we got home and headed out to Home Depot where we picked up paint, cement compound, hooks and tried to find a saw blade but couldn’t, even after checking at Lowe’s, Fred Meyer and BMC as well. We decided to try and make due with what we had and using painters tape to guide the blade and prohibit splintering of the cabinet skin. We got it done, then hung the mirror in the dining room, cut and attached the cabinet trim on the bottom then he switched out the light switch for the outside light. By the time we finished it was 8:30 and we called in our order to the Chinese place, picked it up and sat down to dinner and Bond a little after 9:00. We didn’t make it all the way through and decided to go to bed around 11:00. Kassie came in after midnight and crawled into bed with me.