After getting the bike home I started it a couple of times. The first time, I thought I saw white smoke. Doing what I always do, I went to the internet. Yup, blown head gasket. We had a trip planned to go to Wildwood NJ so I really didn't get to play with the bike for about a week. Near the end of our stay I got a call from my father, he said he needed to have a test done; he'd had a couple of these and it shouldn't be a problem, he didn't elaborate. I later found out it was a test for a dysfunctional heart valve. I got a call from my cousin Dianne after the test was done, saying dad was OK but they needed to keep him overnight and he shouldn't do anything strenuous for 24 hours. The problem was that my mother has Alzheimer's and can't stay by herself or really help out around the house. We packed up and went right to my parents condo and staying with dad and mom for the next day and a half.
What's this got to do with the bike? Nothing, that's the point. I had no time to work on the bike. I did manage to start it a couple of more times in the next week. But then I got another call from Dad saying they wanted him in for a heart valve repair or replacement. He was going to go into the hospital on Tuesday August 18, 2009 and get the operation on Wednesday. No problem, we had plenty of time to get ready.
Kari and I wanted to fix some meals so they could be popped into the oven or microwave easily. Randy wanted to drive up I said I could come down and pick him up, which he agreed to. This was probably Thursday August 13, 2009. Then, I think on Friday, Dad called and said that they wanted him in on Sunday for the operation on Monday. I wouldn't be able to pick Randy up on Sunday because I was going to be getting Dad admitted. As imagined, the schedule got very full very quickly. No work on the bike.
Zoom forward about a month. That's really the first time I could really work on the bike. Dad was in the hospital a week. During that time both Randy and I, and on the weekends, Kari were staying at the house with Mom. Randy and I fought about the best way to get mom to bathe and change her clothes. Rather than fighting I let Randy take over. I didn't do this out of meanness. My ways or personality wasn't working with Mom. Dad's recuperation was going to take a long time, Randy could only stay for a week. I decided, I may as well let Randy use his time and efforts to best use. I'd go home at night and let Randy take care of Mom in the evenings. This worked pretty well. Instead of Randy having all the decisions about meals, groceries and bathing made for him, he got to make the decisions. I think this instilled an idea of how difficult the situation was. Randy left and I spent about a week to ten days at Mom and Dad's doing pretty much everything, cooking, cleaning up, laundry, shopping, and driving to the doctors and pharmacy.
No comments:
Post a Comment