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Archive for June, 2012

Closing accounts

June 28th, 2012 at 02:58 am

Most of today was spent working on calling the various accounts my dad had and finding out what was needed to close them. All but two credit cards did not ask me to send a death certificate. One card I "discover"ed is a real pain in the rear to deal with - when I asked what was needed to make sure the card was closed out, I was asked for my contact information and told that "we will contact you with further information." ARgh!! That dealing is making me reaccess if I want to keep my card with them or not.

For BofA, the DMV and one other place, we have to wait until after 40 days. At the 40 day mark we can claim "Small Estate Claim" and with the death certificate be able to work with those items (bank accounts, car/motorcycle title, etc.) So that's what I'll be doing once I get back from my San Francisco trip.

As hard as it was yesterday getting the ashes and death certificates, today calling all the places to close accounts was not very emotional. Although every place I talked to expressed condolences - which I hate to admit, but it was kind of annoying. I just wanted to get my task done and over with. (I know they were being kind, so I wasn't *really* annoyed, just it was kind of annoying. If that makes any sense.)

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My grandma came with me to the bank today. I wanted her there so she could hear *again* from someone else that there was only *one* safety deposit box and that there were not any bank accounts with her and my dad's name on them. I explained it to her a second time after the lady left to check on something ... but I wouldn't be surprised to hear her being confused about it again later. All in all though, she's doing remarkably well for an almost 91 year old who just lost her eldest son. (She got really discombobulated last night when her youngest son who hadn't called her in nearly 4 years, out of the blue called her. Not to offer condolences about dad of course, but to just chit chat. I had all I could do to keep my mouth shut. This supposed relative of mine did not reach out to either his remaining brother or sister on their loss, nor to my brother or I, not to mention his own mother.) I may be being skeptical or judgemental, but I think he thinks that now my dad is out of the picture and grandma is going to have to update her will/trust, that he better get himself on the radar/good graces. I hope I'm wrong, but his actions of the past sure don't do much to speak otherwise. (He and my dad had a falling out 25 some odd years ago over something stupid. My dad tried numerous times over the years to reach out to him and restore their relationship, to no avail.)

My grandma has 6 bird feeders in her backyard. I had filled them up on Monday evening. While filling them up, the birds made themselves completely scarce. Then as I was watering the garden, they slowly landed on the electric lines above the yard. It wasn't until I was out of the yard and out of sight that the first few came slowly to the feeders. Tonight the feed was all gone, so I filled them up again. I was barely finished and heading towards the hose when the first bird landed on one of the feeders. By the time I was half-way through watering, there were at least half a dozen birds eating merrily. I guess they've decided I'm not a threat. Big Grin

Hard Day

June 27th, 2012 at 06:33 am

I hope you all aren't too tired hearing me talk about all that's going on out here right now.

Today was a really, really hard day. About 4:20 p.m. this afternoon I got a call telling me that the death certificates were ready. Grandma and I hopped in the car and headed over (we hurried because they closed at 5.)

When we got there the funeral director person handed us the death certificates and the nuts and bolts from dads ankle (my brother wanted those - dad broke his ankle in several places 20 odd years ago body surfing in Hawaii.) I realized that neither my brother nor I had settled on what we were going to use for "keepsakes" for the portion of ashes we each wanted. So I asked the fd person if he could put aside a small portion for once we did have the keepsakes ready. He did so, but this took about 20 minutes.

The whole time grandma and I sat in the lobby waiting (and I filled out the acknowledgment form for the certificates) it was just ... hard. In a way it was worse than when we went there for seeing dads body. It was way worse than when we first went there to make the cremation arrangements.

Tomorrow I am going to start making the phone calls - making sure before I do any visits that ALL they need is the death certificate. I don't want to have to do more than one visit per place.

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The day wasn't totally hard. Earlier in the afternoon I took my grandma to the mall to get her walking done. On our second trip around the mall I realized that one of the food court shops had bubble tea (or boboa) which one of my co-workers in NM had introduced me to. I had looked forward to introducing it to my dad ... but instead today introduced it to my grandma. She liked the drink part, but didn't care too much for the "bubbles."

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I also went to the fitness center this morning in an attempt to make use of my membership. I used one of their elliptical machines. Yuck. I know how to change settings on a machine (I worked at a gym for nearly 16 months! I should know!) but these ellipticals were old and cheap. The angle the feet were at made my toes get all scrunched up. That was two times using that machine. (first and last!)

As much as it pains me to not use my membership, I think that unless I oversleep the cool part of the morning for jogging, that I'm going to just jog every day (except my rest days.) Boring, yes, but at least I know my toes won't get scrunched! If I do miss the cool part of the day, then I can use the fitness center's indoor jogging/walking track.

A "deal" offered by cemetary

June 26th, 2012 at 06:38 am

So the cemetary kept adding on more and more expenses ... estimated cost was reaching upwards of $7k!!!! My aunt basically told them thanks, but no thanks - we'll come up with another plan. Oh boy, did they ever start back pedaling!

In the end it looks like what we're going to do is use my grandma's plot for both my dad's ashes and when grandma dies, her ashes. We'll get a headstone with both her name and dads name on it (hers minus a death date of course.) Basically we'll all arrive just like we're coming for a visit, grandma will sign the necessary paperwork, and the cemetary people will dig the hole. No other fan fare (canopy, chairs, funeral direcotor, car to drive ashes to site, etc.)

That brings the cost down to approximately $1900 + $750 - 1450 for the headstone. Still a lot of money, but considerably less than the first quote ($3300) and WAY less than the recent quotes.

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I think I want to have my body donated to science (organs donated), you get cremated for free, and then have my ashes spread out somewhere ... So basically no cost at all.

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A friend of mine works at Kohl's and she posted today that the newest Kohl's cares books/animals were out. I'm usually two hours away from the nearest Kohl's when they put out their stock, so I decided to see if I could take advantadge of it. Smile I bought 4 hardcover Skippyjon Jones books, a plush SJ toy, and a plush monkey -- $31.xx. My friend had said her store had penquins also .. but to my dissapointment, the Kohl's here did not have penquins. Frown I really wanted two penquins - one for my non-ficiton penquin books, and one to go with my Tacky the Penquin books. They did have a stuffed bumblebee ... I was wracking my brain for any books that would go well with a bumblebee, but really couldn't think of any. My grandma suggested it could go with the song/poem, "Flight of the Bumblebee," but I was looking for a bit more to go on than that. Big Grin

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I talked to my principal today. She told me that Kari (my cat) is still doing well. That everyday when she goes in to feed and interact with her, that all Kari wants is some loving - doesn't seem too interested in playing at all.

My principal told me that she was worried that I wouldn't be back in time for school to start. I assured her that I would be heading back the last weekend of July. I *have* to have some time to get ready for the next year!

Summer school seems to be going well. The person who took over for me is pretty much using the plans and ideas I left with him. I really hope that they do video the closing program .. I so was looking forward to seeing the kids put it together. Frown I'm just glad to know things are going well...

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I had a major missing my dad moment today. When my grandma and I were at Kohl's, I went to lock the car using the remote. No matter what I did it wouldn't lock. I went around the car and made sure all the doors were shut tight. Still didn't work. My first thought was, "I need to call dad, he'll know what to try/do!" Then .. sigh... Frown

It worked fine on all of our later stops. My brother thinks it probably is the battery. Dad *loved* to do the "lock" function multiple times - especially when around other people - just to get a reaction of some sort. So, that probably wore the battery down. My brother thinks he can change the battery easy peasy - there is a screw on the back of the key fob thingy. I just need to find the right battery for it.

I'm glad I still have my brother to call on.

Cemtaries have those left behind over a barrel!

June 23rd, 2012 at 04:31 am

Argh! My dad's ashes are going to be interred in the same cemtary/gravesite where his father is buried. In fact, there are many relations in the same area of the cemetary. So, we thought it would simply be a matter of digging a hole in the same gravesite as his father's, and redoing the headstone. Ha! Not quite.

This cemetary says that it is *mandatory*since there will be more than three people there to have: a canopy, a car to drive the remains to the gravesite, a funeral director, and ten chairs set up and something else I don't remember right now. It doesn't matter whether we want any of those things or not - we have no choice. (Well, our choice would be to not do it there ... but then it wouldn't be the same ...)

Oh well, I guess I just have to chalk it up to being what it is, and not worry about it.

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I'm still waiting on the death certificates in order to start closing out accounts. I found out about something called "small estates" claim here in CA, so you can avoid probate if the estate is under $150k. You just have to wait 40 days from death to claim it. So for some things I may have to just wait til I can make that claim.

Just a note to everyone ... please, if you haven't done so recently, update your will and your list of accounts and anything else that might possibly be relevant to those you leave behind. It also would be a wonderful gesture to leave information behind about what kind of service you might like, whether or not you want to be cremated, and if you have any wishes as to where you'll be interred. All of that would just make things so much easier.

Once I'm back home in NM, I plan on starting on that process and checking into what it would cost to do a living trust - even though I have few assets, I think that still might be a good easy way to go. (I already told my brother I want to donate my body to science, be cremated, and don't care what happens to my ashes - whatevers least expensive. Also if I happen to have a lot of money in my estate it's to go to caring for whatever animals I have, then to a school library, and finally to a no-kill animal shelter.)

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Anyway, enough with the morbidity.

I was able to get a library card yesterday. This way I will be able to read through some of the children's books which my library and their library share in common. I didn't bring a list of books with me yesterday, so will have to wait til Sunday to go back and get some.

I also signed up for the local fitness center. I went to my first class on Wednesday. A 1 hr torture... er ... Pilates class. When it was finished, I seriously was worried whether or not I'd be able to walk out of the building without triping over my own two feet. I was going to do another class last night, but decided to wait til next week to do another one.

Today was day 10 of being back into jogging. I did 2 miles at a 15:43min pace. Not great, but still pretty good considering how long it's been since I've done any real exercise. If I keep this up, I might just run a few 5ks when I get back to NM (if I can find any.) My brother right now would be all over my backside for using the word "if." Big Grin He wants us to do a half-marathon in honor of our dad. I told him maybe in another year or two ... Big Grin (he runs an average 9:40 - 10 minute mile ... on *hills* - the fastest time I got to when running regularly was a little over 12min/mi - and that was only doing one mile!)

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I'm not spending hardly any money while I am here, which is good since I .ah hem.. spent a goodly sum on books, etc. before leaving NM (under the notion that I'd be getting summer school pay ...)

I have one more paycheck at what I had gotten used to this past year, and then the first paycheck in July will be the new amount (spread over 26 payperiods instead of 24 + a 1% raise.) So I'm not going to even think about my budget until I get back home in August. Then I'll figure it out again. Too many variables to think about right now.

Dad's watch and Code List plus other interesting tidbits

June 20th, 2012 at 04:57 am

My dad always wore one of two watches - one he wore more often than the other, but he wore both. The one which my brother took for his own, has had the band replaced many multiple times over the years. I took the commemerative Lionel train watch with origional band.

This watch's band was so big on my wrist it was more like a bracelet. So today grandma and I went to the mall to a watch repair shop. Before getting there though we passed by a Things Remembered shop, and it gave me the idea of engraving the watch. So at the repair shop I asked if they could remove a link in the band, and if they could engrave the back with my dads first and last name, and birth/death. It cost $45 to do both, but I think it was well worth it.

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In going through my dads files, I have found several versions of a code list. This is a list of all the websites where he has a username and password, and their respective username/password. This is much better than what he had at one time - all that information posted all over his corkboard by his desk. Smile

Anyway, I'm beginning to think that I might do something similar. It's been very frustrating trying to access some sites while away from home. One site in particular keeps telling me that it doesn't recognize my username or my email - yet in a previous password recovery email, it shows both exactly as I'm putting it. I don't know if I'd put the exact password for the sites, but perhaps a hint that would let me know what it is.

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Something else interesting I found as I went through my dads files is a file on N family history. His father was a minister in the church until his death in 71 (at 51 years old.) During that time he also was a treasurer in one of our conferences. The document I found shows that even back in the early 50's that there was greed, corruption and political misdealings in our church high hierarchy. My grandpa must have cleared his name from the accusations, because he went on to minister multiple churches until his death 20 years later.

I also found a letter from my grandma to her dad in which she speaks of her mother. Apparantally her mother was very similar to mine. This helped me a lot in understanding my grandmas attitude/feelings towards my mom.

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I signed up at the local fitness center today. $50 for one month. I also bought a pair of capri style workout pants. I've been using workout shorts/shirt of my dads when I've been jogging in the mornings. I didn't quite want to go to a public exercise class in a mans workout outfit. Smile Tomorrow I'm going to go to a Pilates class. I've done Pilates many times in the privacy of my own home, but never in a public class setting. This should be interesting ... especially since it has been at least two years since the last time I practiced Pilates regularly (and I never did work up to the roll up!)

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I didn't get to the library today. Hopefully I can do that tomorrow.

Updates

June 19th, 2012 at 04:20 am

Hi all,

I had written a long post last night with lots of updates, but in the middle of it we had company (who ended up helping me weed dads garden) and so when I got back to the blog and finished it, copying it before hand slipped my mind completely.

The memorial service went very well. I really think it was something my dad would have been very proud of and would have enjoyed if he'd been there. My brother and other relatives all left Sunday to their respective jobs/homes, so now it is just my grandma and I.

This last week my brother pushed me to get back into jogging ... which I did 5 days in a row with him (at a pace that was barely a warmup for him, but pushing it for me ... for a mile or so.) Today after I texted him my mileage and time, he emailed me and told me that he'd decided that he was going to give up smoking!! Yay!!!!!

Today grandma and I visited the bank where we had found a key for a safe deposit box in my dads things. It had both my dads name and my grandmas, so we were able to get into it without a death certificate. It turned out that everything in it was grandmas. Gold and silver coins, and a lot of $100 bills. I understood the gold and silver, but was perplexd aboute the $100 bills. She told me that it was so she'd have cash for when the banking system failed ... Um ... if the banks fail, somehow I doubt you could get to your safe deposit box ... but maybe I'm wrong. She's almost 91, so she can think whatever she wants to think. Smile

We got a bit of a late start today because we had to wait for my dad's long time friend to come over and figure out what was going on with the sprinklers. Due to that, I ended up not going over to the local gym. I checked out the class offerings and cost on their website. It's $50 for one-month, but there are classes I'm interested in every day of the week. Plus, my grandma has a free membership (80+), so I can get her to come over with me and maybe walk the track (indoor) or relax in the jacuzi. When we were out on our evening walk tonight, she told me I was as bad as my dad (pushing her to be active.) I told her that I resemble that remark. Big Grin

I got an email from my principal today telling me that Kari is doing fine. Maybe she'd be okay with someone just looking in on her a couple times a day til the end of July????

My poor brother. He got back up to San Jose and found out that our uncle had taken his car to a mechanic friend. They found out a load of problems which need to be fixed for the safety of the car. So he had to take another vacation day advance from his job. So far his boss has been very very understanding (she actually was here for the memorial!) but I'm not sure how far the understanding will go. Unfortunately, a business is a business.

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I got a phone call this evening letting me know that my dad will be cremated tomorrow morning. His death certificates won't be ready til Wednesday or maybe Thursday. The sooner the better to my mind, then I can get a lot of business completed (accounts closed out, etc.) I don't think I'll feel completely settled until all of that is done.

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My brother is contemplating moving here and staying with my grandma for a year. (Moving permenantly, but taking care of her for only a year.) If he does that, then I am contemplating moving here and taking care of her until our aunt is able to retire and move here as well (she has about two years to go.)

I love my job, and I love the people, and the people in my local church have been really supportive ... but I don't really feel at home there (at the church.) Here, in LL, there are at least 7 different churches within a 5 mile radius. Not to mention that the local grocery stores have a large variety of vegetarian foods - just about anything you could ever dream of finding.

My biggest concern is what I would do for a living. However, I have at least 8 to 9 months to figure that out and make a decision. (I'd have to say whether I'm coming back or not by January or perhaps February.) My grandma could end up moving to San Jose to live with her daughter, or something else could come up. Only God knows the future.

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Alright, I'm going to attempt to catch up on the blogs. I'm at least 8 days behind in my reading, so I don't know how many comments I'll be making.

Short note

June 15th, 2012 at 06:58 am

Hi all. Been really busy with family and preparing for the memorial service this week. My brother and I started to gO through dads shed in the backyard yesterday. He had to have 300 or mo more VHS tapes! We also found his old record collection - I'm going to take those, although I'll need to find a record player.

We got one of those scammer calls today where this guy asks for grandma, then when I told them I was her granddaughter, he asked me to guess who he was. I guessed a name ( only young male relative) and he was like " you got it!" then my aunt got on the phone and knew it wasn't that persons voice. He also mentioned something about a surprise trip to S America.

That really steamed me that someone would attempt to prey on my grandma - especially right now.

I have a question - when your ex- husband dies, and it is barely 5 days later, is that an appropriate time to bring up the topic of retirement money owed to you or that you may need to consult a lawyer, but want to make sure it won't throw things in probate? This is after she's been told that it probably is best that she not come due to very hard feelings towards her from her ex's family.

It's so strange how I can be in a roomful of people who loved my dad feeling ok, then someone says something and all I want to do is cry.


In financial news I now have a car payment of $245/mo. I loathe having a car payment and wish I had more saved up. But I know this would've made my dad very very happy, and the rest of my family are very happy about it as well. That makes it a little easier to do. ..plus I plan to pay extra when possible to get rid of it ASAP!!

Thanks again everyone for your thoughts and prayers.

Quick Note

June 8th, 2012 at 05:11 am

Hi all, thank you again for all your kind words. I got in this AM and was picked up by my brother. After breakfast our aunt, my brother and I went to the funeral home to fill out the paperwork for cremation. Dads ashes (mostly) are going to be put in his fathers grave.

We all talked it over and agreed to a public memorial service most likely on the 16th. Mom is not going to be invited - Ryan didn't want a big argument and mom understood ... So I acquisessed.

I wish I hadn't gone to the viewing at the hospital - dad was not anywhere near normal looking. We're supposed to have another viewing before he's cremated where he'll be cleaned up.

So ... It looks like I might have a new to me car. Frown My brother wants me to have dads car (and he'll take the motorcycle). It's a 2009 Nissan Rogue with a balance owed (to grandma) of about 14k. I'd so much rather have my dad back. Frown

I made the offer to stay with grandma for the summer, and it was accepted. Meanwhile our aunt is going to try to get my uncle and his wife to move back here from Egypt to take care of grandma for awhile. Be surprised if they do it.

Thank You

June 6th, 2012 at 11:39 pm

Thank you everyone for your prayers and condolences. I found out a bit more about what happened. His balloon failed and so they had to rush him into emergency surgery even though they knew that he wasn't really stable enough. About 2:30 a.m. CA time his heart completely failed.

My principal is taking me into G in about 90 minutes so I can pick up some snacks for the train, then leave about 7:30.

It's been hitting really hard off and on today, every time it hits the reality sinks in more. My brother is in the really angry stage right now. I hope I can help him through this. Frown

It sure doesn't help that grandma and aunt don't want our mom anywhere near whatever services we end up having. They blame her for most of his problems the past 9+ years (really long sad involved story.)

I plan on fighting that. No matter what her problems, or their problems, they did love each other. She was his one and only wife for a total of 26 years. Not to mention that she's our mom!!!

They also want to have a private ceremony because they're afraid that some horrible person is going to bring up a lapse of good judgement my dad had about 9 years ago (large part of the hell he's been through since then.) I feel strongly that that would be really dishonoring the good, loving, Christian man he was 99.9% of his life. I don't know how much I can fight this though, because they hold the power (i.e. money strings.) I just don't think that anyone would be so hard hearted or incredulously callous to inflict that kind of pain on the family of a dead man.

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We have already made one decision which I'm satisfied with - cremating dad and adding his ashes with his father's. He loved his dad very much, and has always said that when he died that he wanted the same song that was played at his father's funeral "Precious Lord, take my hand."

Another song I know he'd want - "I don't need to understand, I just need to hold his hand." He loved the musical group Ponder, Harp and Jennings and that was one of his most cherished songs of theirs.

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I guess when I get there tomorrow we'll have to start going through his things and divvying them up. That just feels like a horrible prospect to me, but I know it has to be done.

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I've told mom to please make sure her will is updated and that she has a list or general notes of what she'd want for her funeral. This having to fight it out with other family members and having to guess at it, is for the birds.

Amtrak

June 6th, 2012 at 05:02 am

So the news from my aunt wasn't too good. I was considering renting a car and heading there in the morning, but rental cars in G can't go one way out of state. So I debated going in my car. Thankfully someone remIndex me of Amtrak - so I'll be leaving tomorrow night and arriving Thursday morning. I just hope I'm in time. As of tonigh the doctors are giving a 50/50 chance. He had his stent fail and had to have it fixed.

I got the library situated today so it looks presentable again. I also went over all my ideas and info I'd gathered for summer school w the person who probably is going to take lead teacher.

I've been really out of it today. This morning I started to turn on red at a signal I know you can't do that. I caught myself before finishing the turn, but I don't know if I'll get a ticket eventually.

I went to Big Lots and bought 3 digital cameras for $25 each - 12 MP! They'll be used for a summer school project and also for journalism class. I also might do a digital photography class now that I have 5 cameras (bought two from amazon before finding out about this deal)

If I do end up missing summer school, I've been promised that they'll video the final program. I was so excited when I found that material ... I really hope the kids have fun with it. All of their projects will be uploaded to the wiki, so i can see them too.

TY, person taking over, owns a graphic design business. When he saw I made the space website on wix, he told me that his company has made many of the templates for it. Pretty cool. Smile

More news

June 5th, 2012 at 06:44 am

My brother called a little bit ago. He had a good friend of his who is a doctor talk directly to my dad's nurse and get the nitty gritty. It doesn't sound good at all.

He had two arteries?? vena cava?? (sorry can't remember my biology right now) completely 100% blocked. They put a stint in his left one with a balloon to tide him over til he's strong enough for more surgery. He is more than likely going to have to have open heart surgery within the next few days and get a pacemaker.

There were some other numbers and stats my brother told me that weren't good, but I can't remember them right now. But essentially dad will no longer be able to mow lawns, lift furniture, do anything overexciting or overexerting.

The other numbers had something to do with fluid building up in his lungs - which has begun to happen already.

So .. it is extremely likely that I will be booking a plane ticket for Thursday, or perhaps even Wednesday. I'll need to find someone to take care of Kari, because although I'll schedule my return flight for Sunday ... I may need to stay longer. Frown

In my head I knew my dad was turning 69 this year, but in reality I haven't seen him as a senior citizen (I won't say old, because I don't consider 69 old!) Even if he does make it through the surgery, I don't think he's going to care much for life after - he is a doer, a go getter, a type A personality who isn't happy sitting around.

The really hard thing is that he's going to need care ... and he is grandma's caretaker. So .. we're going to have to figure that out.

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Holy cow! The tickets I'm seeing are equal to two weeks (after tax) pay for me! It doesn't matter if it's Wednesday or Thursday I'm leaving ...

Some disturbing news .. Updated

June 5th, 2012 at 01:53 am

Today I went into school and had pretty much finished up with the inventory when I decided to check my phone. When I did, I saw that I had two missed calls and voicemails from my grandma. I thought that was pretty strange because I'd just spoken with her and my dad on Saturday night.

So, I called her back. She told me that my dad had had a heart attack this morning while mowing the lawn, had been taken to the hospital, and had had heart surgery. She told me that she hadn't gone with him, but that he'd called her from ICU after getting out.

I of course was going into panic mode wondering how I was going to get out there and back here for summer school. After talking to her, I got in touch with my brother who told me that our Aunt was on her way to LL to check out what was really going on.(Grandma's almost 91 and not always 100% on the ball.) She had spoken to my dad while he was in the ER waiting to be seen, and confirmed that he was currently in ICU. My brother thinks that the surgery may have been an angioplasty procedure.

After hearing all this, I calmed down quite a bit - especially recalling previous incidences where he thought he was having a heart attack and it turned out to just be a panic attack or something similar. Of course, he was never put in ICU for observation those times ..

I may very well end up making a quick trip out there. I've already alerted my principals (outgoing and incoming) ... I don't have everything planned out for summer school just yet, so I may concentrate on getting plans pretty well laid out for that tomorrow just in case.

I was thinking of doing my mini-vacation trip this Thursday and Friday since my mom probably won't be coming til near the end of July ... but I think now I'll postpone it til August.

One thing I'm glad of is that I never have to worry if something happens to one of my family ... at the end of every phone call we *always* say I love you to each other - even if we got annoyed with each other in the course of the call. Smile I don't remember exactly how it got started, but we've done that since I was in at least high-school if not earlier.

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In other news ... someone on the librarian list serve told me that Big Lots has a 12 MP digital camera in stock right now for $25. It isn't a great brand name, but for $25 ... I'm going into town in the morning to see how many I can pick up from there. (I called today and they told me they had 4, but couldn't hold any for me.)

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Update - I talked to my dad. He did have a full fledged heart attack. They put a stint in his heart and some kind of balloon pump because the rhythm was off. They also told him that there were more problems to be dealt with later.

He somehow kept his cell phone through this whole process which is how he's made calls, and received calls. My aunt should be there tonight sometime.

I offered to come, but for right now he's told me to wait. So .. I'm waiting.