doodledee

Last Saturday morning was gorgeous. Bright and sunny and warm enough that you could go outside wearing shorts and a long sleeved t-shirt so long as you were carrying a cup of coffee to help take the edge off. It was one of those early April mornings that triggers a bizarre - yet well documented - reaction in every Minnesotan that causes us to stumble out into the daylight and immediately begin raking our lawns even though we all know it's way too early to be raking and KC even says we can do more damage than good. Well screw him, I wanna rake.

But first I wanna walk down to the liquor store and load up on celebratory champagne for Tough Guy's surprise 30th birthday party later that afternoon. So I packed up the kid and that's just what I did. And then I walked home, loaded down with a stroller full of cheer, pointing out dogs and birds and Porsches along the way and generally having a great old time. I think I may have even been whistling.

And then I had one of those "you never know how you'll react until it happens" moments. Libby screeched up in the Jeep, jumped out, and told me my dad had had a heart attack and was in the hospital.

Huh.

So now it's 6 days and 4 bypasses later and everyone seems to be doing pretty well. He's up walking around and should be home within a few days. It's amazing how fast you can recover from something as invasive as cardiac surgery. Then again, it's amazing the doctors can do what they did. I mean, I've learned a lot about the process and I'm still not sure I believe any of it. You're telling me that some doctor can take little tiny veins and just SEW them into your heart and reroute how your blood flows? I'd call bullshit, but I'm pretty sure that's actually what they do. How is that even possible? It's kinda like my Latin teacher who used to joke about how he didn't believe airplanes could fly because they're too heavy. I'm just glad somebody understands it.

My favorite part - if you can say that under these circumstances - is how a bunch of guys from my dad's work immediately offered to come over and help with whatever needs to be done around the house. Of course the first thing mentioned was helping to rake the yard.

Thanks to everyone who wrote, called, etc.