Warning: There is unlikely to be anything humorous in this blog post. Unless you consider the misfortune of others to be humorous, in which case I do not wish to ever you know.

It has been a difficult period for my family.

Grandfather goes into hospital for pneumonia two weekends ago. An unrelated, yet serious, family situation developed shortly thereafter. Grandfather comes home after two days in the hospital. The other (unrelated, yet serious) family situation seems to resolve itself.

It seems as though we made it through the rough patch.

But then my grandfather has to go back to the hospital. His pneumonia is worse, and it turns out he had a urinary staff infection. Worse, tests reveal he has a sizable growth on his lungs. The doctor is 99.9% sure that further tests will reveal its cancer.

He’s sleep deprived, ill, has an infection, is heavily medicated, is without his hearing aids and dentures, and has a swollen throat. The end result is he can’t hear us, we can’t understand him, and he’s not in his right frame of mind. He’s delirious.

The man in that hospital bed right now isn’t the man I’ve known all my life. It’s painful to see him like this.

My grandfather was a drill sergeant in the Marines. He very well may have coined the phrase “idle hands on the devil’s play things” because he was always doing something. He was employed until his early 80s. He landscaped his yard and kept up with a vegetable garden until well into his 80s. Until three weeks ago, when he became ill, he still drove.

Despite the fact he smoked or chewed tobacco for several decades, plus the fact he spent his entire life working in the sun without even a drop of UV protection of any kind, my grandfather has been an iconic figure in my eyes — so much so that I’ve always been a little intimidated by him.

Now I look at him and wish I could go back in time and visit him more often.

The possibility of losing him sooner rather than later weighs heavily on all of us. And yet, his current state isn’t even the half of it.

My grandfather has essentially waited on my grandmother hand and foot their entire married lives. With is current state, what will become of her?

If he gets better, he still will need to be moved to an assisted-living facility for the elderly. More likely is he will need full time care in a retirement home. How will they afford it? Will they be able to stay at the same facility?

My dad, who normally has a 800-pound weight on his shoulders anyway, now has a full ton on his back. His story in all of this would take a full book to write, and I do not feel inclided to share such details on a blog anyway.

In short, it’s a difficult period right now. And as is usually the case, life is piling it on:

• This morning, someone broke the rear windshield of my brother’s truck, poured gasoline inside it, and set it on fire. We have no clue who did this or why.
• Work is kicking my tail. I knew this was going to be a difficult month for me given the fact my projects have December 31 delivery deadlines. But I’m finding one of my projects to be particularly difficult due to the fact I’m working with a programmer who is overmatched. She can’t figure out her end, and it’s going to result in the entire project being late unless management intervenes and takes her off the project.

This is as trying a period as I can ever remember.

Wonderful. This just in…

Due to an office Christmas party at a restaurant in town, it appears I might be the only employee currently in the building. (I skipped the party for obvious reasons.) Since I do not have a key to lock/unlock the building and I do not know the alarm security code, I might be trapped inside.

On a Friday.

With no one returning until Monday.

I don’t swear, but if I did this seems like it would be an appropriate time to do so.

I’m sure it goes without saying at this point, but all of your prayers are welcomed and appreciated.