catching up
Aug. 29th, 2003 02:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magicicadai have strategized a number of ways to get this post toastie written without going to excessive lengths or spending more time organizing than writing. i have given up and am just going to write until sylvia wakes up. you have been warned.
this past weekend (plus mon and tues)![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
h_postmortemus, sylvia and i went to wyandotte, michigan. this was mostly a support mission for an aunt of jeff's who was not doing very well. last week aunt patty had a kidney removed which was non-functional and infected. where it gets a tad confusing is that it seems this kidney either never functioned or ceased functioning sometime in infancy. so the only bright spot is that it appears she will not need to adjust at this point to having only one kidney, because kidney b was doing all the work the whole time. she is also diabetic, overweight and has a list of other issues which are non-optimal. all that being said, she does seem to be doing much better than when we first got the call which went along the lines of, 'we're not sure what's wrong, but she almost died'. yike. the truth of the matter is that she has not been taking care of herself and is having a hard time adjusting to both the new and old restrictions in her life. jeff's mom (her sister) has been up there for nearly a month and will be returning home sometime next week. they 'don't get along', but are good for each other in that they tend to try to whip each other back into shape. it's a hard relationship to describe, but that's how sisters are sometimes.
and yet, with all of the concerns it was a good trip. i haven't seen aunt patty in several years. sylvia was able to meet her great-aunt patty. jeff had not been up to wyandotte in 20 or so years. it was a mini family reunion. as promised, i was introduced to squads of cousins. ok, it might have only been 3, but they swarmed ;). seriously, this is the fun-loving side of the family. they are all huggers. it was obvious that sylvia cheered up g-aunt patty. sylvia was an absolute angel for the entire weekend.
sylvia likes to fly. have i mentioned this? she either slept or grooved upon ascending and descending. twice she enjoyed the bumpy ride of descending only to fall asleep once the plane stopped moving as if to say, 'we're on the ground again, BORING'. she *smiled* when the gear left the ground in chicago. on one flight there were 3 screaming toddlers and she slept until final descent. her ears did not appear to bother her at all. maybe the little tubes are too small to retain much pressure at this point? dont' know, don't care. i'm just glad she had fun. we did buy her a seat on the plane which was wise as 3 out of 4 flights were absolutely packed.
but back to wyandotte. where shall i start? wyandotte is a small town, and also an outlying suburb of detroit. it is a full town in that it has a downtown and everything. the neighborhood that aunt patty lives in looks like something norman rockwell could only dream of. it's about 15x15 blocks of small houses. some are incredibly old, others were added in between existing houses. there is no consistency to the architectual styles although there are no contemporary houses. many of the houses show clear signs of additions. aunt patty's house had a living room and upstairs added on. this is a land where the kids ride scooters (automated and non), an ice cream truck comes by once a day and there is still an evening paper. while i know that michigan gets ungodly cold in the winter, this is summer and produce was busting out all over. i have never seen so many farms in one *WHAAA* more later.
this past weekend (plus mon and tues)
h_postmortemus, sylvia and i went to wyandotte, michigan. this was mostly a support mission for an aunt of jeff's who was not doing very well. last week aunt patty had a kidney removed which was non-functional and infected. where it gets a tad confusing is that it seems this kidney either never functioned or ceased functioning sometime in infancy. so the only bright spot is that it appears she will not need to adjust at this point to having only one kidney, because kidney b was doing all the work the whole time. she is also diabetic, overweight and has a list of other issues which are non-optimal. all that being said, she does seem to be doing much better than when we first got the call which went along the lines of, 'we're not sure what's wrong, but she almost died'. yike. the truth of the matter is that she has not been taking care of herself and is having a hard time adjusting to both the new and old restrictions in her life. jeff's mom (her sister) has been up there for nearly a month and will be returning home sometime next week. they 'don't get along', but are good for each other in that they tend to try to whip each other back into shape. it's a hard relationship to describe, but that's how sisters are sometimes. and yet, with all of the concerns it was a good trip. i haven't seen aunt patty in several years. sylvia was able to meet her great-aunt patty. jeff had not been up to wyandotte in 20 or so years. it was a mini family reunion. as promised, i was introduced to squads of cousins. ok, it might have only been 3, but they swarmed ;). seriously, this is the fun-loving side of the family. they are all huggers. it was obvious that sylvia cheered up g-aunt patty. sylvia was an absolute angel for the entire weekend.
sylvia likes to fly. have i mentioned this? she either slept or grooved upon ascending and descending. twice she enjoyed the bumpy ride of descending only to fall asleep once the plane stopped moving as if to say, 'we're on the ground again, BORING'. she *smiled* when the gear left the ground in chicago. on one flight there were 3 screaming toddlers and she slept until final descent. her ears did not appear to bother her at all. maybe the little tubes are too small to retain much pressure at this point? dont' know, don't care. i'm just glad she had fun. we did buy her a seat on the plane which was wise as 3 out of 4 flights were absolutely packed.
but back to wyandotte. where shall i start? wyandotte is a small town, and also an outlying suburb of detroit. it is a full town in that it has a downtown and everything. the neighborhood that aunt patty lives in looks like something norman rockwell could only dream of. it's about 15x15 blocks of small houses. some are incredibly old, others were added in between existing houses. there is no consistency to the architectual styles although there are no contemporary houses. many of the houses show clear signs of additions. aunt patty's house had a living room and upstairs added on. this is a land where the kids ride scooters (automated and non), an ice cream truck comes by once a day and there is still an evening paper. while i know that michigan gets ungodly cold in the winter, this is summer and produce was busting out all over. i have never seen so many farms in one *WHAAA* more later.