what happened

Well, I got a nap in, anyhow, and I'm starting my first watch back on board HAWSEPIPER's Afloat Global HQ/ Center for Caffeination Studies.

   I had my two weeks off, and had many, many plans. Like a damn battlefield, they didn't all work out. My mom, brother and nephew came to visit, which was awesome. It was the first time I saw my mom in over a year, and her first trip to FL in 25 years.

 Unfortunately, it was August, and, well, south FL in August is a lot like Boston in August, only moreso. The heat, stress of travel, and going from heat to chilly AC everywhere she went caused her to develop Pneumonia, which stressed her system out, and shut down her kidneys for a bit, so off we went to the ER at 2am on her 3rd day, and her visit turned into a 5-day hospital stay, including a fucking professional-level scavenger hunt across south FL to find her an airline-approved oxygen generator, which was a condition of the docs in getting her released from the hospital, to avoid any additional stress on her lungs while in the air. We pulled in a place with literally 10 minutes to spare.

 Anyhow, we saw my mom, big bro and nephew off. While my mom was in the hospital, my wife develops a case of sciatica. First time in her life. So SHE went off to the doc.

 The day after my mom heads home my wife wakes up sick and miserable. I had rented a car for the day, as we had to drop my wife's car off for new brakes, change out the differential fluid and new tires... so that was $1500 and a deep, deep case of regret for not buying domestic, but my wife pushed through her own sickness until I got her car back at the end of the day, whereupon I took a good look at her and went back to the doc directly. Some sort of general infection, and gastric reflux, two more things she's never had to deal with, at least with me around.

 So I got her home and comfortable. Oh, and after installing her on the couch, I went out and bought a lovely new handgun that I had been eyebanging for a while, which was sort of the first nice thing that happened to me after my mom took ill.

 From there, things got better. I credit the visit to the gun store for the change in the tide of Karma.

 In just a few days, things turned around for us, and, although we were both a touch stressed, we celebrated my wife's birthday with a stay in a 5-star hotel in Miami and a night out, which was awesome and needed, and which is going to be the subject of its' own post, as it was full of ridiculous and sublime shit. But that's for another time.