Alex's even longer post thread.

[Alex]

Kristi had some blood tests that came back showing severe anaemia. Because she has some unusual stuff in her blood (she has stuff that she should only have if she'd had a blood transfusion before. Since she hasn't these results caused some minor confusion), they need to mix up some stuff specially in Aberdeen then ship it over to Elgin, so she'll be getting two pints of blood put in tomorrow. Presumably they are also going to take two pints out. She'll be in hospital all day, and from when they got the test results until tomorrow, she's had to spend the whole time resting. The nurse said she'll see an immediate different in her energy levels.

With a week to go before I was supposed to give Kristi her annual Samhain diorama (I give her it on the 1st of October), I had to accept the planned project was not going to get finished, so I did a two part Scooby Doo one. One half has the gang along with the Mystery Machine, while the other has some classic bad guys (Miner 49er, 10,000-volt Ghost, Captain Cutler and the Clown Ghost. Got it finished on the last night of September. I had no idea what to do as a Yule scenario, but a friend suggested Narnia, so I am building the set for that now. I've done a grass base with melting snow, and the stone table as a background, found a Snow Queen figure and a Lion, so now I need the children, maybe a Dwarf with a whip if I can find a suitable figure.

[Trevor]

Kristi had some blood tests that came back showing severe anaemia. Because she has some unusual stuff in her blood (she has stuff that she should only have if she'd had a blood transfusion before. Since she hasn't these results caused some minor confusion), they need to mix up some stuff specially in Aberdeen then ship it over to Elgin, so she'll be getting two pints of blood put in tomorrow. Presumably they are also going to take two pints out. She'll be in hospital all day, and from when they got the test results until tomorrow, she's had to spend the whole time resting. The nurse said she'll see an immediate different in her energy levels.

With a week to go before I was supposed to give Kristi her annual Samhain diorama (I give her it on the 1st of October), I had to accept the planned project was not going to get finished, so I did a two part Scooby Doo one. One half has the gang along with the Mystery Machine, while the other has some classic bad guys (Miner 49er, 10,000-volt Ghost, Captain Cutler and the Clown Ghost. Got it finished on the last night of September. I had no idea what to do as a Yule scenario, but a friend suggested Narnia, so I am building the set for that now. I've done a grass base with melting snow, and the stone table as a background, found a Snow Queen figure and a Lion, so now I need the children, maybe a Dwarf with a whip if I can find a suitable figure.

Hugs to you all, especially Kristi.

🙂🙂🐢🇿🇦

[indianasmith]

Best wishes to your sweet wife!
This is a hard road you two are walking.

[Alex]

Thank you Indy.

Got up this morning at 7 am for a training day. Found I had a text from my dad's third ex-wife. Passed on the message to my older brother, who is in a time zone a couple of hours ahead of us and I figured would be awake, and my younger brother, who I reckoned would be up at that time to start his job. Texted my mum to let me know when she was awake, and asked to be excused during one of the lessons when she replied to me so I could make a quick phone call. Let her know the old bastard had finally died. I thought I'd feel happy whenever I got that news, but to be honest, how I feel is absolute cold indifference. I tried thinking of happy memories to see if that changed anything, but absolutely no reaction at all. After the lessons had finished, I let my boss know. I opened with "Look, as you can see, I am not exactly grieving here, but I just heard this morning that my dad has died." We then had a small argument as he tried to give me time off for the funeral, and I was adamant that I didn't want it and would be carrying on as usual. I pointed out that I hadn't spoken to the man in 40 years, and my last words to him were telling him that he wasn't my dad and he wasn't part of my family. He might have found out about my wife, but I made damn sure that until his dying day he never knew my son existed, his name or anything. After I got home my poor boss was still texting me to check I am ok. I finally had to get fairly blunt and let him know some of the stuff he'd done that had ensured that 6 out of his 7 kids wanted absolutely nothing to do with him.

It's at times like this that I wish I did believe in god so I could imagine him burning in hell. Then again, he was a religious man, worshipped god and by their canon, since he loved god, he'd get into heaven, so really, I wouldn't get any solace out of that either.

I've had 6 hours for the news to sink in, still no sadness. I might get a beer because I always told myself I'd have one to celebrate, but I feel neither sad nor happy. Just a mild irritation that I never got to bump into him somewhere and return some of those punches he felt so free to give out to us.

About 20 years ago, someone lectured me and told me that time heals all wounds and if I didn't get back in contact with my dad before he died, that I'd regret it. Hah! You were very wrong, Brian.

Kristi had her blood transfusion. She does have more energy now, and isn't sleeping 18 to 22 hours a day, although she still is in a lot of pain. I can start working on her getting up and moving around again, though. Hopefully that will help. I've been wondering if the inactivity is making the pain worse.

I've been put in charge of organising the leaving do for the only person at work I don't get on with, who is leaving us to join the RAF Police. I am organising it for the day after he is gone.