Busy Busy Busy

The blog's looking a bit messy. I changed ISP's and I've been slow on the uptake. I had two weeks to get all the photos and other hosted elements off of my old ISP's server and I just didn't do it. So now I have to round everything up from multiple folders on multiple computers and disks--a task I find more than a little daunting.

On top of that, the downpour of opportunities has begun. My business is starting to pick up. In the 10 years of editing at a tv station in Salt Lake, I've made some pretty influencial friends and contacts and that's starting to pay off. The local girls' soccer club which is fourteen teams strong has asked me to produce a twenty-five minute video for them; I have other editing projects in the works as well; In addition I have written my debut article for the debut issue of the new Entertainment Journal distributed throughout Utah and expanding to other states(I have three hard copies of the newspaper to prove it) and I've been asked to do two or three more each month--I have a week to get the ones for april done; I'm supposed to be writing the video open and DVD sleeve for the fourth in a series of Utah historical videos right now. The producer told me just yesterday to "get off your ass," because he wants to start editing right away and we can't do that until I've written the open and sent it off to be read for the voice-over. (What he doesn't understand is that I really should be "on my ass" when I'm writing. I didn't tell him that.) All of these are paying gigs. All of them are overwhelming, but not nearly so as the demands of my kids who dug a hole in the yard next to our house exposing the sprinkler system. It was research for a book my 9-year-old is writing called Digging Holes. I've read the rough draft: "A hole takes a while to dig." Pretty good so far, though it needs some fleshing out, and since I won't let him do anymore research in the yard, I'm not sure the book will get finished.

My mom says my dad has been jumping on the mini trampoline since his treadmill isn't working. I think he's supposed to be resting but I know that he'll either long outlive me, or he'll exercise to death. There's no in between.

Dad

My Dad has always been a little larger than life to me, invincible. Always very athletic, he has either run or worked out with weights almost every day that I can remember. A couple of years ago he retired from a job that required excellent health, a rare thing to happen. Very few people reach 65 in that position--security guard at nuclear testing facility--because they can no longer pass the physical training exams. But that was never a problem for my father. Even in my adult life my 5'6" tall dad towered over my 5'11" frame in my mind. I've always been confident that he'd outlive me. That's why the call I got a few days ago stunned me. My mother told me he had had a heart attack. He'd started having chest pains and decided to work them off by lifting weights. When that didn't help, he shoveled snow off the driveway. The pain only intensified so he went to the doctor. I wondered if I should make the drive up to Idaho Falls to see him, but every one was saying that it was very mild and I wanted to wait to find out what action would be taken before I used sick time so I could optimize the time I'd spend with him. Then yesterday we found out that there were far more blocked arteries then the one that the doctor had expected. He said it was more like six or eight. What's more, one of the chambers in his heart was no longer pumping. I told my boss that I needed the rest of the week off and I drove up here to Idaho Falls. I went straight to the hospital and found that he looked a lot better than I expected. He feels better, too. We talked for a long time. The doctor still hadn't come with the results of the tests they'd conducted this morning so my mom, my brother, and I went to dinner still not knowing what might happen. The news is better now, though. I just learned a few minutes ago that the chamber had sort of shut itself down to preserve itself since it wasn't getting any blood. His heart is still perfectly healthy. They still haven't told us whether they're going to perform bypass surgery but that a pretty safe bet, I imagine.

The shock is starting to wear off and this news has helped. I don't know what I'd do if I lost him, but at least I've been given a chance to tell him how I feel.