Waiting Room

Today Aidan's girlfriend, Zaira, had to have surgery at General Hospital, the main entrance to which is about four blocks from my house. He took her and her mother there at 7 a.m. and I joined them about an hour later.

Zaira and her family are Mexican-Americans and everyone in the family has a different status in the eyes of the immigration authorities. So her father cannot drive and her mother does not know how to and her little brother is too young. There is also the horrible fear of deportation hanging over her parents.

So Aidan played that role -- driver.

When I got there I could tell both Maria (Zaira's mom) and Aidan were under terrific stress. We did not really have much reliable information on the medical issues surrounding her surgery and Maria was visibly nervous; Aidan not at all. (Not a good sign for a man.)

There was a TV-like screen in the tiny waiting room, which purported to tell us the status of our patient. Each patient was listed as a number plus the first two letters of their first and last name. But the display was broken and most of the time Zaira's name was under an error sign.

There was also a telephone number we could call, which was great, but they had only the most general information about her status.

When it got to be noon, Maria had a friend who owns a Mexican restaurant in the Excelsior deliver us lunch -- burritos and quesadillas -- and refused to let me pay for them. By this point, I had long exhausted my Spanish, both in talking with her and with others who arrived in the surgery waiting room.

The most poignant were a couple with their three-year-old daughter. The father and the daughter were crying and the mother was stoic. I asked them what had happened and it turned out their five-year-old daughter was having emergency surgery to remove her appendix, which had burst.

I was able to navigate my very weak Spanish enough to assure them that in most cases this would turn out okay and they seemed to calm down. After not a long time, the doctor came to tell them their daughter is okay but will need to stay in the hospital 2-3 days while she recovers.

Meanwhile, we continued to get mixed messages from Zaira's doctors, that she she came through surgery fine but then, when she woke up, not so good.

Aidan and Maria went in to see her as soon as she woke up but she didn't speak, was very pale, and in obvious pain. Aidan had gone down to the hospital store and bought her a stuffed animal -- a white cat with blue eyes. As he was holding it coming back up to the third floor, someone asked him if it was real.

Although she was still too sedated to talk, when she saw the cat she grabbed it and held it close.

At this point, our waiting game started. They kept saying she could go home soon, but as it turned out she was having a very bad reaction to the anesthetics -- throwing up, falling down when she tried to stand up and other symptoms.

Eventually they discharged her and Aidan drove her home, but we are awaiting word whether enough of the symptoms have subsided that we can rest assured she truly is in recovery mode.

Meanwhile he somehow has to handle all of this and get to his flights back to Missoula tomorrow, without her. He will set up the apartment they are moving in together. I am so proud of Aidan's character at this moment. So proud.

-30-

MLK's Last Speech

As I often do on this date, here is his last speech, and his greatest speech.

-30-

Birthdays

We celebrated my youngest grandchild's birthday today. Daisy is two. I also got to give my oldest grandchild his gifts; James is 9.

At the end of the day, my car battery died and I called roadside assistance. It turns out Daisy thought the big truck with flashing loghst showed up for her party and she was thrilled...

-30-

Cleanup

Ten years ago I worked on a project with a group of talented people here. We produced an entire issue of BIG magazine (BIG 54) consisting of photos and a few words -- all about San Francisco. Last night we gathered to celebrate the tenth anniversary of working together and it was truly great to see old friend again.

One of them is a special long-term friend, Mary, who helped me find the flat where I live after the breakup of my second marriage. She is talented designer, yoga instructor, water boarder, and healer -- the type of diverse person who thrives in the Bay Area.

Two others -- David and Rhonda -- are also great designers who helped me get consulting jobs, including at Wikipedia.

***

Tomorrow the plan is for lunch with my first GF after that breakup 12 and 1/2 years back...she is in SF briefly from Beijing. I last saw her 6 and 1/2 years ago, so it will be good to catch up.

*** Two of my sisters plan to visit next month for the first time in years -- since Laila's wedding. That prospect has spurred me to begin cleaning up my apartment, finally. My goal is to have it back in shape by the time they arrive. I worked all morning and when my friend Tomoko came by for tea, she said it looks great already!

As I clean up I keep finding little treasures from the past...hand-made books by the kids, old photos, all sorts of stuff. I'm trying to throw away things that really are of little use as part of the massive cleanup.

Once the place is decent I may hire a professional to come in and help me get it to the finish line...

On the Road Again

It felt like the old days -- Aidan and I early on a Saturday driving to a distant venue in Northern California for a soccer game or tournament. But this time it was to help him join his mother and sister for a weekend vacation at Asilomar, on the coast south of Monterey. He had to work until midnight last night so we left the city, fortified by coffee and him by a breakfast burrito, by 10:30.

It is a long drive, about 125 miles, and we passed Morgan Hill and the stadium where he played many games back when he was competing.

Using GPS we met Julia and Connie at a Mexican restaurant, Peppers, in Pacific Grove. After that, I headed north without my navigator.

I should say I have a terrible sense of direction and have lost whatever confidence I used to have I can find my way on the road. Everyone drives so fast and the various parts of the route come up too fast and confusingly.

But Aidan set my phone for the ride home and it worked seamlessly.

Nearing the coty, I had an awful realization that last April my accountant told me I had to submit quarterly payments to the IRS for the 2015 tax year. I checked my tax file and while I paid in April, I forgot to in July and October. Luckily, January is due next week.

So I will have hit two for four and I'm sure there will be some sort of penalty. These are the kinds of complications that make people hate the tax system!

Poor Dylan has had a bad cold and so many work assignments he could not go to Asilomar, but at least today I could drop off the Beatles' Abbey Road in vinyl for him.

-30-

Comfort Zones

As I was walking home tonight, the rains finally started a bit, but so far, nothing very impressive. I may regret that word "impressive" if our weather turns horrible, since I have no real way to get to work without being soaked. I do not have a raincoat and only a small umbrella that perpetually appears to be about to fly away in the wind.

If it gets reallly stormy maybe I will work from home until a let-up occurs.

Today, also, public school started back up in SF, so it was Julia's first day back at her inner city charter after a semester at Oxbow. When I texted her she said it went "fine" today.

Then her report card arrived and I read what her teachers and she herself wrote about her growth at the fall program. What her teachers wrote is very satisfying for a parent to read, and while I know that is probably an objective for a private school, it also was genuine in a way any experienced editor can recognize. We become pretty good at smoking out what is not genuine.

They all clearly like and respect Julia very much, her work ethic, her artistic talents, her intellectual growth and her willingness to push herself in the realm she finds the most challenging -- in her social life.

She said in her self-evaluation she feels ready to handle Gateway now. I hope so. No one wants his or her child to struggle socially; being a teen is already hard enough. But with an exceptionally high GPA and good initial indications that she will test well, my hope is that my youngest will be able to attend the college of her choosing.

And Oxbow may well have helped her figure that out.

-30-

Water

On a cloudy day, I am sorting through various materials with the luxury of not having to do anything specific. I'll be watching sports and old movies on TV all day, hoping that the rains will come, though there is none in the forecast.

In the midst of this drought, the worst in 500 years in California, we also are experiencing the early impact of El Nino storms -- heavy rain and snow on some days. It may seem like a contradiction, but these warm storms could cause more damage than good if they prematurely melt what to date is a very impressive snowpack.

The Sierra snow generates most of our water when it melts at the proper time -- next summer. Between now and then, melting could cause massive flooding and mudslides, destroying the dry areas rather than restoring them.

We're all on edge out here, wondering how this will all play out.

-30-