It has come to my attention recently that there are several friends who get new info about my life from this blog rather than facebook. I have been so caught up in facebook ever since I found literally hundreds of childhood friends; people who I'd gone to school with from 1-12 grades and even further back. Lots of history, like family. So when things occur I immediately post on facebook instead on here as I used to. I love this blog. I love facebook. They are very different from each other. I still have no idea who reads this; several friends that I know of read this but don't post comments or sign up on Google, so I can't tell. I've gone through a lot in the last few months. Things that have happened to other people who I care very much about. Most I have posted about separately. Recently I had an emergency situation with my oldest son, Lucas, and everything happened so fast I posted on facebook what was going on very quickly as I booked my plane trip out the same day. It worked out very well for friends where I was going, to my hometown, so they had an immediate heads-up before I even got there-only 10 hours after finding out that there was a problem. For those of y'all who only read here or who want the full story all in one post here goes...Sunday, February 19th, Lucas called me while I was driving to the shop to work that morning to tell me that he was on his way to St. Joseph's Hospital emergency room in Bryan, Texas. He said he had been in Dallas for a disc golf tournament and fell and hit his head. He hit it very hard; hard enough to knock him unconscious. He's not sure what happened and no one he was with saw what happened. He has no memory of how it happened. There were no outward signs; no bruises, bumps, cuts, any indication that he'd hit something. So, when he came to, he figured he'd hit his head on something and eventually he figured he had a concussion. By Sunday he'd had a couple of days of being very sick, blurred vision, ringing ears, very dizzy-couldn't stand up. When he could stand up at all on Sunday morning he called me as Kristen drove him to the ER. I found someone to come to the shop so I could leave early to head home and decide if I needed to go. By the time I got home Kristen had called and told me that the CSCAN done by the neurologist showed that he had cracked his skull open and a blood clot had formed. At the time they were saying that if the clot wasn't gone by Monday morning they would have to do surgery. Brain surgery. On my son. The clot is under the skull not under the skin on the left side and two bruises on the right side. So I booked the plane flight at 2 on the plane at 5, in Houston at 9, and at St. Joe's by midnight. I spent the night with Lucas in his hospital room so Kristen could go home and get some sleep. In the meantime, his grandfather, Jim Teer, had been admitted to the same hospital a couple of days before with extreme dehydration and malnourishment due to having a bad cold but exacerbated by having Louie Body dementia. The family had just been through the previous few days agonizing over the decision to move "Grandaddy" to a care facility permanently. So by Monday morning I was running between the 3rd and 4th floors seeing The Teer Men. The neurologist (lots of stories there, but for now let's just stick with the "God theory"), terrible bedside manner, came in and said that Lucas was to be released. I asked why he wasn't ordering another CSCAN before letting him go; they had only done one and that was when he arrived. WELL, you don't ask him any questions. So we left with Lucas still very much in pain and feeling unwell and a couple of RXs. We were back in the ER early Wednesday morning after no improvement. Sure enough, the ER doctor (very nice) did another CSCAN, the now-a-little-nicer neurologist came in and said nothing had changed (good news as compared to getting worse) and Lucas was ordered to not work for another week and sent us home with different meds. Thursday morning Lucas started to feel better so I flew back to Maryland that afternoon. Today, exactly two weeks after hitting his head, he went back for another CSCAN and still hardly any change and the doctor ordered him to not work for yet another month. His head is not in much pain but his ears are still ringing loudly and he can't hear well as has been the case since his fall. He is seeing an ENT tomorrow. And since I'm here, another Teer Family situation is that my (ex) sister-in-law's husband (Jill and Kenny) has throat and tongue cancer. They live in Northern Virginia so Justin and I have been doing what we can to help and support them. Jill is a full time teacher, Kenny is a self-employeed architect, so they need her job for health insurance. Kenny is having chemo and radiation in tandem so it's pretty rough. Jill is unable to be at home with him during the day so I'm planning on spending some nights and days with them to help out with him and their 11 year old daughter, Annie. Justin is planning on visiting on the weekends so Jill can get out to do errands. Oy. The good news is that my niece, Maya (Eder), is pregnant with her second child. Their Ben is now 5 and they are all very excited. We are planning on going out to Oregon the month after her due date in July (Ben was six weeks early but not a preemie) for the first time in what will be 4 years by then. The piggyback to Hawaii is looking especially good right now even though I've never had a hankering to go there before. Back here at the ranch, we have had workers in and out of the house for over a month doing un-fun updates to the house. Replacing doors, the front porch, and the master bathroom shower. Ugh, all that money and nothing will look any different and I get to clean up after they leave. Stop complaining. I have had to be a buffer between the dog and the workers. So I've spent many days in the basement with the animals while the guys did the work and done most of that time on Pinterest. The new obsession. The best intervention is sending me to Bryan without my computer! Someone, please step in!!!! Oops, be careful what you ask for. Surgery for Lucas is still on the table (pun not intended as I usually like). So, see why I hit-and-run on facebook? Well, now it's all down in history and I'm up to date on my blog. Now I just want to get the house back to where I can made art again. I'm still where I was the last time I posted about it only reversing my plan and the work I'd already done. There were a couple of very good things that happened while I was in Texas. I shall write about them soon. They were very nice glimpses of light in dark times. There were also a couple of worse things that happened while there-those I shall not write about, I don't think. You'll have to, what?, stay tuned.