So this is different. I’ve taken my laptop on flights before, but I don’t know that I’ve ever actually used it during the flight. Usually it just looks like I’m one of the few competent business fliers who actually gets his stuff done before the flight. That’s fine, of course, but sometimes it’s cool to look like one of those guys who’s so necessary that business can’t wait.

We’re flying back to Dallas right now after spending the weekend in West Chester to visit Ruth. After going back into the nursing home a couple of weeks ago following her latest round of cancer treatments, she went downhill fast. The steroids used to help the swelling caused by her treatment had the side effect of raising her glucose levels through the roof. The understanding is that its the high sugar that’s causing the confusion and slightly dementia-like symptoms she’s been suffering. She’s very weak; on Saturday she gave up on lunch halfway through, too tired to keep lifting the spoon. (Carole fed her the rest.)

It was quite a shock, obviously moreso for Carole. She said she wouldn’t have recognized her if she’d just passed her in the hall, the steroids having beefed her face up quite a bit. I think I would have recognized her, but I don’t have the familiarity with her face and disposition that Carole does. She was more alert and like her old self, fortunately, yesterday and today, and the diagnosis from the doctor today found not even the suspicion of lymphoma that the last one did. How much that matters has yet to be seen, since Ruth’s constant refrain over the weekend was how she was ready to go, and wondering why the good Lord hasn’t taken her yet. It seems it will become a match between her mind and a body which apparently isn’t quite ready to check out yet. It’s truly a wait and see game at this point.

It was a last-minute thing, and good thing, too, considering how much Ruth had deteriorated. Troy told Carole last Tuesday when we were trying to decide when to come that sooner was better. Made me nervous, but Carole hit Priceline.com and found a flight for Friday for $650, non-stop and leaving in the afternoons. In a word, whew. She was disappointed that the kids wouldn’t be able to come–they’re on their annual trip to Rhode Island with Dave to visit his parents–but considering the whole family spent most of the time at the nursing home, that would have been like herding snakes. We’re considering coming back up in September for the family reunion, a much more kid-friendly excursion.

Overall the trip was pretty good. Got some much needed sleep (though the deficit is hardly paid), had some good food (if Plano doesn’t have a Bob Evans, it should, plus a Penn Station and La Rosa’s), and got to know everyone a little better. Everybody loved Christina, I think more than they expected.

On the job front, I started the IBM supplemental tech job last week. I’m already having second thoughts about it, thought to be fair it’s mostly the working nights that I’m reconsidering. I haven’t actually worked one yet, but I’m just staying so darn tired from everything else that’s going on that I don’t know that I have the stamina for it right now. I have to be available during the day to do other work, since IBM alone won’t make us what we need, and working any nights I think will guarantee I won’t be able to do that.

I still have the apartment photo job with RentMoney, though that depends on a loose definition of “have.” I’m still the guy, apparently, but my contact there, Nerissa, has a perpetual three-week snooze button when it comes to getting me assignments. If she would actually get me work on a regular basis, I could only work for IBM during the day. Wouldn’t have to work there at all, theoretically, considering RentMoney pays more per hour and ostensibly has more work for me. But with it being so sporadic, I had to do something more dependable.

Carole does have a new part-time gig herself, creating the GUIs for high-end touchscreen remotes. She’s already finished one job, and Patrick (Barron, her “boss”) was happy with it. Not quite the job she was hoping, in that it turns out he just wants her to create the types of screens that he was creating. That would be fine if they weren’t ugly. Carole was looking forward to ruling over the layouts as the efficiency queen she is, but such is not the case. She’s going to create her version anyway, though, and just keep them on file for when she wants to show what she can do.

[I apparently never finished this entry, writing it on the plane and then forgetting to finish and post it.]