life - unlife

on may 23 we got a somewhat frantic call from the stepson's ex-girlfriend. the malemate's son (who lives in california) had not picked up his son that morning and had not called. the ex-girlfriend had also called the malemate's ex-wife who lives in texas. the ex-wife called the police in san bernardino california - as this action of the son was out of character.

about 20 minutes later we get another call from the stepson's ex-girlfriend. she drops the bomb that the stepson is dead. he was 30 years old. until the autopsy results come back with confirmation, the coroner thinks it was either sleep apnea or a heart attack. the stepson was morbidly obese.

the stepson had such a defeating financial uphill battle in front of him. he was looking forward to getting back into trucking cross country so that MAYBE he could get himself out of this deep hole that he had dug for himself.

the stepson and i had our ups and downs over the years - but the communication over the past few years had gone much better. i'm just glad i had the chance to tell him thanks for the granddaughter - as she is someone special.

i'm so sad for the malemate as it simply is not natural for the child to die first. he has his bursts, but he has been great with orchestrating the things that must be dealt with to put his son's remains in the proper places - from half a country away - along with the ex-wife, who is also holding up as well as can be expected.

initially, i was not going to go with the malemate to CA - as i did not get the feeling he really wanted me there. keeping in mind that i do not get along well with his daughter, his ex-wife and i have very little, if no respect for the son's ex-girlfriend (who is also the mother of one of the stepson's kids). but let's face it, death trumps my distaste for those women.

so as of wednesday night, i will be going with the malemate to CA. my main reason for going is that i did not want him to be alone when he picked up his son's remains. it will be devastating for him when he realizes that will be the last time he will carry his son in his arms.

thank you mike for the two beautiful babies you gave the world.

rest in peace

mike b. 02-28-1979 - 05-23-2009

the new tank - maybe not

i bought myself a new notebook - yep, another toshiba tank. the problem is, it has vista on it. i really don't want to educate myself on vista. needless to say, i have been dragging my feet on setting it up. however, i really need to get it done if i'm going to keep it because we are heading to the hometown the first weekend in june and i NEED to take a laptop along. the old one still works - it just seems kinda slow and it needs a new battery. i would have to buy a new car adapter for the new one also - which isn't that much - i just don't want to buy it, if i can't decide whether i'm going to keep it or not. these seem like such simple problems - which they are - but they are just the type of thing that will consume me.

i just did some research on that model of toshiba - and apparently there's problems with the power adapter. so, i think that answers my dilemma. i'm going to stay with my old one for now and take the new one back. i just don't want to deal with the hassles right now. i'll do it like always do it - when i absolutely have to - when this notebook completely dies on me, at a most inoportune time and i am in a full-blown panic mode.

so, i'm off to ebay to buy a battery for the old one.