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August 14, 2013 - 11:05 p.m.
"ten years since the big blackout" or "grandpa's heart scare"

Hey Journal!

Tonight, I heard that it was exactly ten years to the day since the big blackout of 2003! I clearly remember being at Splish Splash and noticing that the music had stopped, and as we looked around, we noticed the water on the rides was off, too! It got strangely quiet, since there was no hum of motors pumping water or background music playing!

I remember trying to leave the jam-packed parking lot and trying to stay behind my Aunt Maureen's station wagon as people tried to cut in! We got back to my Aunt's house and hung out there for a while, and I headed home.

I remember that I was only able to find out what had happened because I managed to get my laptop turned on and dial up to AOL! News about it was on the HOME SCREEN!

I always have loved power outages, and I think the bigger they are the more I enjoy them! Even though tons of people complained about it, I loved every minute of it! I love the darkness, walking around outside and enjoying a summer night with nothing to distract you, the feeling that it could very well be 200 years ago!

Anyway, that was 10 years ago. And I wrote about it that night, here!

The big news of the day was Grandpa's heart scare! He was doing okay since he went into the hospital the other night, but they wanted to keep him there for observation overnight. Last night they observed that his heart had skipped a couple of beats and it was for a bit longer than would be okay. They figured that that may have been leading to his "episodes" and so they wanted to do some more tests. They had schedule a test for today, but it still hadn't happened around 4:00.

My mom had gone for a walk, and my Aunt Maureen had stepped out into the hallway when all of a sudden, my Grandpa's heart monitor started beeping like crazy. The nurse ran to the room, and then called a "Code Blue." My Aunt said that so many people run down the hall, it was crazy! They ran into the room and they did chest compressions, gave him a shot of something, and eventually, he was doing alright. The doctor said that normally when a person's heart stops for as long his heart did, they don't recover!

Now that he was stabilized, they got him right into the operating room and inserted a pacemaker.

I found out about what had happened just a few minutes after and I left work right away. It was about 4:40, but still. Dan left work too, and when we got home we hurried right to the hospital.

When we arrived, he was being operated on, and we were waiting for the results. The doctor came out and said that everything had gone well. He said that the pacemaker would control the heart issues but that there are some other things that probably contributed to his falling. The doctor said he needs to be sure to drink a LOT of water each day. He said that keeps the blood vessels open and makes it easier for his blood to flow through, and keep the blood pressure up!

So, he was brought back to the room, and we went in. At this point, it was me, my mom, my Grandma, Dan, and my Aunt Maureen. Grandpa was sleeping, but was woken up by the doctor to ask a few questions, and he seemed to be in good spirits, and pretty normal. The doctor asked him how he felt, and he said "not so good given the circumstances." I think he was trying to be a little funny, which I guess is a good sign!

My mom said that earlier he was a little confused and out of it. That always happens in the hospital! I think it's a combination of being sick in an unfamiliar place, not REALLY seeing the sun or knowing what time of day it is, and not getting out of bed all day or doing ANYTHING at all! I think that's the worst part about being in a hospital!

Alas, he was doing better, but resting. My Aunt Regina and Aunt Karen arrived at about 8:00 and Dan, me, my mom, and Aunt Maureen left. My grandma wants to stay the night. Everyone was kinda telling her to get home and to get her rest, but at the same time, I can totally see why she wants to stay.... from her perspective, and also from my Grandpa's. I know he'll probably be sleeping most of the time anyway, but I wouldn't like being in a hospital and not having someone next to my bed. Just knowing that someone is there, and someone who I know and who I know cares about me would make all the difference. No matter how with it, or not with it, you may be... hospitals are probably scary places to sleep!

When we left, we went to Target. We had to pick up our free $25 Target gift card! I don't know if I mentioned it, but the day after Dan bought his iPhone at Target, they started offering a $25 gift card. We wanted to get the sale, and asked if they could do a paper return. They said that they couldn't do a paper return, but they could completely return the phone and give him a new one. They COULD have done that, but they said they didn't have any more in stock. We really didn't want to return the phone anyway, and really, why would Target want that? Then they'd be left with one open-box phone! We asked if they could just issue us the card, and they said no. Of course, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I had just left it there. I wrote a letter, appealing to their reasonable sense, and once again, Target proved why I love them so much. They came through with the $25 card, and we had to go pick it up at the store.

Target is by far the best store EVER and my motto always is if I can get a product there, I would rather buy it there than anywhere else! I love their new Cartwheel app, and I love saving 5% with the RedCard.

I'm so glad they accomodated us because if they hadn't... it woulda killed me to have to pry myself away from them!

Anyway, when we got home we watched Teen Wolf! They're really dragging out the kidnapping of the parents! Crazy! I think the past couple of episodes have been great, and I can't wait till next week. You KNOW they aren't going to really have to go through with the bathtub/ice thing! The stupid audio strobe thing is gonna make it just in the knick of time!

Oh, and I forgot all about work. Work was good today, it went by fast. I had a ton of projects to work on, and it was a really hectic day! I finished getting the testing ready for allowing people to schedule future dues payments! I really hope it works well and we can implement it more in the future!

The dues letters and invoices all went out in the mail today and that means that tomorrow is going to be the big day for calls from people who either have tons of questions or want to complain about the increase!

I can't believe everything is finally out in the mail, though! It's been over two weeks in the making, but they're gone, and now we wait for the first payments to start rolling in! I wonder who will be the first!

We also worked on our annual "personal" letter to the new members to get them excited about the Extravaganza. I printed them all out, and Re is going to come in tomorrow and stuff and mail them!

The day was packed with stuff, it was one of the most hectic days recently!

We also went over health insurance things because we have to decide if we're staying with the same broker or switching, and for some reason, Bill won't give us the details of what services he wants to obtain, and so we're all kinda perplexed.

For lunch, I had the Tuscan Panini, and then... as you know, around 4:40, I hurried out to get over to the hospital!

Okay, so now it's LATE and I have to get to bed!

Until tomorrow...

Goodnight. :)