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Update on my brother
Hi, all. This is just a quick update on my brother. I don’t know if many of you have been following the news on my twitter feed but my brother suffered from some heart pain and pain in his left arm the other day. He spent several hours in the emergency room getting tested. All the tests came back inconclusive but it looks like he has congestive heart failure, an enlarged heart and lung. He seems to be okay now though. He is on his way back home from Oregon (he is a long-distance trucker) and will get more tests when he gets home to figure out what is going on. He can’t drive right now (obviously) so one of my cousins is driving up to get him in Oregon and will bring him down to Red Bluff and from there CC will drive him home.
We’ve all known this could happen. My brother pretty much looks like a walking heart attack, not to mention it runs in our family. My grandfather had six heart attacks before he turned 40 (I could have my facts wrong but it was something like that). Shawn has been cutting back on his food intake for years and has been off red meat for a long time. Making life changes is of course a big issue here, but when I talked to him on the phone yesterday he seemed even more worried his job and family.
After many many years of failed careers it seemed as if he’d finally found something he enjoyed, was good at and actually came with a decent paycheck. It was a big leap for him to become a trucking teacher because he is surprisingly shy but he turned out to be really good at it. We’ve all been so overjoyed by this latest success.
BUT now that he is at risk of heart attack, he will probably lose his job which is exponentially damaging to him and his family. As you know they’ve barely eked by for years. If you are the praying type maybe you could add Shawn and his family (and especially CC who shoulders most of the stress) to your list.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I might try and put together some kind of fundraiser for them…so if there is any kind of art, coloring sheet etc. that you’d like me to sell for maybe a $1 a download or something, let me know in the comments. I’ll try to get on that ASAP. Also I’m donating all profits from my etsy shop to them too.
(photo taken at their 10-year anniversary in 2007)
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Operation Quilt: Day 3
I sewed 31 squares today. It was brutal. Just kidding. It wasn’t that bad but I am sort of feeling weary of all this fabric and wishing I could just stuff it in a box somewhere and forget about it. But I can’t. I did that once before. I have a quilt somewhere in the depths of one of my mom’s storage sheds. I think I was fifteen when I started it. I should dig it up and see if I hate the fabric. It’s funny how tastes change with time.
I’ve been thinking how tastes in colors and combinations change with time as I sewed together odd combination after odd combination. I like clashing fabrics but I have this feeling that Bug will probably grow up to hate them. It will be cool again when she has kids but I wonder if the quilt will last that long?
It’s sort of fun to work carefully on something that might live longer than you do. I asked my mom if she thought this quilt would last longer than I will and she was doubtful. I guess it depends on how well I sew it, what Bug does with it in her lifetime and how long I plan on living. I’m aiming for 80 but who knows…
It’s great to sit at a table sewing and talk about life and things with your mom. Especially when your kid is happy and playing with your nieces. I should pay those kids for babysitting. They played all day long, only stopping long enough to wolf down lunch and dinner.
I’m not sure what Bug and SuperChic were playing here but they were pretending to be boyfriend and girlfriend for a good portion of the day. It was hilarious. Poor Bug was the boy most of the day. I don’t know if that was her choice or if SuperChic bullied her into it. She didn’t seem to mind being the boy. Though at one point I heard her yell at Superchic, “You’re not going to marry me and I’m not going to marry you!”
I think SuperChic took the rejection well.
Anyway, I quilted all day. At the end of the day I ran out of thread. Not part of the plan but it was just as well because I needed to stop. Quilting, it’s not for the weak.
For those of you who are not bored of this quilting subject, below is the general plan.
