We left for Wichita about 12:30 yesterday, and arrived about 15:00; we stopped for lunch at a McD's on the turnpike. We drove the little Toyota truck, and I had forgotten what a pain in the back it is to drive or ride in it for a couple of hours. It is definitely not a truck for long-distance travel, but it does get really good gas mileage.

We arrived and Debbie and Ric were gone, so we left our suitcase at their house behind a brick wall on their front porch and proceeded over to Villa West, the assisted care place where Charlie and Betty (Karen's parents) are staying. Charlie was sleeping when we arrived, but Betty was glad to see us.

Shortly after we got there, the physical therapist arrived, and the nurse visited with us while he worked on Charlie. Charlie fractured his pelvis a week or so ago, and has been essentially bedfast ever since. They had been giving him Percoset for his pain, but he started hallucinating, so the Percosets have been discontinued. He is not really in pain unless he moves; it's not continuous. His speech is slurred and hesitant, and it's obvious that his mental impairment has progressed.

He refuses to eat or drink; this is now about the only way that he can protest his life. He does not want to continue living. He has stated this in every way that he can. He signed a living will/etc. yesterday; he does not want any resussitation efforts at all. Debbie caught him during a lucid period, and he understands fully the consequences of this.

When they diagnosed his fracture, his doc wanted to put him in the hospital/the whole rigamarole. Debbie, after consulting with everyone involved, informed the dr of the decision to leave him in Villa West, the rationale being that the care is just as good, if not better, there than in the hospital, given the restrictions (the DNR) in effect.

His vital signs are now normal and stable. We visited for quite a while with Betty, she is in pretty good spirits considering the circumstances. I don't know if I had mentioned that she is in the middle stages of Altzheimers... she is a delightful person, and all of the help out there love her to pieces. The fact that Charlie is mostly non-verbal now may be a relief to her. For the last several years, he has been particularly hard on her.

We left Villa West as they were serving supper. We said goodby to Charlie as the aide was trying to get him to eat. Karen said, "We'll see you in the morning, Dad, and you'll be doing better", and Charlie replied something to the effect that he didn't think so. He doesn't want to do better, dammit, he wants to die.

I have to commend Karen and her siblings for their decision to not force him to live; I have seen too many people in Charlie's condition come into the hospital wanting to die and having to go through all kinds of painful procedures to keep them alive at the behest of their insensitive (or ignorant) relatives. They almost always die, anyway. You can't make someone live if they don't want to. All that you can do is make them miserable until they finally get to do what they want to... die.

Karen's brother Chuck was due to arrive around 20:00 from Phoenix; however, he had missed his connection in Dallas, but was fortunate to get another flight to Wichita that arrived about 22:00. Ric and Debbie went to pick him up, and we all sat around BSing until about 23:30, when I went to bed. Everyone else followed shortly.

Ric and Debbie had bought a Dell P-200 before xmas, and they got the Office 97 upgrade along with it; it just finally arrived. So Ric and I installed it before they left for the airport. I'm impressed with Word and actually, the rest of the package as well. Unfortunately, they got the small business edition, so Access was not included, but Publisher was. I am going to "borrow" the CD and install it on my machine as a "trial"....

Initially, Jeff (Ric and Deb's nine-year-old... more about Jeff later...) did not like Word '97. But then I showed him some of the new features (the Draw and the Wordart programs) and now he loves it. Jeff is the most active computer-user in the household, and for a nine-year-old, pretty damned good with Word.

Ric and Deb have a hide-a-bed (a torture machine in not-too-subtle disguise) in their guest bedroom. I was tired enough last night that I went right to sleep, but I woke up with all of my bones aching. I woke up shortly before Karen did, around 09:30, and I noticed that she was sleeping with a frown on her face. Normally she has an angelic smile when she sleeps. I'm not sure if the frown is a product of the bed or the situation or a combination.

Karen, Deb and Chuck went to Villa West after breakfast and I stayed behind. Ric and Jeff went to swim at 11:30, so I got a chance to get on the computer. Jeff is a computer hog. They will be back around 13:30, so I need to make the best of my time alone here.

It is a beautiful day. Temps are in the seventies now, and will probably end up topping eighty. Clear sky, light breeze. I think that I will go for a walk a little later.

Villa West is next to a new Dillons (food store) and Dillons built a pond behind their store adjacent to Villa west and put a concrete path around the pond. There is not yet wheelchair access from Villa West, but there will be soon. It is a really nice touch, an isolated-feeling peaceful area.

Deb's husband Ric has recently quit his job of thirty years (where he did not call in sick a single day) as a construction manager for Eby and is going into business for himself. I really admire his courage; it is a big step for him. Eby recently passed into the hands of the sons(?) of the founder and has gone downhill ever since. That seems to be a fairly common occurance these days. Ric's last day was yesterday, and he is going to take a few weeks or months off to get things straight, get himself registered as a general contractor, get the paperwork set up and everything else that needs to be done. He is a lot more relaxed-looking than I have seen him in years.

There were a couple of bands playing south american music that I was impressed with, I've never been exposed to this music before. Flutes, pan-flutes and guitars and other stringed instruments. The only problems was that they would sometimes sing... and of course I couldn't understand the words. I always feel like people who are conversing in another language are making fun of me. Paranoia is fun to play with, but it would be a horrible way to have to live your life.

After we got back home, my left hip was killing me from all of the walking, so I took some ibuprophin and laid down for a while. I slept until 07:00, a nice fourteen-hour nap...