Zach Dotsey

Not too eventful a day today.  Milly was fussing really early off and on this morning, but she finally quieted down and went back to sleep about ten minutes before 8, so I let her sleep in just a little and got her up at about ten after.  She was pretty good during the time she was up, but she got fussy right at 9:30 so back down she went for a bit.

I was pretty busy this morning, plus I had to run out for a bit in the early afternoon.  I got a good bit done, but I’ve got things to do still.  I’ve also got a meeting lined up for tomorrow.

This evening Amanda and I watched what the DVR said was a two-hour long Law & Order: SVU, but actually turned out to be two separate episodes.  It was just odd that it was listed that way, because normally even if two new episodes of a show come on back-to-back it’s still listed as two different shows.  Whatevs.

I got to thinking today and realized that one year ago today I was in Costa Rica, surfing.  I looked up my entry for that day and saw that a year ago was actually the day that we rescued a family who had gone swimming in the ocean and got caught up in a rip current.  Good times.  I often think about Costa Rica and would love to go back.

I was just watching Louisville and Cincinnati playing a game in the Big East tournament.  Louisville lead the whole game until the very end when the Bearcats came back and stole the game from them.  The ACC tourney starts tomorrow, and I’m looking forward to it.

Zach Dotsey

I went to the grocery store this evening because Amanda was exhausted and didn’t feel like doing it.  We were almost our of cereal, so she wanted some of that for the morning, and she was thinking about having a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but since we were almost out of jelly (jam actually- it spreads much more easily) I was going to pick some of that up for her too.

Since it was a decent day out and I haven’t been very active this week I figured I’d walk, and I had a nice walk.  I got to the store, got the stuff, then my phone rang while I was trying to check out.  With people behind me in line, I didn’t want to whip out my phone for Amanda to have me go get something and have to cancel out the order or whatever.  I was about to try to call her back as I was walking out (I don’t usually get good reception at Lowe’s Food anyway) and then she started calling again.  I tried to answer, but the phone did some odd lockup thing where it just kept buzzing but wouldn’t let me answer it.

So, I had to turn my phone off and turn it back on again, which can take a minute with an iPhone.  I didn’t want to wait around at the grocery store for that, and I figured once she found out that I had already been checking out, whatever she wanted wouldn’t be too big a deal anyway.  Usually if she calls to say to pick something extra up at the grocery store, it doesn’t really matter.  So I did finally get back in touch with her as I was turning into our neighborhood and she said she wanted sticks of butter to make some mac and cheese.  I got annoyed, and I can’t really say why.  I ended up going back, dropping my bag of already-purchased goods off at a register, got the butter (and a half-off Snickers bar for myself) and walked back home.  On the way back I realized that my feeling of annoyance was stupid and so I was able to let go of it.  It was a nice feeling.

I called my brother, Adam Dotsey, on the way to the store because I haven’t talked to him in a bit.  Didn’t get him so I left a message.

Amanda and I spent the rest of the evning watching a couple episodes of Law & Order SVU.  Michael stopped by for a minute to pick up some shirts he had ordered.  He always uses our address for that.

Amanda, as I said, was tired, so she went to get ready for bed around 9:00.  A few minutes after that I got a phone call from my dad.  He said that Pap (my grandfather, his dad) had had a stroke on Tuesday.  He found out yesterday and was in Lexington today.  Pap’s health hasn’t been the best over the past couple years and it’s been getting progressively a bit worse.  Altogether, my grandpa had a stroke plus a urinary tract infection and renal failure.  (That’s a kidney problem.  I’d heard of it but didn’t know what it was, so I looked it up.)

The doctors have no idea what’s going to happen with him.  Dad said he looked better today than yesterday, but he’s hardly able to talk.  He’s aware and knows who people are, which is good, but Dad said he’s not looking great.  The doctors told my dad he could keep getting better with the antibiotics they’re giving him or he could have another stroke tomorrow and die.

I told my dad I didn’t know what to do.  I was having a hard time putting the words together to express what I was thinking, and he saved me the trouble by simply saying, “I know.”

Here’s my dilemma.  Pap’s health isn’t good and there’s no telling if I’ll be able to see and talk to him again.  He could die and his funeral would be sometime pretty soon.  My first child could be born at any time now.  How do you choose between something like that?  If it were just a few hours away it wouldn’ t be a big deal, but from Wilmington to Lexington is about ten hours.  I know labor can last a while, but if I happened to be in Kentucky and got a call that the baby is coming (because there’s no way Amanda can travel that far right now) I’d be hard pressed to get back in time, not to mention that I don’t think I’d be able to help but speed the whole way back.  I could buy an airplace ticket, but I just checked and that would cost about $400 right now.

Obviously I want Pap to get better anyway, and I feel bad expressing this, but him getting better would also make things so much better for me in that I wouldn’t have to choose between missing seeing him (or, God forbid, missing the funeral) and being there for Milly’s birth.  On top of that I would think that none of my family would be here for it the timing coincided with a funeral, plus it’s an event that would always hang over her birthday.

So come on, Pap, hang in there!  Do more than that- just get better!  Besides, UK is going to have a killer team next season and, much as I dislike John Calipari, you should stick around to see how the Cats do.

All I can do is hope and pray.  It’s not like anyone can even tell me what to do with this or give me any advice.

Zach Dotsey

So far so good for today, as far as Amanda and the baby go.  No spotting, except for what she was already told yesterday might be leftover from yesterday.  Amanda did talk to Carolina Health though.  They didn’t seem too concerned, but did move our next appointment from the 30th to the 22nd.  She’ll have one of those exams, which isn’t the most comfortable thing to be in the room for (especially given that the doctor she’ll have is a guy) but then we’ll also get another ultrasound.  It’s what they call the full anatomy ultrasound, so I guess they’ll be checking for all the arms and legs and fingers and toes.

I got details on Julie Garst’s baby today, the one I mentioned yesterday.  Lucas Garst was born at 2:40 yesterday afternoon at a weight of seven pounds, two ounces. We came up with a new service today, which I think will be a hit.

Work wasn’t very busy overall today, so I spent a big chunk of time sending e-mails out to inform the clients of ours who I thought might find it useful.  It’s gotten a few bites so far, which is good.

I received a phone call from my sister, Erin Dotsey, today, telling me that she’d just had surgery to remove some cancerous growth from her cervix.  I was pretty surprised by that, since I didn’t know anything about it at all.  She said it was outpatient surgery and she wasn’t really worried about it, so that was good.  Our mom was with her and I guess had driven her to and from the hospital.  I’m glad she’s okay.

I spent a large portion of the afternoon running some errands, which I ran by Scott before doing.  I dropped off the prescription for Amanda’s pregnancy-friendly UTI antibiotics, picked up the leader notes from Port City Community Church for the Starting Point study we’re doing, got the meds for the dogs and cat, picked up a gift card from the mall, got a bag of dog food (which we ran out of this morning) then picked up the antibiotics.  Does that sound like much?  I don’t know if it sounds like much, but it was quite a trip.

Amanda watched a little TV after she got home then we watched Scrubs together and started to watch Law & Order SVU but she got pretty tired a little over halfway through and went to bed, so we didn’t get to watch tonight’s new episode of The Office.

Nick and Amy Warkentien stopped by on the way to their small group to drop some flowers off for Amanda that Amy had bought in light of our tough day yesterday.  I thought it was really, really sweet of them.  They stuck around to talked for a few minutes and were late getting to small group.

The Tar Heels beat the crap out of the Virginia Cavaliers tonight, as most people figured they would.  So much for an 0-3 ACC start.

President George Bush had his farewell speech tonight, as President-elect Barack Obama becomes President Barack Obama in a few days.

But the big story of the day involves a miraculous plane crash in New York.  I listened to it unfold as I was driving home from my errands then watched coverage of it on TV after I got home.

Flight 1549 took off from LaGuardia headed for Charlotte, North Carolina, but geese were sucked into one or both of the engines and the pilot, Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, masterfully ditched the plane in the Hudson River.  Had a wing dipped into the water, the plane would have somersaulted and broken apart, killing who knows how many.  As it was, the plane landed in the water and boats came from all over to see to the passengers.  Out of the 155 people onbaord, none were harmed.

I was impressed not only with the pilot and the crew, who obviously managed the passengers well, but the passengers themselves, who waited on the wings of the plane to be rescued, as well as all the people who scrambled to help them.  The pilot checked the plane twice after everyone was out to make absolutely sure that nobody was left behind.  The man and his crew deserve all the accolades being lauded on them.

Zach Dotsey

Got up early and saw the Sawyers off.  Mom made pancakes, eggs and bacon for breakfast.  Left the house around 10:00 and went to Amanda’s grandparents’ house for lunch.  Was stuffed.

Left there around 2:45 for Amanda’s parents’ house.  Watched Duke beat Duquesne with Michael, though game started late because another game was finishing.  Duke rolled, 94-75.  The last eight minutes was not so good, but all the freshmen were in getting game experience.

Hung out, ate friend bologna sandwich.  Were going to have steak but Karen didn’t actually have any, thought she did.  Helped Phil with laptop hard drive.  New sun room looks great.

Drove home, watched Law & Order SVU and House with Amanda.  She went to bed and I cleaned up all the Boston Legal episodes I had on the DVR.

Bruce is limping a bit still.  Hasn’t been doing it constantly since yesterday, but still slightly worrying.  Were told we’d have to watch his knees, but he’s not even six years old yet.

Zach Dotsey

It’s a good thing Amanda and I didn’t waste much time this morning after we woke up.  We got up, ate cereal, took showers and, semi-arbitrarily, decided to go vote.  North Carolina is one of the states that allows early voting, which is a great idea.  What sucked, though, is that it took us literally about three and a half hours.  We got to the north campus of Cape Fear Community College at about a quarter after ten and didn’t leave until about ten ’til two.

Part of the problem is that I heard the news reported that this early voting station, a mere five minute drive from our house, has not been crowded, so I think that encouraged more people to vote there.

It wasn’t very exciting.  There were two somewhat obnoxious guys behind us for the first hour, maybe less, but they eventually bailed.  We talked to a lady in front of us a bit.  Other than that it was a bunch of standing and sometimes sitting on the floor.

To make things worse I forgot to charge my iPhone last night.  There was enough juice to take a couple pictures and for Amanda and I to use the internet to brush up on some of the candidates’ stances on issues (one of us actually changed who we decided to vote for) and to have a short phone conversation.  Nick and Amy Warkentien were going to a Polish festival and had invited us to go, but we didn’t make it out in time.

So who did we vote for?  It doesn’t matter, really.  I don’t feel like enough with change no matter who wins the election.  It’s historical either way though- a (half) black president or a female vice president.  I really wish I’d brushed up on the local candidates though.  I’m kind of embarrassed that I didn’t.

One thing I think they should do if they’re going to offer early voting is to let them voting stations stay open later.  They’re open from 9:00 to 4:00, which is great if you’re a college student or you don’t work.  They should be open during times that are convenient for more people, and I think they’d have a greater impact that way.

After serving our grueling duty for America Amanda and I went home, let Bruce and Harvey out for a bit and watched last night’s episode of The Soup before heading out to Wrightsville Beach.  Amanda and her aunt, Anna Frazelle, walked Bruce, Harvey and Scout.  I was going to go too, but Amanda’s brother, Michael Mercer, showed up right before they left and he and I were going to go with Barry Frazelle, their uncle, to look at wetsuits.

First we went to Surf City, where Michael and I both found suits that fit us perfectly- he a small and I a medium short.  We then went to Sweetwater to compare what they had there.  There were some less expensive wetsuits at Sweetwater, but Surf City was willing to match prices and deals.  Michael ended up buying the one he tried on earlier and I had them order me one of the same because they didn’t have it in my size.  I liked his better because it’s got a part that helps cover up the neck hole to keep from getting flushed as much.  I hate to copy him, but it’s a good deal and it’s exactly what I want as well.

Before we went back to Sweetwater to get Michael’s wetsuit (and booties) Barry took us to Vito’s Pizza and bought us each a beer for the hard shopping work we’d done.

Amanda and I left Anna and Barry’s shortly after we got back.  She was hungry and ready to go.  her original plan was to make some macaroni and cheese, but we had to stop and get some dog food (it ran out this morning) and she was too hungry to really wait.  Not wanting to be a man who starves his pregnant wife, we stopped at Atlanta Bread for some quick dinner, got the dog food and came on home.

We watched Fringe and an episode of Law & Order: SVU before Amanda went to bed.  I watched a Smallville and am about to go to bed soon.  We gain an hour of sleep by getting to set our clocks back, but I hate it because it will be dark after work so I won’t get to go surfing during the week so much anymore.

The Duke Blue Devils football team, as I read it, threw away a victory over Wake Forest today.  Apparently the special teams just melted down today, although the offense was doing well.  That’s okay- Coach Cut has already really improved this Blue Devils team and in subsequent years he’s only going to make it better and better.  They’re already markedly better than they have been in a long time.

Zach Dotsey