What a year!

Sorry about not updating the ol' blog lately, its been since May since I wrote last.  It has been a very challenging last half year.  Everything was very uneventful until the last week in July when my dad and I went to British Columbia for a fishing trip on the Charlotte Queen.  Caught a bunch of fish to fill up the freezer.  Aside from puking my brains out the first two days, dad started having some breathing issues on the third night but seemed under control.   Two days after we got home, thats when everything got complicated.  Dad was rushed to the Hospital and eventually was taken to St. Anthony's in Denver due to respiratory complications.  He was moved into ICU and ventilated.  He unfortunately was not able to be at my wedding that comming Saturday.  So a day that was suppose to be happy and full of cheer and optimism, was filled with thoughts and prayers for dad.  To add to the madness, my grandmother pass away the following day after my wedding.  Fortunately my grandmother had lived a great full life and I can only hope to be as fortunate!  With dad in the hospital and and my mom grieving about her mom passing, it was decided that we still go on our honeymoon.  Dad was ventilated for about six days, pretty much while my family and I was in Florida.  He was released a couple weeks later and came back up to Breck.  A couple days later, mom called 911 because of a heart attack and dad was rushed right back to denver.  He was intubated again and when he stabilized, they did an angiogram and angioplasty on his heart (two stints).  He was released again after a few weeks and did not come back up to altitude.  A family friend Charlie let us use his apartment down town since he was visiting friends in California.  About a week or so after he was released, he collapsed eating at the Palm about a block away from where he was staying.  His O2 levels dropped to the low 60's and was rushed back to the hospital.  He was again intubated and I got down there as the sedation was kicking in.  I have never seen my father so desperate and helpless and that memory is burned into my sole!  That time did it for me.  The reality of him potently passing was very real and hard to comprehend.  The pillar of strength in my life was fighting for his life and I couldn't do anything about it.  The emotions were of helplessness and sadness.  Mom was loosing it and Chris was five thousand miles away and to get last minute tickets from Sao Paulo were financially out of reach.  But we did get him and Noah up here towards the end of September to see the family and just hang out with dad.  It had been almost three years since he was back in the states.  I did my best with a development project and put my nose to the preverbal grindstone to get through the political, HOA and construction issues that have been bestowed upon this project. Ill save that for another entry.  Fortunately dad is doing well and is looking forward to getting to Destin and recovering at sea level.  
 
So what a year right!  September 27th was my one year since my transplant.  When I look back, I'm in a bit dumbfounded with everything that went down.  It has been a roller coaster ride of events up to now.  I got a lot of snowboarding in right after I got out of Brents Place to get back into shape and it turned out that it was one of the best seasons in Colorado in close to a decade if not all time.  Work became steady enough in March to give my self a little breathing room.  Summer hit and things seemed to be moving along smoothly with the exception of dad.  Honeymoon in Orlando was the ticket with the girls, made Universal Studio's the goal.  It was really nice to get out tof the mountains and into some heat.  Although a heat index of 110 was a little much.  But I finally felt like I thawed out.

I started a little snowplow business this fall to keep me busy through the winter and spending time in the office getting year end stuff done.  Christmas was great and the girls are in AZ hanging with their other side of the family.  Lucky girls get two christmas's!  hahahahah

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!