


Dad’s still in the hospital, but he’s doing well. My mom, Jef, and I have been spending many hours sitting by his bed to help comfort him and change his bed pads. He looks like too out of it to comprehend what’s going on, but he’s surprisingly alert. He’s been fooling the hospital staff into thinking that he’s mentally flatlined and aphasic, and they don’t really believe us when we tell them that as of last week he could talk and move of his own volition. Yesterday he asked me how long I was going to stay, and today he was able to say, “Give me a break!” when my mom kept urging him to stand up. I told him he was doing a good job, and he slapped his knee and gave me a thumbs up. The synapses are definitely firing in there, just not when the nurses are looking.
Things are starting to percolate on the van front. Work has died down for the time being, dad’s relatively stable, and the floor plan is starting to crystallize. I think we just may see some movement before week’s end.
The floor plan is deceiving. It looks like everything is pretty well anchored down. It doesn’t show how the entire bed slides back about 20 inches to turn into a giant chaise. It also doesn’t show the sliding cooktop above the fridge, the rollout shelf that the fridge sits on, or the hideaway window shades. I have a bit of a ‘thing’ for things that move. I call it a knack for functional design. Others call it overcomplicating things. At least the sink doesn’t move.


