A Quick Update

Time for a quick update for those who are interested in such things. I started my ART122 Drawing II clase a couple of weeks ago. It is very different than my Drawing I class even though it is the same instructor. It should be a good challenge and will encourage me to be more creative. I started a new blog dedicated to my drawing. Check it out!

The COLD FROM HELL kicked in just after Christmas and it took the better part of a month to kick it. It also triggered a sinus infaction. This this crap, combined with the weather, has kept me off the bike. I am hoping that things dry out a warm up soon.

Kathy and I spent last weekend repainting the Living Room, the Family Room and part of the hall and kitchen. We added some new bookshelves from my parents and moved around the furniture. It was a tone of work (too much for one weekend actually) but it was worth it. Things are looking good. Just a few days after my last post about needing to do some work on the house the water heater went out. We got that fixed for the low, low price of only $850! Such a deal.

2010 already

It is hard to believe that it is 2010. The last five years have...well...not really gone quickly I guess. But it is still amazing to me that it is 2010. It has been quite a while since I have had anything to say on this blog. I have moved my political commentary to a new blog. My hobby stuff is now of two other blogs. That does not leave much to do here.

I guess I can talk about some personal goals for the new year. Fairly standard stuff I guess. One thing I would like to do this year is update this blog more often. Once a month would be good.

Another goal is to get more exercise. I bought a new bike in September and have been riding fairly regularly since. December kind of messed me up a bit. I want to keep this going and perhaps add in some regular hiking adventures as well. A few fishing trips this year would be very cool.

I would also like to keep up with school. Last fall I took a drawing class at Estrella Mountain Community college. It has been a long time since I have been to school (at least 8 years) and it was strange. I have a good time with the drawing class and I plan to continue taking one class at a time through the duration of the year. Art classes are a new experience for me.

I need to put some time and money into the house. The last couple of years have not been good for me when it come to taking care of the house. The housing market crash and the personal challenges hit hard. It is now time to get this back on track. The first project will be to install the garage door opener my sister got me for Christmas.

Enjoy life. Sounds simple but turns out it can be pretty tough. For a long time I have been just going through the motions and have been fairly detached. The good news is that I have a wonderful family and great friends and they have been a huge help through tough times.

New Blog

I have started a new blog for by politcial commentary - http://dspoliticscommentary.blogspot.com/. Not much to see but it will grow over time. It just does not seem right to talk about that crap here.

Random Pictures of Emily

Just thought I would post some pictures of Emily. There will be more to come.

Emily's Story

Tonight I realized that a lot of the reason people visit this blog anymore is for information about Emily. This blog has become the focal point of Emily's story. Recently I have begun to post on some topics of interest to me and I might do some more of that in the future, but this type of activity makes it harder for people to find out what they really want to know about and that is Emily.

To make things easier I have tagged all of the posts about Emily and they can all be viewed as a group. http://drunkensamurai.blogspot.com/search/label/Emily%20Brightwell. As I post anything new about Emily or that relates to her I will add the tag. If you have linked to this blog for Emily's story please update your link to her collection of posts, that way you don't have to wade through my incoherent ramblings on politics or some other stupid subject.

This was a tough task for me. It has been a long time since I have looked at all of the stuff about Emily and it really hurts...but it also make me very proud that I am her father. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think of her and miss her.

Save the Mexican Children!

George Will brilliantly dismantles the administration and points out their many failings. Things are going to get very bad and the blame Bush mantra is going to get VERY old.


The 'Blame America First' crowd strikes again. Hmm, guns are illegal in Mexico and now they have a gun problem, drugs are illegal in the US and we have a drug problem. See a trend? The
answer that these kooks will come up with will be to make guns illegal in the US. Perhaps they should legalize drugs...but seriously isn't it time to rethink this entire issue?

I have yet to hear any credible stories that indicates that Americans are significantly involved in any weapons smuggling into Mexico. The one case I have heard of involved a Cave Creek AZ gun dealer that was charged with selling guns to a Mexican gang member who was using bogus documentation. This case has been dropped. It seems like the people who are breaking the laws in the US concerning guns are the same people in Mexico murdering and smuggling drugs and people into the US. Sounds like a mostly Mexican problem to me. Stand by for the cries of 'Save the Mexican Children!'


AIG is totally screwed and the taxpayers will have to pay even more to clean up this mess. How is a company that is too big to fail going to survive when all the experienced managers leave...and they will. After the way these people have been treated who would want to work for them? Not me. This company is done and it should have been allowed to fail a year ago. Keep an eye out for the part about working for a $1 annual salary, turns out this guy's bonus was his pay!

Album Meme

I got this idea from a friend. I thought I would try it out.

1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random”or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to "Random quotations"or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3 The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.

Kind of a neat creative exercise.

Emily's Birthday

Today would have been Emily's 19th birthday.

Halloween 2008

Just a few pictures of what used to be our favorite time of the year.

One Year Later

Well, today marks the one year anniversary of the worst day of my life. I knew that the entire week, starting with Kathy's birthday last Friday and ending on Nov. 3, was going to be tough. I finally realized that there was no way I could work through this time so I have taken some time off of work.

I really had no idea what I was going to do today; what are you supposed to do at a time like this? Kathy and I decided to just stay busy so we cleaned the house from top to bottom...it needed it. After the girls got home from school we went to the cemetery. After dinner we watched Sharleen's new DVD of Singing in the Rain that she got for her birthday.

By way of comparison today was nothing...but I am not sure what I thought it would be. Nothing has changed, but I guess I am becoming used to the idea that this is how things are. I cannot believe it has been a year...it seems like yesterday and a hundred years ago all at the same time.

Camp del Corazon

Words fail me right now. I finally watched the Camp del Corazon 2008 video...

http://69.228.121.245/VIDEO/CDC2008VIDEO.WMV

I miss her so much.

Emily did the narration for the 2007 video to...

http://69.228.121.245/VIDEO/CDC2007VIDEO.WMV

Scared

OK, I know that just yesterday I was lamenting the loss of political posts and how I wouldn't be doing it for a while. Well, that was before I found this series of articles - http://www.ibdeditorials.com/series8.aspx. This scares the crap out of me! This guy is very close to having the power to do some really terrible things to our country.

More visitors

I noticed tonight that I have been getting a respectable increase in visitors over the last couple of weeks. Nothing spectacular but noticeable. I quickly realized that we are getting closer to the election and I am getting some hits on some old political posts. I am sorry that all the political stuff is so outdated. You would think that with this incredible election season I would be writing all sorts of offensive things. While I am very interested in what is happening, this all still seems to petty to write about. Maybe I will be back to my old self in time for 2012.

Pinetop-Lakeside Trip

Last weekend the girls, Kathy and I went up to the Lake of the Woods resort in Pinetop-Lakeside, AZ. We stayed 4 nights in a very nice cabin and did a ton of fishing.

They have there own private lake that was loaded with fish. The fish were very active bt very small! It was all good fun and the weather was perfect.

Sharleen caught her very first fish ever and then follwed it up with 17 more. She had 18 fish in 3 days of fishing.

This was a really nice getaway and the resort is highly recomended. It is a nice balance between roughin' it and staying in a hotel.

Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad

Last Thursday the family loaded ourselves into the car and drove to Durango Colorado for an extended weekend vacation. The drive up was really neat as we were able to see some parts of the country that none of us had seen before.

We stopped in at the four conners monument thingy, which I thought I had been to before (but I was wrong) and snapped a couple of pictures.

On Friday we took the Durango and Silverton train ride. During the summer this train goes from Durango up to Silverton (hence the name). During the Winter (which it still is in the mountains of Colorado) the train only goes about half-way to a place called Cascade Canyon. At that point the train stops and everyone can get off for a short lunch break.

On Saturday we decided to drive up the highway to Silverton. We had heard from some people on the train that there was still a lot of snow on the ground. The drive was very cool (and sometimes very cold) and the scenery was amazing. Silverton did not disappoint.

Silverton is hidden away is a small valley and when you first see it it does not look real. We spent a couple of hours exploring the town, which was mostly closed. Silverton has only one paved road (that we could find).

Sorry for the short write-up. It was a fun trip and higghly recommended.

Headstone is in

Well, it took as long as they said it would but Emily's headstone was delivered and installed this week. I really thought it would have happened much sooner but they said that the photo would add some time. I am glad that they took their time and got it right. It turned out...well...nice.

I am not sure I know what I feel about this. In a way it is good to know that this last item is done, but on the other hand it does not make me (or Kathy, or the girls) feel any better.

On a slightly different note, Emily's work (and Kathy's) build a memorial gardern to commemorate employees that has passed away.

It turns out that 2007 was a really bad year for Healthsouth.

I just wanted to say thank you again to everyone who has left comments and offered condolences. I am sorry that I do not answer them all, it is still tough to talk about all this and writing is not much easier. We are all doing well.

The Last Holiday Party at UCLA

We went to the UCLA Pediatric Transplant Holiday Party this weekend. We have gone the last two years and it has been a really great time. Going back to Westwood and UCLA has become one of the rare times of relief for the whole family. It was really strange to be going this year but it was something that we need to do. It was to be our last chance to see so many people that have played such a huge part of Emily's life and our entire family.

We drove over to LA on Friday morning and got to the Tiverton House by about 1pm local time. Our first stop was for lunch at Mr. Noodle on Broxton in Westwood. This was been our favorite place to each in Westwood for more than 2 years. It was also one of Emily's favorite places. Lunch was great, as usual, but it was strange to be there without her. It was so strange that we only ate there once over the weekend, which is strange as we generally eat there two or even three time in a two day trip.

The party was held on Saturday and this year it was in a new location. Previous years the party was held in the ballroom at the UCLA Student Union. This year the party was at the Lionsgate Commissary in Santa Monica. Yes, this the entertainment distribution company. The location was very nice and they had a movie theme for the party. It was all very nicely done. We got to see a lot of the doctors and staff from UCLA and several of the transplant families that we met during Emily's stay at UCLA. These are some really great people and it was good to see them again, but it was very emotional for all of us. Some of the people that we saw had not heard the news and that was hard. I will miss these folks but I am fairly sure that we will not see most, if not all, of these people again.

All-in-all it was a really good weekend. It was emotionally draining but we needed to be there. I think that this will help with some closure on that part of our lives...

Headstone

Today was another tough day. We went to the cemetery an ordered Emil's headstone. It was another surreal task...and it was very draining. It only took an hour but I felt like I had run a marathon. It wasn't as tough as I thought it was going to be...

It will take several weeks to be delivered.

Emily's Birthday

Today is (or should have been) Emily's 18th birthday. We should have been going to the movies for her free movie on her birthday. We should have gone to her favorite restaurant - Lai Lai Mongolian BBQ - for lunch. We should of had a bunch of people over this evening for cake and presents. But that is not what happened and it felt all wrong.

Instead we went to the cemetery and put up a temporary maker that Emily's Uncle Red made. Without a marker the grave seems so lonely. We also placed some flowers. It was a tough day to say the least, but we knew it would be.

Things at the Brightwell house have been OK, I guess. Kathy and I went back to work on November 8th, she was only able to work a few days before it became too much to deal with. I struggled on until the end of the month but now I have to take some time. I had hoped that getting to work would help me cope but it didn't and now I am paying the price. Time to get this sorted...

Sharleen and Delaney are doing well. Sharleen still has some bad days but she seems to be getting through this. Delaney, as expected, has been doing fine. She has had a couple nights with bad dreams but nothing too bad. They are going to be fine. Kids are resilient.

The standard question that I am asked is "How are you doing?" The standard answer I give is "As well as can be expected." I don't know any other way to express how I am feeling. Everything seems wrong to me and I guess that is normal...

Thank You

I just wanted to thank all the family, friends, acquaintances and complete strangers that have offered condolences and support during this tough time. We have been very blessed by all the help that has been provided. I would like to thank everyone personally but I am not sure I can remember everything that has been done for us over the last several days. If I don't thank you in person please realize that my mind has not been functioning for some time.