Happy Birthday!

Today is my mother's birthday. Happy birthday, Mom!

In memoriam....

A website in memory of Jerry Sese has been created. You can find it at www.inmemoryofgeraldsese.org.

A matched pair....

My sister and I gave our father an early Fathers' Day gift: a rottweiler puppy. He liked it so much, he got another one himself. The pair are known as Wolfgang (Wolfie) and Bitte.

Older....

So here it is, my 24th birthday. I don't feel old. At least yet. Maybe later. No pun intended.

Time....

Today marks 18 months that I've been with my girlfriend. Wow. That's a long time. It doesn't seem that long, though. They've been 18 very wonderful months.

May is just around the corner. With it comes those May flowers, and my birthday. In eight days I'll be (gasp!) 24 years old. Where does the time go?

Easter miracle....

Well, it turned out those April showers brought not only April flooding, but on Easter Sunday it brought a stuck truck as well. My mother, hoping to take advantage of the nice weather, set out to dig up some grape vines. Driving through the field, she decided to take the low road instead of the high road, and it proved to be our undoing, as the mud captured the truck. Over an hour later we were still stuck. We were thankfully rescued by a 4x4 and a tow rope. Perhaps it was an Easter miracle.

"Water, water everywhere...."

"April showers bring May flowers." Well, not before April showers bring April flooding. Even around here, so close to Lake Michigan, there is flooding in low-lying areas as rivers and creeks swell and overflow their banks. I haven't seen a spring this wet in quite some time.

Equinox....

Spring is here. Astronomically anyway. It's my favorite season.

Little ones....

Congratulations to my friends Pauline and Narf for their expected child. It makes you feel old when your friends start having children!

Eulogy....

In loving memory of Gerald F. Sese... born to life December 5, 1972, born to eternal life February 26, 2001

You are not forgotten, loved one
Nor will you ever be,
As long as life and memory last
We will remember thee
We miss you now, our hearts are sore
As time goes by we'll miss you more
Your loving smile, your gentle face
No one can fill your vacant place.

Jerry was eulogized as a warrior: strong, loyal, dedicated, honest, sensible. He was dependable, a pillar to lean on. He may be gone from this world, but as long as we remember him he will live on in our hearts.

So long....

Jerry Sese passed away last night. The following is adapted from an e-mail by Zach Schmidt.

• Monday, 02-19: Jerry has been feeling sick for about a week, including headaches and fatigue.
  
• Tuesday, 02-20: Jerry is admitted into Columbia Hospital, Milwaukee, WI, and diagnosed with acute myelomic leukemia (AML).
  
• Wednesday, 02-21: Jerry is moved to Froedert Hospital, Milwaukee, WI, and a catheter is inserted for chemotherapy.
  
• Thursday, 02-22: Jerry is in good spirits, commenting on how cute the nurses are, and is actually looking forward to chemotherapy.
  
• Friday, 02-23: Jerry wakes up, vomits, and loses consciousness. He is rushed for a CT scan which shows a huge area of bleeding in the frontal lobe of his brain. ["We feel that at that point we lost him." - Zach] He has brain surgery to remove the bleeding and part of the brain. He becomes unresponsive and is put on a ventilator for the rest of the weekend. Family and friends visit all weekend, who have to go up in small groups because there are so many.
  
• Sunday, 02-25: Jerry carries a fever which when treated with Tylenol reaches 101° F; untreated Jerry's temperature spikes up to 110° F.
  
• Monday, 02-26: A chemical trace in Jerry's brain reveals brain death. The decision is made around 4:45 pm to turn off the ventilator. Zach later says, "Its with great sadness that we lost Jerry today.... His heart was so strong, it didn't want to stop beating. That guy never quits! THIS SUCKS! [sic] He didn't feel any pain, except for the vomiting, but we all know that he was no stranger to that after a night of Jack Daniels'. ...Let's... celebrate Jerry's life, and not grieve his death."
  

So it is with a heavy heart and teary eyes that I will say farewell to a man who despite his intimidating stature and demeanor was a wonderful person and a great friend, a man who always put his friends before himself. I am thankful to have known him. May he rest in a better place.

No biting!

The dog my father got for Christmas has been returned to the shelter from whence it came; the dog is a biter. The dog was willful to begin with, and had a tendency to not mind a person. Unfortunately, my parents found out the hard way just how willful it was.

A new season....

It's been almost two months since the last time I posted any news or commentary here. That's a long time, though with the holidays and whatnot in the middle of that, it went much faster than you might imagine. Or perhaps not.

In my boredom I decided to update this and tell all my readers (I hope I have some readers) that I went to the fine city of Waukesha on Saturday to see my friends from Carroll College. It was loads of fun, and it even provided me with two new quotations for the Quotation Page.

Tax season is also upon us. I've filled out all my forms all by myself. The next stop is to Xerox them for my records and send them off in the mail.

Five years....

As of yesterday I've had a counter on my website for five years. I may as well consider it the fifth anniversary of my website. It's sometimes hard to believe I've been online for that long.

Gratitude....

Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Or maybe it's just down the street. In any case, it's a time when we should all think and reflect and give thanks for those things we are grateful for.

One whole year....

My girlfriend and I just celebrated our one year anniversary.

September....

I have left this news page un-updated for far too long! Far too long, indeed, since a lot has happened. My (former) roommate and best friend got married in September, I moved at the end of September, and my mother hit a deer with her car, or rather, the deer hit her.

In even more recent news, I took a trip to Waukesha this weekend, and was able to spend some time with some good friends of mine.

Poorly done....

Last night on Monday Night Football the Green Bay Packers were defeated in one of the most poorly officiated games I have seen in some time. I'm not just saying that because of the Packers' loss. There were a lot of missed calls, and a lot of bad calls. Perhaps the officials should take a cue from the NFL teams and use the preseason to sharpen their skills.

Robbed!

On Saturday the 22nd I became the victim of a crime. My wallet was stolen from the men's locker room in a health club in Madison, Wisconsin. I don't expect any sympathy. It was a lesson well learned. I was very disappointed, though, since it seems the thief was only interested in the cash, and the loss of the other items, such as my driver's license, severely inconvenienced me. I hope that someday the thief will know the same feeling I experienced.

Back the truck up!

I am now the owner of a new truck. It's not new, it's used, but it's newer and better than what I was driving before.