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.