Obama's grandmother passed away on Sunday from cancer.  Reuters has the story.

I know what it's like to lose someone you love, particularly when that person is one of the formative figures in your life.  I can't imagine how hard it must be for Obama to push on with this campaign in light of this news.

My condolences to him, his sister Maya, and their families.

My father's mother, and my last surviving grandparent passed away last week.  She was 92 years old.  I'll be attending her funeral tomorrow.  This was pretty rough on all of us, coming as it did shortly after the first anniversary of my Dad's passing.  I find myself wondering if I will always greet spring with sadness.  My Nana was a spirited character throughout most of her life, and I remember many happy afternoon visits with her when I was a kid.  I'll miss her.

Here's an obituary for my Nana.

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Gary Gygax, creator of Dungeons & Dragons, a pastime that occupied many happy hours of my childhood, died today at the age of 69. c|net News.com homage to Gygax.  Bye Gary... thanks for all the wonderful adventures.

Reverend Jerry Falwell is no longer with us, having died suddenly today as reported by the Houston Chronicle:

The Rev. Jerry Falwell, who founded the Moral Majority and built the religious right into a political force, died Tuesday shortly after being found unconscious in his office at Liberty University, a school executive said. He was 73.

Falwell was hospitalized in "gravely serious" condition after being found unconscious Tuesday in his office at Liberty University, a school executive said earlier...

I've never made any secret that I don't think highly of Jerry Falwell.  But that said, he was still a human being, and doubtless had friends and family who loved him and who are suffering now.  I know what that feels like and they have my sympathy and my condolences.

Life has been a little hectic for me, and while I've had time to take part in interesting discussions on articles I posted over a year ago (weird) I haven't had much time to post any new articles.  So here's what's goin' on, reduced to a bullet list, just so I can get the shite out there:

• Went to see the oral surgeon on Tuesday, no real surprises there, it was just a consult, they wanted me to know what to expect and to talk to me.  Had to read some scary consent forms where they tell you everything that could possibly go wrong during your procedure... we might break your jaw, we might puncture your sinuses, we might damage teeth you were planning on keeping, you might have a heart attack from the anaesthesia, you  might die, the world might end.  Great stuff to read if you are a person with an anxiety disorder triggered by medical situations.  Thanks guys.
   
• I go in for my impressions at the dentist this afternoon.  Probably have to have the surgery in about 3 weeks.
   
• Celebrated Easter with Patty's family on Saturday, and with my family on Sunday.  Plus we had a little egg hunt for Lynnea at our house Sunday morning.  Total of 3 egg hunts, and I hid somewhere between 85 and 145 eggs over the weekend (I had help on the last hunt.)
   
• Atheist's don't believe in jinxes, but lately it's hard to shake the idea of misfortune following me around.  During Saturday's get together, I noticed that the dog of one of my sisters-in-law, who had been brought to the gathering, was acting funny--labored breathing, strange movements.  I told my sister-in-law about it, and she took the dog to a vet during the celebration and was informed that the animal needed to be put to sleep.  Happy Easter kids, the dog is dying.  They had the dog put down that same day and a lot of the kids were crying about it.
   
• Continuing the jinx thread, I was on the phone with a friend yesterday afternoon and we were discussing all the things that had been going on in my life when suddenly I heard a loud bang on my cellphone.  My friend had been rear ended by another driver and terminated the conversation with "my back is hurting, I can't talk now".  Later in the evening I heard back that after a trip to the hospital my friend was okay, but he didn't yet know how bad the damage to his car is.  We joked that I should try to capitalize on this Hurleyesque bad luck of mine, have people pay me to stay away from them, or pay me to hang around with folks they don't like until the meteorite hits them.
   
• I've been seeing my Mom each weekend and helping her to get things taken care of now that Dad is gone.  Mom runs a small business out of her house and depends entirely on an ancient Windows-98 box to do her work, and the box is acting pretty spotty lately.  A few weeks before Dad passed away he had purchased a new computer, and so now I am trying to repurpose that box so that when my Mom is ready, she can switch to the new box and run her business on that.  Unfortunately the new box comes with Vista which my Dad hated, and after spending a couple of hours trying to use the box I can see why.  Microsoft completely changed the standard windows interface, all the control keys are different, and no functions are where they used to be.  They also decided (apparently) that menus are overrated, so the standard office suite doesn't have menus anymore... yeah you heard that right.  Everything is now reorganized on a new fat toolbar with tabs on it so that you can switch between toolbars.  Microsoft calls it "the ribbon", I call it "thumbing your nose at everybody who already learned how to use your shitty applications".  Vista does not come with a "classic mode" option like XP did... they really expect you to relearn where everything is.  I refuse to subject my 68-year-old mother to this nonsense.  So I backed up Dad's files, packed up his computer and all his peripherals and disks, brought it to a computer shop and told them to wipe it, and then install XP home edition and Office 2000, and get all the drivers to make sure the peripherals work.  In the end, my Mom will be happier for it.  And having a chance to check out Vista I am now quite certain that I won't be upgrading to it.
   
• Had a little birthday party for Pat at home last week, a little cake and song, and a couple gifts (taking our economic situation into consideration of course).  Pat got the movie "Eragon" which was -eh-.  It's basically Star Wars... AGAIN, and progresses far too quickly.  I kept saying "these guys forgot the montages" while watching it.  But the dragon was pretty, and it was still fun to watch.
   
• Oh, and I am saddened to report that Kurt Vonnegut passed away.  Thanks for the stories Kurt, we'll miss you.

Guess that's about it.  Gotta get to work!  See ya later.

There are three words I never wanted to say, even though I knew that someday I would have to say them.  Those words are "my Dad was".

My Dad was a wonderful, sweet, kind, and loving man.  Doug Seggelin was devoted to his family.  He always put others first.  He was my hero, and I loved him dearly.  He was inventive, and quite brilliant.  His room at home is packed with sheets upon sheets of complex equations and diagrams, carefully inscribed in engineering pencil, and I cannot make heads or tails of any of it.

He had a rare wit, and was always making folks laugh.  At any family get together, if people started laughing en-masse, you could almost guarantee that my Dad had a hand in it.  He loved his grandchildren, and was always making faces to make them smile or playing with them.

He was utterly committed to his wife of 48 years and his children.  If I ever asked my Dad for help, he would help me, no matter what.  He took great care of his sister who is bedridden with multiple sclerosis, and his mother who turned 91 this year.  He was well liked and respected by the people he worked with.  He loved animals, particularly birds, and because of this my mother always called him her "Saint Francis of Assisi".  He was definitely the closest thing to a saint I've ever known.

My Dad was an all-around great guy, and as far as I'm concerned, the embodiment of what most of us only aspire to be. 

My Dad suffered a massive aneurism on March 6'th in the early morning hours, and passed away on March 7'th.  His wake was held on Sunday March 11'th at the Blanchard Funeral Chapel (which is owned by his neighbor, and where he had worked for the last couple years as an usher and driver.)  He was buried on March 12'th.  He was 67 years old.

Now there's just my Mom, my Sister, and myself in the family I grew up in.  Add to that our spouses and the grandkids.  In the end I think this will make us a closer family.  My Sister and I need to look out for Mom now, because she needs a lot of help, and all of us are looking out for each other, because heck, we all need help now.  Saying goodbye to Dad was the hardest thing any of us have ever done, and the only thing harder will be getting on without him.

Here's an obituary for my Dad.

At the close of my Dad's funeral service, I read a poem that I had written for him back in the early 1990's, before I myself became a Dad.  We printed up 200 copies of the poem superimposed over a picture of my Dad, and left them at the back of the church for people who attended the service to take home.  The family always goes out first (and me a little early since my brother-in-law and I were pallbearers.)  As I sat in the limo I watched dozens and dozens of people walk by with copies of the poem.  It was touching, like sharing a little bit of my wonderful Father with everyone who loved him.  In the end it looks like about 120 or so were taken.  I'm glad I wrote that poem because it gave me a chance to tell my Dad how much I loved him before he was gone.

So now there's nothing left to do but pick up and try to carry on, and always keep my cherished memories of my Dad.  I've got to support my family and always try to do right by his example.

I want to thank my family and friends for their kind words and support over the last week.  You guys were awesome.  Thanks.

That's really the only way I can measure my progress. I'm still short of breath, I still have an ache in my lung (and probably will after the infection is gone), I'm still coughing up (occasionally bloody gunk), I don't have much appetite and I am still very weak.

But I know I am improving because each day I feel a little bit stronger.  On Monday there was no siginificant uptime, I spent the day sprawled at my desk because I couldn't lie down, but I had the strength for nothing.  On Tuesday I could manage 5 minutes of uptime, but I was in a lot more pain.  On Wednesday I could manage 10 to 15 minutes before I had to go back to bed and snooze.  Yesterday I lasted about 45 minutes.  And today?  Well today I've been up for about 2 and a half hours, but at this point I am ready to go back to bed.

I called my practice today to warn them that I felt I was going to run out of antibiotics before the pneumonia was beaten.  They are supposed to call me back soon.  Hopefully they won't delay.

In the grand taste test, it appears tomato-based products still taste as they are supposed to.  So Spaghetti Sauce is okay.  Baked beans still taste okay.   Cherry Italian Ice tastes cold and sweet, and vaguely fruity... maybe watermelon flavored.  Watermelon on the other hand tastes like nothing at all.  Strawberries are completely bitter and have no sweet or strawberry taste.

In other news, I heard Anna Nicole Smith died.  That's sad.  Having said that I'll be honest and say there is very little I've ever seen her in.  Obviously I didn't know her, but the death of any person is sad, particulary a mother and wife.  Farewell Anna.  My condolences to her loved ones.

Too tired to write any more.  Going back to bed.  When's that damn phone call coming?