Rest in peace, grandpa

My grandfather left this world at about 5:30 PM today. I knew his time was limited so I purchased tickets to fly down to Houston, but I didn't know it was that limited of a time. I've been getting updates on his status from my sister via phone or e-mail, and when I im'ed her today, she told me to fly down to Houston right away, it had gotten so much worse that grandpa was no longer taking any food, and the hospice nurse that the hospital had provided started him on a morphine drip about two in the afternoon. He made it until about 5 ish and when I frantically called the house down in Houston just a few minutes after the im.... my uncle answered the phone crying, telling me that grandpa was gone.

They held the phone close to his ears so I can say something to him while he was still warm. I told him not to worry, go and be with grandma, plus my father and all his friends who had passed on before him, that we'll do the best that we can until we meet again.

So this heaven thing will have to be true, otherwise, I'm going to be pissed!
I will be traveling down to Houston soon, I think his burial will be sometime this weekend.

I'm glad that I was lucky enough to have him for the majority of my life, and that I'm really thankful that he did his best to take care of all of us.

Even though I knew this day was coming, still there is simply no way to really prepare for it.

So until later, we'll do the best that we can until we meet again.

Long time no see!

I know that it has been awhile since I've last blogged. I've not been entirely dormant in the blogosphere though. I've started my first food blog "Nerdstar Eats", with the encouragement of my GF. I am hoping to post more on the site soon. The writing is nowhere near that of a professional food critic, but simply from my own perspectives.

My new job has been good so far, but the longer commute is something that I can do without. Learning how to adequately arrange time to sleep, eat, work, and exercise is a fine art. I don't really know how these people do it, you know, those upward-mobile carreristas who go to work during the day, then attend graduate school, and still finds the time to party looking like these people from these fashion or fitness magazines.

Could it be that I'm older and slower?

As far as things on the family front are concerned, my grandfather has not been doing too well lately. He was at the hospital for the last week and a half with some dehydration and pneumonia. During his stay, the doctors also found that he has an aneurysm in his abdominal cavity and on top of that, his organs are failing. Being 92, he is already too old to undergo surgery, and as much as we don't want to face it, his time is running out. I'm sad and wondering what's going to really happen after he is gone. Ever since my grandma had passed away, things just have not been the same with my family, as if the glue that held everyone together just all of a sudden gotten weaker. Right now the best that I could hope for is that grandpa will not have to endure so much physical pain and will finally feel some sort of peace. If it's true then he'll join my father and grandmother on the other side, partying it up until it's our time to go too.

Of course, I really hope that he'll be able to make it through the year, but I don't even know if it's a possibility at this point.

I will, of course, update any changes or the lack thereof from time to time.

What about the army thing? Well, lately it has just been "live and let live".