Oi vey

Okay, so our tickets weren't 1600 bucks. Try 1800. Called the step-mom and she proceeded to say "Well it is Christmas time and it isn't THAT much." Okay..um..do any of YOU have 1800 bucks just burning a hole in your pocket? So now they are all booked and paid for and we are in Boston from 21 December to 3 January...

I am then informed that Pop has something wrong with his foot and they took him to the ER to get it checked out (swollen and very painful)..Doc takes an X-Ray and proceeds to say that my Papa's foot looks like the foot of a 200 year old man..and that he has something called Charcot's Foot Disease. Thanks to Google I now know it isn't like a fungus or something it is "a progressive degenerative condition that affects the joints in the feet It is associated with nerve damage (neuropathy) that decreases the ability to sense stimuli, including pain, and decreases muscular reflexes that control movement. As a result, the joints in the feet are subjected to repeated trauma and injury, causing progressive damage to the ligaments, cartilage, and bones."

So Papa not only has had his hip replaced, had some sort of blood infection like 3 times in the last year, fell at work in late summer resulting in the ligaments in his elbow to need to be put back where they belong AND now has have his rotator cuff repaired (thanks to Workman's Comp red tape, he has to wait until 13 November to have the surgery which will put him out of work on sick leave for 6 weeks)...but now he gets this foot thing?!?!? WTF!!!!!

I keep trying to get him to retire (he is of retirement age...actually over it at this point), but he won't. If this crap keeps up he may be forcibly put on disability retirement and that would send my ox of a Papa over the edge in my opinion.

At what point in life do the roles of "parent" and "child" become reversed? I am not implying that my father is stupid at all. In fact, he is actually a genius (and passed those genes on to his son but alas not to me), highly educated, speaks several languages, soft spoken (I DEFINITELY didn't get that gene), gentle, kind, compassionate, understanding and all-in-all one heck of a guy that I am lucky and honored to call my Papa. BUT, when does it become necessary, due to his mile-wide stubborn streak and pride becoming a hindrance and a threat to his overall health, for me to step into the role of cajoling, chastising parent? My step-mom has tried and tried and tried to get him to slow down and possibly think about retiring. He side-steps, avoids the issue, flatly refuses, and many other stubborn and idiotic behaviors all to ignore the fact that he should have retired already. 25 years of carrying 30lbs on his back, walking 12 miles and about 30000 stairs a day have taken their toll on his body.

I guess I am concerned that my Papa will, as a result of this stubborn pride, not retire in time to enjoy the rapidly dwindling last 3rd of his life; he will work himself to the point that when he does retire he is no longer able to be mobile enough to enjoy his pastimes (puttering in the garden, golfing, woodworking, etc.) or even worse (heaven forbid) he works himself to the grave.


sheeeesh