OCCUPIED COUNTRY

That's Life

An odd few days. Good and bad. Weird and wonderful. Joyous and sad.

First off we discover my father has been peeing blood for a number of weeks, but neglected doing anything about it because he figured he knew what the problem was. Well, of course you did Dad; you being a Urologist and everything. Anyway he finally decides that the professionals should get involved and catches the 52 to the crap, decaying inner-city hospital that *serves* his needs.

It's a growth in the bladder - and he also needs his kidneys looking at. Somehow I don't think it was the diagnosis he'd arrived at. So, brave faces all round but with him being at the age of 76 there's a strange, unspoken fear that bubbles beneath the "you'll be fines" and "they'll soon have that cleared ups". Either that or this generation that oversaw and funded the creation of the Welfare State still believe. He's waiting for a date to go in and have *it* removed. Of course that's when the real fun begins. Waiting for the biopsy.

I called round to see him and my Mam last week. I rebuilt his PC a couple of weeks ago (his motherboard went tits up) and upgraded his operating system to XP. Youngest furnished him with his old Digital Camera (Olympus C-100) and he started to get stuck into getting his 'snaps' from the camera to the PC.

I like giving him the opportunity to exercise his mind like that. He loves computers but, as the years have started to take their toll, he's finding harder to grasp the constant changes. He was the first in our family to actually buy a computer. Back in the early 80s, out of the blue he comes homes with a Sinclair Spectrum 48. Later he progressed to an Atari 520 FM before leaping into the wonderful world of PCs.

That's when he started to struggle. With a Spectrum or an Atari if he buggered up he simply rebooted and all was well again. With a PC it's slightly different and within a week or two he would have turned the PC off - mid application - that often, that a software rebuild would be the only solution.

So last week I went round to download the patch for the latest virus and to update his anti virus software. I turn his PC on and, what seemed like a year later, after five or six programs fired themselves up for no other reason than they were all in my Dad's start up directory, we were presented with his desktop. God Almighty does it really only take a couple of weeks to completely screw everything up so completely?

Still, only an hour and everything's up, sorted and running. So now he can bugger up safe from the latest infections.

I love him so.

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So back home and listening to Chelsea kiss goodbye to EuroSilverware, there's a knock at the front door. Dearest answers it and it turns out to be Youngest and his Darlin'.

They had been 'drivin' past' and had decided to call in. We chatted for a while and then, out of the blue, Youngest says something along the lines of:-

"Anyway, the reason we called is to let you know that you're probably about to become Grandparents".

Tests have proved positive but the final 'yes you're pregnant' hasn't been uttered by a man or woman in a white coat yet, so I guess there's still a possibility that it's a false alarm.

I started to cry. Tears of happiness for these two wonderful people and their future, mingled with tears for my father.

So, two little things growing inside. Both waiting for the judgment of the Medical profession and both with the potential to change our futures forever.