The uncle is in an ICU unit with a new heart. The operation was a mere five hours long, then wheeled to a room where they began exercising his lower body to get the new heart pumping. Twelve hours after the end of the operation, he was sitting up in the bed so they could check the sutures and look for leaks etc. For those of you who don't understand how amazing and full of wonders the world you live in can be, read that again. I wrote a long post about the parents' visit, saved a draft, came back and finished it only to lose it in my first computer crash in 3-4 years. I'll redo and post, eventually. Finally, life sucks for most of us. Sometimes in big ways, mostly in the little ways that we make into big piles of stupid. It gets better.