Two weeks ago was my Uncle Tommy’s birthday. He had just come home from the hospital and moved into the assisted living facility instead of my parents house where he had been living the previous four years. His dialysis treatments and mobility limitations had just gotten to the point where my two 60+ year old parents could not keep up. He wasn’t happy about the transition and let people know in his wonderfully sarcastic way. But he was also a realist, he knew this was the way it had to be.
I heard about all of this from my parents or brother as I lived out of town. Tommy didn’t like the “home”, he was cranky, he hated the treatments and PT but all in all he seemed o.k. We made plans as a family to come together and celebrate his birthday today and moved on with life.
But in the last week his health got radically worse. He had another infection they could not find, he went back in for another surgery and had a heart attack while on the table. He made it out of surgery minus some lower intestine and was moved to ICU where he was alive but not much more. My dad called us and we made plans to head up and see him immediately but her said to wait. Tommy wasn’t going to get worse and he wasn’t going to know if we were there, being sedated like he was. Plans for today’s visit stayed solid. Then last Wednesday dad called again, Tommy was in decline and in one of his lucid moments had admitted that he was just tired of fighting. His body had been ravaged by a life of poor decisions and despite trying to clean up and live right while he had stayed with my folks, his mortal shell was failing him. Tommy lapsed back into a morphine induced sleep and the doctors advised that if we removed him from the machines he would be dead within a few hours. There was a long painful discussion where we decided to honor my uncle’s request to take him off the machines if he was not going to recover and we planned to meet on Sat. morning to decide.
Friday night my father called to tell us he had just left Tommy’s bedside and he was the worst he’d ever seen him. He was hooked to every machine in the room, he was breathing through a tube, having his blood recirculated, and just laid there as pale as the sheets, eyes rolled up into his head and hands shaking.
“We are going to disconnect him when you get here tomorrow. The doctors say he’s done, he looks done, I want to do what he asked.”
So we made the drive, gathered as a family, and went to the hospital to say goodbye and try to do right by Uncle Tommy. Only two people are allowed in ICU to visit at a time so my parents went in to see him first. 15 minutes later my father returned to the waiting room looking like he’d seen a ghost.
Oh shit, I thought. He died last night and no one called us…
“Dad, you alright?”
“Yeah, you and Genie can go in next”
“What’s up?”
“It’s Tommy, he looks great”
“What!?”
“Compared to yesterday, he looks amazing, we can’t do this, not with him like that. He’s all there.”
So Genie and I went in and there he was. He recognized us from across the room, waved, smiled his shit-eating grin and we had a 15 minute conversation about everything from the baby to where we were traveling next week on business and Dad was right, he was all there. Do not misunderstand, he still looked haggard, his hands still shook, and he was still a little pale but there was the old glint in his eye that he knew something you didn’t. He started to get tired and we said good bye, he thanked us for visiting and rested his head back as we left.
As we all gathered back in the waiting room with the Dr. we wondered the same question; well now what do we do. The Dr. noted that he was still not in good shape, not at all, but he was a hell of a lot better than the day before. The first and best smart ass I ever knew had pulled one over on us again.
So we are going to stay and visit a few more times, hope that tomorrow is better than today, and maybe the day after is even better. Like Genie said; “maybe at Christmas we will be laughing with Tommy about that day back in July when we all thought he was gonna die.”

Wow, just wow. The trailer for the new DC online game is kick ass.

Want proof that the Star Wars universe can still be dynamic, kick ass canvas? Check out the newest video from Bioware for the upcoming Old Republic MMO. It does more in 3 minutes than Lucas did in the three prequels.

I also include the first trailer as it kicks a lot of ass as well. (video quality is not as good though)

I just wish Lucas Arts would let Bioware do an entire movie.

Did your feet get cold last night around 9:45? Fear not the world isn’t ending, the apocalypse is not upon us. That would just be hell freezing over as the Flyers finished off the Montreal Canadians and advanced to the Stanley cup finals for the first time since 1997. I would like to say I’m stunned but after their comeback last round but I’m not. I’m happy, I’m relieved, I’m proud but I’m not surprised. This team has far exceeded any sort of success that we fans have a right to expect. Don’t get me wrong, do I hope they win the Stanley Cup? Hell yes, will I be heart broken if they don’t? absolutely not.
On that note they really have their work cut out for them against the Chicago Blackhawks. The Hawks finished 3 in the NHL overall and have smashed their way through the playoffs so far. Are they a better team that the Flyers? Maybe. Are all of the pundits picking them? Definitely. Are they gonna win? I would not bet on that at all. Let’s review:
First of all, we heard that the Flyers couldn’t beat the second seeded Devils with Kovalchuk and Brodeur. We knocked them out in 5.
Against the Bruins, down 3 games to none, we were done for. Except we weren’t and four straight wins later we pulled off the biggest comeback in sports history.
Then came the “team of destiny”, the Canadians, and their “unbeatable” goalie. We sent ‘em packing in 5 games.
So yeah, the Blackhawks are probably the better team and they have the experts behind them but I’ll keep on pulling for the Orange and Black and we’ll see where this run ends.
Whether it’s a cup win or no they are my team and as always…Go Flyers!!

I leave you with a video of pure Philly joy. The last few minutes of the game, including the empty netter to clinch it, as seen from the stands.

I should have posted this earlier as they are now 2 games into the third round. In the previous series down 3-0 the Flyers battled back to force a game 7. Down 3 goals to nothing in that game they came through to win 4-3. A 3 games to none comeback has only been accomplished 2 times before in the history of the NHL. It has never been done in an opposing teams rink and down by 3 goals. The 2010 Flyers literally pulled off the biggest comeback in hockey history. It was a great night to be a fan of the Orange and Black. They are up 2 games to 0 in the conference finals and will hopefully keep going. Roll, Flyers, roll.