Still sick

Yup, I'm still sick. That doesn't mean I got out of hospital duty, though. My mom's uncle had double knee replacement surgery on Monday and I have been anointed the "one who shall do everything and anything related to his surgery." Duties include going to every pre-op doctor's appointment with him, filling out his medical forms, driving my aunt to and from the hospital (IN MANHATTAN) every day, speaking with the nursing staff and physical therapists to make sure he's comfortable, and choosing a rehabilitation facility for after he gets out of the petri dish hospital. After he gets home, I'm sure some other duties will be added: doing his bills, perhaps collecting rent from his tenants, maybe even attending his granddaughter's school play. You know, because that's what family does for each other.

What was that? You say you wouldn't do all that for anyone but your mom? Yeah well.... that's how we roll in this family. You bite your tongue and do favors in hopes that someday, when you're laid up in a hospital bed getting pumped full of morphine, someone will come in and say, "Relax. I took care of everything. You just worry about getting better."

On a "this day couldn't get any better" note, last night as I pulled up in front of my aunt's house after 7 hours in the hospital, we were greeted with this lovely scene of 20 twenty firetrucks, ambulances, police cars and nosy neighbors:


I had no idea what was going on at first, but I heard helicopters. And any New Yorker knows that when you see News Chopper 7 floating around above your head, whatever's going on must be BIG. Then I noticed the smoke:


Turns out some dumb-dumb was replacing a boiler in his basement and it exploded, causing the whole building to go up in flames. After being stranded at my aunt's house for 2 hours (ok, so we ate Chinese food and watched TV, we weren't exactly stranded) I walked out and saw that the FDNY had left the local residents a little present:


An open fire hydrant. That flooded the street. In 20-degree weather. SMART!

I'm off to the hospital now. Feel free to leave me lots of comments so I have something to do in between being told what demands to make of the nursing staff!