It's Been a While...

So...I haven't actively written for this blog in a while. I have another blog (Sarcastic Thoughts on the Late Train) that sees more action, but this side is for my personal stuff.

Here's something big and personal:
My dad died on Tuesday, August 19, 2014.

He wasn't supposed to die, at least not in my opinion. Clearly, God had a different plan than the rest of us. It was completely sudden and unexpected. He wasn't sick. He was extremely healthy, in fact. When he turned 50, he started going to the doctor often. During one of his checkups, they found pre-cancerous cells that could have led to prostate cancer. Instead, he took aggressive action and beat the cancer before it could beat him. This last Christmas, he shared with the entire family that he was 100% clear of any cancer cells, and his doctor told him he was very healthy for a man his age.

So, then what the what?!? How does a healthy man, only 60 years old, just die? The electricity went out in his heart. It's that simple - cardiac arrest.  According to the American Heart Association, "Cardiac arrest is caused when the heart's electrical system malfunctions." It is not the same as a heart attack...he didn't have heart disease.

The medical professionals said he didn't suffer. Okay. Fine. But I still am having a very hard time understanding this.  I've used a private journal to write out the memories and the feelings, but now I am ready to announce to the blogging world that my dad died. And I am angry about it. I just don't get it. I'm not ready for my dad to gone. I wasn't finished with him.

I'm not ready to share all those other details about the visitation, seeing him for the first time, the funeral, or the other things that have happened since the moment I found out he died...maybe in time.

For now, the world just should know, James "Jim" Harvey Higham, age 60, died at home the afternoon of August 19, 2014. He is survived by his wife, his four children, three children-in-law, and five grandchildren, as well as two sisters, three brothers-in-law, one sister-in-law, two nieces, and one nephew. He is preceded in death by his parents and two grandchildren.

We all miss him greatly.

Omens

Not the evil kind. The kinda funny-when-you-think-about-it omens. I saw one of my least favorites this morning, so I decided to break down some of my list of omens:

1. Seeing a news chopper hovering right over your route to work. It inevitably means that if I left even a minute late I will be late to work. Luckily I left a couple of minutes early today, and I made it into work with a smile on my face.

2. Getting home to a dark house when you know you left a light on. Hopefully it's just a burned out light bulb. Likely the electricity is out. On Sunday, our house was the in the middle of a 7-block radius outage. We went to the movies for an unplanned date night. It was awesome.

3. Noticing that your vehicle is leaning to one side. Maybe you parked on a weird hill. Maybe the tire is low. Maybe it is completely flat. I made it 5 minutes from the office when my truck was at about a 30 degree angle left compared to the car in front of me. I pulled over, didn't panic, called my husband, called the tire store to let them know we'd be coming, then started lifting the truck with the jack so it would be ready for JR. It took several hours (since JR was a good two hours away in rush hour traffic, but he came because he loves me), but we got 4 new tires for the truck and had an impromptu dinner out at a local deli. Good times.

4. Hearing running water in an empty bathroom. Sure, somebody could have accidentally left the sink on. In my case, while someone took a shower upstairs the toilet downstairs was overflowing so much that it was pouring into the floor. Sigh. The plumbing problems we've experienced over the last 3 months have been AWESOME (sarcasm intended). We did finally get it taken care of (tree roots removed!), and we learned that being home owners is fun, exciting, scary, and expensive. We were able to laugh it off together, though.

There are many, many more "omens" like these...what are some of yours?