Just a personal note today. I got an email from my uncle (mom's brother) letting me know that my Grandpa Luther (mom's dad) died on Tuesday night. He had been living in a nursing home near Fresno for about six years ever since he first started showing signs of senility, and contracted pneumonia about two weeks ago and died of congestive heart failure at the ripe old age of 92.

He was born in 1911 and was an introvert with an amazing talent for reverse-engineering electronics. He built the family's first TV in the garage in something like 1945, years before most people had one. My grandma and he divorced long before I was born and she remarried (my other grandfather Jim is still living as is my grandma) while my Grandpa Luther lived out the rest of his life alone and very much to himself. He had an amazing wit and even when I went to visit him just before I left for Japan, he was doing his best to make smart-ass comments in between sloppy bites of his hospital dinner. I gave him many hugs before I left knowing on some level it would be the last time I would see him.

My tiny family just shrunk a bit more and that saddens me a lot. It also hurts to lose another part of my mom. I will not be able to come home for the service... it just doesn't make a lot of sense and I feel sad and guilty about that. October 7 would also have been my dad's 64th birthday, but he never would have admitted it. :)

I leave for Bangkok today, at long last. I will allow about four hours to get to the airport this time.