My Grandpa, the fighter

My grandpa is a fighter. 

And leaving is always so hard. So emotionally difficult. 

I had the pleasure of spending a week with him this time, which I am eternally grateful. I would accompany him to his home or hospital where he would get dialysis for his kidney. I would bring him lunches on days off from dialysis and watch him eat, try to talk to him and watch him fall asleep. I hope he enjoyed my company as well. He would mostly cry when he saw me, and after a while, he would just be quiet and stare at my face.

He was never much of a talker, my grandpa. He never really told stories or how he felt like my grandma. My grandma is very transparent (which I appreciated) and my grandpa a bit more reserved. Moreso now, he doesn't talk. But he tells me he is happy to see me with his tears and his eyes. He doesn't have to say much to express that. I know that he wishes he wasn't in this condition and that he could come back home to LA with me, just to visit a while longer. 

Old age and getting old is terrible. I wish I could stop it. But the most I could do for my grandpa at this stage was just to hold his hand and be by his side. I hope he continues to fight and stay with us as long as possible.

(Grandpa eating lunch at his home)

(He loved the bagel I brought him. He loves bagels, especially onion bagels. I'm glad
he enjoyed it)

(On my way back to my aunt's house, I would pass the Hankyu train station. This trainline has so many
memories tied to me and my family. I love this burgundy color train.)

(Outside the terminal at Itami)

(ANA check in counter at Itami)

(I don't quite remember this airport but before KIX was built, this was the airport we used a lot. My dad
has fond memories of this place)

(Waiting area at Itami)

My Bachan's bento are the best. Like literally, all of her children (my mom and aunts) rave about it. Still to this day, they are adults but love having her make their lunches (bento). Likewise, my grandma's grandchildren (The Lady and my sister) love her bento too. She makes the BEST tamago yaki (sweet egg omelet) and I love her onigiri. This was a fantastic bento, my kind of bento. Tamagoyaki, onigiri, hanpen and Japanese sausages. My goodness, it was glorious. When we got to Haneda, we finally got a place to sit and a few minutes before we had to board, so we ate our really late dinner together.

The pros of traveling with an elderly woman is getting upgraded. We were upgraded to Economy Premium and were right in the front row seats. The leg room was fabulous, plus we got little cool things like slippers to walk around the airplane with. I love flying with ANA!! However, this seat did get slightly annoying because I had no where to put my feet again. It just like danged in the air (because I'm short), I wish I had an ottoman or something.

(My grammy, all set and ready to go! I can't believe how lucky I am to still be
able to travel with her!)

.........................And we're back in LA. Wow, big jump. The first few days are always such a culture shock to me. It always has been, ever since I was a child. Coming back is depressing and usually takes me a week or so to get back in the norm of things.

The Man made progress on the ceiling and rushed to finish this all up by the time I got home. The ceiling drywall was screwed in and the lights were installed. We're still missing the two surface mounts, but the recessed lighting is in. Ceiling looks great! Again, the Man has proven he can do anything! (and thank you to the Man and his mom for cleaning up the disgusting mess before I got home).

Caught In Two Worlds,
The Lady

New Year, New Challenges

Happy New Year!! 2015!!

First blog of the year.... here we go.

What a delightful way to start the new year! On January 2nd, our ceiling in the "brown" room aka our TV and temporary living room just fell down. Yes, out of nowhere. Well not exactly. There was a hairline crack around Christmas time which exponentially grew everyday but we tried to ignore it, hoping it would just hold. And it did not hold. In fact, the plaster ceiling came crumbling down on our sofa and rug. Good thing my little Punas were not hurt! So here's the damage:

(Exposed lath and missing plaster)

(The Man was right on it, the next day filling the hole with drywall)

(Drywall puzzle)

(Drywall puzzle with washers to hold down the existing plaster ceiling edges)

(The Man carefully cutting out drywall "puzzle" pieces)

(The next day, plastering begins....and the Lady is taping up the seams with fabric mesh tape, to keep the seams from
cracking as the Man claims. There is no way to put mesh tape up without getting dirty, it's a messy job!)

(just like that, here's my contribution: mesh tape on the seams between drywall and plaster. The Man swears by
this. Otherwise, you'll be sorry with cracks down the seams)

(Tape while the plaster mud is still wet, so it can adhere well)

(Me on the ladder looking out to our street)

Offffff course with any construction or renovation, you always hit a hiccup. Plastering on the old ceiling with a combo of the new drywall has backfired a tad on the man. We got some major bubbling and peeling from the old ceiling (not strong enough to hold the new plaster), so the Man had to remove the new plaster that he just plastered on and put big chunks of mesh up on the ceiling to hold the new plaster to the old ceiling. Yes, complicated, tedious hard work.

It set him back a few days and frustrated him as well. He said he's drywalling all of the ceilings from now on.Sounds good! Plus we got some rain this weekend, which dampened the environment, so we couldn't paint. He finished plastering and sanding/sponging the ceilings but we're just waiting for all of it to dry up to paint.

Patience. Live and learn. Two attributes we will probably come across again and again this year.

Working mode,
The Lady