I am on vacation with my family. We drove from California to Mississippi to visit my wife’s dad’s side. Maybe you met us along the road. My daughter likes to talk to people and tell them where we’re going. We spent 7 days in the car together (including the dogs). I. Am. Exhausted.

We are again staying at the place that has no cell service or internet. I am looking forward to relaxing quietly. However, since we have 2 unruly dogs, we can’t just let them out. The 2 Great Pyrenees that reside on the nearby farm and guard the sheep, sometimes come over to the cabin here when they hear car noises. I just know that our dogs will bark when they see them. I would love to just let them out to run around, but we don’t trust them enough and need better training. We didn’t want to leave them at a facility for a month, either. This is a stressor for me that I don’t know how I’m going to get over.

After starting off on our trip, I found out that my mom is very ill. She fell in the bathroom and couldn’t get up. She later was unresponsive to questions, so they admitted her to the hospital. The last I heard is that she has a virus, but I don’t know if that has led to meningitis or what. I’m pretty helpless on this front. There is nothing I could do to help if I were to fly home by myself. My sister was going to be with my dad yesterday. I need to make sure I can get a hold of him today to make sure he’s doing alright. The doctors kept him really late at the hospital asking him questions that first night, and he said he didn’t get to bed until 3:30am. He’s 86 years old. I can’t believe that they didn’t think to let him go home and talk to him the next day. So he’s been overly tired the last few days. I’m hoping he can get some sleep.