If you have been reading this blog since the beginning, you know that my brother (not my biological brother, but I'd known him since he was a kid, his older brother is my BIL), Shane, died on September 10.  If you haven't been keeping up since then, I'll give you the Reader's Digest version.  Shane had Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) & Primary Pulmonary Hypertension (PPH).  He had been on the transplant list for over two years for new lungs & a new heart.  He was finally at the top of the list.  He went back into the hospital & never came out.  He was septic.  It caused his already weak heart to fail.  They were able to bring him back, but it was too late.  There was no brain activity.  When all this came up, Shane & his brother discussed it & Shane did not want to live on support.  So, they took him off the vent.  He was 24.

Well, that was a super crappy week.  September 13 was my Mom's birthday as well as one of Shane & mine's nephew's birthday.  It also happened to be the day of the Sugar Shane Mosley - Oscar De La Hoya fight out here in Vegas.  By the way, that was a Saturday.  So, Sunday, I wake up after my 2 hours of sleep.  I was completely groggy & hadn't even had my first smoke yet.  My eyes were scratchy from crying myself to sleep.  I looked down at the morning paper & about passed out.  The headline read:

SHANE COMES BACK

For a minute I just stood there & blinked.  This is what I wanted.  More than anything I wanted him not to be gone & now he wasn't!  YAY!  He was back & the Las Vegas Review Journal said so.  Of course then I woke up.  Well, really woke up.  I know nothing about boxing.  But that picture under the headline should have been a dead give away.  Now I have a rule.  No looking at the paper until after a sufficient amount of caffeine has entered my system.  Of course now the paper is extra depressing.

Why bring this up now?  Because I was cleaning stuff up today & found the paper.  Its one I'll keep forever.  I was going to scan it & throw a picture up there, but I am entirely too lazy to hook the scanner up right now.  Maybe in the morning.

Word of the Day
interstitial - ntr-stshl - adjective
1.relating to or situated in the interstices
2.  a) situated within but not restricted to or characteristic of a particular organ or tissue -- used especially of fibrous tissue  b) affecting the interstitial tissues of an organ or part
3.  being or relating to a crystalline compound in which usually small atoms or ions of a nonmetal occupy holes between the larger metal atoms or ions in the crystal lattice