I should clarify another detail. Part of the reason we’re visiting my parents is because I’m not expecting him to be around much longer. I know my dad is going to die soon. He’s got type 2 diabetes, fibrosis of the lungs, and congestive heart failure. He was just taken into the hospital this past week because he collapsed at a doctor’s appointment, and he had just been released a couple days before we visited.

I’m having this heated argument with him, temporarily oblivious to the fact that he could have a stroke right there. Both my wife and my mom are trying to get the argument to stop because they realize it, but they are both also still arguing quietly along.

It would be funny if it wasn’t so damn tragic.

I have a brother and sister who both live close to our parents, and neither of them visited during or after his hospital stay.

Yesterday my wife suggested that we shouldn’t visit until after the election, but I can’t do that because I’m not sure he’ll live that long.