Lice, electricity, and death

Everybody's hair came up lice-free tonight, after days of steadily declining numbers. So that's good.

We had a friend out to the house today who knows about electric stuff, to look at the wiring. He determined that the problem isn't with the wiring inside the house -- which means the public utility has to come and fix the problem at its expense, not ours. I called their customer service line today, explained the situation, and noted that we've called several times over the years over concerns about a loose connection that was causing our electric power to flicker. Hopefully we'll get more satisfaction this time. So that's good too.

On the downside, we learned today that Natasha's mother is in the hospital with a broken vertebra. The oncologist found that her lung cancer has metastasized into her bone tissue. That's not so good. Pretty lousy Mother's Day announcement, actually.

My brother-in-law, Kevin, is flying out to Arizona some time soon to see her, particularly if they do surgery to remove the tumor. My brother has enough frequent flyer miles to get Natasha a free ticket to Arizona as well, so we are discussing when best to use it.

To be honest, I'd rather be stuck with the electrician's bill, but it doesn't work that way.