Update on my Dad

   It's 2:31 in the afternoon on a Monday and I'm supposed to be at the office working. I just can't get my head into it today. I thought I'd take a moment to share a few things with you who have been visiting the site recently.

 

I would usually just update the main post, but for some reason WLW keeps breaking my PayPal Code every time I try to change the original article. So, rather than post the update inside the original post, I'm writing this one instead.

 

I'd like to start by saying THANK YOU to those of you who have donated so far. Within 12 hours of the message going out on the Internet, your contributions exceeded 400 dollars. Early this morning I transferred $570.78 to my dad's account for bills, medical expenses, and all the other minute things it takes for him and the family to survive right now. Becky sent me an update on the Caring Bridge site; apparently I just didn't have the URL correct. If you want to visit my dad's page on Caring Bridge, you can visit it at http://caringbridge.org/visit/tommyjordan/.

 

Interestingly enough, Becky has taken to trying to create a more blog-like site on blogger too. Much like myself these last few days she is spending every free waking minute trying to find things to distract her from the realities surrounding her and my Dad. I'm doing the same thing here on my end; working on computers, editing my web sites, gaming, gardening. I've cleaned my office three times in three days and no one has even been there to mess it up. It's the need for a little mental distraction that drives us to do these things I guess. I'm surprised that I'm dry-eyed so far myself. I've done good today. I only broke down twice since this morning and I've been able to keep my wits about me for the most part. ( I had to come back to edit this part. I forgot to list the blog address. Becky's Blog is http://jordansfarm.blogspot.com

 

Before I forget, there's something I need to say. I've gotten a lot of emails, phone calls, and instant messages from friends, family, work associates, and complete strangers these last few days. I don't want ANY of you to think I'm ungrateful for your words, quite the opposite actually. I've tried to email most of you; Tom Harris, Chris Sutton, Angel, Mike, Tim, Solar, Shak, and others. I just can't see to type through the haze of tears usually, so I've had to stop. I don't mean that I want you to stop emailing me or praying for my family, or anything else. Just bear with me. It's going to take me a little time to get my head wrapped around it all and get to where I can talk about it. I've already hung-up on Becky once and almost didn't get through the phone call with Dad earlier today. We all appreciate the support you're showing, even if I can't email you back and thank you yet. I will. I promise.

 

To those of you who donated, I have to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. Becky called me crying and thanking all of you for what you've contributed to my Dad's family. I spoke to Dad a little bit today too. He also sends his sincerest thanks for your donations, your prayers, and your concern. He's in good spirits and relentless in his trust in God to do what He sees fit, but his health is failing. I can hear the tiredness in his voice when he talked to me earlier today.

 

I'm going to ask again that everyone who can, please pass the original link on to whomever you can who will listen.  In case you want it again, it's located here: My Dad Needs Help to Battle Cancer

 

On another note, I thought I'd share this with Dad, Becky, and whomever else wants to see it. One of the hobbies I've been distracting myself with this weekend is creating a Flickr account. I've been obsessively uploading pictures to Flickr all weekend. I think I'm currently at over 1,700 photos and I have about 15,000 to go before they're all online. It's completely inane, but it's keeping my head fogged enough to get my mind off everything else for awhile.

 

If you'd like to see the gallery, you can see it at:http://www.flickr.com/photos/tommyjordan/

I haven't gotten around to adding descriptions of hardly anything yet, but everything is sorted into Collections and Sets, so they're pretty easy to navigate.  Becky, if you get the time, take Dad through the site and let him see my photos from Africa. I never got to share those with him and I'd like him to share in my travels a little bit if he feels like it. I think he'd have been proud of what we did over there, even though most of the computer mumbo jumbo isn't up his alley.

 

If you're a friend of mine, you can search for yourself by name, Real name, not Nicknames. I've got LOTS of thousands of photos to go, so bear with me while I add them all and try to tag them accordingly. For example, if you search for "Tommy Jordan" you'll find a lot of me, interspersed with some dude with a lot of cats... whoever he is. Surprisingly, some of you have never been tagged online before, so I hope you don't mind. Of course, if you do just let me know and I'll take the photos down you don't like. (No, there's no obviously poor-taste ones up there. I've tried to use some discretion when uploading them, but mistakes do happen.)

 

I'm uploading folder by folder and as you can see, I'm only on A for Africa at this point, but the friends and family sets are getting pretty evenly filled out.

 

I've got to go now. Work is intruding on my lack of motivation, which is a good thing.

Technorati Tags: Tommy Jordan Jr.,Caring Bridge,Cancer,Help,Prayers,God,Support