Guest blogger today ... I got to see my dad, today, for the first time in several weeks. He was in speech therapy when I got there and doing some homework. The therapist had a page that had rows of words; he had to read each row and identify which word didn't belong. His voice was just louder than a whisper. But, I was impressed at how fast he was able to spot what didn't belong - and, not all of them were simple. "Adriatic, Baltic, Mediterranean, Spanish and Atlantic." He didn't even hesitate to throw out, "Spanish, because the rest are all bodies of water and Spanish is a language." But, his voice gets tired pretty quickly and by the end of the night, he was more mouthing the words than saying them.

We went to occupational and physical therapy next - he stood for 8 minutes, albiet in a "standing machine." But, it was nice to look him in the eye, standing up. He had alot of fun, joking with the physical therapists. He's opening and closing his left hand, even able to grab things. Between the shoulder and wrist, though, he's not doing much.

We had lunch with the man that he accused of being Paw Paw - and, really, the man DOES look like Paw Paw - not identical. But, enough that I can understand how someone with a massive stroke and no glasses might have mistaken the identity. His name was Mr. Carter and he was pretty nice ... not as nice as PawPaw, though.

Harry visited later and my dad really enjoys those visits. Ralph and Karen came by, too ... they didn't bring Bubbles, though. My dad was asking about her.

Tomorrow, I'll be bringing him a DVD player, for real this time, and he asked if we can call Macy on the phone. He looks good. But, I was a bit surprised, though, at how apparent the stroke was. He's still got a lot of work to do.