Weeknotes 25:25

Posted 3 days ago

Week of June 15–21

My mother-in-law, who has lived with us and we have cared for the past 6 years, had a major stroke on Tuesday morning. My wife was with her when it happened and we quickly called 9-1-1. Because we acted quickly, we gave her the best chance we could to survive. But despite our best efforts, it became clear at the end of the week that the stroke did too much damage. Late on Friday, we pivoted from trying to help her recover to making her comfortable for her last days, which we are expecting to be sometime in the next week.

We are grateful that we got a golden moment on Friday. We had brought our kids to the hospital to say their goodbyes. She had about an hour of consciousness. She understood what we were saying and was able to say short things to communicate. It was a special moment for our kids and for us. We have no regrets and nothing left unsaid.

My faith gave me a great deal of comfort as we walked through the week. We experienced peace as we shifted direction in order to follow my mother-in-law’s wishes. We are so grateful for the fact that she made all of that very clear ahead of time. We are also grateful for the many people who have supported us in big and small ways over the past week.

  • I took a roadtrip with my son on Sunday. We gave his friend a ride to the bus station in Nashville so that she could travel to her next destination. After dropping her off, we met up with my daughter and spent some time with her before traveling back to Chattanooga. It was nice to see my oldest for Father’s Day.
  • I worked on a variety of tasks on Monday. I also watched Ahmad Shadeed’s talk from CSS Day. I share more thoughts on that below.
  • I had several meetings on Tuesday morning and was in the middle of one when my wife called me for help.

Articles I read

What I watched

Photo from CSS Day

I watched Ahmad Shadeed’s Smart Layouts talk from CSS Day. I appreciate how he is trying to stretch the use of CSS to its full potential. I have seen him do this through his interactive tutorials on his site. I love that he is challenging us to a more intrinsic approach and not letting the tools (Figma) limit us. I do think his approach is very similar to Jen Simmons idea of intrinsic layouts. I am not quite sure why that has not caught on more.

Signs of the Times (Vimeo) – I loved watching and learning about the Chicago style of sign design. This was part of the Field Notes article I mentioned above. Very inspiring.

  • Wild Robot (Netflix) – I loved it.
  • Howl’s Moving Castle (DVD) – I was not keen on watching this because I am not necessarily a big fan of Studio Ghibli. But I was wrong and really enjoyed it.
  • Game 5 of NBA Finals (ABC)
  • Game 6 of NBA Finals (ABC) – Our family is rooting for the Pacers and enjoyed seeing them push a game 7.
  • NCIS (Netflix)

Books I am reading

What I listened to

CSS features I wished we had right now (Kevin Powell) – I listened to this 30 minutes episode while walking on Monday night.

Walking

  • Monday – 3.58 miles in 1 hour 5 minutes
  • Saturday – 4.7 in 1 hour 26 minutes

What I played

MLB The Show 20 (Twins) – I went 2-1 in the games I played this week.

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