On family communication - once, years ago, my mother was on vacation in St. Croix. I got a very upset call from my sister that she'd had a reaction to something (turned out to be the conch fritters), had gone to the hospital and they wouldn't let her leave. I was having visions of once she was released from the hospital having to take time off from work, fly down and escort her home. It later turned out that the doctor didn't want her to leave the ISLAND; while I was worrying she was lying on the beach enjoying the sun (and ever after avoiding conch fritters).

So apparently my mom was better at communicating than I realized. Some buffistas may even remember, we were at brunch at an F2F (Pasadena, I think?) and I stepped away to check a VM from my mom. First words she said were, "I'm okay, but..." (First time in however long, I took a long weekend away from San Diego and she had a fall. But she was okay...)

Timelies all!

Luckily, I haven't had any communication issues with my folks like the ones you've been describing. Not that communication with them is always easy, but those issues are either due to them both having hearing loss, or them forgetting that I am an adult who is perfectly aware what I need to do.

Hah, not leaving the island vs not leaving the hospital is indeed a big difference!

To be fair, sometimes the immediate situation is hard to understand. A friend just had a health crisis in her family, and was getting conflicting information from different people, but it sounds like the situation was just changing very quickly! So the person who said, "She may never recover" was giving the information they had at that moment, and so was the person who said, "She seems fine!"

(It sounds like she will be OK.)

Jesse, hope the "seems fine" people have it right!

Ran home at lunch and got there just as the plumbers were finishing up; I have an intact water line again! (So far the insurance company has covered everything, fingers crossed they continue as awesome as they seem!)

And I have finally started submitting resumes! Only 3 so far, but it's a start. Definitely send the ~ma for that, please and thank you!

Yay for water! Will keep the employment~ma flowing until further notice.

Intact is the best state for a water line!

Oh! I bought peaches today and was so leery prior to cutting into the first one. Perfection! Perfectly ripe and so sweet. There were 6 in the bag, two are already gone and I think I may have to rush back to the store tomorrow. really love your peaches wanna shake your tree

Goin' to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches...