JZ, you are mostly heart, and very dear. Death and dying are part of living, we're taught, but there are no lessons in how to do it, or how to help ones we love, or even those we merely know and are our professional charges, do it. I don't believe words exist to describe the air in such a room as you're describing. Breathing it for an hour is shattering, doing it for a day in support of someone else is something almost numbing--but just below that is the quivering nerve awareness that this is universal, that everyone breathing comes to this. And sometimes, being witness to it is the only aid we can offer.

Pithed is surely an accurate term. You need someone to pull a soft blanket around you and ply you with tea and quiet music, and possibly gentle, distracting conversation. Life seeps back into those spaces that have been leached of it by the experience. Be gentle with yourself in the transition.

So hard, JZ. Dang.

Rationally, I know that if I get more sleep, my cravings for bad things are greatly reduced and therefore the best thing I can do for me health is sleep more.

Getting a 5:50AM shuttle would make that nigh impossible for me. Ew.

I'm supposed to do my benefits by tomorrow. Got billions of emails. So of course, the website is down now.

I'm so sorry, JZ

I had other things I was going to respond to, but they can wait

But I should respond to the other things before I forget. What was it about again? Oh yes, spiders!

Then there are the cellar spiders: [link]. Those are the ones we mean here in Australia, and the ones that eat redbacks.

Those are the ones I call daddy long legs and that I decided were friendly, as spiders go, when I was a little girl. We also have those crane flies in our house, only we don't call them crane flies or daddy long legs, we call them mosquito eaters, mostly I think to reassure ourselves that they aren't hugenormous mosquitos.

Where did you see the thing with the guy tracking his food? Was it a new thing, or from before?

The daytime doctor was very forthright about Hubby's expectations. The nighttime doctor waffled. I very much appreciated Daytime Doctor, I needed simple yes/no answers. Could the failing organs be saved? No. Could he get transplants? Very, very unlikely. It was hard, but simple after that.

Never mind, found the article:

[link]

Those are the ones I call daddy long legs and that I decided were friendly, as spiders go, when I was a little girl.

I am unquestionably skewing Ryan's knowledge base, but he too thinks of daddy long-legs as "the friendly spiders", because of their habit of eating more dangerous spiders. (Still and so, I don't fancy their chances against a funnelweb.)

Learning which animals are dangerous must be really easy in Australia. Just memorize the list of safe animals, sheep, and you know the rest are trying to kill you.

Gud needs a Like button.

Though sheep can be mean.

Edit: "Australia: Yes, it's trying to kill you."