Be Excellent To Each Other

Heavy shit, man, I'm sorry to hear all of that. I watched some of the video and it sounds traumatic.

Really sorry to hear that Hearthly. Deepest sympathies.

Sorry, mate.

Sorry to hear that bud. Losing a parent is never easy

I'm so sorry to hear that.

So sorry to read this, Hearthly.

Sorry to hear this. It's horrible losing a parent.

My condolences, Hearthly

Very sorry for your loss. Remember him well x

I'm very sorry to hear that Hearthly. My thoughts and sympathies to you and your family.

Thanks for the thoughts folks, it's been a pretty horrible time and we haven't even had the funeral yet. (That's on the 24th.) Making the video was actually quite a useful and cathartic process, even if the story isn't finished yet.

The death was unexpected, and my dad didn't have a will, so that's added a whole new wall of bureaucracy to everything. Plus the police smashed his kitchen wall to bits when they were forcing entry on a welfare visit (concerned neighbour) after screwing up the hospital check and not actually checking the hospital my dad was in. That's left us with £7500 of damage to his property to get sorted. (When you go through a high security door with a triple-point locking mechanism that in the building trade is known as a 'wall buster', turns out there's a good chance you'll take the wall out.)

I have been making sure I tell Mrs Hearthly that I love her every single day, because I have been made acutely aware that tomorrow is not guaranteed.

At least I got back to the UK to see my dad whilst he was still conscious and able to speak to us, twelve hours later he was in a medically induced coma that he never came out of.

I hope making the video was good therapy for you man. You have a very lively and engaging style when you're off the cuff. You should do a podcast.

It was my dad's funeral on the 24th May, I made a video for that as well.

PRO HEARTHLY TIP - If you are ever a pallbearer, please note that coffins are very heavy, even with six of you carrying it.

Amen to that. I've done it three times now and it's never been easy

I was a pallbearer at my brother's weird funeral and although it was only for a short time it was really hard despite there basically being nothing left to him when he died and me being strong AF. Coffins must weigh a fuck load.

Had some blood taken at the hospital the other day. It didn’t go well.

Nasty. This happened to me a couple of times when my GP was doing follow up tests after my surgery last year, but at least there wasn't usually any discomfort.

14 months after my cocking (ex) employer dispensed with my services they've still failed to collect some of their property, including a really shitty mobile phone, a Samsung Tablet and a very nice Dell laptop. I mailed my old team manager about this last November and she said she'd come to collect it before Christmas, but failed to do so, which I could have predicted as she was about as competent as Boris Johnson.

I have no reason to use the phone, I can use the Samsung Tab if I want to, but I can't log on to the laptop as they must have disabled my account. Can't even log in as a guest user.

Can you wipe it?

I don’t usually bruise at all, but it’s usually the practice nurse at the surgery that does mine rather than the hospital, and this was the phlebotomy dept!

A couple of mo the ago one of my veins collapsed when I was having blood drawn and that was horrible as it made an audible hissing noise.

I don't know, but I'm tempted to try.

I've tried a number of things, but am getting nowhere. I tried Dell's Operating System Recovery Image but it needs a me to log in to the Microsoft account for the machine and also to enter the Bitlocker recovery key, which I don't know and apparently can't find unless I log into Windows, so I guess I'm screwed.

Replace the hard drive?

Yes, I guess that's the only option I have left.

Linux boot image on a USB and wipe it from there? or can you not get into the bios to set it to boot from usb?

I'll look into this. Thanks.

Done.

I'm actually writing this entry from my 'work' laptop, having obliterated Windows and installed Linux.

Sod's Law says my old boss will mail me tomorrow to say she wants to collect the machine

All I have to do now is work out what to do next.

I'd really like to install iTunes so I can work with my old iPod, and copy my more of my music library on to my phone. I saw that I could use Wine to run Windows apps. But then I saw a number of reviews of Wine that said it didn't work, crashed people's machines, etc. so I may have to have a rethink about that as well.

Now you have wiped it, you should be able to install windows back onto again with no issues.

If only it was that easy..

I downloaded the iso for Windows 10, but it won't install over an Ubuntu formatting so somehow I have to wipe and/or reformat the drive as NTFS.

That was easier than expected, once I'd found out how to delete all partitions with Gparted. Win 10 is now installed and iTunes installed, which will speed up getting all my music on to my phone.

Nah you're mistaken mate, that was collected last year?!

Hey man bit belated. I don't log in here very often now. Mostly because I forget.

Sorry to hear you lost your dad. I lost "mine" recently.

I say "mine" but mine died when I was 7. Since then my uncle who was married to my mum's twin was my father. Took us everywhere as kids, taught us how to DIY, took us on holiday and so on. He got cancer of the bladder a few years ago but managed to beat it. It then came back again in a tiny bit but again, managed to beat it. He was never the same though. Didn't want to go out much after that and you can tell that his confidence had taken a severe whack. It returned last year, and sadly he lost his fight early this year. We did get to spend one last Christmas with him though, which was ace, and I don't hate cancer as much as I used to now either. Maybe it is for selfish reasons, but at least it gives you time. Like, my dad went out to play football one Sunday and I never saw him again. No chance to prepare, no chance to say what you want to say and no time. This time I made sure to say what I had to say. To tell him how much I loved him and basically say goodbye. He even managed some last words, given he was out of his face on morphine. By that time he had been screaming in agony so they put him on the syringe driver. But he did manage to get it out. "Look after your mother for me....".

Which was a stark difference to kissing my dad on a Sunday morning and telling him "Seeya later !" and then never seeing him alive again.