Death in the family

My sister called me earlier this morning. She was crying.

I was sitting at my office desk working on a concurrency defect filed by myself. I had found an interesting issue where I had attempted to be too clever in killing a specific thread and wasn't clever enough. When attempting to find solutions for problems, I often forget to go back to the basics. I consider myself somewhat bright on certain days and absent-minded and foolish on others. For some reason, maybe pride, or perhaps just curiosity, I try out new solutions to old problems. Sometimes they work. Most of the time they don't. I need to remember to go back to the basics. Simple is good.

She told me that my grandmother died earlier today at 6:30 in the morning. She had been suffering from pneumonia. She told me that she had gone to visit my grandmother in the hospital the previous day. There were tubes everywhere. She asked me if I was ok, so I responded, "Yeah." She then told me again. My grandmother was in a bad state.

"She looked to be in such a bad place. Is it better than she passed away?" She was looking for comfort.

I thought, "Maybe." I responded, "No." I asked her how she was feeling. I can't remember if I asked out of genuine concern or because that question would be expected from me.

I was concise with my responses, but my mind raced in a number of directions at once.

My ears are ringing.