The other shoe dropped yesterday when my mom called to tell me that my father was admitted to the hospital for emergency surgery.

It seems that his back problems have become more severe despite the surgeries he's already had, and exerting himself packing up their house in Connecticut exacerbated a problem he'd already had. Mom told me this morning that the surgery will be scheduled for either tonight or tomorrow.

Either way, it's a bit of an awkward situation because they got him to the hospital immediately after they closed on the house and signed all the papers -- Mom said he was lying on the carpet in the living room while the final arrangements were being made because he couldn't move. So the only house they have is the one I'm in right now, and they really don't have anywhere to live while my dad recovers. Hopefully, they'll find some kind of long-term rental for a month while he gets well enough to travel.

Here's the kick in the head, though: Dad won't be able to make the long cross-country drive out to Tucson. He'll probably have to fly. And Mom will probably have to go with him to take care of him once they arrive here. So, at this point in time, there's a decent chance that yours truly will be flying back out to Connecticut over the Thanksgiving weekend and ferrying their car and the last little bit of their stuff back to Arizona.

They don't have a frequent driver's miles program, do they? Across the country twice in a month and the third time this year by myself... Man, I've got to be insane to even be thinking about that kind of thing.