What is normal, anyway?!

Normal...such a nice, bland sounding word. A word that implies that all is how it should be, even keeled and without need of change. But sometimes things change without your permission...and then you need to get a new normal. When my dad moved out? Total shift in what normal became. Dinner as a family became fend for yourself night on a regular basis (fend for yourself night was AWESOME. Eat whatever you wanted for dinner, whenever you decided you were hungry.) Going away to school senior year? Definite new normal needed (life with roommates, no control over most meals, enforced study hours...). Going away to college? Same thing. The biggest new normal for me has been my dad. About 5 years ago he was in a serious accident, leaving him in a drug induced coma for weeks, and leaving a whole bunch of scar tissue on his brain. The man my father is today is not the man he was even seconds before the accident. That's not to say that he's entirely different, but there are marked differences. He gets tired more easily, gets confused easily, and sometimes just isn't quite himself. The biggest change in normal for me is my mindset regarding him, though. It's taken me a while to come to terms with the realization that my soon to be husband and future children will not know the man I grew up with. They'll know Fred 2.0...and while that isn't necessarily a bad thing, I'll know the difference...but what's abnormal to me, will be perfectly normal to them...what is normal, anyway?!