Yeah, it wasn't so much that I thought his dad "needed" to eat as much as I just thought it was representative of how bad his dad was that it wasn't even a question (along with drinking, as well). (And I know the whole thing is from the boy's POV, but one thing I wanted to know was if/when his dad knew this was going to kill him. I mean, obviously he knew it was bad, very bad, but I just wondered if he ever really knew what was happening to him. :-( )

Yeah, there are just so many ways that things can "sneak" up on you and endanger you if you don't know a whole lot more than most people even begin to think of when they're out in "nature" like that. And yeah, phones aren't going to help if they have no signal to connect to! :-P We rely on them far more than we ought to in some instances!