One of our standard holiday activities is a ridiculously complex and near-impossible jigsaw puzzle. It lasts for days – weeks, even – and gives everybody a little diversion. For Thanksgiving, the puzzle was a watercolor drawing of Shakespeare Books in Paris. Colorful. Fun. Aggravating. As always, we would get to the point where we joked […]
Continue reading →
So here’s the thing. I’ve been kinda quiet lately, trying to get myself back into the groove of living outside the hospital. Steady progress but not yet convalesced to the extent I’d like. Baby steps. Part of this has been the suspense. Did the three-quarters of a million bucks worth of hi-tech medical treatment work? […]
Continue reading →
A tad before noon on a perfect day. Cool, a bit of a breeze, bright blue skies. Fate hangs in the balance. Sometime today we will hear whether or not our house passes air quality inspection. Samples are in the lab. We are on pins and needles. All work to remediate the unpleasantness is complete, […]
Continue reading →
(Pictured: “Not Everything Will Be Okay But Some Things Will” by the artist aka Stanwyck) First things first: My one month old immune system seems to be humming along just fine, thanks. Blood counts are all close enough to normal to be considered normal. Once again I am free to shake hands and go about […]
Continue reading →
If you arrived here from my article in today’s Bitter Southerner….. Welcome! Come on in. If you are new here, this is my home base for rambling, witterings, rants, laments, and other such. Lately things have been focused on my stem cell transplant, because what could possibly be more captivating than details about, well, me? […]
Continue reading →
We have arrived at the Great Decline, the leading edge of the Great Divide, beyond which is the Great Resurrection where Robo v2.0 either hums like a fine Swiss watch or reminds everybody of Windows Vista. I am effectively stripped of my immune system at this point. The technical term is neutropenia. For the med […]
Continue reading →
After six days of preparatory chemotherapy, I arrive at Day Zero. Today marks the system upgrade to Robo 2.0, download to commence shortly. It’s my New Birthday. There are five bags of stem cells, harvested week before last from my own recalcitrant and glitchy old OS, now thawing in an Igor-esque laboratory down the hall. […]
Continue reading →
I’m enjoying a week between before and after, lots of dog time, music, reading, and writing. Aside from discovering that the dogs pulled apart some of the ductwork under the house1WTF, it’s only money., it has been a lovely way to spend time before I surrender to the cruel intentions of a cabal of mad […]
Continue reading →
I’m nearly done with my second read through of Alan Moore’s epic 2018 novel Jerusalem. At 1262 pages, reading this book once is quite the commitment. Reading it a second time (while also listening to the audio version, brilliantly delivered by Simon Vance) is most likely a sign of some sort of obsessive disorder. And […]
Continue reading →
Muddy sez it’s gonna be alright. When last we met, an unexpected recurrence of lymphoma in my neck derailed plans for a stem cell transplant, which is really the only viable option I have for any kind of long term remission. No sure thing, to be sure, but in this situation you gotta grab the […]
Continue reading →
Follow