Missing my friends.

The past six months have really brought out memories both good and bad. Starting in the fall, I lost a good friend and ex-brother-in-law to diabetes and general neglect to his personal health. Then, late in he year, I lost a sister to Alzheimer's, which is a terrible way to go because of the stress and strain it places on family and patient alike. Recently, I lost another ex-brother-in-law and good friend to years of neglecting his own health and denial. This last week we lost another friend, the mother of our daughter-in-law to emphysema and COPD. Now, admittedly, some of these people were older than we are by quite a bit, but the fact is, in all but one instance, we lost them due to the denial that their personal habits were killing them and it got me to thinking that we humans are really not all that bright. I mean, we know that what we are doing is going to kill us, and yet we think we it only affects others. Duh! We have one more relative in late stage Alzheimer's and, unfortunately, no one has found an effective treatment or cure for that. I can only hope and pray that this is not setting a pattern for the rest of the year.

Winter in Michiana

I just looked out my window and noticed that there is a snowplow working at the corner and it is snowing so hard that I would never have seen him were it not for his brake lights flashing at times. We have at least twenty five or thirty inches of snow and it shows no sign of stopping. Where my wife cleared a spot for the dog, it has gotten deep enough that the dog won't venture away from the house. I imagine it is about five inches deep and it has only been a few hours since she shoveled it. our snow plow operator won't even venture out to plow us out. It's a good thing we anticipated problems and as I write this, there is a corned beef brisket in the slow cooker. Yummy. I am so glad we are retired as it minimizes the problems the rest of the world faces with this weather. Although Carol does have to baby sit on Monday. the baby comes here.so it's no until Tuesday that we actually do have to venture out. So, I'm attempting to do some writing so far without success. I really do need to be with other writers more but life just hasn't allowed that for quite some time. Oh well, back to the grindstone.

Failure to communicate

I am amazed every day by the way one's health impacts their everyday capabilities. For example, when sinus infection hit late last fall, I found that I lost my ability to focus. I could stare at the computer screenj for hours and not accomplish a single thing and what I did manage to write was absolutely terrible. To this date, I have not written a single thing worth talking about. Now, I'm wondering if I ever will again, since the spinal stenosis is gaining ground on me. Is it just the constant pain that does this to me? I could better understand this if I was taking the type of medication one would associate my problem with, but I'm not. I avoid pain medication since it impacts the effectiveness of other medications I am taking, none of which would explain it.

I have made a comittment to myself to do some writing every day, even if it is less than stellar in quality, in an effort to force mjy mind back into the writing mode. I'm doing some extra reading as well in the hope that this will trigger the writing instinct, so wish me luck.

The changing of the calendar

Well, I'm certainly ready to say good bye to 2010. It's been less than a stellar year, to be sure. I'm hoping that 2011 will see me making a connection with a new co-author that doesn't insist on everything being in their voice, and getting invigorated enough to get one of the books done. The last two months have seen my motivation disappear entirely and my muses leave for some unknown location with no forwarding address. I need a trip to Boyd's Mills to get me straightened out, but it would appear that there is no chance of that happening any more and that realization, if not acceptance, is a lot of what took me down. The combination of the expense and my deteriorating physical condition took that out of the realm of possibility.
2010 saw the loss of one of my sisters, who suffered through years of Alzheimer's. One day soon, they will find a treatment, and hopefully a cure, for this terrible disease that cruelly takes our loved ones from us slowly and painfully. It is such a destructive disease that just tears families apart and all we can do is to put them in a nursing home and watch as they slowly lose all of their senses. Visiting an Alzheimer's patient is incredibly painful but something that more people should do. Unfortunately, too many just can't or won't do it and I'm just as guilty as anyone. In the three years of her stay there, I only visited a dozen times or so. At least she is at rest now but I will miss her smile.

Holiday happiness

I had hoped to be back on here regularly but life got in the way so I'll try to do regular postings after the Christmas weekend. I hope everyone that reads this has a safe and happy Holiday and is ready to rock and roll on Monday. There is some hope that I can get back to some re-write activity by that time. It will depend on the situation with my sister who is on the last part of life's journey thanks to a long bout with Altzheimer's. I can only pray that she does not suffer and that God realizes that he's getting one of his best angels. See you next week.

My dilemma

Has anyone seen my muses lately? I have a feeling they gave up on me and went elsewhere and that is why I can't write. Maybe if I leave a bottle of booze under the tree for them, they'll come back. they are a bit fond of the stuff. I received a letter from Highlights foundation about the new conference center being built at Boyd's Mills and am really impressed. It will be interesting to see what they use it for but of course, I'll probably never get back there again. Oh well.
Is everyone ready for the Holidays? For me, it's all about family and sharing. Now, if the weather man will just cooperate. It would be really crappy if we couldn't get together at least once.
I miss my critique partners but that was an impossible situation and totally unfair to them. The on-line group fell apart before it ever got off the ground and I haven't tried any others yet. Not much point in it if the force is not with me. Well, it's off to make the kiefles again so stay warm,take care and God bless you all.

He's back

Well, after a long absence, I'm back . The format will change a bit as writing has not been my focus for a while and won't be until I can focus again. Just can't get into character on these meds. I can tell already that this winter is going to be harder to handle and it would be nice to be able to get away from it but that's out of the question so I'll just hunker down and do the best I can. I at least managed to get some editing done today and I'll do some more tomorrow while the wife is making
kiefles with the daughter. I'm only good for taste testing but damn, I'm good at that. So far the new car is performing well. I"m averaging 23.8 in the city, which is where we do most of our driving these days. That's about 7 mpg better than I was getting on the van we traded in. I still have not been able to make my scanner work with Windows 7, even with the new driver I downloaded. I guess I'll have to prevail on our tech minded son to figure it out and maybe at the same time he can find out why the printer doesn't work on the network, even though the status says it does. Our days are made better by the love of the newest grand daughter, who I am trying not to spoil...yeah right. Only a few more weeks before the new one is due and I'll be forced to spoil her too. Oh the stress and strain of being a grand father. We won't see her as much though, due to the distance and both parents working. That will make a total of 21 grand kids between the two of us, some of whom are step kids but who cares, and 9 great grand kids. There aren't very many of them local any more and the grand kids, for the most part are grown and living wherever. One in Washington state, some in Oklahoma, some in Ohio, some in Grand Rapids. We'll never have them all together at one time, unfortunately. So anyway, I'll be posting again and we'll take it one day at a time. God bless everyone and keep you safe and healthy.