WEEK OF June 16-23, 2025

It’s been since mid-April, just before Minicon, since I’ve done a general update. Originally, I was writing weekly reports for a couple friends who were into doing ‘Goals updates’ with me. A way of keeping on track with our long-term goals – we’ve been doing it for many years now. The process helped me go from aspiring writer to published writer and saw me through the many distractions of moving from home to home and day job to day job. Recently one of those friends has been suffering from dementia and the other is struggling with cancer and I don’t want the goals updates to become any kind of demand on their energies through such difficult times.

Still, I think it does me some good to take an overview perspective on my life from time to time, and may be of some interest to other friends who happen across the reports. I’m not focused on any long-term goals currently – aside from basic survival.

I’ve been keeping up with making weekly visits to TerryG, and have been assembling items for a bug-out bag, given how the present political situation has made the world seem more insecure than it has seemed since the days of the cold war when I was a youth. The power grid could be a target for bad guys and I rely on it for Everything. I’m shopping for a sleeping bag now. I gave my old one away to an organization that helps the homeless. I ordered a few MRE meals and a solar-powered battery for re-charging my devices. I got a test kit for water and purification tablets I’ve ordered rehydrated food for Rajesh also, though I’m also insecure about the prospects for his survival. I’m giving him a cancer med prescribed by our vet but he’s still obviously ailing: skinny and wheezing constantly. I don’t mind staying home with him most of the time.

I’m doing a lot of reading, currently Alan Dean Foster’s Flynx and Pip books that I first discovered in the eighties, but hadn’t realized there were so many more in the series. I’ve also reconnected with my old friend, Jill who lives in Grand Marais and have recommended a series of mysteries by Steve Higgs to her. Jill is an anglophile and the books are written and set in Great Britain. She also had a German shepherd when we first met and the books feature a retired police-dog (Rex Harrison, a German shepherd who had too much attitude for the force). I hope Jill enjoys the books; they seem made for her.

Meanwhile, and perhaps a factor in my lack of energy these days, I’ve been in a lot of pain with my teeth; I’ve been planning a major lot of extractions and getting a set of dentures made, but the U’s Oral Surgery folk are scheduled out the wazoo and I may not be able to get my surgery scheduled before October. I’m so glad that CBD oil is legal here in Minnesota these days. It is helping me deal with the head and jaw aches. Still expensive and I doubt my Medicare will help with that.

I’m also watching a lot of TV: old episodes of Star Trek, TOS, and the new Librarians and the old Gilmore Girls series… I wonder what the ancients who invented Theater would think of what modern media has made possible…

WEEK OF Feb 24 – Mar 3, 2025

I heard back from Pawp, who denied my claim for Rajesh’s veterinary care. (Amounting to more than $500). They claimed it was a pre-existing condition. I Canceled my account with them. Raj is now fifteen years old and other pet insurance plans all list accounts at more than $100/month. I don’t know what to do. I’ve been applying the ointment prescribed by the vet, but there is still a lump of infection on his forehead, though it seems to have moved more into his nose.

Meanwhile, I made the trip to the Minicon hotel on Saturday. The front desk was no help in finding the board meeting; the one listed started at 1pm, but the M’con board meeting was to start at two. By looking online, I eventually made it – a bit late – to the meeting in Plaza 4. I was duly impressed by how well-in-hand the arrangements for the convention looked to be. I wandered around to the room where the Mnstf party was scheduled to occur, but it was still locked up. I greeted a few people waiting there, but didn’t linger long as the indoor-air was bothering my eyes. I headed home again, missing the chance to get girl scout cookies, so stopping at Aldi where I got Jaffa cakes instead.

Seeing Terry once a week worked out reasonably well this week. It seemed to leave me with more energy for addressing other concerns. I worked on a couple new book ads and applied to participate in an art show. These activities helped me keep going in the face of the political news which had been getting me down.

WEEK OF Feb 17 - 24, 2025

I’ve been feeling emotionally-overwhelmed lately, helped in large part by the political news and my cat (Rajesh)’s health needs. I’m still waiting to see if the pet health insurance I’ve been paying for will help with that. Meanwhile I’m putting medicated ointment in his eyes several times a day. 

I’m still concerned with my zombie book launch, but it’s been taking more of a back seat than I like to admit. The free book promo leading up to Valentine’s Day did well enough: over 230 books claimed and I can hope there will be some feedback in the form of reviews or purchases of other books in the series – I still need to put up some ads for those.

Meanwhile, I’ve had less energy for Terry visits and am presently down to once a week. Her attention span is less than it was, making it harder to communicate or engage her interest for any length of time. The political landscape is on my mind and I don’t want to depress her by talking about that. What can I say? The world is on fire; ready your hoses and buckets.

WEEKs OF Dec 16-30, 2024

Sadly, I was without keyboard and mouse for about a week after the death of my former desktop computer – even though I managed to acquire a new one (Inspiron All-in-one) which came with wireless peripherals, but instructions in print so tiny I couldn’t decipher it even with reading glasses. I secured an appointment with the Geek Squad as part of the package, but did have to wait over a week for it. As of Saturday afternoon, he showed me the wireless adapter I needed (hidden inside the mouse, but needing to be plugged into a USB port on the back of the computer. Duh.) The techie also managed to extract the hard drive from my old computer and transfer all the data (yay for my internet bookmarks, esp). So now I am getting back in touch with people.

During the interim I visited Terry as usual and attended the wonderful caroling party at Dreampark and have been learning my way around the Win11 OS. I’m also gearing up to start promoting my various publications.

I now have two extra monitors. The literature on my new PC suggests it can handle an extra monitor, but I don’t see how and may have to do some research.

WEEK OF Aug 19 - 26, 2024

I made both visits to Terry this past week, and was joined on one by Terry's brother Jim, and on the other by her friend Karen Shaffer who was in town following Worldcon and had also just visited the state fair and had lots of photos to share from both.

Otherwise I met with my Blue Cross care coordinator, with the physical therapist for my hand and attended a seminar on estate planning. The latter was interesting, but I'm not sure how useful when it comes to setting things up to pass on my intellectual property, since I haven't got much in the way of monetary assets. I did learn that you can have up to three million dollars in Minnesota without having to pay estate taxes on it.

w OF Feb 26 - March 4, 2024

This felt like an extra long week. I made my usual visits to Terry and kept up with a lot infrastructure maintenance tasks, paying bills and making appointments. The big deal was another trabeculectomy on Wednesday morning ,my right eye this time. That's usually my stronger eye, and it's been blurry ever since. Supposedly this will clear up, but meanwhile, I need my reading glasses to read and I have to take eye drops every two hours and I'm not doing much reading to speak of. Typing is hard, too.  I've got a week-after post-op exam scheduled for Thursday. I hope things have improved a lot by then.

WEEK OF Jan 15 - 22, 2024

It doesn't seem like there's much to say about the last week. It was pretty low key for me after the busy fortnight I'd had before. I made my usual visits to Terry but mostly did a lot of catching up on household tasks, and set a pre-op physical appointment (in advance of the scheduled eye surgery.) I did a fair lot of reading and watching TV and counting my blessings. Thank heaven for naps!

I didn't socialize much aside from Facebook and may have missed events I might have enjoyed if I'd been feeling livelier.

WEEK OF Oct 23 - 30, 2023

This was a full week. I visited Terry twice, as usual, but We did the mashswitched up the schedule so that I could be visiting her during the annual fire alarm testing at my condo on Wednesday. (Escaping the noise!)

Then on Thursday I had a filling put in at the U of M dental school. They've gotten to know me there. The needle goes into my upper palate, I  produce a soprano aria, someone nearby says, "Laramie's here!"  At this point I could become a professional dental patient. I'm learning the lingo and I was able to  offer my student and her assistant a couple tips on patient communications: 1) pre-arranged hand signals for the person whose mouth is full of hands/instruments, and 2) a specific scale for rating progress when buffing the new filling: sandpaper to burlap to cotton to silk to satin.

On Friday I was back to visit Terry; I brought along a couple of old calendars that we used to make Halloween masks. She got to be an octopus and I got to be a sea horse.

On Saturday was the annual Mnstf Halloween party, and we had a planned filk circle starting at 2pm. Unfortunately, the only space for it was in an attic. I've been avoiding stairs maybe too much lately, cuz after climbing two flights, my knees just gave out and crumpled under me, leaving me sprawled on the nicely polished wooden floor! I had no idea my knees had gotten so weak. Thankfully, everyone present sprang up and helped hoist me onto the nearest couch. Later (Later, after a lot of fun music) I was able to make my way safely down the stairs again, but was walking with a slight limp by the time I got home. That's a lot better now, and I asked Sarah, our filker massage-therapist about exercises for strengthening knees.