Back in January I registered (and paid the fee) to attend a writers’ conference in Minnesota called Narrativity. It’s a four-day event, Thursday morning to Sunday evening, and I plan to attend the whole thing. Unfortunately, my granddaughter’s high school graduation is that same weekend, which I didn’t know until after I’d paid the fee and reserved a room in the hotel. ☹
Thankfully, my brother is now here to take care of our dog, Rusty. It was Verlene’s idea to get this critter, so he was our dog. When Verlene passed away he became my dog. Now my brother is here and Rusty is again our dog. My brother has been feeding him almost every morning, so he’s stealing the devotion and loyalty. It used to be that when I came downstairs in the morning I was greeted with enthusiasm. Now, the creature doesn’t even get up. He just lies on the floor on his side and looks at me and motions his front leg to give him a tummy rub.
I have not worked this year at all. Back in December I developed, for no known reason, a disability in my left hip and upper leg. I was still able to do my regular job, though it was painful. But then on two different days the bosses needed extra people to do order filling. That calls for a person to be walking or standing all day, except for breaks. Both days I had to go home because it just hurt too much.
I’m calling this an ARI: Age-Related Infirmity.
So I saw my doctor, had X-rays done first on the hip and then later on the back, but nothing abnormal was shown. I’ve also been going to physical therapy; four sessions so far, plus PT exercises every day. It’s been helping, but not nearly fast enough or well enough to suit me.
I saw the doctor again. He gave me a cortisone injection and it seems to have helped a lot, but it’s only been three days since so I’m not yet celebrating, but Sunday (2/18) had the least amount of pain I’ve had in over two months.
Because I’m now not able to do everything I would ordinarily be able to do, the company won’t let me work until I can. This is why my brother has been feeding Rusty.
When I was working, I fed Rusty at 4:30 every morning. I sleep upstairs, where Rusty declines to go. My brother sleeps downstairs, in the same room Rusty has his bed (which was Verlene’s room) so about 4:30 every morning Rusty wakes him up to be fed. On the three days I didn’t work, Rusty just had to wait until I got up, sometimes as late as 8:00. But now he has another human to annoy into feeding him.
Important news: Prophecy of Honor is now scheduled for publication in late summer on 2024. Water Dragon Publishing had expected to publish at the end of 2023, but they ran into production problems. Also, I suspect that they got busier than they expected (which is not a bad thing) and just couldn’t meet that first estimate. I’ll include more news about this in future postings as I get it.
I’m half-way through Enchanter’s Endgame, which is the last book in the fantasy series The Belgariad by David Eddings. Curiously, this is the first of two series involving these characters and plot, and I’ve already read the second series, The Mallorean. Our library here has the second series, but not the first, so I’ve been ordering those one at a time.
One more thing: for those of you that have not been following this since 2015, or even those who have, I’d like to encourage you to read the “Mascot Serial” on my web page. To read from the beginning, you’ll have to go to the list on the right side of the page, click on the earliest date, which has only the introduction to the story. Then move up one date on the list (Sept., 2015), click that, read the entries from the bottom up, and so on. This series went on for over two years. It is sort of light-hearted and sort of serious.
Thank you again for reading.