Scott Tolson is in Harbor View Hospital. He had, basically, a stroke, while working out yesterday. I don’t like to talk about odds, for survival, for recovery, for any of that. He’s still here. Nizzibet and I will be going to the hospital again tonight after we’ve taken care of Aged Mother’s dinner.

Lovesettlement Has Posted

Esteemed Brother has posted after a length hiatus. He demonstrates a suave articulation in the face of adolescent vitriol that I couldn’t begin to match.

And me? Posting will likely be light for a while. Many deadlines looming. Aged Mother requires care. Y’know, life happening.

We picked up Aged Mother and Esteemed Brother at the airport yesterday. E.B. was pushing A.M. in a wheelchair. She can still walk but not the long distances you need to cover in an airport.

Apparently A.M. was one of the designated terrorists for that flight and had to have her baggage searched. No point even being insulted by the dumbness of that. (Maybe she’s an 81 year old evil mastermind. Ya never know.) And A.M. tells us that she didn’t even realize that that’s what had happened until E.B. told the story here at dinner time.

A.M. got herself partly unpacked. There’s still a big suitcase to empty out. I’ve got the next couple of days off so that I can be here while she gets settled in. She only drove me crazy five or six times last night. Entirely to be expected. Nothing that I won’t get used to.

I take E.B. back to the airport this morning.

The Day

Aged Mother and Esteemed Brother arrive today at 2:30. That’s in a little less than four hours. People keep asking us if we’re ready for this. Of course. Of course not. You prepare yourself for the worst, hope for the best and get the unexpected. That’s what happens every day.

The Day Before

Today I plan to hang curtains. I suppose we’ll tidy up the house. Maybe locate a vacuum repair shop and donate the vacuums that have gathered in the garage. Deseret Industries no longer takes things that need repair. I suspected that that would be the case. In a throw away culture it becomes pointless to fix damaged and broken things. There’s always more stuff available that works as is – why spend the time to fix anything?

That would lead to a rant if I didn’t have much else to do before I wake Nizzibet.

Two Days Before

And a big Happy Birthday to Glenn.

If you have to have your birthday fall on one of the holidays, Halloween is the one for it. There are too many conflicts around Christmas and all the other holidays are just dorky. Hmmm. Except maybe Easter. Easter would be okay. And the Fourth of July wouldn’t be bad. Guy Fawkes day would be alright except only a few Americans know who he was. And you couldn’t set off fireworks.

So Halloween is definitely the best for it.

Glenn, Esteemed Brother, is spending his birthday working. After work he goes to Aged Mother’s to stay the night. Tomorrow he helps her pack up what she’ll need for the next few days (and no doubt she’ll tell him what he’ll have to have shipped). Sunday they both fly up.

Three Days Until

Noticed some pundits making statements lately on how all these bloggers need editors. Heh. They’re missing the point. Blogging is both communication and (as another blogger so deftly put it) primal scream. It’s staking out territory. It’s writing letters to friends that you don’t have time to talk to or to see. It’s the shirker’s “yop” before the dustspeck hits the boiling water. All and none. Editing’s nice. Good spelling, proper punctuation and clear sentence structure are all beautiful things. It’s something different for every writer.

There’s a rant asking to be born here. Sadly, I’ve got to wake the Nizzibet and do some artwork.

Four Days Until

Got to limber up my dishwashing skills at the Nordic Heritage Museum last night. I don’t think I’d want to do it again for a living but it was fun for the hour or so I spent at it.

Five Days Before

Got some inking done last night. Might be able to get some more work done this morning if the coffee kicks in.

I’m helping out Nizzibet at the Nordic Heritage Museum tonight for one of their Volunteer Appreciation Dinners so I probably won’t get much done tonight. Tomorrow I’ll be doing a run to Deseret Industries to pass along some of our furniture.

Six Days Until

Drawing. Doing chores. Fitting a little bit of writing in. First Cauldron story will be a couple of pages longer than I’d planned. Still on track for January 1st.