Originally published at Enemy of Entropy. Please leave any comments there.
Not from the grave, oh no, not yet!
It’s been too long to do a real “this is all that has happened in my life.” Writing it would exhaust me, and reading it would likely bore you. If you want to know about something in particular, please ask.
I’ll be posting a few things shortly that I had “ready to go” and just didn’t post, for whatever reason.
The girl is enjoying life as a teen, or as much as any teen can. I wouldn’t want to go through those ups and downs again! She’s always my most precious, beautiful Goddess gift baby, even if she will be 17 this week. That’s our “big thing” right now.
She continues to amaze me with her creativity. She’s the head photographer (or whatever they call it there) for the yearbook, which has had her running around to all manner of events for which there must be photos! Now! Yesterday! Couldn’t they hold Homecoming in July? Come ON people! And she loves it. She completely filled her 1GB compact flash card with live photos from Friday night’s football game, then had to switch to her smaller, older card and be very judicious in her shots to finish the game. She obviously needs a much bigger card!
Yes, she uses her own equipment. Her camera is head and shoulders above the quality of those the yearbook staff owns, even the few digitals. That makes sense, considering the expense of them, the time it takes to really learn to use a digital SLR properly, etc. Most of what they have are point-and-shoot 35mm film cameras, which aren’t such big a deal if a student loses or damages them.
Sam is still working at the same place, helping people with computers and networking and phones and so on—even A/V equipment at times. If you can plug it in, his department is the one everybody calls first for help. I’m surprised janitors don’t show up with vacuum cleaner complaints sometimes (and I don’t know that it hasn’t happened at some time at the past).
The helping people part is, of course, the most important thing. He loves it, he does it well, and he finds wells of patience that must come from Somewhere Else.
I’m registering for fall classes (DeVry is on an odd schedule, but you may have noticed that). We’re looking for a place to move to, but not finding what we can afford where we want to live. I suppose that’s an eternal lament, isn’t it?
I’m still a gimp, and now have a (manual) wheelchair of my own. I really need a ramp for the front entrance of the house, but I’ve delayed trying to have one put in here since we want to move.
We’re still in limbo with Social Security. In Georgia, the wait to have your case heard by an administrative law judge is (according to the SSA office near me) about 36 months, average. That’s the level I’m at now.
It’s damned frustrating not to be working, not to be able to work. I don’t want to be on disability or need it! I want to find a job I can do for a decent wage!
But I’ve had yet more icky health stuff, so… Sam and Katie are more of a blessing than I can say, certainly far more than I deserve.
I really want music. I mean, to make it. Nothing else seems to be able to replace having a piano (not a little keyboard) in my home. That’s when I sing the most, as I accompany myself. (I don’t play all that well, so I don’t play in front of anyone else.) I was thinking of taking a new vocal class Elise Witt is offering, but it conflicts with a family commitment.
I’m re-reading Madeleine L’Engle’s Crosswicks Journals and poetry as I mourn her passing. Yes, there will be a separate post about that, but for now, I’ll leave you with a tiny quote from her:
I learn my lessons slowly, seldom once for all. Continually they have to be learned and re-learned, not with solemnity, but with awe and laughter and joy.