I’m not going to be around for a while! Shit keeps happening!

I brought my mom home from transitional care after her surgery. I have to live with her (again) to monitor her, cook meals, and caregive in general while she regains her strength and heals. I’ve taken a full week off from work for this.

When I drove to her house, I parked in the garage… right before her HOA put new sealant on all the driveways in the neighborhood, which meant no driving on them for 48 hours. One of our cars was trapped (the one I bought from Mom after her stroke) and my wife had the other. I needed to borrow a car to pick up pain meds for mom, so we called our brother-in-law, who hemmed and hawed and made up excuses about why he couldn’t lend out one of his two cars. My wife broke down into tears, because she busts her ass constantly providing favors for everyone and caregiving for two family members. We needed help, and we were told no. That’s hard to take.

Today we just wanted to have a nice time, so my wife drove down with my grilling equipment and I made burgers, hotdogs, and dessert for everyone. We finally had a nice rest under the spreading tree in her front yard, relaxing, calming down, when my wife got a call from the brother-in-law who needed caregiving help. It was a task he finds personally distasteful, so it made sense to him to have my wife drive up 45 minutes to him and take over.

On the way up, my wife’s car was sideswiped by some stupid kids going well over the limit and trying to pass her on the right, in the right lane. She spun out and headed for the concrete pillars of an overpass, narrowly missing them and coming to a rest on the grass. She called me to her and I calmed her down through several panic attacks and managed the racist witnesses who had so much to add to the conversation, then called the brother-in-law and… very few people have seen me that angry. I let him know of what I think of someone who refuses to help in an emergency but demands a favor that puts my wife in a car accident.

So. I’m going to take some time to deal with my mom and her spinal surgery, and I’m going to cope with my inlaws. I won’t have access to my graphics computer, so, no renders for a few weeks or however long recovery takes. Maybe some night I can knock out a short story in the small hours (I’ve already finished Tales from the Loop and Jean Claude Van Johnson and quit Breaking Bad after season two) but if you’re a subscriber, you may not feel you’re getting what you’re paying for, and believe me, I understand. I’m not going to be around much. This will take some time. Dressing eight inches of stitches and wrestling with car insurance agencies and police reports doesn’t necessarily fill my creative well.

If you can wait it out with me, I’ll try to make it up to you. If not, I understand and wish you the best.