Life Changes and Continuing Education

Life has a way of throwing us curves. My past year has been full of them. For the most part, I’ve been able to keep all of the balls in the air, but there may have been one or two that escaped without my noticing. Let’s see if I can just give you the highlight reel.

• In August 2016 I had a massive kidney stone and sepsis. Hospital and surgery for that, but recovered.
• Dad’s wife and my dear friend Pat died before Thanksgiving, and grieving, Dad thought he would have to sell his house and move in with my sister or buy an RV. He was wracked with pain and packing up his whole life and moving would have been horrid. I can’t recall now whose idea it was, but I had been calling on the mornings to check on him, as he was feeling unsteady with staying by himself. He was having dizzy spells. I kept thinking about Grandpa Brown, and how fast he went downhill after Grandma died. Dad had already survived my mother. Being a widower twice over would hit him harder still.
• The decision was made for me to go live with him, and hubby would follow after I graduated from college and started working. Then…
• Near the end of April 2017, my husband was diagnosed with 3rd stage cancer. Without going into specifics, we were told that it was completely curable as far as they could tell, but that he would have to take chemotherapy. We would know more after the CT scan.

Naturally this rocked us to our very foundations. The decision was made that he would quit his job at the lake and move into town with Daddy and me for treatment, and his friend Jason would take over at the shop.

• Jason couldn’t take over for reasons beyond his control. Tom was terrified of the financial impact all of this would have on us. And Dad.

Together, we have found a way to make it work, but the summer that I took off to re-write Nova Wave has vanished in the face of the move and chemo. We have a couple of backup plans in place for the finances, but it will still be a tough one.

• Neither Dad nor Tom will tolerate me missing school or dropping it to work, so that will continue as of right now.
• Tom will likely stay at the lake a little longer, at least until after the kids’ derby. I don’t like it, but it is what it is.

That’s where we are now, and this blog post represents the most words I have strung together since the end of school. The new plan of attack is to take the editing books I’m studying and the laptop with us to chemo and write during his three hour treatments, and hopefully more, once we get him moved in and settled. For now.

I think that my big plans for the October podcast launch are going to be pushed back. That will put lots of things on hold, but will also give me more time for planning and prep work. Thank goodness I hadn’t already done the Patreon launch.

Right now it is time to be physically active and get Tom ready to move. If he stays much longer than the derby I will be surprised, but if I know my hubby he will try to stay until August. That would make it a full six years. He’s going to miss it, but maybe he’ll get to go fishing more once he’s done out there. Maybe he can help me with my business. That would be nice.

Anyway, there is the long and short of the last year of my shifting circumstances. This is going to be an interesting summer, but perhaps I will get that book re-written after all.

~D~