She's Ba--ack...

Try not blogging for a couple of weeks and see what happens.  Sooner or later  your blog editor calls you and tells you you have to go to the blog unemployment office, where they give you a check equal to about 60% of your blogging salary.  You stand in a line, and this lady with a clipboard comes down the line and says, "Did you blog this week?" (No.)  "Did you try to blog this week?"(No.)  "Okay, look, this is your last week on blogger unemployment.  Either you blog something this week, or we'll have to change your status."  And since I don't wanna be a vlogger, or worse, a YouTube sensation, here I am blogging.  Hello, everybody.  

Since the last time I blogged, the following things have happened:

• I kept working.  In fact, I worked a lot.  In fact, a lot of the work I was doing was why I wasn't blogging, seeing as I didn't want to stare at a computer anymore after I finally got home. 
• I went to some writing classes about being stuck and how to get unstuck.
• As a result of the classes, I dug out a thing I was working on and started working on it again, and it's going really well, at the moment.  Which is cool.
• I talked to my kind-of mentor, Rhett in Oklahoma, which always makes me feel better. 
• I swam the Big Swim, the 2k race in which I always place dead last but consider myself fortunate to have finished at all.  My time was 1.03.27.  I also did the July Swim for Distance Month thing, but without the usual hype, just because of stuff and things.  I managed 17 miles in July.  I will still send a full $20 to my favorite charity, which happens to be Survivors of Torture International.  If you wanna donate after the fact, please do.  Your favorite charity could always use a little cash.  
• I went to Utah to see my parents and my sister, and my brother-in-law came along but he was very sick the whole time and so we didn't get to see him much.
• My brother-in-law's condition turned out to be terminal.  Which sucks.  A lot.  

If you've already heard about this, you can skip this paragraph, but what's basically happening to Mike is that his spine is pressing on the main artery that supplies blood to his brain.  So his brain isn't getting enough oxygen, and he's gradually losing function (like most of his right side) and speech and, you know, the important things you need. When the best neurosurgeon in the state says there's nothing he can do, you know you have a problem.  But even if there were a surgical fix, there's no guarantee it would bring back the lost function. And Mike's quality of life is pretty low right now. 

So, there's been a lot of crying around here, and a lot of long talks about this whole "quality of life" thing and what a "meaningful recovery" would mean to me, or to you, or to whomever.  And if I haven't gotten on this soapbox lately, I would just like to remind all of you over the age of eighteen that if you haven't done it yet, you need to MAKE OUT YOUR LIVING WILL. NOW.  It might be called an "advanced medical directive" or something similar in your state.  If you go to this web site, you will find all the forms and instructions for making out a living will in your state.  It is legal and legally binding in all 50 states, so please don't hesitate.  It is a great kindness to your family and also to yourself, and don't forget to give a copy to your doctor and whatever hospital you're most likely to be taken to in an emergency.  

I'm going to Las Vegas to see Mike and Kristen at some point, but I don't know exactly when because their lives are a little complicated right now (understandably).  besides visiting nurses and medical appointments, they're also selling their house and moving to a disabled-accessible apartment on a single level.  The big move is scheduled for next weekend.  Lots of friends are coming to help, including my dad, so they don't really need us (let's face it, I'm not built for carrying boxes anyway). But soon, I hope.  

Anyway, sorry about the lapse in blogging.  I will make a sincere effort to adhere more closely to the schedule. For one thing, my editor will get on my case if I don't.  For another, those 60% checks really don't do much to pay the mortgage, if you know what I mean.