News

Sometime a go I know I mentioned that one of my uncles had been diagnosed with cancer. When we visited him, he’d seemed to be doing well, but as can happen . . . I got the news yesterday that he died of complications. Funeral is next week, and now I get to decide if I’m going or not. Several states away, and will I be any help to anyone?
Yesterday when I got the news I felt nothing. Empty, totally empty. Peaceful even. Then I found one of the hermit crabs had died, and suddenly I was upset. Displacement is a weird thing to do with your emotions, but I fixated on that damned crab. That was what I was upset about, right? It turns out that when I went to remove the crab today, it wasn’t dead. We did some emergency crab care and the crab may pull through. It’s either Zoidberg, or Rainbow, really without Trinity here to tell me I can’t keep track of which crab has moved into which shell. I think we’re down to three or four crabs, from eight. Easy care pets, yeah, right. I have worst luck with anything that is supposedly easy care. Give me something that people say is hard, or you can’t keep alive, and that will thrive for me. Orchids grow better for me than spider plants or philendendrons.
See, I’m talking about the crabs again, and plants, and anything but my uncle. I just got off the phone from my Aunt Juanita. She’s holding up well, but then, I had no doubt she would. She’s just that kind of person. I’m not the only strong woman in my family, no big surprise there, I guess. I thought I could write about how I feel, but I guess I can’t, or rather don’t want to. I guess I’ll stop, and get back to work. When all else falls to hell there is still the books. Still the words. Still Merry cuddled in the floor with Frost and Doyle. Many of you tell me that my books help you get through horrible things in your life, well, me, too, sometimes. Other people have trouble concentrating when things go wrong, the more wrong things are, sometimes the more pure my concentration becomes.