dalesql

So, it's been a busy time since I last posted.
Dealing with dad's passing, the funeral, memorial service, and the endless paperwork mom and I are filling out to officially notify all the financial entities he was involved in. I haven't even begun to think about doing his taxes.

We had the funeral just for family. It was a cold and windy day, I was worried mom would get hypothermia when we were at the graveside portion. The memorial service was at church, unfortunately we got that day the first significant snowstorm of the season that day, and it was kinda blizzardy. So attendance was low. Mom is, unsurprisingly, depressed.

Then came Arisia. I attended, and it probably will be my last arisia. The main reason I was there at all was to see Ursula Vernon as GoH, who is one of my favorite people. Arisia is becoming increasingly intolerant in it's desire to be open and accepting and a Safe Place for everyone, no matter how many hot buttons they have. As an older white male, I am feeling less and less welcome in their ever-increasing drive for political correctness.

In sadder news, I bought my usual stack of books from Larry Smith in the dealers room. We chatted about this and that and I said I would see him at Boskone. Unfortunately, that is not going to happen. Larry died three days later. Goodbye Larry. I'll see you next time.

The weekend after arisia was Anthro New England. It was it's usual nice fuzzy three ring circus, hampered by outgrowing it's hotel, and the hotel's severe shortage of parking. I hope that they move to a better hotel. Ideally, the westin waterfront where Arisia and Boskone already are. If that happens, and the hotel is amenable, logistics for all three would be eased by allowing materials to be stored at the hotel for all three cons. Lots of maybes there, but it's a hope.

Monday after arisia, we had a grand open house at ALPS. Turned the warehouse into a vendor showcase and demo zone, with food and adult beverages. It was a lot of work, and my area got crammed full of everyone elses stuff, since my area was the only place that was not open for visitors. I'm still finding things that belong to other parts of the company. I finally unpacked the last gaylord of my stuff from the move. (A gaylord is one of those pallet sized cardboard boxes. eight layer corrugated board. Strong stuff) So big step completed with that.

Now that I can actually see everything I have, I can now sort out things and put them on their proper shelves and boxes. Since I lost some of the storage space promised to me, I have to figure out what I don't need very often and pack them into a storage bin to go up on a high warehouse shelf. I'm thinking of constructing a storage unit that folds up into a pallet shaped box for storage, but unfolds into a set of shelves and bins for access when needed.

We signed the repair contract on the house finally. It's only been ten months since the fire. Unfortunately mother nature beat us to the punch and they can't fill in the driveway washout while the gravel is frozen and the gullies are filled with snow and ice. Delays, delays, delays. Repair estimate is six to nine months. ugh. But it's progress.

Boskone is this weekend. I'm running the con suite again. I've been shopping and preparing for a couple weeks already. Last night I hard boiled 75 dozen eggs for the con suite. They are now in the back of my van enjoying mother nature's refrigerated storage locker.

today I was able to finish the cleaning and repair of my seltzer tap setup. It's full of chlorinated water now to sanitize it before I put it into service. So it will be at Boskone, providing infinite seltzer to the masses. After it is done at Boskone, bringing it into work so I can have infinite seltzer to drink, which is way lower in calories and price than what I get from the coke machine.

Edit, post-boskone: The seltzer setup still had an off taste of the smoke from the fire, so I dumped it back out and took it out of service. So now I think I need to replace all the plastic parts, and give the stainless steel parts another, more thorough, scrubbing. Replacing all the gaskets also.

Boskone was, as usual exhausting, but overall successful, and the con suite came off well. Attendance was up by a couple hundred, leading to more rapid depletion of supplies, but I haven't heard an official number.

For those who cared, my dad is still slowly recovering his health. He's at a nursing home, much closer to home and convenient to visit. His memory is the slowest to recover, but he seems to be getting better, with some days better than others. Medicaid will cover him for 100 days post-hospitalization, I suspect that the nursing home is not trying to push his rehab, so they can milk the most of those days out of the system.
All the various conditions and infections have been mostly addressed. His main blockage is that he is still only eating pureed food, and is getting about half his nutrition via the G-tube surgically installed in his stomach. We need him able to eat more or less regular food to get home.
The other thing is he is relearning to walk. He is using a walker in his physical therapy, but gets around in a wheelchair by himself. He forgets that he needs the walker when getting up and around, and thus is at risk of falling and hurting himself. We need him able to get around the house by himself, without a constant escort. With a walker if need be.
The last thing, which is not blocking his return home, is that his urinary tract is swollen shut, so he cannot pee without use of a catheter. He has had this problem before, and we are new engaging a urologist to deal with this. We had been more of less ignoring this while the higher priority things in his health situation were handled, but now it's time to deal with it.

Younger brother has returned to seattle to resume his life, leaving the sit up bathtub installed and functional, I'm to finish up the installation, but I'm procrastinating on that. Mom is holding up okay, but is needing more support from me lately. Hopefully once dad is home, he can do some of the easy things, like getting stuff from the upper shelves and so on for her.

I don't expect dad to be able to drive when he does get home, and possibly never will again. So I'll be doing more of the shopping and so on as I have been doing. Meals on wheels is delivering meals for mom, but she still insists on cooking supper every night. Maybe eventually I'll be allowed to cook anything more than eggs for weekend breakfasts, but it isn't happening yet.