I just wanted to thank everyone again for all their kind thoughts and hard work during the recent passing of my brother Bob Arnold. To me he was my rock the person Who I could tell anything to and he would not judge but listen and maybe offer some piece of wisdom. He has been sorely missed these last few months.

Not mtuch changed since my last blog. Passed the written part of drivers ed, made my mom, sisters, niece and the respectieve SO's eat sushi during my B)day dinner and, ..., I'm still officially on sickleave which is getting to be a real drag (understatement).

Looking for a car to buy for the hands on part of drivers ed (it seems to people outside Belgium that we have a weird drivers ed system or so I'm told). And that is making me count every cent. Especially with winter around the corner and the need for 'mazout' and gas.

PS starting to wonder who's been or lived in Belgium here

Tonight I said goodbye to the man I love, knowing that I likely will not ever see him again. I doubt that he knows anything of my feelings toward him. He is 29, I am 64, so it is well that I never utter a word about it. He did something that is just not done in his faith, he hugged me goodbye and when he did my heart broke.

This time I managed to get to the meeting point, in fact I was first. We had a good survey, found six or seven nest boxes occupied four of which had babies in. Between now and the onset of winter they need to weigh at least 15g to have a chance of surviving hibernation. I got to handle another three dormice and either I'm getting slower or they're getting wrigglier.

Amazingly, one of the group was called Cathy though she wasn't leading the survey.

My little legs and back are now aching from walking up and down a hillside through quite rough woodland.

Holly will need your thoughts and prayers for longer than a blog usually stays visible so Erin is going to keep this one at the top of the blogs for a few days.

I got a complimented for being such a hard worker last night. Makes me feel nice inside. Meanwhile, I'm hard at work on my stories, and I hope to have something worth posting soon.

(Details Inside)

Yesterday Holly Hart had an operation that removed a cancerous tumor in the pancreas. It was successfully removed. There was no evidence of it spreading. The operation went quicker and easier than expected. Probably there will not be any need for radiation nor chemo therapy.

shalimar

Okay... I am in classes and despite not having a lot of hours (12) it is eating my time and energy. I had gotten out of the school groove and am busy getting back in. The problem is that between school, homework, exercise, keeping the house, dealing with the health issues of my wife and myself, being exhausted from the new schedule, and life in general, I find that I have a limited amount of time in which to write. Because I have hopes of getting paid for the story, The Amulet of Adventure takes precedence.

We have your sunshine... thanks. Appreciate the trade... Keep the fog as long as you like.

San Francisco, we've got your fog.

I just wanted to say thanks to all those who have dipped into their pockets and bought A Witch in Time from Amazon.

Whilst copies are not exactly flying off the virtual shelves, the response has been much better than I thought it would have been - like, it's selling - and I have you wonderful people here to thank for that.

Here's an alternative bit of waffle about the GabyCon - this time from my perspective :)

Having attended my first GabyCon last year and enjoyed it so much, I readily signed up to this year's. Despite not having ridden (rode?) a bicycle for the best part of 16 years (since going to uni), I was brave / foolish enough to volunteer to take part in this year's bicycle ride. But more on that later.

I've just spoken with Shelly. Holly is out of surgery. The doctors do not think the tumor has metastaticized.

I can steal that title, since I wrote a story called that. In any case I really did have a long talk with my mom yesterday about my past, and how my gender stuff played into it. Once again, I'm reminded just how lucky I am to have a mom who supports me.

It's been a while since I posted my first back burner stories blog. Since then, some stories have been finished, and others have been added to the back burner. Here's a few of those new stories I'm currently working on. :)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Better Than Living in a Box

Hello!

Momoko here again! Just wanted to say hi, and that I hope everyone is ok, especially Holly-san.

I work for Turner Broadcasting Systems in Atlanta, GA, USA. Turner offers 4 different insurance plans, a HSA, an HMO, a low cost plan through a major health insurance company and a higher cost plan through the same insurance company. As an aside, I've always chosen the higher cost option because my spouse has MS. Now included as part of that plan is coverage for "Transgender Care". Having read the plan, the coverage is for various surgeries that a F2M or M2F transsexual may seek. IMO, what it covers is WOW!