Painting table, April 2017

Life goes on.  Although there are still a myriad of details to oversee, I put a bit of time into getting the hobby table straightened out.

A while ago, it looked like this:

This photo was taken in mid October of last year, just before my lovely wife made her first visit to hospital.  Lots of stuff going on there, and my then-new Vallejo paint set for tank details is out front.

Hobby space is now storage space as I prepped for a homecoming that never happened.  Everything is crammed together, but you can see a couple of additions - new lights and paint storage racks that were very cheaply sourced from Amazon.

The clean slate.

And, how the table looks now, ready and waiting.



Besides getting back to painting, I have set myself a couple of goals.  One is to get back to reading and commenting on other blogs.  I use Feedly to keep track of blogs, but with thousands of posts from the blogs I follow I just deleted them over the past few months; it was just a bit overwhelming.  But, I am trying to fix that.  Second is to post more often, weekly perhaps.  This might include non-gaming content - if you are not interested in that sort of thing please just skip past it.  Also included will be notice of posts on my other blogs, like this one:   Threwdish Ways


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Let's try again

After quite some time, I have found myself a copy of this:

This is the fourth (or maybe fifth) book set in the Monster Blood Tattoo setting.  Not easily available in the US, I found one for a reasonable price on Abebooks.

Perhaps this will be a catalyst for this old project!

Slowly

It is a continuing process, but I am getting to the point of being able to do some hobby work again, other than dreaming up new projects...

Pics later on!


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Thanks

Thank you for all of the comments on my previous post.  They are a great comfort to us.

Hopefully, I can get to some sort of hobby output in the near future!


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Slings and arrows

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?

Ah, one of the great passages from The Great Bard, and my lovely wife's favorite.  For the longest time, we had lived in a way that dodged all, or at least most, of those missiles of ill will.  But, sometimes one can not always dodge misfortune...

Just over a week ago, my lovely wife breathed her last.

In October of last year, she was stricken by waves of small but terrifyingly debilitating strokes.  These infarcts left her unable to stand or to walk or to talk.  Communication was only possible by blinking answers to questions that could be answered in 'yes' or 'no'.  She was still able to hear and to see.

And in the months that followed, she put up a valiant defense.  Progress, however slight, was seen as therapists worked with her and she started to regain some small control over her jaw, tongue, neck, and lips.  In a memorable moment, she ever so gently laughed at me.  

But, her opponent was relentless.  More strokes followed, along with a severe pressure ulcer in her sacral area.  And, just before New Years, she was sent back to hospital with pneumonia, a two week stay which left her in a weakened state.

Even allies turned their backs.  In December, I received letters that no American wants nor deserves - our insurance had started to deny claims.  Fortunately, Medicaid stepped in at last.

February commenced with her opponent's final assault.  Outpatient treatment of the pressure sore failed, and surgical debridement of the area showed an insidious infection - MRSA.  A second procedure and large doses of antibiotics kept the infection in check, but her previously weakened condition left her with no reserves with which to recover.  Her daughter and I gently but repeatedly asked her if she wanted to come home, and what exactly that would entail, and she answered yes to all variants of the proposal.  But, she never made it to home hospice care.



She was a woman of tremendous talent and secret fears.  She was a wife, mother, sister, USAF veteran, artist, activist, and gamer.



She was my best friend, and I miss her terribly.


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