aadler | Catching up on the latest

Bits of this and that:

We finally had our renewed Chinese visas arrive, so we can begin setting a travel itinerary (and making arrangements for where to keep our car and RV during the approximately-two-months we’ll be out of the country). If possible, we want to spend maybe a week in Ireland and visit our daughter and her husband, before moving on to Shenzhen to await the arrival of our second grandchild.
Susan got with one of those regenerative medicine clinics, and got injections of something called Wharton’s jelly into both knees. What I’ve referred to as ‘mobility issues’ for her turned out to be the result of severe loss of knee cartilage, so that in a couple of places it’s bone-on-bone. The treatments can, under ideal circumstances, restore one-third of the lost cartilage within the first three months, with more expected as time goes on; the Wharton’s jelly is a potent source of adult stem cells, so we have some hopes on that side of things.
I’ve said more than once that, since starting the RV life, in the various parks where we’ve stayed I’ve seen examples of all the main types of RVs, except the pop-up camper type … then two days ago someone — a family, no less! — brought in a pop-up almost directly across from us. Then today, someone came in with an A-frame camper, which I now learn is a type of pop-up. We’ve filled the entire roster, then.
Summer of Giles has already been announced for 2025 (see here), and I already have something of a start made on my submission for this year. Not pushing too fast — it doesn’t open till July — but I already promised a fic for my granddaughter Amber, and her birthday is August 1st, so I don’t want to leave things till the last moment.
Our son Kevin (the one in China) got a new job just after finding out that Mei-li was pregnant again, and this job has him doing a lot more traveling than had previous positions. I already related how we met him in Las Vegas over the winter; he’s supposed to visit New York City the middle of this month (roughly the time we’ll be in Ireland if that plan goes through), and he seems to already be at least tentatively scheduled for a trip to Germany. When did we all become so cosmopolitan?

And that’s it for now. Tune in later for the next pulse-pounding episode.