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Life continues
So, this and that.
Still bringing my ‘newsed’ car up to operating trim. Had to replace the battery and one wiper blade, had to check the owner’s manual to figure out how to get the dome light to operate, had to clean the nozzles of the windshield washer. Next step will be to get the light in the trunk to operate (it’s clearly missing a bulb, but I suspect I’ll need to replace the housing as well). Work in progress. And that’s where I currently stand.
Susan had been talking about it for some time already, and a little over a week ago she made her decision and filed the paperwork. Her last day of work with the California VA is April 27th, and she plans to come home in May. A surprise, but only a small one, in that I’d been expecting it to come in July or August instead. If possible, I’ll fly to San Fran and help her drive back, three days if we take it easy. If that can’t be arranged with my work, she’ll come back on her own, and anticipates it would take at least a week; she can’t drive twelve, sixteen hours a day like I can (or could, three years ago when I took her to California to begin this stint). She still hasn’t made any firm decisions for her future beyond that; maybe she’ll pick up part-time work, maybe she’ll teach again, maybe she’ll get a different position with the VA back in our home state, or maybe she’ll just take retirement. (And there remains the possibility of our relocating to be closer to our granddaughter. That will probably happen eventually, but probably not immediately.) Whatever the decision, she’s coming home.
Back in China, Amber spent some time in the hospital, with what turned out to be the flu but they didn’t know for the first few days. It was severe enough that the hospital put in an IV, but for medicine rather than hydration. Susan did a stint at St. Jude’s, many years ago, so she takes childhood illness seriously. Perhaps in recognition of this, we got reassuring WeChat videos of Amber playing or singing or coloring in her hospital room; we could see the IV port at her wrist, but we could also see that she clearly wasn’t in immediate visible peril. Now she’s home again, and seems perhaps a bit under the weather but otherwise as cheerful and self-sufficient (and self-involved) as ever.
Weather just keeps getting better here; still not warm, not quite yet, but much less cold. Hardier souls than I are already going around in shorts and t-shirts; me, I’ve just switched from my winter coat to a lined denim jacket. Close to eight months of semi-moderate weather … I’m definitely looking forward to it.
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sroni has asked (and been granted) permission to remix one of my stories. Come the time, I’ll post a link. I await this with some eagerness. And, inspired by a movie I saw while I was in China — but I had to wait till I got home to find a version with subtitles that allowed me to understand what was going on — I’m sketching out the basics of a new story, which practically nobody will understand because it’s from a Bollywood flick with very little exposure in the U.S. (and currently no stories for it on Ao3 or Fanfiction.net). I’ve always been more than a little self-indulgent in my fanfic projects; this one may be solely for me. We’ll see when the time comes.
Oh, and I’ve now lost ten pounds since my return from China, and still following the process that got me here.
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Weight loss … I’m like Mark Twain with smoking, I’ve lost bunches and bunches of weight, and then have to do it all over again. This time I got higher than ever, so now I have to fight my way back down.
At least, with warmer weather hovering over the horizon, I may actually be able to begin some exercise.
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