Sweet potato:

ND, you sound a bit stretched thin there! Will you be teaching all summer too?

When am I not stretched a little thin? It's part of being a workaholic. Thankfully no teaching this summer.

Take some time off, ND!

That is a big part of why I have been taking such long Adirondack breaks lately. I'm still putting in the long hours on the computer, but being so remote stops the running around part. It really puts an extra load on Brendon, but only he can stop the madness for himself.

For June through September I get to say that I am delighted to help, but only if I can get remote access. No travel. In mountains. Sorry. My days are still usually 12-16 hours, but I can be in my jammies with feet up or outside on the porch. Can Not Wait.

Mental-health~ma, askye. Do what you have to do to get better. I've been in therapy for anxiety for the past 6 months and only now feel like I'm ready to stop. I wish I'd done it sooner, because that anxiety led to one of the worst performance evaluations I've ever received. Honestly, if I could have taken time off to push through it, I would have. Unfortunately, working for the state doesn't allow as much leeway. It was as much my fault, though, for not asking for accommodations, which I was totally in my right to do. Self-sabotage in not in your favor, so do what you gotta do.

Job~ma, Hil. Sounds like your current strategy is working quite well!

Teppy, my sister in migraine. I hope you feel better soon. I'm sitting home in the dark with the TV sound turned down to about inaudible on a music channel, trying to keep it from getting worse. Not seeing auras yet, but even the laptop monitor is almost too bright for my eyes. I'm supposed to be at WisCon attending all kinds of wonderful panels; instead, I'm here slounging in the living room after sleeping 3 extra hours and still not feeling any better. I can tell I ground my teeth all night because I couldn't sleep, my jaw hurts and may whole face aches. This doesn't happen that often, anymore, but when it does, it's miserable.

Oof, ND. Hope you're able to ease up.

I can't tell if the kitten is vibrating because he's purring so much or if he's like, shivering.

So I just spoke to my sister a few hours ago. Mom has had another stroke and has lost movement pretty much completely down one side of her body. It's honestly not like she's had much movement there to begin with. She's now officially on home hospice.

I've not spoken much about her in a long time. It's difficult. The woman I knew as my mother has been gone for a long time, and in some ways I've been mourning that loss for years, even while she is still alive. All I hope for now is that she can have release. It's what I've hoped for a long time.

It may sound cold hearted, but I would just like it to come quickly for her, but that hasn't seemed to be the way this has gone.

So. There it is.

The's nothing cold hearted about it, ND. I suspect that's the way she would vote, if she could.

That's not cold-hearted, ND, that's compassionate. No one wants to linger and no one wants them to linger, either. Pretty much everyone in my family has DNRs on their record. And, if they don't, we all know that that's their wish, because it's something we often discuss.

No, that sounds loving, really. I've hoped it for many relatives over the years.