I can confirm that Nilly's kids are no longer toddlers. Two days before the war started I saw them (and Nilly) with my own eyes.

I'm OK as can be. Here's today's link: [link]

PiBoy is at school today (he doesn't like school on principle, and he dislikes anything that takes him away from the Minecraft server (goodness, I hope I'm using the right word) he's building, so I consider him even attending school as a win

Oh, Nilly, I am so glad your kids have a bit of normality in this awful time. My kids spent a few years playing Minecraft and I hosted a private server for them while they were at their peak.

The families continuing everyday life amaze me. I will always hope for your family's continued safety.

definitely.

Nilly and Shir, thank you so much for the updates. You are both constantly in my thoughts.

Thanks for the updates, I hope y'all can stay safe in all of this.

My new work schedule has kicked in, or I think it has I'm supposed to alternate weeks having Sunday and Friday off and Monday and Tuesday but the most recent week added to the schedule has a Thursday off so I'm confused.

I either have allergies or a cold. I'm leaning towards allergies, which I know it's not really the season but I think something at work triggered them. I have been using hand sanitizer and washing my hands a lot (mostly because they get so dirty ) but I haven't really been masking and I'm going to start. Maybe it will help with the dust and stuff I keep inhaling.

Mom was going to come down but she hurt her ankle somehow , she's not sure she said she woke up and it was hurting, so I told her to stay home. Her landlady let Mom know she is planning on selling all her rental properties and getting out of the landlord business...she's offering Mom to buy her place at below market but that is about $50,000 more than what they talked about 3 years ago and there is the issue of steep steps and a tiny bathroom that isn't anyway to make it handicap accessible. One of the units in the little duplex community she lives in just rented for about double what she is paying now-- and the place is tiny. I don't know what is going to happen.

Nilly and Shir, thank you for continuing to check in here. And Shir, thank you for the links you've been posting. They've been really meaningful.

My mother was supposed to text me after my grandmother's heart surgery on Wednesday and I've heard nothing. I'm posting in the hopes this will manifest a phone call from my parents.

Posting worked. I got a call from my dad with an update. My grandmother's valve replacement on Wednesday led to a pacemaker on Friday and a very weak 97-yr-old who isn't eating. We'll see. I'd really like to be able to pass the book I'm reading on to her after I'm done.

Oh, aurelia. Lots of ~ma to your grandmother.

Timelies, and deep heartfelt thanks to y'all for your continuing good thoughts and wishes. I'm sure it's far from pleasant or easy to subject anybody's catching-up and writing on B.org to the constant reminder of sad and frightening things happening, even far away.

lisah, Pi+Girl's life-line these days is meeting her friends. As long as she can maintain doing this, she manages to be OK (well, as OK as possible). I'm very thankful that her class has such a varied group of really lovely and lively girls who can meet among themselves in various groups and get along relatively well (um, they are still 5th-grade girls, so there has to be some drama, but still).

Cashmere, both your kids were into Minecraft? Have they ever played together, or to each their own? (Pi+Girl vocally dislikes the game, but I can't tell if it's an honest opinion, or she just has to argue with her bother's taste.)

askye, I hope you feel better soon, and that the mask will help.

I'd really like to be able to pass the book I'm reading on to her after I'm done.

aurelia, lots of health vibes to your grandmother.

(Oh, and to contrast with yesteday, this morning both kids are at home.

Pi+Girl's school announced that all the pupils were supposed to attend school at once today (up until now, when they were allowed to have face-to-face lessons again, they were only for about half the pupils at each time, and another building was used in top of the regular one, so that there were enough safe rooms for all the kids and staff attending). So today there are not enough safe spaces for all of them, and not enough time for all of them to get even to the not-entirely-safe-enough spaces they're supposed to go to, so we left Pi+Girl at home today.

Her school-hating brother begged to stay home today with her, so we traded that for not-arguing-about-going-to-school for the rest of the week (Let's see how it goes. We said that he's allowed to whine and complain as much as he needs in order to vent, but not argue about actually going. And, well, actually going. All these breaking-of-the-routine, especially after all the years of online not-really-studying and staying-home-from-school during Covid, made him realize how very optional going to school can be, and he has the certainty of how-on-earth-are-you-already-a-teenager declaring how one doesn't really need school and ho school is a waste of time).

And, yes, the absurdity of, at the same time, convincing the girl who wants to go to school that she should stay at home, and convincing the boy who doesn't want to go to school that he actually still has to do it, is not lost on either of us. Oh, well.)

I read several hundred posts last night and didn't have to do it in a hurry because I already knew Shir and Nilly were physically safe. I had a long luxurious phone convo with Suela the day after the initial massacre and it was the first thing I asked her. Thank goodness. I also appreciate the endless generosity of spirit that Shir and Nilly feel about humans while they're in the middle of hell. My love to both of you. I'm going to be reading on a regular basis now because I'm living for your updates.

I was glad I took the trip to see Jacqueline when I did, I knew I was choosing to see her alive rather than the funeral, a terrible choice to have to make. David I know I check in via text but it's really good to see you have a safe space here to vent about family and paperwork shenanigans. Charlie's life was SO much less complicated than yours and Jacqueline's and it still took quite a lot of effort to sort things out. That said, his was a mess because of course no one expected it, and he had none of his affairs in order. I remember what a constant stressful struggle it was just to keep getting things notarized and making sure I had enough certified versions of such and such.

I also don't know what I'd have done without Facebook because checking in with my people far and wide on an almost daily basis kept me alive. It's why I'm so glad you have here and FB and people in person.

I plan to be there for the memorial in May.