News of the Week 7/13/08

Not too much drastic has happened this week, which is good. John goes into his office MWF to read independent study lessons and graduate theses, as well as (most importantly) play basketball with his faculty group at noon. He also goes swimming with me--three times this week!--at the RB pool. I'm only up to 12 laps (1/3 mile), but he does 18 and has time to sit in the sauna before I get out of the locker room. What a patient man.

I'm riding my exercise bike every weekday morning, since the big scary ultimatum from my MD. Jamison rides it too--I'm glad we have it for both our sakes. I work two mornings a week (well, noons, actually, about 11:30 to 1:30) at the Alpine Valley Care Center in Lindon, doing evals and visiting with elderly patients with various problems, from strokes to MS to dementia. It has been much more interesting than I anticipated at first. The end of life is in many ways as important and varied as the beginning, and, since it happens to all of us, there's no reason to avoid talking or thinking about it. I remember after Lucy died how differently I felt about death. I think a lot of my reaction then was due to the blow of her death, but this time it feels like I'm regaining some of that objectivity, or maybe just increasing my comfort level with the idea of getting old, dying, and then being dead. The patients I visit with talk about their own deaths with equanimity and often impatience.

I see private patients at my office in Orem on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and evenings, with sometimes an emergency appointment on another day. Betsy has helped me get on more insurance panels, and I'm doing a lot of testing and therapy for the Utah State Office of Rehabilitation. Right now I have plenty of work, and I'm trying to figure out how to do it more efficiently. Especially the report-writing. Not taking time out for blog posts might help.

I'm also still going to my weekly SFF (science fiction/fantasy) writers group on Tuesday nights. I haven't really worked on my vampire novel for ages, however. I know what needs to be done, I just haven't figured out how to write the way John does, in between and around everything else. I'm excited about the next story, which is Mormon werewolves. Betsy helped me order a new mini-laptop online (an ASUS ordered through Costco, 9" monitor, 12 Gb, Windows XP loaded, 2.18 lbs, but I'll spare you the photo) and I'm looking forward to spending time writing during our trip to England in a couple of weeks, while John's at his Hardy conference. I have a little portable 26 Gb hard drive and a bunch of 2-4 gig data sticks to go with it, so I should be able to take all the photos I want. It can do internet too, so I'm hoping to figure out how to blog from there. Maybe our B&B or wherever we're staying will have Internet access. John wants to go to Cornwall and the fen country (maybe stay in Cambridge, Coventry,and/or Nottingham) as well as Dorset on this trip, rather than spending any time in London. It looks like we might be deciding what we'll do after we get there.

Yesterday we went up to SLC, the Aves, to visit Brett & Betsy and Rob & Nicolle, and I forgot my camera! The babies were sleepy anyway, but with them living so far away, any chance at photos should not be missed. Rob is building me a psych blog. I bought 5 years of website server and 4 years of domain name (or the other way around, I can't remember) for a little over $200. We looked at a few local psychologists' web sites, and Rob was not impressed. That's the other thing I should be doing instead of blogging--getting the info together to send him. Oh well.

John, Chris, and I went to Hell Boy 2 yesterday, and it was a lot of fun. I can't resist sending you the Barry Manilow video that goes along with it. If you are into demons, fairies, elves, governmental bureaucracies, and Armageddon, this movie is for you.