[Sca-cooks] Stefan li Rous' status

Stefan li Rous StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
Sun Nov 4 12:22:52 PST 2012


I'm sorry I haven't been able to participate much in the discussions here lately. 

I even missed putting out my Florilegium article for October for the first time in probably 10 years.

On August 20, my wife was involved in a serious automobile accident and totaled the van. Unfortunately, she also fractured a vertebrate and several ribs. After being in the hospital and rehab hospital for several weeks, they decided her surgical wound had gotten infected again and so more surgery. After several more days in the hospital she went home to stay with her mother, who drove her across town to get her IV antibiotics changed each day. W week ago they took her off the IC antibiotics and put her on some pill antibiotics.

At the end of September I was let go from my contract position at work because the company ran out of money. They are working with a skeleton staff of the remaining (unpaid) salaried engineers. If their customers finally pay them and/or they get some new orders then I'll have my job back there. It looks likely to be December before that happens, if it does.  Meanwhile I've been prospecting for a new position. A few nibbles but no interviews yet.

You may or may not know that I went on kidney dialysis in mid-June since my kidneys are failing, probably due to 35+ years of diabetes. Initially they put in a "permanent catheter" in June. They are only supposed to be temporary. And two weeks ago when I went in for diaylsys, they couldn't get my blood pressure up after treatment. I rode the ambulance across the street to the hospital, where they determined my blood was septic with something. It turned out to be a common bacterium that could be treated with antibiotic pills which I'm still on. Unfortunately the day before I got sick, and perhaps while it was developing, I went to a job fair and in walking around  on bad fitting shoes, injured my ankle. They examined in the hospital but couldn't do much. It is gradually getting better and I'm just limping a bit now. The doctor wanted me to wear a brace, but too much else going on right now for that. They told me afterward that when I entered the emergency room, I only had a 50-60% chance of living, that some of my organ systems had already begun to shut down.

When my brother came to house to pick up stuff for me while I was in the hospital he decided it was too crowded with stuff. I guess I have been hoarding, which included lots of books. 

My family decided to help out and decreed that until my wife, with her medieval problems, mainly Lupus and this bacteria from her back surgery, she could not come home until the house was "cleaned".

So on Saturday a dumpster arrived and my brother came over with two hired helpers and we will filled it with old papers and mail, a lot of old electronics and non-working computers.  Now to clean up various boxes and piles of stuff scattered around the house to clean up and if anything stays to put them away tidily. 

I have about 1800 cataloged books on various medieval, cooking and general subjects.  I guess I'm going to have to trim back on some of this. Once much of the contents of the garage was in the dumpsters, we move three bookcases from inside the house to the garage.

Even my wife's and my dogs are currently living elsewhere. :-(  My mother-in-law says she will be help replace the soiled carpet with a laminate or other flooring but that our two cats will have to go. :-(  One it very standoffish but we did just spend a lot on his teeth. The other is a sweet, affectionate cat that follows me around the house and cuddles with me at night. Not sure if I can find either a good home and I really don't want to see the black one, the affectionate one go. :-(

So, get house cleaned up, find job if possible, if not possibly go on disability. I do have a small pension from being at Motorola for 23 years and I will be applying for that. Only half of what I would get if I waited until I was 65. (I'm 55 now).

Once my wife is home, since I can't drive to the weekly fighter practices which are after dark now, I will be trying to sell off my armor and my rapier stuff. (For some years I've nourished the idea of maybe doing SCA combat again… sigh)

Not as many jobs these days for printed circuit board designers. I have been considering going back and developing/getting more training in embedded C programming or JAVA/SQL. I'm not how much expertise from my past career will carry over to the later type of programming.

Sometimes I wonder if it is worth continuing to live:-(  But we do have some retirement savings. Not as available as I might like, since I didn't plan on being in this situation.

But if anyone wishes to comment or offer suggestions or perhaps just talk, I would appreciate it. Meanwhile maybe I'll find some time to add some stuff to the Florilegium among all the rest of the chaos.  

Stefan
512-949-9745
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com

--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/marksharris
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****









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