[Sca-cooks] Stefan li Rous' status

[Karen Lyons-McGann]

Stefan, I'm so sorry you arriving through such a series of crappy
situations all backing up on top of each other.

Bonne

On Sunday, November 4, 2012, Stefan li Rous wrote:

> 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 <javascript:;>
>
> --------
> THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
>    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas
> StefanliRous at austin.rr.com <javascript:;>
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/marksharris
> **** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Sca-cooks mailing list
> Sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org <javascript:;>
> http://lists.ansteorra.org/listinfo.cgi/sca-cooks-ansteorra.org
>