[Sca-cooks] Stefan li Rous' status

[Jim and Andi Houston]

Good luck with all the challenges Stefan, it sounds like you have some
excellent and loving people helping you!

Madhavi

-----Original Message-----
From: sca-cooks-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org
[mailto:sca-cooks-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org] On Behalf Of Stefan li Rous
Sent: Sunday, November 04, 2012 3:23 PM
To: SCA-Cooks maillist SCA-Cooks
Cc: Stefan li Rous
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Stefan li Rous' status

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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