Saturday 12 February 2022

Start of third period of regular blogging (5 month gap)

Five months have passed since I’ve made an entry. I will summarize the main things that have happened; perhaps I will return to them later.

Five-month Recap

Prostate Cancer. I have been diagnosed with prostate cancer (Sept 29); that was followed by deciding on a course of treatment (Oct); that was followed by deciding who and where (Nov-Dec 13); that was followed by the actual treatment – surgery at the Mayo clinic on January 27 – and that is now being followed by a process of recovery which is going very smoothly and more quickly than I had expected was possible.
Grand Canyon Hike. In mid-September I did a three day hike in the Grand Canyon: down one day, two nights at the bottom staying at Phatom Ranch, and a day going back up. I did this with my friend K, and it was a great experience. The geology was amazing.
F&SF Class with Lyda Morehouse. After I returned from the GC, I began a F&SF class (online, via The Loft), taught by Lyda Morehouse. I learned a lot, and wrote a number of chapters for a possible novel, although it is now languishing. I had hopes that the alumni of the course could coalesce into a writers group, but only one other person was seriously interested and so that did not take.
Essays Project. Sometime around here — late September I think — CT and I began an essays project. I forget how it came about, likely it was provoked in part by my finding CK Chesterton’s essays of interest, and in part by the writing courses I’d taken. In any event, we decided that we would read through the Oxford Book of Essays (~700 pages), and discuss them. We started off reading about 40 pages a week, and generally found at least a couple of interest; and, of course, the essays led to pleasant conversational detours, and proved a nice way for CT and I to spend time together. As we did this I took notes in an ever-lengthening document, noting my impressions about each essay, and also, after while, capturing quotes that I liked, authors that I’d like to return to, and word dyads or phrases that intrigued me. This is still on-going, and I am confident that when we reach the end of the book, we will search for something else to continue the process.
Weddings. In October I conducted two weddings: one for my niece, and a second for two close friends. Both were fun, and I was honored to be asked to officiate. I got a top hat for one, at the groom’s request.

San Jose del Cabo. In mid-November we traveled to San Jose del Cabo to visit our friend R for two weeks over Thanksgiving. We had a lovely time, and it was a nice respite for me from the medical adventure in which I was embroiled.
Quiet Interlude. December and January were quiet. We did not travel anywhere for the holidays, and once into January we pretty much self-quarantined as I did not want surgery to be derailed by covid. During the period our renovation finally sputtered towards completion, and the attic became habitable and we began to move into and figure out how we wanted to inhabit.
Website Revision. On January 1 an update of my website turned into a complete revision of it, and as I did that I decided I wanted to become a bit more competent in html and css and other aspects of web programming. So revising the site turned into a vehicle for learning. Initially what I wanted to do was streamline the html — which was pretty ugly after 20+ years of layering new things on to of old — and make the site more focused on what I am doing now. I realized, as I was doing this, that it is important to me — for reasons I can’t quite put my finger on — to have a representation of what I have accomplished. This was clearly important for me in looking back on my career, but I also realized that with a re-ordered site, I’d feel more motivation to write-up and share the new things I was focusing on: essays, other writing, and eventually travel and geology. My first foray into new areas was to figure out how to borrow and adapt some php code so that I would display random quotes that I’d been gathering from the essay project.
Prostate Cancer Recovery. As February came around, I had my catheter removed February 3, and felt like I had turned the corner and was ready to embark on healing and recovery, and also do more forward looking activities.

Next Steps

Trying to revive my writing practice
Working on finishing furnishing both the attic and my office
Continuing to learn web programming (and perhaps other topics)
Focusing on developing more content for my web site
Planning trips for the spring and summer

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