If I'm Quiet. . .

I ran into a little problem with my (relatively) new computer. When DH was shopping for my holiday present, he bought a laptop with a 512G hard drive. It should have been plenty of room. I don't store or stream videos on my work machine.

However, I started back into practicing cover design. I also downloaded a cheap copy of Corel Drawing for this purpose. Plus, I do keep my music on my work laptop because I use it for white noise or creating a mood while drafting.

The next thing I knew, I ran out of space. Literally. I rolled backup folders and files to portable drives. I rolled off used editorial art and photos. I double-checked that I hadn't copied a handful of movies from my old laptop to the new one. So as of right now, I've got 13.9G.

I can already tell you it's not enough to last through the rest of the year.

With DH's guidance, I open up my laptop to check if I had room for a second solid state drive. No extra slot.

*sigh*

So, I broke down and ordered a 2T SSD. Now, I need to do some surgery on my baby this weekend and move everything from the old drive to the new drive. It'll be just like last year when I shifted everything from my old laptop to the current one.

If everything goes right, I'll post on Wednesday. If it doesn't...

Well, I'll still post. I've already updated the battery and bought a mouse for the old laptop. The touchpad no longer works and needs to be replaced. However, it was cheaper to purchase the new mouse. But the point is that I've got a functional backup if anything goes wrong.

If I'm successful with this project, Baby Blue is next on the list for a harddrive upgrade!

Wish me luck!

Puppy Surgery

Princess Bella had to go in for dental surgery this morning. Somehow, she managed to break two of her upper molars, one on each side of her jaw. Even though she was the second surgery scheduled for the day, the animal hospital kept her until four p.m. to make sure she suffered no ill effects from the anesthesia or the anti-inflammatory meds. While she is a dog with a large personality, she does have a tiny body.

Everything went smoothly, and she's now cuddled with me on our recliner. However, she does have the glazed look in her eyes.

Tonight's dinner for her will be Little Cesar's Filet Mignon. Her favorite soft food for her poor abused mouth.

It will be a quiet night in the Harden household.

Stress and the Little Things I Do to Deal

The last five months have stressful for me. It's sucks that even good things stress me out these days.

My cataract surgery was very successful. It's so cool I ditched glasses for the first time in fifty-one years. But still, it's surgery. Things can go wrong. And I have one of those brains that has to analyze every single possible outcome.

Because of the unexpected surgeries, I got behind on fulfilling my 2023 Kickstarter campaign. I failed to get the majority of holiday gifts out before New Year's Day. I struggled to get my tax information collected and handed off to our CPA.

And I feared we would lose our fabulous CPA last year when he was diagnosed with cancer.

CANCER SUCKS.

Another friend also had cancer surgery this week, too. I know I'm at the age where shit happens to my peers. But the stress collects in my body. Yoga classes help, but not enough.

A friend noticed, and she suggested we get away for a weekend. She's had her own issues over the last year. We both need a little break right now. So, I'm taking her up on her idea of a little weekend getaway to a hotel with a spa.

I'm really looking forward to this getaway, and I'm sure I'll come back refreshed.

I hope you all find your own ways to relax over the weekend!

Driving Again!

I've been pretty independent since I graduated from college. This wasn't the first time I couldn't drive due to a surgery, but it affected me more.

Why? Because I'm realizing how little time I still have on this planet. Watching family and friends lose their mobility sucks. And I realize I may have the same problems within the next twenty years, which doubly sucks.

For the past three weeks, DH has had to drive me everywhere. Even to Starbucks. I really don't like feeling helpless, but when I can't even go out and buy my own dang cup of peppermint, it feels even worse.

But today, I drove my car home from the shop after the new brakes were installed. And I felt the same power I felt when I got my very first apartment,

And it was a most excellent feeling!

TGIF!

After the cataract surgery on my left eye on Wednesday, I'm no longer seeing double. Distance vision is awesome. Medium vision (like being on my laptop) is doable. Close vision is bleah at the moment. Doctor G canceled my second followup because he thinks I'm doing awesome.

He also scored brownie points for intelligent discussing Star Trek.

So, I go back at the end of January for an eyesight check-up once the swelling in the left eye goes down. I may need reading glasses. I may not. We'll see. (Pun intended.)

In the meantime, I have enough visual acuity to complete the publishing and Kickstarter tasks I had to put aside back on December 13th. I'll finish writing the Millersburg Magick Mysteries holiday story, but I'll probably save it for next Christmas.

(Anybody besides me get that anticipation hangover after Boxing Day?)

In the meantime, I'm also wrapping presents and shipping those and cards to family and friends. My depth perception (or rather, lack of it) during the two weeks between surgeries made me leery of using tape or scissors around the gifts. Ironically, this was the year I tried very hard to have my gift shopping done well before Christmas. Maybe I should have stuck with gift cards for everyone as I have in previous years. I could have given DH the forms, had him print out labels for me, and made him sign the cards for me.

I guess being late is better than never showing my peeps how much I appreciate them!

Once More Into the Breach!

I need to be at the surgical center early this morning for my bionic left eye. Keeping my fingers crossed (until the sedative kicks in) that this surgery goes as well as the last one. Another three weeks of eyedrops, then we'll see where we are. (Pun intended.)

I'll probably need reading/computer glasses, but I'm still amazed how well I can see with my right eye when I wake up in the morning!

When I get home from surgery, I'll have one of my homemade cinnamon rolls.

Assuming GK hasn't eaten all of them!

My Favorite Hotel

I'm still talking about my vacation because I cannot write at the moment.

Let me amend that. I'm having difficulty seeing my laptop screen while I type. My mismatched eyes are causing double-vision and headaches if I stay on the computer more than a few minutes at a time.

The issue will only last until my surgery next Wednesday. So, I do a little bit here and there and spend the rest of my time watching my very long list of programs I've saved. I can close my eyes and listen to Kevin Hart, Wanda Sykes, and Gabriel Iglesias's comedy routines.

Or I imagine DH and I are still in Las Vegas for a much needed vacation.

The Luxor is still my favorite hotel. It's not just the fabulous architecture. It's set up in a way I don't have to deal with too much smoke from the casino.

Before any smokers jump on my case, I stay away from you and your habit for the same reason I stay away from cats. I'm frickin' allergic. If I'm sufficiently forewarned, I stock up on allergy meds and decongestants.

The first time I stayed at the Luxor was the year after it opened. My friend and I had a room on the south side of the pyramid. At the time, construction had started on Mandalay Bay, but for all intents, the Luxor and the airport were the edge of the city.

These days, you can't tell where Henderson ends and Las Vegas begins as you drive over the Muddy Mountains and into the desert bowl. But damn, if you can't still see the light at the top of the pyramid the entire way.

While I'm in Surgery...

Depending on what time you read this post, I might be in surgery getting my eyeball sliced with a laser. For some reason, I'm more nervous about this surgery than I was about the mastectomy five and a half years ago.

Why? Because this only affects the quality of my life, not my survival.

Sounds stupid, right? Except humans are irrational at heart.

That idea is difficult to write about because we humans also want things to make sense. If I wrote about some real life incidents from my own or others I know of, most readers would do the proverbial "throw the book against the wall". Those incidents make good barroom tales, but most readers would write the idea off as unbelievable because it is so outrageous and there's no satisfying ending in real life.

We humans are the ultimate paradox.

Which is why, after wearing glasses and contacts over the last fifty-one years, I'm scared that I might see clearly without visual aids.

Writing More than Showing On the Stats

Over at my main website, I keep a list of stats on current and future writing projects. Right now, it doesn't look like I'm doing much of anything. My NaNo project is an Alter Ego book, the first in three(?) years. 

Also, I'm double-checking for typos in Magick and Murder after finding a few I missed in Fae and Felonies while proofing the paperback. Also, there's the annual Christmas short to write. I need to have everything done before DH and I set out on our first real vacation since GK was born. (The treks to Ohio to visit family do not count as vacations because they definitely weren't relaxing. Neither were the staycations to fix house stuff.)

After we return from our trip, I've got two eye surgeries scheduled in December to fix the cataracts I have thanks to the tamoxifen. Like I told my oncologist, if there's a weird side effect to a drug, I'll have it. Merry Christmas to me.

But that also means, my writing may be limited until my body processes the new bionic lenses, as my buddy Jo would say, and we figure out if I need glasses or just reading glasses or *fingers crossed* I don't need anything at all. By January, I should be able to drive al night again.

Can I now? Technically yes, but I don't feel comfortable doing it.

This is just one of many things a person deals with on the way the big 6-0. Yet, I still want Barbies for my birthday, and I plan on hitting my favorite comic book shop when I'm in Houston. I feel very paradoxical at the moment.

However, I will be taking Baby Blue with me on vacation. DH no longer flies so the drive to our destination will allow me to only write. While technically a laptop, Baby Blue isn't much more than a glorified tablet with a keyboard. She only has WORD and EXCEL loaded, and the wi-fi remains turned off unless there's a dire emergency that my phone can't handle. And there isn't much a smart phone can't handle these days. However, I only have my personal e-mail on the phone.

If all goes to plan, I should have a few giant updates on stats at the beginning of December. Then, things will be quiet until the beginning of January.

P.S. The entire Justice series is currently on sale at all retailers (or it should be) until December 10th. Pestilence in Pumpkin Spice (Soccer Moms of the Apocalypse #1) is $0.99 until Deember 31st!

I'm Blind

Well, that's true since I was seven. I always got put in the back of the classroom because I was so much bigger than most of the other kids. And I squinted at the blackboard. (Yes, young'uns, this was in ancient times.)

So, I was tested by the school nurse, and she sent home the recommendation that I visit the eye doctor. This was the '70's, which meant huge ugly plastic frames and equally huge heavy lenses. By the age of eight, I had huge ugly divots on my nose from the weight of the dang glasses.

Contacts came in high school and went with my pregnancy. New plastic lenses made it possible to wear wire-rims for the first time ever.

Then came the cancer. And the tamoxifen. And the cataracts, the one side effect from the tamoxifen I worried about the most. My eye doctor thought I'd be looking at cataract surgery after I turned 60.

Today, I had my annual eye check-up. My eye doctor said the cataracts have progressed faster than she guesstimated, and she referred me to an eye surgeon. My appointment with him is in two weeks. It means I need to get my winter holiday story done before November 7th since I don't know what happens next.

I'm rather glad I haven't committed to any releases for the first part of the year. My fingers are crossed that this surgery goes smoothly. I need to see my laptop screen!