![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the very sucky week
Nov. 3rd, 2005 12:07 pmOkay, let's just get the worst of this over with and then I'll feel better. I think.
( grisly details )
The best news of the week is that Aunt Susan made it through heart surgery on Tuesday and hip surgery two or three days later. On Monday they got her out of bed for a couple of hours and I brushed her hair and put it up for her. On Tuesday she didn't do so well. Her heart started beating irregularly and her kidneys weren't doing so well. It seemed to me she lost most of the gains she'd made. I stopped in to see her yesterday before I hit the highway and they said she was doing about the same. The PTs are coming in and working with her every morning, and they moved her to a chair before I left. She's not much interested in eating and isn't able to eat much when she does try.
I've decided that staying with my parents and trying to take them places is like herding dust bunnies. They're little and wispy and vague and go drifting off at random. It's hard as hell to get them corralled and going in the same direction. Just when you get one cornered and ready to scoop up, the other one vanishes. And they're my parents, for god's sake, so I can't fuss at them like I would at kids. Daddy is particularly bad for remembering something he needs to do at the last minute.
( more family stuff )
I took a bunch of books to read while I was there and finished most all of them. I had trouble with the ones that were set in alternate realities; hell, I was having enough trouble hanging on to my own. I think that at another time I will like Pattern Recognition by William Gibson, but last week it was beyond my comprehension. I did better with straightforward mysteries that didn't require any deep thought at all. Most of the mysteries in Mother's collection go too far that way and border on fluffy (if they don't dive into it head first), but I wound up reading several when my stash ran out. Yeesh.
I took several books on tape for the drive up and back. I started a mystery by an author I have liked in print but didn't like at all on tape. She kept going off on digressions and I wanted to yell "Get on with it!" I finally decided it wasn't going to get better, so I switched to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon. Mostly I loved it. It was written in the first person and the writer is supposed to be slightly autistic. From what little I know about it, I think the author did a fantastic job of conveying that reality. Occasionally it got on my nerves; I felt kind of guilty when I got annoyed with the repetition. I'd still call it a Good Read. On the way back, I put on Practical Magic. I'm actually not finished with it yet. It started out sllllloooooowwwwwwwly, but I was still enjoying it enough that I kept listening. It was just pleasant. I didn't really think anything was going to happen, particularly. On disc 6 of 8, she whipped out the hook that got me on the edge of the seat, and made me really glad I'd hung on. I'm not sure why it took quite that long, but hey. It was a long drive. Depending on how it comes out, I think I'll designate it a Good Read. So far I've been able to accept her convention of Love At First Sight, though I think in reality there's no such thing. Hell, the book is about magic, though, so I'll let her get away with it.
I think what has put me off fiction for so long is fear of preachiness. It has taken some sort of trick to suck me in, at least so far, but once I'm hooked with good writing, they can tell me whatever they are trying to about the human condition. I still don't quite have the nerve to start a fiction book with no gimmicks-- no mystery, no magic, no time travel. Maybe if I keep at it...
Well, as hoped, writing has proved therapeutic and I feel somewhat better. I did get my phone fixed this morning, though all the numbers stored were lost. I feel like I'm back in the world again, though, so that's good.
( grisly details )
The best news of the week is that Aunt Susan made it through heart surgery on Tuesday and hip surgery two or three days later. On Monday they got her out of bed for a couple of hours and I brushed her hair and put it up for her. On Tuesday she didn't do so well. Her heart started beating irregularly and her kidneys weren't doing so well. It seemed to me she lost most of the gains she'd made. I stopped in to see her yesterday before I hit the highway and they said she was doing about the same. The PTs are coming in and working with her every morning, and they moved her to a chair before I left. She's not much interested in eating and isn't able to eat much when she does try.
I've decided that staying with my parents and trying to take them places is like herding dust bunnies. They're little and wispy and vague and go drifting off at random. It's hard as hell to get them corralled and going in the same direction. Just when you get one cornered and ready to scoop up, the other one vanishes. And they're my parents, for god's sake, so I can't fuss at them like I would at kids. Daddy is particularly bad for remembering something he needs to do at the last minute.
( more family stuff )
I took a bunch of books to read while I was there and finished most all of them. I had trouble with the ones that were set in alternate realities; hell, I was having enough trouble hanging on to my own. I think that at another time I will like Pattern Recognition by William Gibson, but last week it was beyond my comprehension. I did better with straightforward mysteries that didn't require any deep thought at all. Most of the mysteries in Mother's collection go too far that way and border on fluffy (if they don't dive into it head first), but I wound up reading several when my stash ran out. Yeesh.
I took several books on tape for the drive up and back. I started a mystery by an author I have liked in print but didn't like at all on tape. She kept going off on digressions and I wanted to yell "Get on with it!" I finally decided it wasn't going to get better, so I switched to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon. Mostly I loved it. It was written in the first person and the writer is supposed to be slightly autistic. From what little I know about it, I think the author did a fantastic job of conveying that reality. Occasionally it got on my nerves; I felt kind of guilty when I got annoyed with the repetition. I'd still call it a Good Read. On the way back, I put on Practical Magic. I'm actually not finished with it yet. It started out sllllloooooowwwwwwwly, but I was still enjoying it enough that I kept listening. It was just pleasant. I didn't really think anything was going to happen, particularly. On disc 6 of 8, she whipped out the hook that got me on the edge of the seat, and made me really glad I'd hung on. I'm not sure why it took quite that long, but hey. It was a long drive. Depending on how it comes out, I think I'll designate it a Good Read. So far I've been able to accept her convention of Love At First Sight, though I think in reality there's no such thing. Hell, the book is about magic, though, so I'll let her get away with it.
I think what has put me off fiction for so long is fear of preachiness. It has taken some sort of trick to suck me in, at least so far, but once I'm hooked with good writing, they can tell me whatever they are trying to about the human condition. I still don't quite have the nerve to start a fiction book with no gimmicks-- no mystery, no magic, no time travel. Maybe if I keep at it...
Well, as hoped, writing has proved therapeutic and I feel somewhat better. I did get my phone fixed this morning, though all the numbers stored were lost. I feel like I'm back in the world again, though, so that's good.
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
