I'm getting to the point where just keeping up is beyond my dwindling capacities. I'm not sure what's going on, but I suspect I'm not going to like it when I find out.

Anyway, I apologize for having been such a lousy correspondent this year.

Of late, I seem to have been overtaken by events: my health has taken a turn for the worst, I wrecked my car, and the guy they hired to help me out at work has moved away. (Another guy has drawn the short straw.) I'm still alive, but it's not something I much feel like bragging about.

I mean, I'm not allowed beer anymore, at least not until I get off some of these damnable medications, but our little table had massive fun discussing Jenga, photography, classic and modern weaponry, beer (of course) -- and ponies. Apparently they'd read my stuff. Who knew?

Regular visitors will remember that I'd asked the estimable LeekFish to knock out a sketch for my, um, OC. I posted it here, and it was well received; our own Twifight Sparkill came up with an idea, and heck, there's no reason you shouldn't see it here, especially since she's revised it to give me a more, um, scholarly look. (The LeekFish original is still in the sidebar at DustySage.org.)

I think I would rather spend two weeks in the Everfree, trying to avoid everything that can kill me, and in the Everfree I assume everything can kill me, than one more minute in a hospital room.

That said, their definition of "on the mend" doesn't quite coincide with mine.

Two weeks in hospital; maybe half a week more. It's an uncertain future I face, but doesn't everyone?

Of late, the depth seems to be about six feet (1.83 meters). I am currently battling some health issues which, if I'm fortunate, may leave me in a wheelchair. (If I'm not so fortunate -- well, let's not go there just yet.)

Surprised? Heck, no. The warranty's been up on this body for a long, long time. In the meantime, there are specialists to see and expenses to (barely) meet.

As of a couple months ago, I had 1,005 stories on the Favourites shelf.

Today, it's down to 1,000 -- not because I removed any, but because they've disappeared. Oh, I'm still showing five unread chapters from somewhere, but there's apparently no way to know where "somewhere" is.

I am, of course, not really a wizard. So I felt a certain kinship with Sunburst, who, like me, turned out to be something of an underachiever in later life, at least in comparison to what was expected of him (or of me). And like me, he eventually figured out that keeping up a front was more trouble than it was worth.

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I didn't get as much accomplished as I hoped to during these past twelve months, but I've had rather a lot of years like that in a lifetime that's gone on far longer than I expected it to. (I have a habit of predicting my imminent demise; so far, I've been wrong every time.)

Still, I get to start another one, and there's not a thing in the world wrong with that.