Working is always better when you have a companion in adventure.
That's me in what Teri calls the C.S. Lewis Chair, because it was purchased with proceeds from The Narnian, my biography of Lewis. Twenty years old and still going strong, despite some visible wear and tear. I also, though considerably more than twenty years old, am going strong, despite some visible wear and tear.
Things are, I think, beginning to settle down. My sister and I have installed our mother in an assisted living facility, which is very sad — she lost her home of thirty-five years and had to have her 15-year-old dog, her best friend, put down — but also means a less stressful existence for all of us. Mama is stoic but, I'm sure, struggling. I can't get a good read on things until I visit her, but I'm unable to do that right now because Teri is recovering from surgery.
The surgery yesterday was partially performed by a robot! — surgeon-directed, but still, the Future Is Now, I guess. Everything went swimmingly, and thanks in part to the robotic element it was less invasive than such surgeries were even in the recent past, so her recovery should be smooth. She was under anesthesia a long time, though, and was slow to get back to full consciousness. When she told her nurse — who looked like a grizzled Jerry Garcia and sounded like Hank Hill — that she was still woozy, he replied, "Well, I imagine you've had more drugs today than you have in a typical day. I don't want to rush to judgment, but your tooth-to-tattoo ratio suggests that you're not a heavy drug user."
I plan to make use of the phrase "tooth-to-tattoo ratio."
I was able to queue up some posts so that things wouldn't be too quiet while I'm in caregiver mode, for instance:
an essay in The Dispatch on the Great War correspondent A. J. Liebling
a review of Simon Armitage's new translation of Gilgamesh
an essay for Cosmos Malick on The Thin Red Line and the Bible in Malick
I hope you all enjoy these. Your support makes it all possible.
That support has gone up considerably in the past month — to my surprise and gratification! My assumption is that the increase has something to do with interest in Cosmos Malick, and that is a great encouragement. Posting will continue to be a bit slow for a while, but I have many ideas and am coming to believe that this project could be one of the best things I have ever done. I wouldn't be coming to believe that, though, without the readers who believe in me. I am most grateful.