I wanted to take a moment and give you all a great big Thank You! Thank you for all the watches, faves, and comments! I appreciate them all and when I begin to have moments of doubt or the specter of writers block begins to rear its ugly head, those watches, faves and comments give me the motivation to push through!

Well, I'm back. More or less. It's been a rough few years for me, mostly working a job that I thought I liked. Thanks to this little pandemic and my first vacation in 8 years, I realized that I needed to make a few changes in my life.

That said, I hope to start posting some of art I've commissioned over the last few years and I've started writing again so expect to see some of that get posted!

yukai.slayde is offering up a pretty neat ych http://www.furaffinity.net/view/32596285/ stop on by and give it look see!

Just a quick update. Everything went ok today even though I feel like I've been hit by a train!

Like the journal title says, there really isn't an easy way to say it.

Today I was diagnosed with Bladder cancer. My primary Doctor and oncologist are pretty certain they caught it in the early stages. The tumor is about the size of a quarter and as far as they can tell it hasn't spread. I go in for surgery on Wednesday and after I heal from that I start radiation treatments. The surgery I can handle but I'm not too keen on the radiation treatments. I really don't want to glow in the dark!

I've been trying to keep my sense of humor and a sense of perspective and not get depressed. Bladder cancer runs in the family so it wasn't a complete shock and surprise. Which is why I get myself checked out every six months.

I'll keep everyone posted on how I'm doing and such.

Last night my phone started to go all wonky. Or I should say the mobile data did. I was going from 3g to 1x back to 3g to no data at all. Usually restarting my phone solves the problem.... Nope. Apparently some drunk hunter coming home out of the hills drove his truck into the local cell tower.... It'll be Friday before they get the tower fixed so until then I'm stuck with 1x service!

In other news I'm really liking the new job. I especially like getting paid once a week regularly instead of collecting partial unemployment and waiting weeks for a roofing job to come up. So all in all things are looking up for a change. I'm even managing to get the family drama under control. Mostly.

Hello everyone, again my apologies for being silent of late. Things have just been chaotic in my life. That and I started a new job... So hopefully my shoestring financial situation will dramatically improve by the end of the month.

So, today I took my niece to the doctor for a wellness checkup. They discovered that she has Scoliosis in two areas of her spine. One spot is slight and the other spot is minor, that is according to the x-rays. But, the orthopedic surgeon wants to do an MRI to be certain before deciding on treatment. So yeah, not a good day.

Again, I want to apologize for being so quiet the last month or so. Playing referee between my sister and her ex husband has been exhausting! It would certainly help if she had filter between her brain and her mouth! And it would certainly help if she paid the power bill on time and not when they send threatening notices!!!!

So yes, nothing much has changed since my last journal. Except the near constant migraine... The things we do and put up with in the name of family.

On a happier note my niece graduated kindergarten last Friday! She was so excited! I just didn't have the heart to tell her she still has 12 more years to go.

Always do what's right. Those were the last words my dad said to me before he passed away. Tonight really put that to the test.

A couple of hours ago my sisters soon to be ex knocked on my door asking for a place to stay. If this had been a couple of months ago I'd have sent him packing. But, he's been working really hard at getting his life turned around and getting his head on straight. He even started dating and moved in with this really nice woman... Or so we all thought.

Apparently this gal was hiding the fact that she was a drug addict! He only found out about it today when he went looking for some toys he bought my niece and found they were missing along with some of his dvd's and tools... Long story short, this woman has been selling and or pawning off my brother in laws stuff to pay for her next fix!

And if having your soon to be ex brother in law show up on your doorstep seeking sanctuary wasn't surprise enough. He proceded to hand me half of next months rent in cash as thanks!!! Of course my sister is a little torked but its not her house now is it? And besides, the look on my nieces face come morning when she sees her papa will make it worth it.

On another note I was talking with my older sister today, telling her what's been going on and such, when she said, "That's why dad put you in charge of taking care of the family after he passed away." She then told me to look up the Paul Harvey Super Bowl add on YouTube because it described me and my personality perfectly!

Personally I always pictured myself as Darth Vader. And with this cold I do kinda sound like Vader, only with more coughing!

Ugh, I owe everyone an apology for going quiet this last week. I've been flat on my back with what started out as a cold but quickly became bronchitis. And if feeling awful and coughing almost constantly wasn't enough, I up and get laryngitis and can barely talk above a croak! This is the first day in a week I've had any energy to do anything other than sleep.

Of course the stressful elements in my life have taken advantage of my temporary demise, (Yes, I'm talking about you my dear darling sister!). A strained croak in the emergency room examination room was not permission to use my truck to run to wally-world!

Seriously, I hate colds! This is the first time in a day and a half I've had enough energy to do something other than sleep and cough!

In case anyone was wondering smartphones can't swim!

Late Saturday night I tripped over my nieces step stool in the bathroom and managed to drown my phone in the toilet! It seems to be working ok now after drying in a bag of rice for 48 hours. So I apologize to everyone for suddenly going quiet for two days.

Yup, another one of those days... What exactly do you say when your sister comes out and says that the guy she's been dating is married with two kids?

Just another one of those days... My sister borrowed my truck today cause her ex-husband had borrowed her car. Ok, no problem, right?

Wrong. She comes home telling me that the drivers seat is broken and won't slide back and forth. Oh, and hey, you're out of gas. I would have put some in but I bought lunch for my girlfriends....

So for the last hour and a half I've been on my hands and knees trying to first figure out what broke on the seat and then trying to figure out if it can be fixed. Somehow the little cable that allows the seat to move back and forth got unhooked. Do you know there's not much room for hands under car seats? Nor does your head fit under there either. But all is fixed.

And for those interested my niece is still driving me batty with that stupid fox song!

My niece is driving me batty with some YouTube music video called, "What does the fox say" In the last hour she's listened to it FIFTY times!!! Make that sixty times...... HELP!!!!!!

Ok, I got a question about wifi. Specifically wifi booster antennas.

Here's the situation, my nieces elementary school has offered the use of their wifi network to help her with extra lessons and such for kids with learning disabilities, because we live so close to the school.

The problem is I live just out of range of the schools wifi signal by about a half block. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I'd like to apologize for being so quiet and antisocial lately. Long story short, family drama and dealing with the constant manufactured crises on my younger sisters part has been eating up all of my sanity and energy! Hopefully things will start settling down soon! If not I'm going to wind up in a padded cell talking to imaginary dust bunnies!

On a happier note my older sister got a new laptop and gave me her old Dell D620 latitude... The bad part is she lost all the recovery disks...

Hello dear friends! I hope you all had a great Christmas! Mine was pretty normal except for the escaped guinea pig and drunken soon to be ex brother-in-law.

My niece decided that she wanted to open Christmas presents Christmas eve. Not a problem except her daddy (The one arrested for questioning regarding some missing rifles. Which just happened to magically reappear the day after he posted bail...) had spent the afternoon in the local casino swilling the free beer while he gambled. Anyway, after texting and calling him for over an hour he staggers over to "watch" his daughter open presents. By "watch" I mean texting his girlfriend and bragging about how the casino runners kept giving him free beer because he was such a "stud". He stayed about twenty minutes before heading back to the casino. Didn't say goodbye, didn't give his daughter a kiss, just got up and left. My niece had a meltdown! Took an hour to get her calmed down enough so she could open the rest of her presents. I am delighted to say that she loved all her toys, games, and clothes. And once I managed to get the hungry hippo game assembled she beat me, her mother, and grandmother every round.

As for the guinea pig... He either worked out how to open his cage or the reindeer let him out. But, I woke up with the little rodent crawling up my pajama leg headed for forbidden territory! Of course your first instinct, after screaming like a little girl, is to swat at what's crawling up your leg with sharp little claws... I missed, hit something fairly sensitive, screamed again, and fell out of bed! Not exactly the way I wanted to get up on Christmas morning but, once the excitement was over it was more than worth it to see the look on my nieces face as she opened her Santa presents. A fureal kitty and a mlp Equestra girls rainbow dash doll.

For the record I want to say that I seriously despise the cold! Current temp...-25f below zero and falling!

Yup, another year older.

Talk about one of those days... I got a phone call from my nieces school this afternoon asking if I could come down and pick her up as her daddy was arrested on a warrant while waiting to pick her up from school.

So I rush down to her school to get my niece where I'm accosted by this troll from DFS (department of family services), demanding to inspect my home because while waiting for me to pick her up my niece said she was hungry... Of course she's hungry the last time she ate was at lunch and that was at 11:30 and here it was 4:15!!! Let's use our brains people!

Apparently I disappointed the troll because all she found was a clean house, full pantry, and a full refrigerator. The only thing she could find to bitch about was Bugs my little pony toys, the collectors ones that come in the pouches. Something about them being a choking hazard....

Your tax dollars at work folks!

I just had a visit by two Sheriffs deputies who were looking for my soon to be ex brother-in-law. Apparently he's wanted for questioning in relation to some missing firearms that belong to his sister... I knew my brother-in-law was an idiot but this takes the cake!

In other news I'm still suffering from acute writers block. If this continues I'm going to add brass accents and use it for an end table! I'm beginning to wonder if my writers block isn't just a case of being uninspired. So dear watchers I'd like to ask you what you think my next story should be? If you've got an idea I'd love to hear it!

There I was writing away, when out of the sky it came. It was huge, six sided and had an attractive walnut finish. Just what I always wanted my very own writers block...

I've got a ton of new characters and ideas bouncing around in my head and the cursor mocks me! Mocks me I say! *glares at the cursor*

Just a quick update on what's going on with me. Well, I'll be moving the family into town at the end of the month. Putting an end to this eight month camping trip from hell! First there was the fight with the power company about getting service hooked up. Second was the problems of getting the septic tank put in. And then helping my younger sister and her family get back on their feet after her husband lost his job and got evicted from their apartment.

The only down side of moving into town is we have to give up the dogs... So that's got everyone bummed. But life goes on. At least my niece will get to keep her guinea pigs.

Sometimes life throws you a series of curve balls and you have to adjust as circumstances change. At least I haven't fallen off any roofs so far this summer.