Hello my friends!
First, let me apologize for being a under-achiever lately in the friendship department. I have heard rumblings that some of y'all have been actively seeking what happened to me. You know who you are! I love you all XOXOX
That being said, I do believe some excuses are in order. Well, I suppose that 'reasons' is a better choice than 'excuses' but either way I should explain. I do feel badly about just dropping off the grid, but as I have said here before, sometimes life gets in the way of having online fun. The bottom line is, my life has been filling up in many ways.
First in a long list, is my youngest grandson Jude. 6 weeks ago he was diagnosed with congenital cataracts in both eyes. Poor little guy just turned 2 in December past (he & I share a birthday - how cool is that?). He was having difficulty with visual recognition and the doctor found him to be legally blind.
Please understand that my son is deaf since birth, and my oldest grandson Gareth is also deaf, but Jude hears normally. I was overjoyed at this development, now to find out that he is blind? A heartbreaker for grandfather Slick indeed.
Last Wednesday, Jude had surgery to remove the cataract from his right eye. The doctor deemed it successful, and when the eye patch was removed on Friday, it became apparent to his mother and the case worker (mom is a genetic deaf-mute)that he can now clearly make out shapes and colors visually. Hallelujah and God be praised! Miracles do happen! He will have the left eye done this coming Wednesday, and there is a case worker for him to help him catch up with his verbal skills and basic developmental recognition.
I have been at wit's end since they are all the way in Austin, TX, and I am 900 miles away in TN, keeping up by text mesage and an occasional email. People take using the phone for granted, but I would give anything to be able to speak to my son and his family directly. We do have a videophone connection if our schedules allow, but it still requires sign language to communicate. The past 6 weeks, "ANGST" has been my middle name! I feel a lot better after the first procedure, and the prognosis is for him to have normal vision, with perhaps eyeglasses required somewhere along the way. Prayers are answered on occasion.
The other thing going on is big time demands on my energy at work. I have been working on a huge project for the past 9 months, and we are at the point of going live with the systems & processes. I had to cancel my vacation to visit the grandsons in June due to timing and workload, and that was quite stressful for me. I am taking the first week in August to go see them come Hell or high water. At these times, it is always a wish to be independently wealthy so I could tell them to shove it, but my creditors appreciate my income too much right now.
There is more to the story from the past 6 weeks, but I will create a "Part 2" in order to polish off the checklist. To be continued...
Slick
