Avogadro's Number

Just about anything

Recent Posts

Wisdom

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My mother-in-law is ninety-two years old, and getting a little… fuzzy in the memory department. I found this list from her caregiver, Mary, with these life lessons:

Here are a few things that Ms. E has learned:

  • The hand held telephone will not change the TV Channel, nor does it have a mute button.
  • If you tease the cat with your sock and then put it on your foot, the cat will bite it.
  • The TV remote does not work very well after being in the freezer overnight.
  • Fully used toilet paper that is placed in the trashcan beside the toilet will make the bathroom stink.
  • If you are going to set up the coffee maker for the next morning, it works better if you grind the coffee beans first.

Here is the most important thing that I have learned:

Never ever bring any of these things to Ms. E’s attention.

Beginnings

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Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.
~Semisonic in “Closing Time”

Personal Year, New Beginnings

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Someone told me long ago that one’s “personal year” starts on the person’s birthday. Today is my birthday, and so I begin another year.

I went out this morning, planning on gifting myself with a long drive, to find that my car had been replaced with a hummock of snow. I was tempted to head out anyway, but what with this being a Monday and all, staying home might be a good thing.

Merlin agrees. I opened the door so he could go out, knowing that he wouldn’t. He looked at the snow, watched it fall, meowed in an annoyed fashion, went back to his favorite chair (mine) and is now napping.

I’ve been relegated to the computer chair, but I have the hot Ovaltine. Life is good.

Wombatcon: Convention Report

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WombatCon was what I wanted it to be. Friends old and new, gathered to sit and talk. There were some stories about jan, but mostly there was just friends, old and new, talking about whatever friends talk about. Perfect.

The display I put together of a sample of jan’s life got the reaction I wanted. A whole lot of people said, “I never knew jan had/did/was…” As I was cleaning up the house and finding some of these things, I said pretty much the same.

I was suffering a double hit of brain meltdown: the heat/humidity and packing for both con and trip to Los Angeles. Several people wrote to me on Friday. I was running around so much, I never even unpacked my laptop.

And forgot my camera. I’ve been promised copies of the pictures others took, and will post them as they become available.

We had a couple of toasts just after 5pm. One to and for jan, and the other to “fuck cancer”.

And then some bright person started a game of Cards Against Humanity. Ohdearghods, I needed that. ROFLMAO isn’t strong enough. I do recommend that you do not play this game with or around people who are easily offended. It is rude, crude, and socially unattractive. It is offensive, tasteless, disturbing. It is the funniest damned thing I’ve done in quite some time.

The evening ended with tear down. I thank all who helped with that. Setting it all up was hard enough. Tearing it down alone would have been…impossible.

The final touch to the evening was hearing someone playing the piano just outside the back door to the ballroom. One of the hotel staff was playing a baby grand, playing the Moonlight Sonata. I love that piece. I can even play it… sort of. It was a perfect way to end the day.

Thank you one and all who came. Thank you one and all, here, there, wherever, for being jan’s friends, and being you.

My Life Starts Over

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Today marks one month since jan howard finder died, from complications of cancer and chemotherapy. My world stopped for a moment, while I reconfigured to a different way of living, without The Wombat in it.

jan howard finder died at 12:54am on Tuesday, February 26, 2013, in Albany Medical Center Hospital CCU, from complications of his cancer and chemo. The cause of death was listed as “multi-organ failure”. Basically liver and kidneys just stopped working. We have dialysis for kidneys, but when the liver stops, there’s not much to easily replace it.

I was with him when he died, and I had a friend with me. We probably had the hospital staff wondering about us, because we sat there and told silly jan stories and laughed a lot. At the end, my friend found the “Misty Mountains” chant by the dwarves in front of Bilbo’s fireplace, from the Hobbit, and played it. It was perfect.

jan was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer in 2004, and so had had an eight year run living with cancer. That’s not too shabby.  I had three and a half years of crazy Wombat, the last year and a half living with him. I got to see The Wombat at home, in his private moments. And found out he was just as crazy, silly, and marvelous when he had an audience of only one.

The outpouring of love and support has been amazing and wonderful.