Those of you who follow this blog – particularly if you pay attention to our Calendar – may have noticed that the posting for our April 2014 meeting is late. As in, “way past our May meeting” late. Well, here’s the story…

In the weeks after our April meeting, various people and events would take bites out of my time. Nothing major; a nibble here, a nibble there. Next thing I know, I’m down to one week before our May meeting. So, I have a mini-marathon session, prepping and uploading the photos, and throwing some text to the blog. Mid-week, my modem goes belly-up. I schlep on down to the CableCo office and exchange it. This happens, that happens, and I’m down to Friday evening. I could’ve forced another mini-marathon and tried to get the update done, but I decided a good night’s sleep would be better, and the April update could wait over the weekend.

So, we have our May meeting, which – again, if you check our Calendar – was on the 10th. In other words, the day before Mother’s Day. Early Mother’s Day morning, my mom wakes up with a bad stomach flu. I mean bad. I actually had to call relatives and advise them to not come over, because my mom was in no condition to have guests.

I spent Mother’s Day taking care of stuff around the house for her. By mid-day Monday, no surprise, I developed my own symptoms. For the next three days both my mother and I were effectively incapacitated – the stomach flu was that bad. Towards the end of the week, I felt better enough (in the neighborhood of 65%, say) to run out and grab some groceries and household items to keep us set through the weekend.

That weekend. Man, what a nightmare. You’re wondering perhaps while I’ve titled this post, Priorities. Here’s why: that weekend, the weekend after Mother’s Day weekend, my mom exhibits badly slurred speech, and doesn’t seem able to understand when I ask her to repeat or say things. My mom ends up in the hospital over the weekend, and the diagnosis was what I feared: she had suffered two mini-strokes, or TIAs.

She’s been back home a little over two weeks now, and actually is improving greatly, thank YHVH-Rapha. Her speech is at about 90%; she’s able to get around the house on her own (although I have to remind/nag her to use her cane or walker); she does exercises with a physical therapist; and is regularly taking medication. So there are all these new things added into both our lives: installing safety bars in the bathroom; keeping her prescriptions up to date; updating the calendar with appointments for physical therapy, bloodwork, and check-ups with the doctor. In a word, priorities.

So, I have over two weeks’ worth of things which I’m only now just barely getting back to, things which obviously are either no longer priorities or, at most, much, much lower in priority. This club’s blog, for example.

I expect to be able to attend our June meeting (which is now just a week away), but obviously that’s extremely flexible. As you (might) know, I’m transitioning the Suncoast Diecasters club site from web to blog because the web-based site had become too large to manage at code level. I may someday have to completely turn over upkeep of this blog to some other SD member. But until then, I shall continue to participate in the club, and manage the club’s blog, as my real priorities allow. So…

…See you at the June meeting (I hope!)

~WM