Thursday, December 17, 2009

Unexpectedly Long Hiatus - Expansions and Contractions of Life

I am mortified that I neglected this blog for so long. My apologies to anyone who had developed an interest in it.

I wish I could promise it won't happen again, but it might, because this blog is one of those "add-ons" in my life - meaning I do it when I have the time, energy, and concentration to write on it after having met the core obligations of my life - family and job, mostly.

The trouble is, I get into really (and uncharacteristically) highly productive periods. I take new things into an already crowded life and manage it all joyfully for awhile - sometimes a long while. Then something gives and I have to retreat to managing my core obligations until I am ready to start expanding my workload again.

It's no easy feat. For one thing, there's the "executive dysfunction" to deal with. Many of us who fall outside of the neurotypical range have trouble managing the minutiae of everyday tasks and obligations - I'm no exception. Rather than going into a long treatise on what that means, I'll share the following song that I originally discovered when my friends at the Turner & Kowalski blog posted it:



So does every line of this song apply to me? No, but it's definitely familiar territory. Periodically, the juggling of the absolute essentials can pretty much occupy all my time and energy.

In the months since I last wrote, we took a nice vacation at home with Diane's (my partner) sister and niece. I've only had to travel out of town once - for which I am very grateful. We've had to deal with Diane coming down with the Swine Flu and get sicker than she's been in maybe 20 years - but we got through that.

We also have a new member of the household. He's a three-legged 11-year-old cat named "Oliver." Long story. If you're on Facebook, you can join his fan page here.

That's all for now. At the very least, I'll try to post some links to some good stuff I've come across over the past few months that are relevant to the topics this blog is supposed to cover. --Stephen

2 comments:

sanda said...

I think the song is wonderful - and I am most grateful for for the titles. I do not recall her name;apologies.(low stamina to go look for it...) Guess what? Some of the stuff is CFS/ME,too:like the whole coffee pot/water, memory stuff (I'm older and can answer the question asked, "What will happen when I get older?" Ans.more of the same plus more memory stuff, as in going into a room and wondering, "what did I come in here to get?" - leaving, remembering and returning.) I remember when I heard my brother-in-law use the phrase "executive function" (is that it? my own short-term CFS/ME memory stuff is showing) and said,
"what the heck is that?". Decisions for ones self. Those of us with brain cognitive glitches have to be concerned with not being taken seriously as being competent, is my fear.

The video was wonderful and I like the look of the room and the singer. On clothing: there was a time, at the beginning of sudden onset CFS/ME (over 2 decades ago), before diagnosis, which took years and years and a dozen doctors to get, I had to chose between changing my clothing and getting the mail from my apartment house mailroom. Then I got too ill to get upright (for most of 8 years).
So, I can relate to not changing clothing. I can relate to most things around disability of others.

I have checked on this blog from time to time. I understand how life interferes with doing a personal blog.

As soon as I can learn how to post art/photo online and improve a bit more in CFS/ME symptoms (stamina and brain cognitive,which overlap), I would like to do a blog of my own. Doing art and the short monthly writing for my art group are my life priorities, when life is not interfering. One thing disability plus: realization that anything I accomplish in a day is a major plus/victory.
Have enjoyed reading your blog, Stephen. Happy New Year.

sanda said...

PS I went to youtube to see the name,and am smiling; she used screen name. After I posted my original comment, I went to make tea (with elec. coffee pot), poured a cup, went to another room for something, but couldn't remember what, went back to kitchen and poured hot water into full teacup..luckily, it sat on big plate...