Life uh... uh... finds a way

(This is a random blog sort of post, I've got this month's wallpaper to post immediately after, because I'm kind of hoping to lose this post in the shuffle - but I have some things to get off my chest)

That photo is of a sculpture my brother did for some kind of professional project. He's an AMAZING sculptor/painter/model-maker, and has worked for special FX companies, museums, and all sorts of places. I've never mentioned it before, but yeah, we're both professional artists (I used to be kind of envious of his amazing skills when we were young - because he's a little older than me so he was always a little better than me, and he actually went to art school and I didn't because my family could only afford for one of us to go).

I never tell him how amazing he is, or how proud I am that he's got his own workshop and how that's all going. Nor does he tell me that about my work. I hope that means we both feel approximately the same way, and don't need to have an awkward sappy conversation about it.

So, our dad died a couple of weeks ago. That's sad. Neither of us were VERY close to him, me a little more than my brother I think (but I'm well, I'm managing, it's sad, but I'm soldiering along)... but since I had the good sense to move far away, now HE is stuck doing all the funeral arrangements and sorting through my dad's belongings, etc. I don't envy him anymore. It sounds like a royal pain in the ass.

My dad had cancer - his fourth one. That's actually why it's not SO sad, because we'd all been very prepared for him to go. Strangely enough, he survived it - stage 4 Hodgkin's lymphoma. He was in complete total remission. He had about two months of good health and good spirits (which was the last I talked to him), and then quickly wasted away from congestive heart failure. Poor guy. He was 75-ish? Not a bad run. Certainly not a tragic waste of youth or something.

My cat also had cancer, and I found that out this month or right at the end of last month. Jeez, when it rains it pours.

Remember my cat whom I've mentioned before? She developed cancer in the same place she'd had a non-cancerous cyst before (the cyst has been a problem on and off for about ten years). I thought it was just infected. But the vet said it was cancer and told me this horror story about cat tumors that burrow deep into the system and can't be removed.

I thought I was going to have to have her euthanized. But I decided to have them do a biopsy and double-check the diagnosis. It wasn't the horror tumor that can't be removed. It was a surface skin cancer. She had surgery to have it removed, and it went perfectly.

Now, instead of a round black spot on her shoulder (because she's a spotty black and white cat), she has a little black lightning bolt - because most of the tissue was removed from right there. She's still growing her fur back and she just got her stitches out last week. But for a 13 year old cat, she handled it all like a champ! Uuuuugh cat surgery is so expensive, but we were able to afford it (in no small part thanks to YOU GUYS!) and it's worth it because my favorite kitty in the world is happy and healthy. ^_^'

In other news, my wife and I are still gearing up to move. I'm glad THAT major life disruption didn't ALSO happen this month. >_<

It's all just been a LOT to deal with. All this stuff. Jeez. My heart goes out to the people in the Caribbean who just went through multiple hurricanes. I know how it feels to get hit by one thing after another. I'm very very fortunate to still have most of my life in order, that's for sure.