Rain Interstate

What was the old saying?  "When it rains, container ships filled with thumbtacks and dynamite will fall on your house."

..Or it might have been something about 'pouring'.  

However its been a fairly chaotic four days.  I had to push back work again after my father had a medical episode at his dialysis clinic on Saturday, and ended up having to be brought to the ER again.

..During a record breaking spike in COVID cases among the 'rodeo' and 'freedoms' crowd here.  Our province is the worst in Canada by more than four times again, and the health system has basically caved in on itself locally.

So, the short of it is that he had to have a hole drilled into his head (literally) to relieve a subdural hematoma.  He's had a hell of a rough time lately, and looks like he's gone a couple rounds in a ring with a semi wielding a baseball bat.

While the procedure was a success, there are complications.  Two rather advanced ones that I won't really go into here.  But it ensured that I was, once again, focused on calls and conferring with doctors, residents, nurses and relatives for four days.  

While I'm still not sure when he'll be released, or what the aftermath care will entail, I'm hoping to still at least keep up with some schedule of art here.  I was nearly finished the flats for 'Yeendles' when all of this started happening, and I've fallen behind unfortunately.

I also wasn't able to alert the next person on the $10 tier list of their illustration slot.  While I will send that out very shortly to the next person on the list, it might take some time for the artwork to get done just by virtue of the caretaker work I'll be doing.  My father is definitely winding down his remaining time on this mortal plane, so I want to be sure I get time to spend with him not just as a caregiver, but family.

I won't lie, its painful to watch a brilliant mind that pioneered the engineering of the first internet for one of the major national comms companies fall to a whisper, who's confused by basic things and forgets information given to him mere minutes before.   That's been heart-crushing to witness. 

Its taken its toll on me.  I certainly can't deny that.

Its done a wrecking number on him though.  I'd give anything to fix it for him.

Nevertheless I'll still continue doing art in the shards of time that I do get.  Its something that keeps me going, and an escape I can ill afford to lose.  I just ask that you forgive me for being a bit slower than I usually am until things calm down a little again.

-T.J.