I was wondering what to read this afternoon when one of my sons happened to show me a miniature figure he had just finished painting. He purchased a new game just after Christmas, and he has been painting the figurines that make up the playing pieces. He is very good; a skill which I am proud to say he inherited from me.

I spent many an hour working with him and one of his brothers painting Warhammer 40K figurines and vehicles, and showing him the modeling skills I developed through my childhood and later in engineering classes.

I have much to be thankful for this year - I have survived yet another year, it appears that my immunotherapy has been successful in that I have been cancer free for over a year and a half, the reaction which I had to the immunotherapy seems to have settled down and I am no longer in constant pain from my joints, my mobility has returned to very nearly 100% of what it was previously, and I am still surrounded by my family.

I was looking through my bookmarks this evening, deciding on a story to read, when I started thinking about the authors that I have become acquainted with here and those that I am missing.

Has anyone heard from Elsbeth? She is one of my favorite authors, but she disappeared suddenly around the beginning of Covid.

Bailey Summers posts sporadically and is another of my favorite authors. I hope to see more from Bailey soon as I basically owe my life to Bailey. We’re it not for Bailey, I would probably have eaten the muzzle of my .45 nine or ten years ago.

Over the time I have been on this site I have seen many an author, reader, or simply a poor tortured soul who has expressed themselves either through their writing, or through a posted blog. I myself have found it useful at times to post something, using the site to express my frustrations with some aspect of my life or society in general - or crying out over some emotional issue which is tearing me apart.

As it could be upsetting to some.

Some time back, I posted about having a mole removed from my back and finding out it was melanoma. So, after seeing an oncological surgeon, she sent me for a PET scan. My PET scan came back negative, which was of course great news - but there was of course the fact that my mole still tested out as stage four melanoma. After the PET scan, this was reclassed to stage three based on the results of the scan.

The past several weeks have been......... well, let’s say interesting. You remember the old Chinese curse about living in interesting times? Yeah......... interesting.

A few years ago I noticed a mole on the back of my left shoulder, just above the scapula. It was unfortunately in a location that was visible in certain styles of clothing (annoyingly and unflatteringly so), and over time it became large enough that it occasionally caught on my bra strap or rubbed on my clothing uncomfortably.

Between working remotely (the recent snow storm to hit the east coast resulted in our offices being closed for the past two days) and clearing snow, I starting thinking about the friends and acquaintances I haven’t or heard from in the past year. We are coming up on 12 months since the pandemic hit the shutdown phase, and we began to lose track of a lot of people.

This was really pointed out to me as I was looking for a story to read this evening. While going through my bookmarks, I noticed several stories by Elsbeth.

As I lay here trying to sleep, I started thinking about my life - as I am often prone to do. In light of the fact that technically it is Thanksgiving, being nearly 1:30 AM, I started looking at the things that I have to be thankful for.

First, my family is healthy and safe - which in this time and place is something not to be taken lightly. Given that my spouse, two of my sons, and myself all suffered through Covid-19 in late March and early April, and that we are all doing fine now, I am very thankful for the fact that everyone is healthy.

This evening I saw several posts looking for authors or members who have not been seen on here of late, and it reminded me of the post I saw some little time ago asking about Elsbeth, who happens to be one of my favorite authors. She, like many others seems to have dropped out of sight.

Now that many of us are six or more weeks into our new, and hopefully temporary, normal of social distancing and lockdowns, I wanted to make an observation.

I’m trying to find a story based in the Whateley Universe in which a teenage boy is exposed to nannites while on a school field trip to a top secret lab, and then while playing an RPG on his computer he runs into Fay’s alter ego and is killed while trying to save her in the game. The nannites are somehow activated, mutating him into his role playing character, a female elf, who also happens to have an affinity for electronic devices, as well as retaining her stealth abilities from the RPG, and some pretty well enhanced combat abilities from the nannites as well.

Well, luckily, I don’t really have a fever - just a case of cabin fever, so to speak.

So both of my sons have been through a two or three day cycle of low grade fever - around 100.3F for both of them. But both are back to normal now, and feeling better. The youngest, who started first is doing really well. His brother, my oldest, is about two days behind him and says he is still feeling a little run down.

Last Friday, a woman who works in the same building as my spouse decided to go into work with a fever of 103F. She stopped into my spouse’s office for a few minutes to use the postage meter, before returning to her desk in another part of the building. She was later sent home, and then tested by Public Health for Covid-19.

We found out about her being tested a few days ago.

I just wanted to wish all of my friends here a very Happy New Year, and best wishes for 2020.

This was my fourth holiday season since going full time as my true self, and the best yet. Whether because I have become more natural and comfortable in myself, and hence more passable, or because the public around me is simply becoming more accepting, I can’t say. Perhaps a little of both?

Last week, while at work, I ducked out of my office and over to the employee cafeteria - you know, sometimes you just need a few minutes away from your desk and the computer in order to save your sanity. So I decided to get a fresh cup of coffee from the cafeteria.