Richard Raley's Blog, page 22

Week Three: It's Gonna Be Hot

 Well, it IS hot, but no relief in the future either.  Given the most common problem with this surgery is dehydration I really picked the worst time to have it done.

HOT.

FUCKING HOT.

HELL ON EARTH HOT.

EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE AND THERE ARE RANDOM BURSTS OF LIGHTNING HOT.

So...how am I?  Okay, I guess.  No pain really.  Was some serious itching for a few days that gave me chickenpox flashbacks.  Still yo-yoing between all clogged up and there she blows!  TMI?  Very TMI.

9 hours sleep and being in bed by 6PM is pretty much an everyday thing at the moment.  Just not a lot of energy.  Not a lot of patience either.  Very, very irritable and...well, I can't deal.  I mentioned playing CONTROL in the last post and the second boss wrecked me twice and instead of buckling down and conquering I just clicked off the PS4.  Reloading for a few minutes and running back?  Too much work!

On the food front I've graduated up to pureed food.  Or at least attempting pureed food, since I only can add one new food a day.  But I get stuff like Hummus and refried beans and soft scrambled egg and lentil soup now.  A whole 1/3 of a cup of it each meal.

Am dropping the pounds and my esophagitis has been chill and my hernia is fixed, so no complaining but...it's rough on my taste-buddies.  I think I miss spices the most.  I don't get cayenne or curry back for months, that's just not fun!  My poor, lonely sriracha bottle! 

Anyway, day by day I improve.  Keep staying safe everyone, country is still a mess, so don't join in the orgy.

Watching, Playing, Reading: The Return Edition

==WATCHING==

PERRY MASON:  I think if people had just viewed this show as "Jim Smith" totally unrelated to the character they know, it would have gone down a lot better.  But for whatever reason, the Hollywood geniuses decided they needed to take yet another hero of yesteryear and totally beat the shit out of him, poor Luke Skywalker wasn't enough.  Green alien titty milk still haunts me all these years later and I've never rewatched Last Jedi...

It's a good show with a really stellar cast.  Big Matthew Rhys fan and I loved to see Tatiana Maslany back on my screen again in a post Orphan Black (aside:  if you haven't checked it out, check that out over Perry Mason, its pilot is probably only surpassed by LOST and WESTWORLD) show.  Once Perry was...you know, a lawyer around episode six it even got really good.  Looking forward to season two a whole bunch, since...ya know...he'll be a lawyer at the start that time.

But starting with Perry Mason blackmailing someone, a drinking problem, a deadbeat, AND a shitty father...kinda not fun for the audience.

HARLEY QUINN:  So there's the whole "Joker is abusive and Harley needs to strike out on her own and kick men in the balls" aspect that's pretty played out--or maybe I'm just still recovering from how bad BIRDS OF PREY was--but I dig this for all the obvious reasons like...curse words and smart, witty foul mouthed jokes.  Also King Shark has total T-Bone vibes...if T-Bone occasionally went mad with rage and started biting heads off.  Halfway through season 1, looking forward to the rest.

UMBRELLA ACADEMY:  Blah.  They just repeated season 1 in the 1960s.

FOOTSOCCERBALL:  5 teams with a realistic chance to win the Champions League and a possible Inter-ManU Europa League final where Lukaku can throw Harry Maguire around like a little boy?  Yes please!

THE BOYS:  GET HYPED REWATCH FOR SEASON 2 NEXT MONTH BABY!!!  THE DOLPHINS WILL HAVE THEIR REVENGE AND I'M NOT TALKING DAN MARINO!!!

==PLAYING==

FOOTBALL MANAGER 2020:  I'm not addicted, you're addicted.

CRUSADER KINGS 2:  So I haven't really done a run of this for a couple years and the last expansion was HUGE.  Clicked on my favorite 900ish start date and never realized that the Kingdom of Arles has this guy called...Welf...as king, so...I could not help myself.  Two hundred years and a lot of Heinrich Welf's later I've shattered the Byzantium Empire and refounded the Bloodline of Alexander the Great, tons of fun!

CONTROL:  one of the games I just didn't get around to with all my health troubles.  Great gameplay, interesting mystery, tons of style, and it's only about 20 hours long, which is perfect (granted I'm looking forward to spending 200 hours on Cyberpunk at the end of the year, but...this is nice too!) for where I'm at now, especially since focusing on something like that for longer than an hour can still be a hassle for my surgery recovering ass.

==READING==

COLD DAYS BY JIMMY BOY BUTCHER:  It's been like...*checks watch* 6 years since the last Dresden novel and I both needed a refresh but also don't feel like going through all bajillion of them, so Cold Days looked like the smart restart point.  Seems like the new book is "half a story" so I have the time.  Granted if there's enough story for there to be fun theories to go over in the intervening months that can be fun too, but I'll be caught up soon enough.  Ya'll are going to be losing your minds at the FM7 halfway point BTW...just FYI...

THE PLANTAGENETS BY DAN JONES:  The book that made me decided to give Crusader Kings another go!  Nice overview of the time period, but...I like a more personal history book and this isn't it.  Granted without a large number of sources that kind of inner look is very difficult and we're talking about a thousand years ago, not like people were writing every little thought or had blogs back then, did they?

Now...what have you all been up to with your media consumption?

One Week In

Today I get to upgrade to a full liquid diet.  Means the end of the Broth Purgatory and goodies like tomato soup, protein shakes, and apple sauce can be consumed and boy did I never think I'd miss that stuff, but here we are.  My energy levels are still really low, obviously.  I'm basically in bed by 6PM and sleeping at least 10 hours.  Plus there are points during the day where the most I can do is sit at the TV and rest.  Probably have about 4 hours of laptop/gaming time in me a day.  Pain is mostly gone, but there is some slight lingering soreness and all my incisions are itching now.  EOE hasn't reared its head, so here's hoping they did what they were supposed to and the new plumbing keeps it at bay.

Still no writing, or close to it, but everything is looking very promising for SOON.

Still Kicking

So far, so good.  Shockingly good.  I was the first person discharged in my little group to go through.  I have very little pain, which I'm able to handle with liquid acetaminophen and gas, lots of gas, but glory be to Mylanta and Gas-X.  Got five little incision points on my stomach that are draining correctly and they are plenty sore, but...again, just shocking good so far.

Compared to the EOE flare I went through earlier this year, this is nothing.  If during the EOE flare someone would have walked up to me with a baby seal and told me bashing its head in would make the pain go away, I'd have done it and told them to bring me another just in case.  This...hasn't even been 48 hours since surgery and I'm sitting at my bedside typing to you lot.

Main goals for the next week are to keep fluids in, not to push myself too hard, to sleep well, and to have heaps of burps and a gaggle of farts.

Diluted apple juice...yummy!

Oh, I get to take a shower in 12 hours, yay!

Small "War to End All Wars" Sneak Peak

So, all the pages have finally been typed up.  I'd say the percentage on the progress bar is pretty accurate and we're a little under 1/3 of the way done with the book.  Also...100k of progress split across 4 projects, not including the outline work I've been doing on THREE super secret projects; nice one, Raley!

Who's been distracted?

This fucking guy!

Anyway, "War of End All Wars" will very much be the longest school story ever told, will be a nice send off to that timeline, and merits it's own novel.  Still a lot of plot to work through, but I'm hopeful.

Surgery is still a go.  Pre-Op on Wednesday.  Also some testing, including a Covid test, so...yay!  So much fun!  Get to have my brain molested by a q-tip.  Have to be at the hospital by 6AM on Friday, so super early fun time for all that.  Paperwork said I should be out in a couple days, but we'll see.  Also they don't seem to want to give me any of the fun pills, so I'm hoping the pain shouldn't be too bad.

Other than that...well, I have all this typed up work, and you've all been very kind and considerate, so I thought I'd throw you some pages, even in a very incomplete state that they are.  All rights reserved by me, Richard Raley.  Please do not copy and paste but link back here.  In a very early draft and subject to change.  Yada, yada, yada, most of you already skipped ahead...



“My name is King Henry Price.  I…am a Hep.  Which means I am in my seventh and last year at this here Institution of Elements, Learning Academy and Nature Camp.  As such, it is my duty to waste a significant amount of time keeping you lot from killing yourself as your student-advisor.  In case it hasn’t been made clear to you, you are Ultra Class 2015.  Which means you’re just a tiny bit special.  Get to live in this nice dorm all together.  Get me cleaning up your mistakes.  Maybe.  No promises.  Probably depends on my mood or how big of an asshole you are.“See, even if you are a tiny bit specially, you’re still Singles.  Which means you don’t know shit.  Yes, even if your daddy or your mommy is someone important.  You.  Don't.  Know.  Shit!“Some of you do know me, or at least know of me, I can tell it by your terrified expressions.  I do love making me some juicy rumors, oh yes I fucking do!  Guessing me popping up is a bit of a surprise, ain’t it?  They put the Foul Mouth in charge of us, what were they thinking?!?!“For you uninitiated in this one-in-a-million world:  yes, you heard right, my name really is King Henry Price.  Yes, my nom de guerre really is the Foul Mouth.  Really tall, blond Nazi Asshole just couldn’t help himself and the title stuck.  Don’t worry, ain’t one of those Voldemort situations like the fucktard on the TV.  I am perfectly fine with you calling me Foul Mouth.  It’s my being.  It’s my mantle.  It’s my fucking crown and a King I am, a King I say, yes I am!"“So…you can call me King Henry, Foul Mouth, or Your Majesty.  Do not call me Mr. Price or I will punch you in the dick.  Oh…about the curse words.  You’re probably thinking:  adults aren’t supposed to talk like that!  Guess what?  I don’t know about the adult part, but I fucking talk like this.  So get fucking used to it.  I changed a whole lot these last six years, but the curse words ain’t something I’m letting go.”Class 2015 looked extremely cowed and overwhelmed, even the Old Mancy kids.So far, so good.And everyone thought I’d suck at this!

Surgery Coming Up

The Rona might be wrecking face again, but so far it looks like elective surgeries in California might just hold out.  So we're a little under two weeks until my surgery.  Major surgery, obviously, so no idea how long it might take for me to get back and focused, but...I'm feeling more focused than I have in the last couple years, so here's hoping the pain isn't too bad.  Granted they are cutting up and stitching together a bunch of my stomach and intestines so...
Physically, writing is pretty simple, even if I have to lie in bed and scribble on some paper for awhile.  Mentally...well, that's always been the whole ball game, hasn't it?  Never been able to write very well when I was worried or anxious or even when I had a cold or the flu (looking at you, Dread Fortress Flu Ridden Editing Session!).  Like to feel pampered and happy and entertained by copious amounts of good media.  My anxiety problems are, oddly, the best they've been in a long while.  Really feel like I've passed through the eye and I'm out the other side.
Right now, my goal to stay inside and keep safe and also I've just started typing up the last 25 or so handwritten pages I had left on War to End All Wars.  After that, we got surgery, then recovery, then I'm back to writing mad scientist style for the first time in a couple years.  Granddad is gone, I've grieved and grieved for a long while now, so time to take all the emotions and experiences I've endured and put them to good use entertaining people and hopefully touching a few hearts.
If I have to hand write some more then I'll focus on War to End all Wars.  If I can sit at a computer I'd like to take a run at finishing the Vicky novel before the end of the year, although...again:  major surgery so no promises.  Could leak, could get backed up, lot of ways to end up in emergency after this, so...no promises just yet while I figure out my new normal.
If I could do it all over again, I'd probably never let myself take a vacation following FM6.  Or that might have made it worse, since I was already in rough shape following that thousand-pages-in-a-year sprint.  Still...this has all been bungled and, the toughest truth of writing is that nothing happens instantly and it's going to take awhile to unravel the webs and get us back to where we should have gone immediately.  No more side novels after the Vicky one.  No more school stories after War to End All Wars.  Just the main story.  If I go Galactic Brain Mad Scientist maybe I'll work on some other series, but...really want to get back to King Henry in a bad way.
Just typing up these pages I'm already laughing at my own jokes and chuckling at what comes next...

Grandpa Passed

Later I might write up an emotional post on my feelings and memories, but...right now I'm just really tired.  Um...so on the 15th he started to have blood in his urine.  This has happened before, usually having to deal with all the lovely plastic tubing the poor man had to deal with, and he went to emergency just like he also has before.  This time, however, they couldn't completely stop the bleeding since it wasn't a tubing issue, it was a cancer-eating-your-body issue.

When he left he was still my grandfather, if exhausted and spending most his day in bed and needing a walker to get around the house.  By the time he returned home last Friday, he was bedridden, in massive amounts of pain, unable to really speak, and all those tubes were gushing out a steady amount of blood as his kidneys failed.  By Tuesday he was unconscious and he finally passed Thursday night.

So far, I seem to have gotten most of my grief out of me over these last couple years and I'm just trying to be there for my mother and grandmother and all my family.  Still hurts, still tired, but...I'm handling it.  Funeral is next week, we have to keep it small because of Covid, so...that's not going to be fun.  Thinking I might be the asshole who yells out "No hugging!" every few minutes just to keep us all alive.

After all this, we have an estate to deal with, a house to sell since grandma is moving in with my aunt, and I have major surgery on July 31st.  Which is exciting, but also...god what horrible timing.

Assuming they don't cancel all the elective surgeries again because wearing a mask is just so fucking difficult for the American people!

Anyway, stay safe everyone.  After this month, everything should start coming together and clearing up for me.

Thank you for all the kind messages you've been leaving on the blog and sending to my email.

Still Sick FYI

On the tablet, so will be shittily written and brief!
Life's not as bad as the April update, but still very up and down.  I am typing my written pages for FM7A into the computer, so some small progress is being made (actually really like what I have, just wish there was more of it!).  Feel better now that they have me on a swallowed steroid inhaler this last week if still not anywhere near normal, so there's that...
Surgery looks like it could be happening in July, it's also supposed to help with the esophagitis, so there's that too...
Grandpa's finally losing the fight and the cancer is spreading rapidly.   They dont think he'll make it to the end of the year...but he's beaten those odds before and there's Nascar to watch now, so dont bet against him!
Will probably be switching to work on the Vicky novel post surgery.  Its the most finished and shortest of the stupid amount of unfinished projects I got going at the moment, so...makes since to start there after the reset.
Plus I need to get away from all the teenager characters or my head is going to explode!

Been Really Sick (Not Covid)

So I was diagnosed with this thing called EOE back in January.  It's basically a type of allergic esophagitis where your system starts pumping out ungodly amounts of white blood cells in your throat (where they aren't supposed to be to begin with) and it can lead to trouble swallowing and heartburn and stuff like that.  My GI didn't seem overly concerned about it since he prescribed a pill and never really bothered to explain it to me in detail and I only got to talk to him for like 5 minutes in three months.  So, why should I worry, right?

Well...40 pounds later (20 of which was lost in the last week), 3 emergency room visits, a proof positive allergy to milk, a new diet that consists of removing every major allergen for the time being that's like half vegan hell and the other half with a distinct lack of pizza or tacos for my tastes, it's being pretty fucking horrible.

Imagine having heartburn that is the worst heartburn you've ever had and no antacid or pill or anything anyone on this entire world can do about it and you're stuck like that for a week.  Plus no eating.  Plus no sleeping.

During a fucking pandemic.

And oh yeah, I made the mistake of wheezing on the way in the second time--cuz Asthma--and I got sent to the HOLY FUCKBALLS scary part of the hospital that day.  Oh, all the doctors are in outbreak suits all of sudden, look at that.  Oh, people stuffed into dark glassed off rooms.  Me, sitting there in the middle of it, in shorts and a t-shirt, little tiny cheap ass mask, asthmatic, overweight, high blood pressure, THIS IS JUST SO FUCKING SAFE, ain't it?

"Don't worry, dude, if we actually thought anyone had it in here, they're be in there own room."

You're in an outbreak suit!

You have a handlebar mustache!

Why is there a homeless guy walking around in here with two different shoes on?

Why can I see that nurse's asscrack?  She's in an outbreak suit and somehow still her asscrack is showing and no one has bothered to tell her?

Why is that glass door open three inches?  Anyone?  Why do you all keep going inside of it and yelling at some poor old lady?

I just wanted a GI cocktail so the pain would stop for an hour!   One fucking hour!

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON IN THIS TIMELINE?!?!?

So...no writing has been done.

Just FYI...

I might be able to eat corn flakes tomorrow.

Yay!

With coconut milk...

:(

Quick Notes: Forced to Write Edition By State Order Edition

1.  Writing has improved to a couple pages a day at the moment (we're talking handwritten pages so they're quite a lot bigger than word processor btw).  At this rate, one of the books I'm working on will eventually get finished months and months from now, so...there's that!

2.  The scene I'm working on is KH meeting Class 2015 for the first time, so I'm pretty much doing 29 character (since he already knows one of them technically) introductions at the moment, one after another and trying to make it work.  Adding to the difficulty is the fact that all 31 people are talking on and off.  Very chaotic so far, hope you all keep up with it...

3.  How is it that I used to be able to write 90k novels with two storylines and now I'll be lucky to wrap this school story business all up in just 150k?  It's definitely going to be an indulgent book, no question about that.  For those that like twenty pages of Val, KH, Welf, and Miranda eating breakfast or KH spending multiple scenes attempting to prank the Lady or learning more about Welf family trees...

4.  But it's the last school story, and once it's finally done we can move to the new era of 24/7 CRAZY WEIRD MANCY SHIT.

5.  Health wise, everything is completely on hold.  Don't have an appointment until May and we'll fucking see if that actually happens, right?  No COVID so far...Fresno seems to be doing a really good job (California as a whole really), unless the Plague I had late February was COVID, but I'm pretty doubtful about it.  Did catch it from a hospital and was super, super sick even with a flu shot, but probably not.  The weirdest part was that Sherbert and the other cats caught it, which they say COVID can do, but no way to know until someone starts mass producing antibody tests...so...stay home and write, Raley.

6.  Can't believe how much I'm missing sports.  Other than the Football Manager addiction making me watching the occasional soccer game over the last couple years I really haven't been into much for the last five or so years, what with the books to produce and all.  Yet it's weird not have the general background noise that the sports leagues are going on, highlights on reddit and youtube and what not.

7.  Final Fantasy 7 Remake is great so far, about 14 hours in, having a blast.

8.  Anyone else having trouble focusing enough to watch television shows?  I find it so nerve wracking for some reason, I keep watching 2 or 3 episodes of something and then switching across to another the next day, where usually I'm a complete binge machine.  I just don't enjoy tension and conflict at the moment.   Wonder if there's money to be made in tv and movies where everything just goes the character's way and it's all nice and pleasant?  Probably why people turn to HGTV and Food Network and the like...

9.  Grandpa turned 90, fuck you cancer!