I'm not dead yet!

I was doing so well with my blog up until very recently.  I was actually a bit pleased with myself, how I'd managed to keep writing for most of the year. Then...

Well, we don't dwell on sad stories around here, right?  Nor should we!  Luckily, for the first fall/winter season in many a year, I haven't been experiencing a late-year affective downslide.  I will acknowledge that I'm facing some new difficulties with Parkinson's Disease.  Yet, other than some initial confusion (and perhaps a very minor freak-out), I'm surprisingly upbeat right now.  And busy!

Parkinson's gives me a very limited number of hours during any given day where I can operate a keyboard without experience a significant amount of pain.  Being an IT professional, I need to use almost all of this time for work, so blogging has somewhat become a form of "suffering for my art..."  Not that what I do could try be considered art by any legitimate measure!  At the same time, I'm also digging into some new computer skills, mostly just for fun.  Some of the basic neuroscience that I've studied suggests that this kind of learning has its own potential for dopamine rewards.  So, I'm choosing to believe that this nerdy exercise in learning some new programming skills is one of the things that's keeping my spirits elevated even though I haven't been fishing in about six weeks.

However, I recognize that I've got friends here and also that writing here is extremely helpful.  There are ideas in the pipeline and under development.  And on top of that, Howard and I are already planning a reunion in early January at The Fly Fishing Show.  He wants me to help him stalk John Gierach, but I'm not feeling comfortable with that idea.  Howard might be former law enforcement, but I'm afraid his judgement is compromised... and I know my wife won't bail me out if I'm arrested.