Looking back at 2016... I wanted to write this and that and didn’t do it, wanted to use my iPad for digital painting and didn’t do it, and then suddenly it all came together when I made a list of monsters in Labyrinth Lord which I actually like and use and then I started illustrating them. I discovered regular drawing as a new hobby in 2016.
My wife finally decided to bring her recorders (two altos and a soprano) into service and I started practicing. She had not played in thirty years but she still knows how to do it and it’s mostly her watching me practice and occasionally we play a little duet. I discovered playing the flute as a new hobby in 2016.
I also wanted to run the 310km Jura Hoehenweg in summer but failed. I did the first segment and then I stopped. Oh well. I didn’t stop running so there’s still hope.
Today, the last day of the year, my wife took the last Endoxan (Cyclophosphamide) and Methotrexate pills of her follow-up chemo so in theory, this should be the end of it. One never knows, of course, and I suspect the fear of a relapse will never truly disappear. Currently we’re also seeing a hypervitaminosis D and increases in calcium in the blood, so who knows whether there are still some surprises lurking in the coming months, but given that the year started with a recovery from bilateral mastectomy, I’m still extremely relieved.
As for gaming, I’m still running the same two campaigns, so no news is good news.
We keep wishing for good health, good luck, being in love, and being together with the one(s) we love – so here’s to you, strangers on the Internet. 🙂
#Love #Life
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Oh, and two weeks later her mom is diagnosed with breast cancer. Again, after eighteen years.
Recently, I wrote the following to a friend on the OSR Discord Server, #general:
It’s hard to know what to say without knowing the details, except well wishes and what feels like platitudes about light at the end of the tunnel. All I can say is that recently I also keep feeling like the abyss keeps coming closer. Friends divorcing, mental crisis tearing relationships apart, my wife’s cancer and now that chemo is over her mom with a relapse (or a new cancer of the same kind). So at times it feels like fate is unfair and death and cancer will get us all in the end, grinding us down until we’ll finally willing to let it all go because we’re just so endlessly tired of it all. But then there are also days when flowers are in bloom and the sun is out and people are beautiful and radiant and the music is fantastic, the food is delicious and I feel young and good and life seems endless. So... I don’t know. Life.
– Alex Schroeder 2017-02-23 12:38 UTC