Rough Days Ahead

This is kind of a revised and updated version of a post I didn't quite get made before this very sort of update became necessary.

When I started the original post a few days ago, my dad had just gotten out of the hospital after suffering a heart attack roughly a week before. While he was technically well enough to come home at the time, his health was anything but stellar, to the point that it was clear that he didn't have much time left. At the time, we didn't realize how small the amount of time he had left actually was, and on October 7^th, he passed away, most likely of heart failure. As I'm writing this, we're maybe 36 hours into life without him. This new way of living is going to take a good amount of time to get used to. The old normal is gone, but there's a new one in its place.

There's still a lot of living to do, even without my father around to share it. Everyone who knew the man will miss him a good deal, but I'm sure he'd want us all to go on with the things we do as best we can without him. With that in mind, I've still got the handful of projects I started before he passed to finish up, which is something I'm sure will be at least a little easier now that I'm not worrying about him.

First up will be the picture posts from our abbreviated trip out west. I'm working on getting the pictures for that processed into something a little more web-friendly than what I've got on my phone right now, but they're coming along. If nothing else, it'll help me pass the time until the gathering this coming Friday.

There's also the Final Fantasy 9 text play. Neither of my parents have had much interest in the video game stuff I do here, but it's the last project of its sort I started before my dad passed. I'm sure I'll eventually get it finished. The way things have been going, I'm not sure when that will be. I've been saying that for years now, of course, but now that I've got a little more time and headspace freed up, maybe I'll actually make that happen.

As for the future, I'm not entirely sure. There's quite a lot I'd like to do going forward. Some of it's the sort of stuff my dad and I used to do when he was well enough to do so. It may be awhile before I get to anything like it because I'm going to need a vehicle I'm more comfortable travelling with than the one I have now. Making that happen is going to take awhile because I need to arrange my budget to accommodate it.

It's going to take some time to adjust to this normal, of course, and there's quite a lot of short-term issues I'm not getting into here that need to be resolved before I get into some of the rest.

That's all still a ways out, though. All any of us can do is to figure things out as we go along for now, see where the future takes us.

Until then, stay safe. And make sure the ones you love and care about make sure they know that.