The state of the Eric

[ericcoleman]

It’s been a rough year so far.

It started well. Lizzie had her surgery, but was recovering quickly. My health was holding up. I thought I might get through a winter without have to take Prednisone.

Such wishful thinking.

I started getting this sound in my ears like the pressure was constantly changing. My hearing was really sketchy. I went to the doctor and there were bubbles building in back of the ear drum. Solution … prednisone.

Some people it makes aggressive, angry, not me. I am awake. I was getting about 2 hours of sleep a night for the week I was on it. And no sleep deprivation. But wow it gets boring around 4 in the morning on a Tuesday when you are locked in the house. It was cold out, and I stay in during the really cold days.

I got over that, Lizzie was doing better and better. Great, we’re doing great.

Covid round one, both of us. It made us tired. We slept extra for a week, then we were over it. So nice, the vaccine works, we didn’t suffer much.

Then I fell on the ice. It wasn’t the fall really that was the problem, it was getting back up. There was nothing for me to brace myself on. We ended up calling 911. Yeah, firemen came to help me off the ground. That should give a good idea of how bad of shape I am in. I’m working on that, down about 15 lbs so far.

So we both were doing better, the little weight loss was having a big effect.

Covid round two.

A different strain, this time we were both sick, really sick. We ended up taking most of a week off, curling up on our respective couches covered in cats.

Slowly we got over that, it took several weeks.

A couple of weeks later, I’m sitting at my desk at home, and the room starts to spin. I can’t stand up, I can barely sit down. Lizzie gets me out to the van, and we head off to the ER. In the meantime, I start getting a tingling along my upper arms and chest. That was the scary part.

5 hours and a lot of money later, it was an inner ear problem. Maybe tied into the Covid, maybe the ear problems I had awhile ago.

This last weekend, we went to visit Lizzie’s family … talk about your real disaster. Seriously, it was wonderful, they’re wonderful. It got us on the road for a few days.

The weather is warming up. My legs are bothering me (edema affects the skin) so I itch a lot, but once again, we are doing better. Now we have to keep it that way.

We have two shows this year, one in May, one in October. We’re trying to get the two albums we have finished writing re-written. I’m trying to get the side project Shifting City going. I think we have the presence of mind to do that now. We want to play more, we desperately want to, but we can't afford more cons and our usual places outside of cons are still not doing much.

By the way, hi! I’m going to try to write here more often. FB makes me angry, it is designed so people don’t communicate. The guy who came up with the Like button thinks it is one of the worst things to happen to the internet, and I agree. I can’t take putting my life out there, and all the vast majority of people do is push one of the emojis. I’m still posting FilkCast, Cheshire Moon, and Shifting City stuff there, I’m still looking at some of my favorite groups and pages, but my main page is dead.

Comments

[kjn]

Eep! Take care of yourself (and that includes making music)!

[wyld_dandelyon]

I was wondering if FB was hiding you from me (not that I've been on there much lately, between FAWM and then getting some dumb thing that had me sleeping far more than I normally can, even when sick.) But FB can be evil that way.

I'm glad to hear you're ok, and less glad to hear that you've both been sick!

Next time you're on prednisone, remember I'm a night owl, we could zoom or something in the middle of the night for a while. If there is a next time, but life being what it is, keep me in mind.

Did you see the link I left on Messenger to a FAWM song (by someone else) that I thought you would like to hear? I am assured the site will be closing April 1, so the link will expire soon.

I've been thinking of asking if you'd like to babble at me about bandcamp and the difference between posting stuff as singles and as a virtual album. Let me know.

Also, thank you for posting the link to here on FB. Somehow DW thought I had not subscribed to your journal. That has now been fixed. It's always good to see you.

[ericcoleman]

I vaguely remember a link. I'll go look.

I like Singles, EPs and Albums, but I want EPs and Albums to have some sort of continuity to them.

[wyld_dandelyon]

I'm sure I'd get more out of chatting and letting you babble than from the much shorter things you type here. :D Besides, much as I like chatting here, chatting in person, even if it is over zoom or somesuch, is more fun.

[ericcoleman]

Send me a message sometime. I am home most evenings.

[wyld_dandelyon]

Hmm...It's a little late today, and FK-No is this weekend. Maybe Monday?

[ericcoleman]

Monday and Tuesday are when we work on the podcast. Maybe later in the week.

[bibliofile]

Well heck, glad you're still not ded! Kindly continue that trend, as the world is better with you (& LIzzie) In it.

I too hate FB; I go only to find out about funerals.

[we_are_spc]

We go there to find out about the few friends who don]t DW much, and tech shit, and that's about it.

FB's becoming less and less fun for us, too, but unfortunately we have friends who only post there and not here.

-T/C*~

[mdlbear]

Yeah, this. There are a couple of FB groups I post in, but rarely if ever something on my own page -- that's what DW is for.

I've also mostly moved off the bird site in favor of Mastodon,

[we_are_spc]

So have we, thoug we're not on there as much as we would like to be.

I tell you what, though, facebook seems so damn shallow these days compared to DW that it makes me crazy.

-T~

[filkerdave]

I've recently made a concerted effort to come back to DW. FB is mainly for keeping up with family and posting news links that probably aren't of any interest to people who don't live in Jackson Hole.

[madfilkentist]

I guess I'm lucky. I've had prednisone a few times, most recently a couple of months ago, without any annoying side effects.

Facebook, on the other hand, does to me exactly what you describe. I use it only to post links to stuff I have elsewhere.

[gorgeousgary]

Good to hear from you, sorry it's been a rough 2023 so far. (I know from rough starts to 2023...)

As usual I'm a few weeks behind on FilkCast, but keep cranking 'em out and I'll keep listening!

[mike46]

That sounds really sucky. Sorry all that crap decided to land on your doorstep. Hopefully things will keep improving moving forward. I'm shocked to find out I have a Dreamwidth account. My password manager logged me in automatically. I wonder when I set it up?

[ericcoleman]

You started it on my birthday in 2011. That was probably a coincidence.

[billroper]

That sounds pretty miserable overall. I'm happy to see you posting here, as I'm more likely to be sure of seeing it (which is another of the sad gifts of Facebook).

I sympathize with the problems getting off the ground. I slipped on the snow next to my car a few weeks ago and the only way I could get up was by opening the car door and levering myself up on the arm rest. Flat slick ground is the enemy.

[we_are_spc]

Heyos!

Holy shite it be good to see ye out here again. <3

Hopin' ya'll stay out o'sick bay for a while. Ye both nee a fuckin' break.

~*~*~*Craimar*~*~*~

[xap]

*huggs&love&hullos*

[cellio]

That sounds miserable. I'm so sorry. (And yeah, when I got to "Covid round one" I got a bad feeling about what was coming...)

Yay for making music! Even if there aren't as many outlets yet as in the before-times.

[filkerdave]

That sounds rough. I'm glad you're here, though. Hopefully I'll get some place or other where you guys are!

[ericcoleman]

We're not traveling anytime soon. WorldCon took our con budget for last year and this.

[filkerdave]

I suspect I'm not travelling for a while either, at least not until I'm working again.