The squeaky wheel is not getting the oil.
Dwayne calls everyone involved in his case every week, and today he was told by the surgeon's office that it will be the end of March or beginning of April before he gets his surgery.
Reason? Cancelling OR times for Workers' Comp cases.
What a crock.

My mother is making an epic return to Nova Scotia.
A three day trip if you're rested and the weather is good; Mum will be lucky if she is here in five days.
After leaving Georgia on Sunday, she spent an entire day resting in Stanton, Virginia. I talked to her last night where she was in Massachusetts, south of Boston. She's still a long way from home since New Hampshire to Oxford is 12 hours, and she might be driving into freezing rain. Might. If she reaches New Brunswick late today, it should have changed to rain by then. Saint John is only three hours from home but that's a loooong three hours when it's seven in the evening.
Tomorrow, though, they're calling for rain and 110 km/hr wind gusts over the Tantramar Marsh so whenever she shows up, she's being welcomed with typical Maritime winter weather.
How white will her knuckles be?

Seriously, if Dwayne could wear the Angry Bird fleece pajama bottoms he got from the kids at Christmas all day...
I call this photo "Angry, Sleepy and Grumpy". Although Grumpy looks pretty happy in his fleecy pajama bottoms.

January days...

I have a love-hate relationship with Facebook, although actually I rarely love it. I'm only doing it because it's expected writers will promote themselves this way so I was delighted to find this article today. (I edited for length)

Is Facebook envy making you miserable?

By Belinda Goldsmith

LONDON (Reuters) - Witnessing friends' vacations, love lives and work successes on Facebook can cause envy and trigger feelings of misery and loneliness, according to German researchers.

A study conducted jointly by two German universities found rampant envy on Facebook, the world's largest social network that now has over one billion users and has produced an unprecedented platform for social comparison.

The researchers found that one in three people felt worse after visiting the site and more dissatisfied with their lives, while people who browsed without contributing were affected the most.

"We were surprised by how many people have a negative experience from Facebook with envy leaving them feeling lonely, frustrated or angry," researcher Hanna Krasnova from the Institute of Information Systems at Berlin's Humboldt University told Reuters.

Researchers from Humboldt University and from Darmstadt's Technical University found vacation photos were the biggest cause of resentment with more than half of envy incidents triggered by holiday snaps on Facebook.

Social interaction was the second most common cause of envy as users could compare how many birthday greetings they received to those of their Facebook friends and how many "likes" or comments were made on photos and postings.

"Passive following triggers invidious emotions, with users mainly envying happiness of others, the way others spend their vacations and socialize," the researchers said in the report "Envy on Facebook: A Hidden Threat to Users' Life Satisfaction?" released on Tuesday.  

"The spread and ubiquitous presence of envy on Social Networking Sites is shown to undermine users' life satisfaction."

Men were shown to post more self-promotional content on Facebook to let people know about their accomplishments while women stressed their good looks and social lives.

The researchers said the respondents in both studies were German but they expected the findings to hold internationally as envy is a universal feeling and possibly impact Facebook usage.

"From a provider's perspective, our findings signal that users frequently perceive Facebook as a stressful environment, which may, in the long-run, endanger platform sustainability," the researchers concluded.

What a relief to read these words on an agent's blog...and think, "I'm already there."
I created this mini-poster at work (and did a similar one about painting for my best friend). Another plus about my job.

(Click on the image to make it larger for easier reading.)

According to the Humber School for Writers, which offers a correspondence course for fiction writers (hey, that's me now!), a participant needs to produce 300 pages for the program. That's ten pages a week -- 3000 words -- which over the course of 30 weeks (7 months) results in 85,000 words. Since I plan on having a first draft already written (trust me, first drafts are SO rough, they can't be submitted), that simple timetable for the course shows me I can have that first draft completed by the time my session of the correspondence course begins in September (assuming I am accepted, that is).

The characters are already taking on a life of their own and I haven't "officially" started writing the book. Just this morning, during my yoga practice, I had to stop and write down a scene. That's my conflict: Yoga is so good for my creativity but on the other hand, I'm not supposed to be thinking during yoga. Ah, well, it's a conflict I'm happy to live with. 

What a fabulous weekend!
Snowstorm yesterday. Walked down to the in-laws' house with Abby for a visit and ended up getting their iPad -- yes, these 80-somethings have an iPad -- set up so they can "Facetime" with their great-grandchildren who live 2 hours away. Ended up writing a funny column about it for this week's paper, which is nice because the original idea for this week was rather earnest and I've done serious ones for the last while. Nice to mix it up and be amusing. 
Today was sunny and mild. 9 degrees! Had two long walks in snow that was deep enough to be a workout but not too deep as to force one to give up. This morning, Abby followed deer tracks and disappeared so that before-breakfast walk became a long hike through the woods. Would have been lovelier if I hadn't been wondering were the hell she'd gone! But the incident proved that Dwayne is the better tracker. I already know that if I'm going to get stranded somewhere, he's gotta be with me if I'm going to survive.
Wrote the rest of the day with frequent breaks to talk to Dwayne, who was plowing the yard and trying to ignore the extreme pain he's in (his shoulder is now getting worse by the day; I don't know how much more he can stand. He may be forced to take the Percocet several times a day instead of holding off till bedtime). He still managed to whip up a lovely pork roast Sunday dinner. What a guy.
Jane came out at 3 o'clock for another long walk. This was the best Stella has been with Jane's dog Sam. Nice to see the old girl chilling out a bit.
Such a happy weekend, I don't want it to end. Why does it seem that the worse things get for Dwayne, the better they are for me??