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Thoughts on travel and a fundraiser
Nov. 1st, 2023 09:14 pmLots of things have been going on, which is par for the course. Some of them have been really cool (watch for a great announcement coming soon!), some not so much. On the not great end of the scale is the fact that my wife's dementia is getting worse. Attentive readers will remember that I accepted a Guest of Honor invite for Capricon 44 some months back and am very, very excited about the opportunity. It's happening in Chicago in February and my friend and I plan to go up by train.
Okay, well and good. You can see where this is going, right? My original plan called for finding PCA care for Jana over night and having her regular PCAs stop by during the day and take her out a couple of hours a day. In conversation with the lovely woman who runs the PCA company, I have come to the understanding that she needs more care than that. She helpfully demonstrated this yesterday morning by going outside to shovel snow, leaving both front doors open and failing to notice that our big boy kitty, Shu, had followed her outside. Shu is the ultimate indoor cat and yet there I was in my sleeping tshirt and undies out on the front stoop retrieving his majestic fuzziness from a snow-covered bush. So, 24 hour care. Ideally, we leave on Wednesday and come back Sunday night and I have found a company to do overnights, etc. As long as she doesn't get worse and require medical assistance.
In the meantime, my day job went from "You will totally have work next year" to canceling a big swath of the project and "we're not sure we're renewing any contractors." Which would mean it ends at the end of December. Which means me being out of work for at least a few weeks. 24 hour PCA care for 5 days, assuming nothing goes wrong, will cost me the equivalent of a European vacation, to whit, about $3000, factoring having her regular PCAs check in, getting food for everyone staying at the house and so forth. It has been an expensive year, to put it mildly, what between having to replace the roof, the water heater and the microwave and the fact that we still don't have a CADI waiver for Jana, which means I am on the hook for all of her healthcare expenses out of pocket, plus everything else. Her dad was helping occasionally, but he passed away in September. Added to that, some health stuff of my own that I need to check out, all which is also potentially spendy. But on the other hand, I have not had a weekend free from caretaking since 2021 and I really, really need some time off.
So here we are. I am thinking of doing a fundraiser on my long dormant Ko-fi account to try and defray the costs of this potential trip. I know everything is on fire right now and normally, I would see if I could swing it another way, but I think those paths are blocked at the moment. My question for my viewing audience is this: what would you like to see me post or do on Ko-fi that would inspire you to kick on my Capricon dream? I have some out of print stories, not reprinted elsewhere, and could giveaway some books. I could do readings. I could post short vignettes from various things. It can't be very time consuming and it can't conflict with my Patreon posting because that supports Queen of Swords. What've you got? I'm open.
EDITED: 44% of the way to the goal already! Thank you, thank you, thank you! There have been some new not great developments this week, but I have to do a bit of research before talking about their impacts. Currently, the plan is still: 24 care = Catherine gets to leave town to go be a rockstar.
Okay, well and good. You can see where this is going, right? My original plan called for finding PCA care for Jana over night and having her regular PCAs stop by during the day and take her out a couple of hours a day. In conversation with the lovely woman who runs the PCA company, I have come to the understanding that she needs more care than that. She helpfully demonstrated this yesterday morning by going outside to shovel snow, leaving both front doors open and failing to notice that our big boy kitty, Shu, had followed her outside. Shu is the ultimate indoor cat and yet there I was in my sleeping tshirt and undies out on the front stoop retrieving his majestic fuzziness from a snow-covered bush. So, 24 hour care. Ideally, we leave on Wednesday and come back Sunday night and I have found a company to do overnights, etc. As long as she doesn't get worse and require medical assistance.
In the meantime, my day job went from "You will totally have work next year" to canceling a big swath of the project and "we're not sure we're renewing any contractors." Which would mean it ends at the end of December. Which means me being out of work for at least a few weeks. 24 hour PCA care for 5 days, assuming nothing goes wrong, will cost me the equivalent of a European vacation, to whit, about $3000, factoring having her regular PCAs check in, getting food for everyone staying at the house and so forth. It has been an expensive year, to put it mildly, what between having to replace the roof, the water heater and the microwave and the fact that we still don't have a CADI waiver for Jana, which means I am on the hook for all of her healthcare expenses out of pocket, plus everything else. Her dad was helping occasionally, but he passed away in September. Added to that, some health stuff of my own that I need to check out, all which is also potentially spendy. But on the other hand, I have not had a weekend free from caretaking since 2021 and I really, really need some time off.
So here we are. I am thinking of doing a fundraiser on my long dormant Ko-fi account to try and defray the costs of this potential trip. I know everything is on fire right now and normally, I would see if I could swing it another way, but I think those paths are blocked at the moment. My question for my viewing audience is this: what would you like to see me post or do on Ko-fi that would inspire you to kick on my Capricon dream? I have some out of print stories, not reprinted elsewhere, and could giveaway some books. I could do readings. I could post short vignettes from various things. It can't be very time consuming and it can't conflict with my Patreon posting because that supports Queen of Swords. What've you got? I'm open.
EDITED: 44% of the way to the goal already! Thank you, thank you, thank you! There have been some new not great developments this week, but I have to do a bit of research before talking about their impacts. Currently, the plan is still: 24 care = Catherine gets to leave town to go be a rockstar.
