So what are you all up to these days? Options

[Dr. Casey]

Life's been pretty interesting for me. My grandfather died last year, June 17th, at the age of 93; my grandmother moved in with me and my parents afterwards because she was rather deep into Alzheimer's (During June 2011 she was probably on the border of Stage 5 and Stage 6), and we've been taking care of her ever since. I was originally planning to move out last September, but I decided to stay a while longer to help take care of Grandmother. I'm probably going to leave around Christmas this year. I don't mind how things worked out, I was glad to spend some extra time with Mama and Daddy. I started going to the Tennessee Technology Center of McMinnville September 2011, a 20 month computer course at a technical school. I've gotten three certificates out of it so far - A+ Computer Repair, Networking, and Security - and should have six by the end. Hopefully it won't be too difficult to find a job afterwards.

What about you guys?

[Shiidou Hikaru]

I'm sorry to hear about your grandparents Casey-sensei. *hugs* It sounds like the time spent with your grandmother was very meaningful and it's good to hear about your compassion for her and wanting to stay on for the rest of the year. There aren't enough good stories like yours being told these days. A friend that I know from church was diagnosed with Alzhiemer's a few months ago and it was such a shock to all of us because she is so young, only about five years older than I am. (which is really scary).

Mostly, I've been doing the same work that I've been doing for a long time, but I have been getting some bigger projects in the past two years or so. The work is more detailed and involved so more time is needed, but at the same time I've found it more rewarding to see the manufacturing completed and to see our customers happy when everything is all working as they need it to. I've had only two weeks off this summer to spend with the kids, but that's okay because they seem to be more interested in spending time with their friends or computer games than with me. ;; So some good time for me to relax and enjoy myself a little ... it seems like a lot of years since I've had any time to myself. Maybe I will get some time to come here more often?

[Milieva]

Hello. Long time.

Lately, I have been working the same job for about a year. An actual office job. I don't always have that much to do, so I have been able to spend a few hours each day updating my old websites which means most are now very sleek and easy to navigate, and my own forum is fully updated so it can be open and reasonably safe from spam bots.

I also got married this year, which changes household dynamics. Living with my husband is definitely a change from living with my grandmother for nine years. I do still live in the same house, though, as my grandmother passed last year and left it to me.

I'm currently reworking an old plot line that had hinted at being an MKR fic and have been trying to turn it into a novel.

Other than that, not much.

[Shiidou Hikaru]

Here is a sad update from me. My friend that I mentioned above that was diagnosed with Alzhiemer's passed away last week. Unfortunately I didn't get to see much of her after I first found out about it last year, but I did hear a few bits of news here and there. It's hard to describe what the disease does to a person. It's almost like the friend you knew slowly dissolves and disappears, but not really disappears. I've always believed that the soul and spirit of a person leaves their body when they die and in most cases that happens rather quickly. But with Alzhiemer's, it seems like it is a slow process, where the person slowly transitions from this world to the next and for a while they linger in both places. They slowly fade from this world forgetting all they knew here, even their own children. In the end I just have to try to not be sad. Brenda has fully left this world now to live in a much better place, where someday I hope to go there myself and see her again.

[Shiidou Hikaru]

Aww .. I read my previous post and it seems like I only come here when bad things happen. v_v Someone hacked the email account that I use for this forum and did some evil things with it, including corrupting the forum database. I restored it to an older version from 2013, but hopefully only very few posts were lost.

[Dr. Casey]

Wow, the forums were down for so long that I'd given up on them ever coming back. This is a nice surprise.

[Shiidou Hikaru]

Sadly, I don't come here very often anymore, please forgive me everyone. I've still been watching anime though and am very much a fan of quite a few series at this time. A couple of recent ones that I've enjoyed are Kamisama Kiss and Your Name. I've always liked Shinkai-sensei's work

[Dr. Casey]

Posting again because I miss this place.

I've had only two weeks off this summer to spend with the kids, but that's okay because they seem to be more interested in spending time with their friends or computer games than with me. ;; So some good time for me to relax and enjoy myself a little ... it seems like a lot of years since I've had any time to myself. Maybe I will get some time to come here more often?

By kids do you mean grandkids, or did you have children pretty late? (Not sure exactly how old you are, but I vaguely remember you saying once that you were a kid during the '60s) Just curious, I'm sure you'd make a great mom or grandmother whichever the case might be~ Though you might not need to watch over them anymore since it's been six years since this was posted, depending on what their ages are and were.

[Shiidou Hikaru]

Hihi! Yes, I guess that I dated myself there at some point. In the 60's I was very young (preschool age) so I remember very little of that time. However, (this is going to make me sound really old) occasionally I will go back and visit the old towns that I used to live in and do "nostalgia tours" with my mom. She's getting up there in years but is still in good shape physically and will take trips with me. We'll go around and look at the same neighborhoods and houses that we used to live in. We'll go visit relatives that still live in the area and visit schools and churches that we used to go to. We'll also visit the cemeteries where grandparents and other loved ones of the past are buried. None of it is sad, in fact there are a lot of good feelings for us still found in these places.

Compared to my parents, I guess I did have kids later. They are 18 and 21 now so it's hard to call them kids anymore, but they will always be kids to me. They both have jobs and work and are starting to become more independent adults. There's no prospect for grandchildren at this time, but I'm not going to rush them into anything like that. Really special things in life have to be carefully created with love, patience, and determination and cannot be rushed. Hopefully I'll see you again soon Casey-sensei, it feels good to have someone to chat with here in one of my old neighborhoods. Try not to get too busy!

[Dr. Casey]

I'm glad your mom's still alive, and even in good health to boot. ^^ I hope mine are still alive whenever I reach your age; mine are both still in perfectly good health, with my dad having turned 70 on December 31st and my mom turning 67 in June. You're a bit younger than I thought if you were preschool age at the end of the 60s, I thought you were preschool age at the beginning. (Your personality/writing style is young enough that I thought you were in your 20s whenever I first registered here in 2004, ahaha...)

I should go back and read your journal/diary thread sometime. For having known you for close to half my life, I actually don't know all that much about you.

[Shiidou Hikaru]

I went back and looked at my old journal thread although it's kind of embarrassing reading about myself. ;;

There are lot of good memories in there and I was pretty detailed about my feelings on somedays and other days I just commented about yucky weather lol. Today I had a birthday party with the in-laws in the afternoon, it wasn't my birthday though. In the morning I teach a CCD class at my church, we used to call it Sunday School when I was little and nuns used to teach it. We do church history in 8th grade and today we talked about the protestant reformation and the cast of characters from that time - Martin Luther, Thomas More, Henry VIII, etc.