Thanks to a crazed meth-addicted murderer, some over-zealous law enforcement and a less-than-zealous road crew, I have been confined to the recliner in the living room since the end of January. HR and PHB took a full month to find their asses with both hands so there was a period of initial stress before I settled into an approved working-from-home schedule which allowed sufficient conservation of my accumulated sick leave to ensure an uninterrupted income. Since then it's been nothing but cats supervising my recovery from my lap, laying about in increasingly stale pajamas, and morning PT exercises to keep me from getting too happy about waking up at a reasonable hour every day.


After I caught up on all the true crime shows my Tivo had been capturing and was helped by the crazy cat lady network until I could find and employ a reliable and affordable local to scoop and feed for the herd as well as vacuum weekly, I found myself short on entertainment. Despite the large collection of CDs and DVDs in the same room, being limited to hopping on crutches meant no bending over, opening doors, carrying objects, loading media into players, or anything else that would normally be considered ridiculously simple and easy. After falling over a couple times attempting it, I accepted my destiny, an ice pack, and the inevitable.

Looking for readable fanfic online is like feeling around in a vat of manure, convinced there is a diamond the size of a goose egg hiding somewhere inside. Unfortunately, the vat is around a million gallons in size, quite full of thoroughly unpleasant ordure, and there are a lot of rather firm dog turds the size of goose eggs suspended in it. One's conviction regarding the existence of the diamond begins to waver after a while, and the belief it can be located even if it does exist dies long before one has gotten through even a small percentage of the vat's contents. I have been forcibly reminded not only of why I quit writing fanfic, but also of why I stopped reading it, participating in forums, lists, and chats, and in fact having anything at all to do with fandom. Except for you, dear readers, the few intelligent and reasonable people I met dog-paddling about in that vat with me so many years ago.

The prospect of walking again by the end of this month is quite exciting. I have learned to appreciate many things, from the ability to drive to the opportunity to get out of the house at will. Going back to work is even starting to look attractive, especially with all the upcoming excitement of moving from my cosy little private office into a shared space in another building - once it has been thoroughly emptied and sanitized since it was previously DW's lair. Assuming whatever legal maneuvers he is presently torturing PHB with as part of his exit strategy eventually come to a conclusion, but that is another story and I haven't been in a position to hear all the juicy details being exchanged in the trailer gossip circles.