Day: March 17, 2012

Broadcasting from WonderCon on Sirius xm

Broadcasting from WonderCon on Sirius xm

Hi all,

I just wanted to let you know that I had a great interview today with Kim Alexander which will be available on Channel 104 on Sirius Xm satellite radio as part of the WonderCon radio feed.

You can also hear interviews with Naomi Novik, Bob Reid, and a host of others. The broadcast loops so you may have to wait a while to hear me!

Thomas Cat

Thomas Cat

My staunchest ally and firmest friend for these past several years has been my cat, Thomas. He’s one of the super-smart types of cats that are friendly (mostly) and is always looking for the door into summer (if you don’t know what I mean, read the Heinlein book “The Door Into Summer).

When I was feeling the worst affects of the pain medication, Thomas would come and keep vigil on me in the bathroom and then escort me back to my bed (he’s fearless and so one has to be careful to avoid treading on him).

I figured I should show you all a picture of him so that you can see this marvelous friend (and, no, it doesn’t do him justice).

Anyway, here he is:

“No regrets”

“No regrets”

Since Mum’s death in November, this has been a rough patch with lots of people dying and I’ve been processing that a lot.

Mum, as I said repeatedly, gave us plenty of warning that she wasn’t going to last forever. She’d had her first heart attack late 2000 and first stroke early 2001, so we knew that we were really on “golden time” with her for all the years after. And they were really great years!

After I got the news of Mum’s passing, there was some time before my sister decided that she really wanted me to fly over that very day so that I could be with her and my older brother, Alec (who had planned on spending Thanksgiving with Mum – I was scheduled to come over the week before Christmas) – and then there was the very, very long flight from LAX to London and I had a lot of time just by myself to think of Mum and her life.

And very early on in that, these words came to my mind: “No regrets.”

Maybe it was me, maybe not. It didn’t matter because it was so totally true.

Mum had an awesome life. There was nothing to regret that she passed at that time and, at least for myself, the words “No regrets” sound very much like something she would have said to me.