Home from the Hospital

My wife was discharged from the hospital mid-day Monday. Her condition has not gone away really, but she has had no pain for several days and the doctors prescribed pain killers so that in the event her condition does flare up again, we can hopefully manage it at home. This is a very "gray area" type of situation and many of the doctors and nurses have told us that she has a low-grade version of this condition, so we want to avoid surgery if at all possible.

Thanks again to everyone who wrote get-well wishes. All we can do at this point is go back to our routine and hope things stay normal.

The plus side to all of this is that after you spend a week and a half in the hospital, the most mundane household chores seem like little adventures and trips to the grocery store seem like visits to Disney World.

Sick of the Hospital

Well, we're still here. Without going into details, several doctors are monitoring my wife's condition in order to determine if she should have surgery and if so, when.

It's all very odd and frustrating. Three doctors from the same practice rotate in and out of her room about every 24 hours and each has a different opinion about how to proceed, leaving us with mixed messages. And the doctor we like the most, the one with the most straight-talking manner and conservative, optimistic approach, has gone on vacation for the next week.

So that leaves us in a wait-and-see mode at the hospital, maybe for as much as the next few weeks. My goal is to start back in with Suburban Tribe updates this coming Monday and try to maintain as regular a schedule as possible.

Thanks to every one of you who expressed your concerns, and of course we are grateful for your thoughts and prayers.

On a lighter note:
During my morning web surfing at the hospital, I find something that warrants breaking the "John does not post about movies" rule: A picture of Indiana Jones as he appears in next year's forthcoming sequel:



Looks like its time for Indy to trade in his leather jacket for a Member's Only jacket. OH MY GOD, does he look like he is in no shape whatsoever to do all the stuff Indy is supposed to do, or what?

Harrison Ford has aged fairly gracefully, and I think that he's one of the few remaining leading men in Hollywood that actually looks like a man as opposed to an androgynous teenager, but this photo looks like your friend's Dad dressed up as Indiana Jones for a Halloween party and forgot to shower first.

Why don't Lucas and Spielberg just take the James Bond route and recast the part and hand these movies over to someone who grew up on them and can bring something new to the table?

Listen, I will not be one of those cyberTards who condemns an entire movie before he sees it based on one photo or scrap of footage, but man... I really hope this movie has something to say.

Back as soon as possible.

There will probably not be a new strip today.

Saturday morning, I had to take my wife to the ER and we have been at the hospital ever since. It is nothing life-threatening, but we will probably be here a couple more days.

There is WiFi at the hospital, but any downtime I spend here is going to clients and paying jobs. When this is over, I am going to make a serious effort to build up a lead of several weeks' worth of strips. I've been working on my own for over a year now, and there's really no excuse not to have a cushion of strips for vacations and emergencies.

In the meantime, I thought that I would post some recent works-in-progress from my digital painting portfolio. Click on them for larger versions.