Personal Note
You may have noticed that the site has been less active than usual around here lately. There’s a reason for that, and now that things are beginning to look more normal going forward, I wanted to comment on it.
One Friday in March I got a call from Yuma, Arizona, where my Mom and her husband (married after I was out of the house) have lived for a number of years. That was more than a year into Covid, and they weren’t doing so well. We hadn’t got our vaccines, so I had to wait until May to get down there. I don’t need to get into deep details except to say that Jerry passed in late July and we scrambled to move Mom to Portland.
The emotional stress of aging parents can be profound, as we wrestle with their pain and decline and contend with their impermanence. These are the most potent and longest relationships we have, and whatever our relationships, they go deep. (I have a great relationship with my parents, a fact I do not take for granted.) That element of the transition has been intense, but not necessarily bad. I have been feeling very tender for my Mom throughout these months.
The real source of stress is dealing with all the logistics and red tape of financial arrangements and medical oversight. We are well-educated adults and Sally has worked with many of these issues in her professional life. Nevertheless, it was fantastically complex, and basically no one really wanted to help. In a system of private health care and insurance, companies want to maximize the dollars you pay and minimize the services they provide. So we spent endless hours on customer disservice lines the companies designed to ward off inquiries. So much of these processes must go in sequence (first you have to get the HIPAA form signed, then we’ll talk about your long term care insurance plan) that if you don’t want it to take years you have to be incredibly vigilant. My poor mother is medically fragile and was in danger of being abandoned because of all the red tape and roadblocks.
Fortunately, we got through it, brought Mom up last weekend, and got her settled. She’s doing well and seems happy. Nearly all the logistics are complete, so now I can focus on her, not that nonsense. All of which means things should begin to go back to whatever I call normal around here.
Next week you can look forward to a deep look at craft malting. I will soon have a fun look at a new hop variety if all goes well. And before long I’ll be offering dispatches from the road as I go on the book tour.
And on that note, please take note that the official Beer Bible book tour begins next Thursday, Sept 23rd (6:30p) at Gigantic on SE 26th. I’ll be chatting with founders Ben and Van and we’ll be drinking tasty beer. They are smart and charismatic brewers and it will definitely be fun. Book-signing afterward.
Also note that because of Covid, Reuben’s decided to cancel the Seattle stop the following week. I’m hoping to get a replacement stop set up in the Emerald City for after Thanksgiving. Stay tuned.