Good afternoon.
I want to thank everyone who donated to both the server fundraiser and our GoFundme over the past couple of weeks.
The blog’s still up and running, which means that we raised the funds necessary to keep the TMR experiment going due to your generosity, and we were able to raise enough funds to pay our property taxes this year due to your generosity as well.
That’s not taken for granted.
This blog is always going to be a smaller-market blog, but its readers are tremendously loyal and dedicated to keeping both the blog going, and helping Aunt Annie and me when you can, and that’s incredible.
This month, we’re facing a different set of challenges.
First, as you might know, running a hockey blog is expensive. I spend well over a hundred dollars a month paying for those paywalled subscriptions I try to provide a peek behind; being the “NPR of blogs” requires me to ask for a little bit of help remaining at “even strength” (i.e. revenue-neutral). So I’m asking for your help keeping the blog going.
Second, my State of Michigan caregiver’s paycheck was cut by $300 for this month, and will be decreased by about $300 for the October due to Aunt Annie’s 2 week-long hospital stays in August.
As far as the State of Michigan’s “Home Help” program is concerned, if AA is in the hospital, I’m not working. I spent both week-long hospital stays with her 24/7, advocating for her health care and being there for her, but State policy sucks.
Third, and finally, Aunt Annie is bed-bound at present, and, as anybody with a small child will tell you, when somebody can’t walk to the restroom on their own, you go through bathroom-related supplies at an accelerated rate.
For us, that’s meant blazing through bedpan liners, wet wipes, exam gloves, trash bags, etc. over the course of the last month-plus.
Our physical therapist (PT) and occupational therapist (OT) are both optimistic that Aunt Annie should be able to get to the point where she can transfer to the bedside commode within a couple of weeks, and eventually use her walker to head to the restroom on her own again…
But right now, we’re doing things the old-fashioned way. It’s not fun. And it’s effing intense to be somebody’s caregiver for every need instead of having a wee bit of independence right now.
Between bathroom duty, distributing prescription medications, antibiotics and feeding her, I’m definitely spending more time away from the blog to be a caregiver than I usually do, and that’s…It’s a lot.
As you know, I absolutely love doing this job for very little in the way of a financial payoff because I feel a sense of loyalty and duty to all of you.
But I’ve got to take care of Aunt Annie (who might be the biggest supporter of my blog work), too, and that’s meant very long days spent doing some unpleasant but necessary work upstairs, and then coming down here to try to catch up.
I’m hoping that things change by the time that the preseason begins, if not the regular season, but we’re just going to have to see how things play out.
And as things are intense and difficult right now, all I can do is promise that I’m going to give you my best every day.
Bottom line, not asking for help is impossible as I try to maintain the blog, care for Aunt Annie and overcome a losing almost a quarter of my State of Michigan paycheck over the course of the next two months.
I hate to do this, but I’ve gotta do this to survive, and it’s just not useful to feel ashamed or guilty about what this is. It’s survival on a blog that’s just not going to switch to a commercial model.
If you’re willing to help the blog out, to help defer some of our medical expenses, or just help us get through losing $300 a month from my paycheck for the next two months, I have a PayPal account at rtxg@yahoo.com…
Or I have Venmo at George-Malik-2 if you prefer that route.
If you can’t donate, I would kindly ask you to share this fundraiser. We’re trying our best to get by on our own, but it’s just not possible to do so at present. I know that nobody’s dying here, but we’re two people trying to keep a hockey blog going while I render care to a little 84-year-old lady who would be in a nursing home if I wasn’t doing what I do every day. I’d like to think that trying to pump out some hockey stories while caregiving because you matter to me, too is important in its own way.
Thank you for reading, as always.
