Trousered Ape
An exercise in presumption.
Friday, January 30, 2026
State of the Ape XLVII
A new year, and I’m still here. Thanks again for your prayers.
I had my fourth dose of chemo on 01/05, and my fifth dose yesterday. So far, everything is working fine with the reduced dosage. I think the allergies and cough after the second dose were probably not due to the chemo, because they haven’t happened again (knock wood).
Blood work: My red blood count and hemoglobin are back almost to normal. White blood count is down into the normal range, but lymphocytes are low. I don’t go anywhere, except for medical stuff, and there I wear a mask.
I’m still plugging away at Edwina 3. I’m almost done typing my handwritten work into the computer (revising as I go, and often adding new passages). I’m over 60,000 words now, with at least one more chapter to go. Then I get to return to Page 1 and start going through my to-do list of changes and amplifications.
I had to let go my cover designer for Edwina 2 for non-performance (she has a lot of stuff going on in her life). The parting was perfectly amiable on both sides. Instead, I’ve gone to the designer who has done the covers for the Bride’s novels, and also the cover for my Odyssey to Earth e-book. He’s also going to have to do a new cover for Edwina 1 so the styles match.
Drum roll… Clerihews!
James Joyce
Had no choice
But to be born in Dublin.
He found this troubling.
Edgar Lee Masters
Contrived further disasters
To occur in Spoon River
Whenever his wife served liver.
Though Sir William Penn
Had no merry men,
He lived in the wood
Like Robin Hood.
And because it’s funny:
A new year, and I’m still here. Thanks again for your prayers.
I had my fourth dose of chemo on 01/05, and my fifth dose yesterday. So far, everything is working fine with the reduced dosage. I think the allergies and cough after the second dose were probably not due to the chemo, because they haven’t happened again (knock wood).
Blood work: My red blood count and hemoglobin are back almost to normal. White blood count is down into the normal range, but lymphocytes are low. I don’t go anywhere, except for medical stuff, and there I wear a mask.
I’m still plugging away at Edwina 3. I’m almost done typing my handwritten work into the computer (revising as I go, and often adding new passages). I’m over 60,000 words now, with at least one more chapter to go. Then I get to return to Page 1 and start going through my to-do list of changes and amplifications.
I had to let go my cover designer for Edwina 2 for non-performance (she has a lot of stuff going on in her life). The parting was perfectly amiable on both sides. Instead, I’ve gone to the designer who has done the covers for the Bride’s novels, and also the cover for my Odyssey to Earth e-book. He’s also going to have to do a new cover for Edwina 1 so the styles match.
Drum roll… Clerihews!
James Joyce
Had no choice
But to be born in Dublin.
He found this troubling.
Edgar Lee Masters
Contrived further disasters
To occur in Spoon River
Whenever his wife served liver.
Though Sir William Penn
Had no merry men,
He lived in the wood
Like Robin Hood.
And because it’s funny:
