Writing As A Caregiver

   Some of you may remember I live with, and take care of, two disabled women. The three of us have been best friends for over fifty years. I love them both more than words can express, and I know they love me equally. Unfortunately, we are no longer spring chickens (all in our mid-sixties) and the possibility of death is always present.
   If you have ever been a caregiver, you understand the stress that comes with it. As long as I can still draw a breath, I will care for them, but what will happen after that? Who will care for them, or if I push myself too hard, who will care for me?
   Fortunately, several years ago I found I could use writing as a stress reliever. If you've read any of my stories, especially the shorts, you've seen an emphasis on love and loss. When I can put those emotions down on paper, it helps me deal with them on a personal level.
   Normally the two of them can get around pretty well on their own and take care of the basics, but the last several weeks have been tough. The most frail one picked up a nasty virus that left her bed-ridden. My days have been consumed with her care, and today is the first time I've had a chance to write as she slowly improves. It's only a blog post, but hopefully I'll be able to think about my stories once again.
  For those who may be interested, I'm working on the second novella in my first series. When I'll get it finished is anyone's guess, but I'll keep plugging along. It'll be done when it's done.
   Thanks for reading.

Is Google Plus Still Worth It?

   When Google made their new plus available, I tried it several times, but it never worked the way I expected. I would always end up switching back to the original hoping they would give up on the changes.
   Now, granted, I'm an old fart set in my ways and always a little resistant to change, but when I was forced to the new plus I decided to give it a chance and reserved judgment. It's been months now and I've decided the new system just isn't working for me. I tried to find a way, and hoped they would fix some of the problems everyone was experiencing, but it never happened.
   If anything, the whole platform is worse and almost useless. Even though I still have over four thousand friends in my circles, I can't seem to find most of their posts nor do I imagine they can find mine. With the old system, I could walk away for a few hours and come back to hundreds of new posts to look at. I loved the variety and all the interesting things people would share. Now I might have maybe ten new posts, and those from a limited number of people.
   I don't receive near the response to my own posts as I did with the old system. I also noticed a marked drop in the traffic to my blog. With the old system I averaged over two hundred visits a month that went on for years. Now I'm lucky to get fifty visits a month. I can't even be sure of what picture Google is going to put up when I post a blog.
   I've spent years building up a list of friends on Google, and I'm not sure I want to spend the time building up another list on something like twitter, but what choice do I have? Needless to say, I'm not a happy camper right now.
   Thanks for reading.