Simple

Kristin commented that I make life sound simple.

That must be because I choose fairly simple things to blog about here. Life, as we all know, is not so simple.

I have health issues at 57, side effects from meds that I have to take, prescriptions that cost more than I like and no real health insurance. I can only afford a cost-reduction plan and the local hospital/clinic gives you a third off if you don't have insurance. Come next spring I have to have a colonoscopy and that will set me back a few thousand, most likely.

Work... well, it's not the best fit in the world but there are not a lot of options in this area.

No one seems interested in publishing any of my fiction -- neither novel or short stories, although I get friendly rejection slips.

When I left the monastery, I did not ask for any financial assistance and there is no pension or such connected with having been a priest for thirty years. I will have social security, but I am having to try to build up a retirement fund pretty quickly and without making big bucks. Thanks to Tom's generosity in covering so much of my ordinary living expenses, I am able to sock away a lot of what I earn, but I usually feel like I am living on the edge financially. About a quarter of my earnings come from the Carmelite Institute teaching that I do, but they are usually months behind in sending a check.

And don't even get me started on religion or politics!

Tom has occasion to comment that I am pretty grumpy. Take a week of stressful work, add a semi-nausea due to being in the sun after taking a pill I have to take and mix in some frustration over other stuff and you wind up with a grumpy old man. The fact that I know I am grumpy and don't like it just makes me grumpier.

So it is simpler to write about foliage and cats and powwows.