Bill W

Yes, Devin was lucky with his injuries, because that tree limb could have struck him directly on the head and possibly fractured his skull, or it might have done considerably more damage to his shoulder and arm, possibly even causing Devin to lose the arm or merely lose control of his arm. Yes, I think we all agree that Devin has to keep from transitioning until he's healed.

First of all, the guy Mac chats with at the dog park is Preston and his dog's name is Bailey, and I'm sure Mac will think of some excuse to explain the situation to Preston, so it won't be a big problem. And that idea could also cause Mac's grades to slip while trying to help Devin maintain his grades. Yes, a medical proxy or a Living Will are a good thing to have on file in case of an emergency. You never know when you might be injured and unable to make those decisions for yourself, such as in a major accident or being in a coma. Without it, the doctors would only be able to stabilize the condition, but not actually treat it. The doctor would have no ability to do more than that without the fear of losing his license to practice medicine. The same is true about telling a non-family member about a patient's condition, because what if you have an ornery family member who who has the doctor charged for telling someone who isn't related. Yes, Devin and Mac signed up for their courses at the end of the previous semester, so their schedules are locked in. The biggest problem about your suggestion that maybe Mac could accompany/walk Devin to his classes is as follows. There are two major reasons reasons. If Devin was to slip and fall due to an icy patch it could set his recovery back and possibly even cause him to go in for another operation. The same might be true if someone bumped into Devin and the were heading to class, because even if they were walking side-by-side, it wouldn't stop someone to attempt to run between them and expect them to move out of the way.

Yes, we're all worried about how this is going to affect Devin's transitioning ability, and you're correct, it is a good thing that something more serious didn't happen to him. We don't know if Devin's ability can help him in any way yet, so we'll just have to wait and find out. I'm glad you enjoyed this chapter.

You forget that when they transition, the changes made during transitioning are undone once they transition back, and if that's the case, transitioning would have no lasting impact or advantage in this case. The biggest question is if the screws and plates will later hinder him or possibly make it impossible to transition into certain forms with those items still there. Will he have to have another opteration later to remove them, once the bones are healed? Yes, unfortunately you might be correct. This may force Devin to limit what he can do. He may be able to transitions his arms to give them more strength or his legs to be a faster runner, but the question is will he be able to transition into differ non-human forms again?

Yes, you'd think that holding off on the transitioning might be a no brainer, at least for the time being, but we also know how impatient a young person can be when he's told he can't do something. Hopefully, Devin can resist the urge for now.

Yes, Mac was going crazy until Pa got him acknowledged as Devin's medical proxy. We have no idea if Gramps, Pops, or Pa has ever had a broken bone, so we have no idea if his ability will help Devin or if he'll have trouble shifting in the future. Only time will tell, so keep your fingers crossed and hope for the best.

Yes, that law has created a lot of problems for gay couples and those that are only engaged. Maybe some day they'll change the law and get it right this time. Yes, you'll find out about how this is going to affect Devin's academic standing in the next chapter, once Mac has had a chance to contact Devin's professors. Keep your fingers crossed.

Thank you. I'm glad you're enjoying it.

Chapter 40 – How Will it Turn Out? I tailgated behind the ambulance all the way to the hospital and drew more than a few nasty stares and hand gestures from the other drivers as I passed by. I also heard a few people blast their horns at me along the way, but I didn’t let any of that bother me. I was worried about Devin and wanted to stay close to him, but as I pulled in behind the ambulance as the EMTs were getting ready to unload Devin’s gurney, I received a very gruff order. “

Ah, a word I know well and am very familiar with. It comes from the Latin word frustrare (disappoint) and frustratio (a deception). The word frustration came into use in English in the mid 16th century.

The adjective lackadaisical, “lacking interest or determination; listless; lazy; indolent,” comes from the interjection, adjective, and noun lackadaisy. Lackadaisy as an interjection expresses dismay, sorrow or disapproval; as an adjective it means “given to crying lackadaisy; and as a noun, “a person given to crying lackadaisy.” Lackadaisy is a variant of the archaic interjection lackaday, a shortened variant of alack the day. Middle English has the interjection alacke (also alagge), possibly related to the noun lak, lack(e) “a lack, fault, shortcoming,” and alack the day may have originally meant “shame on the day (for turning out like this),” like alas the day. Lackadaisical weakened in meaning from a person who cried lackadaisy to someone who complained about trivialities, then still further to someone who was sentimental, and finally to someone who was just lazy. Lackadaisical entered English in the second half of the 18th century.

The word "lackadaisical" comes from the interjection 'lackaday', which was a shortened version of the expression 'alack the day'. 'Alack' was an interjection used to express sorrow or regret. The word 'lackadaisical' was formed in the mid-1700s to describe people who were feeling miserable.

@wildone Those who choose to live in the far north must learn to live with the weather that comes with it. Snow in October might be rare, but not unheard of, so grin and bear it while getting out the snow shovel or the snowblower. Oh, and don't forget the longjohns too, if you don't want anything important to freeze.

Why were comments disabled for the weekly blog starting on 10/27/2024? Since I couldn't post there, I decided to ask the question here.

Notorious doesn't always have to be a bad quality. Did you forget that Don Juan was notorious for being a prolific lover? Or that Bella Lugosi was notorious for his portrayal of Dracula, the Wolfman, and other unusual characters on the movie screen?

An example of egocentric bias is when someone trips in a crowded place and the person immediately thinks everyone is watching and laughing at him, even though few people actually noticed.

I can't agree more, and the comment I'd like to make I can't, because it would be deemed political.

Yes, that would have been under J. Edgar Hoover. He was the director of the Bureau of Investigation from 1824-1935, and then Director of the newly named Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 1935 until his death in 1972.

Those of us that are old enough to the use of the term high fidelity when referring to the quality of a record player, the term high fidelity means the reproduction of sound with little distortion, giving a result similar to the original.

Another word for fidelity would be fealty. Fealty used to refer to the allegiance that a tenant or vassal owed to a lord under feudal law. but it can also be defined as the allegiance that one owes to a country, especially when referring to the military. Fealty could also mean loyalty to a friend or comrade.

Fidelity come from the Latin words fides (faith), fidelis (faithful), and fidelitas (faithfulness or loyalty).

Synonyms for circumlocution are: diffuseness · euphemism · indirectness · periphrasis · roundabout · tautology · verbiage · wordiness · indirectness · repetitiveness · long-windedness.

Circumlocution comes from two Latin root words: circum (around) and locution (to speak or speech). It literally means: speaking in circles, going round and round in a wordy way without ever getting to the heart of the matter.

And @empath I second that comment. I wish you the very best!

Exactly, you never get too old to prevent you from slipping back into boy mode from time to time, and unfortunately this was one of those times for Devin and Mac. It's too bad that fate decided to intrude on their youthful activities.