So this was originally a longer, more detailed entry, but after looking it over I felt it got a little too personal for a public post.

The short version is that there's been a lot of not-so-good things going on offline since my fiance's emergency surgery this last December.  I was diagnosed with a tendon related issue called de Quervain's tenosynovitis, which required two rounds of steroids, a shot to the tendon, a brace with metal splints and about six weeks worth of physical therapy to get over.  My desktop computer also suddenly BSoD'd into non-functionality, thus putting the final nail in the coffin on ReGenRex.  I was already struggling with the site before that happened due to previous RL issues, but that incident really finished it off for good.  My car recently took more hail damage (for the second time in a bit less than a year) and on Wednesday we're going to have to take one of our pets into the vet to be put to sleep.  He's been battling issues since last fall on and off, and recently those issues have really struck with a vengeance, leading our vet to believe cancer may be the problem.  Unfortunately, the little guy is so old at this point that his chances of surviving surgery and having a quality life after are not good.  It really is kind of a crushing blow after everything our family has been through since 2011 in terms of medical ordeals.

Life has basically been such that I haven't had the energy and the inspiration for art, not since November.  So aside from a couple of basic doodles that happened once or twice, I haven't really picked up any drawing tools in almost six months.  I also more or less cut myself off from a lot of my normal online haunts and it's only recently that I've stared coming back to check them with frequency, DA included.  Normally I try not to let RL issues get to me so much that my art and hobbies end up suffering, but I think at this point I'm just completely worn out after everything that's gone on.  What fight I have left has been reserved for just trying to get by, basically, especially given my night shift job is still demanding 10-11 hours a day, 5 days a week from me.

I do want to get things back to the way they were before and I am making the attempt to get my life in that direction, but it may take a bit of time.  There are still complications on the road ahead that need to be dealt with.  In the long run, though, hopefully I'll have some degree of normalcy back so I'll feel like I'm living again, not just existing.