Highmoon's Ponderings

My brother Michael and his wife Diana (pictured above at the Arecibo Radio Observatory, Arecibo, PR) are getting married today in Ocala, Florida!

Yes, I wrote that right. Michael and Diana have actually been married for a few years now by civil law. Both were in the military at the time, and they decided to get married one day, during lunchtime, after which Diana returned to her job, and Michael reported to be shipped to Iraq the next day for the first of a couple of tours of duties. They have been through some tough times, especially for a young couple, and they have pulled through with flying colors. Today is their religious wedding, and while I cannot be there in body, I am there in soul, wishing them, with all my love, all the blessings in the world for a happy, strong and enduring marriage.

Michael and Diana, Yvette and I love you both and send you congratulations!

Over the last week, Mom’s condition has continued to decline. The fentanyl patch was increased to 75mg and this has caused her to be in a constant in-and-out of wakefulness; she’ll have a couple hours each day where she’s very awake, but other than that she’s sleepy or zoned out. It has managed most of her pain, however, so it is a help in that sense.

The X-rays taken revealed that the blockage in her intestine is total: there is just absolutely no movement in the digestive system and nothing, not even liquid, is getting through the blockage. Her only option at this point is surgery. The surgeon spoke to her and made it clear that any surgical procedure on Mom was far from routine and carried many risks. He will operate only because it is the one chance she has at any kind of healing from this condition, and he will only do so once he has taken all the preparatory steps needed and gathered all the materials he’ll need in case of an emergency. We’re looking at mid- to late next week for the operation if she doesn’t get any worse. It is her decision to go into surgery, and she is still, dazed as she might be at times, fully conscious of what’s going on, and what could happen.

My sister is now here from Orlando, and so is my wife and Mom-in-law till Monday (as of now), so I have had help at the hospital. As soon as we know when the surgery will be I’ll update.

Please continue to keep her in your prayers.

I’ll continue to update as I can. I sometimes send little updates during the day to my personal Twitter account at http://www.twitter.com/Highmoon (if you don’t have Twitter, you can just scan that URL for updates) and I’ll keep posting updates here as I can.

I’ve never asked anything like this, but there’s no reason not to right now.

I would like to ask any and everyone who reads this to say Psalm 20 for the healing of Wanda Iris Robles Ortiz, whether you are Jewish or Christian, or simply acknowledge the Psalms as holy writings. I even have a link to the psalm online for you to make it easy! For non-JudeoChristians, then I please ask you say a brief prayer for the healing of my mother, phrased however it is proper in your tradition. For my non-believer friends, a simple heartfelt wish for my mother’s healing will be as welcomed.

I don’t need to know you did it, so don’t tell me. But let me thank you beforehand.

How many of these have I done by now?

By now you know that I returned to Miami last Friday only to learn that Mom went back into the hospital on Saturday. I flew in to Puerto Rico again yesterday early in the morning after she got really bad on Monday night; I just didn’t want to run any chances of being away if/when needed.

I found her yesterday tired, very tired, and weak. Fairly stable, though, especially considering the scare she gave everyone the night before. She’s on an IV nutrient since she cannot digest anything, and on a fentanyl patch to control the pain. Her hemoglobin has been stable, thank G-d, so there doesn’t seem to be any major bleed in the body. Yesterday she had a series of X-rays done with a barium contrast, of her stomach and a series of her small intestine. She has one more X-ray today at the 24 hour mark from the start of the study, and every single doctor is waiting for these results to have a better picture of what exactly is going on in her GI tract.

I’ll continue to update as I can. I sometimes send little updates during the day to my personal Twitter account at http://www.twitter.com/Highmoon (if you don’t have Twitter, you can just scan that URL for updates) and I’ll keep posting updates here as I can.

I fly out to Puerto Rico again Tuesday morning at 6 AM.

I had intended to write a more thorough post on the state of the company back in March, but things have continued to transpire which have both kept me from doing that and made anything I was going to write at the moment very much invalid at this point.

As we near the end of June, and thus the first half of 2009, Highmoon Games remains in, essentially, hiatus from publishing. It has not been a good year (so far) for Highmoon Games, partly due to slumping sales and partly due to personal issues dominating my time. We were able to publish Jeremy Puckett’s Ronin: Oriental Adventures in Tokugawa Japan in its d20-compatible format but that has been it on the game supplement front. We do have other projects caught in various stages of production, including other versions of Ronin (True20 and Savage Worlds have been explored), a couple more issues of Heroic Moments, Issue 5 of Targum Magazine, a FATE/Spirit of the Century-compatible mini-setting, and True20 Ancients: Rome (this last one is done and in layout). There is also a secret project being done in conjunction with another gaming company that has not been announced yet.

On the podcast side of things, The Digital Front remains on hiatus since the beginning of the year, and as much as I want to cover certain events happening in the field of tabletop e-distribution, it has not been possible to do so. The Gamer Traveler, however, has been going very well; since turning into a blog as well as a podcast, I have been able to ramp up the number of stories published significantly, mainly because I don’t have to wait for a chance to record an episode to get them out. Episodes of the podcast have been released, but now they form an audio companion rather than the sole medium for my travel & gaming niche.

So what does the second half of 2009 hold in store? Frankly, I don’t know. The personal issue that has kept things on hold so far continues to be a major factor, so effectively Highmoon Games is to remain on hiatus until further notice. As I am able to work on some projects and bring them to fruition I’ll release them, but take those, if/when they happen, as happy surprises, not something to be expected. I am, however, not closing the company nor declaring any of the podfading any of the podcasts; I very much want to return to this endeavor once life returns to normalcy, whenever that is.

To all our customers, colleagues, supporters and friends, thank you so much for caring and inquiring and sending many well wishes.