Dying Friend

I knew that a certain friend of mine had cancer, and since I hadn’t heard much from him, and he hadn’t been doing his usual activities, I figured either he was declining badly, or treatment was using up all his energies. Sad to say, the answer is “declining badly.” I’ve heard from two other friends about his situation: chemotherapy and radiation have not worked, and he will be going into a hospice, or is already there, and is expected to live perhaps four to six weeks.

He has a wife and two children; they’re at least teenagers now, and the older may be an adult.

Cancer stinks.

The Red Queen’s Race

No new amendments this week, and I dealt with three, one of them before 3:00 PM Monday, and the other two later, so they count for this new biweek and quarter. This leave me with one Regular Amended case, which is actually an Appeal Brief about which I’ll meet with my supervisor and a third party next week, and one Special Amended, which is actually a Board of Appeals decision affirming my rejection. It should be abandoned by now, but the patent attorney told me he wanted to talk with his client about it.

I have been working on my oldest Regular New case the past day and a half.