This has been the most terrible week I’ve had in many a year. The last two weeks, really, as I first kept the JPFO secret I thought should be revealed, then went ahead and revealed it.<\/p>\n
All week I’ve felt as if every time I turn on my computer something with huge claws and teeth is going to lunge out of the Internet and eat me. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Reading lies, smears, and innuendo; being baited; feeling as if everything is falling apart. Never knowing what ugliness or panic the next email might bring. Many good people have stepped up to fight for JPFO. Others have offered “help” that was merely an agenda-driven, hobbyhorse-riding distraction that had to be dealt with.<\/p>\n
Developments got so awful yesterday I literally thought I might be having a heart attack. It took hours to calm down and breathe out the tightness in my chest. (And I’m not the sort of person to let “mental stuff” take itself out on my body; I learned tricks years ago for diminishing that.)<\/p>\n
It scared me.<\/p>\n
And all this while I was trying to meet a deadline. Every day I’d start out thinking I’d get my article done, but every day by 9:00 or 10:00 a.m. I’d be derailed and so preoccupied (and often so upset) by some JPFO development that productivity was nil.<\/p>\n
—–<\/p>\n
Yesterday afternoon, after the forced idleness of chest pains, I realized how surreal it all is.<\/p>\n
Everything is happening only on the Internet. Real life? That’s just fine. The sun is shining. All’s well with my neighbors and friends. The dogs are happy. I’m healthy when not being given faux heart attacks by things coming out of the computer.<\/p>\n
The week’s been hectic, even aside from events in ‘Netland. But not terrible. <\/p>\n
Outside the black box that sits on my work table, my world is well.<\/p>\n
Open the black box and … Sharknado<\/a>.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Well, the black box still contains a few good things, even this week. Two kind donors chipped in some extra support (which I have yet to add to the thermometer or personally acknowledge; sorry.) And there are always dogs to be hilariously shamed<\/a>. And people of goodwill and good cheer.<\/p>\n I even woke up this morning to find the possibility of saving JPFO still alive (greatly to my surprise and though no doing of my own).<\/p>\n