Some good news: my mother’s cancer isn’t in her bones, so the prognosis is a bit better. Maybe 3-6 months. So after her third round of chemo she’ll be released to a nursing home with a rehab facility, and my kids will be able to visit her.

On the bad news side: My brother refused to send me the selling documents from the closing of the sale of my mother’s house — she was not at the closing — so I had to use the lawyer and our new POAs to have the title company release them. At several hundred dollars and hour, that takes money away from my family — which is precisely the kind of prick he is. In fact, at one point he told me via text that he “never cared for” my wife (whom he’s met maybe twice); and that he doesn’t care at all about Satchel or Tanner, that he doesn’t know them, doesn’t want to know them, and doesn’t care what happens to them. Probably the reason that the last time he saw me, when I visited his then place of work (a chain restaurant / bar where he was waiting tables), he ran when he saw me and put his manager on notice that I might cause trouble. Because he’s only good at threatening women, I guess. In fact, he’s threatened by the new Powers of Attorney — including telling one he was going to come kill her with a baseball bat. Which, in MD, is evidently protected speech, according to an idiot statist judge.

The real estate firm of Exit Spivey never cooperated; I’m filing a complaint with the appropriate Maryland real estate regulatory agencies as a result. Because filling out forms and strangulation by red tape is fun!

The upshot is, the wheels are in motion. The Maryland Detective is impossible to get hold of, but I’m fairly tenacious, as many of you probably know, so I’ll keep on top of that; meanwhile, I’ve been dealing with getting legal papers in order in a run up to filing the suit. My lawyer, who is actuality my mother’s lawyer, technically, will have the selling documents tomorrow if the title company does its job and overnights it as they said they would.

My wife is away on business through Friday and I’ve been coaching regularly. Satchel’s first tournament is Saturday and this year is going to be tough on him: we’ve changed the makeup of the tournaments such that the closest 6 kids in weight enter a round robin. Satch is on the far low-end of the weight scale for his age group. He’s generally able to beat much bigger kids if they aren’t as advanced as he is (and he’ll still beat some of them), but weight disadvantages in wrestling, with all else being relatively equal, are difficult to overcome. That having been said, at yesterday’s “match night” practice, Satch pinned a heavier teammate who I believe is in the 12 age group — and who two years ago was our wrestler of the year. In fact, he didn’t lose a match — and because we let every match go three periods, there was one teammate who he pinned in every period. Now that he’s getting his sprawl back in order (he’d been lazy about getting his legs back and pointing his toe with the laces down to keep from being climbed), he’s looking really good. And he’s starting to scout his opponents, too. Which is a great sign, as previously he’d sit in the stands between matches playing some game on a phone or iPad.

So. There’s all that.

Outside my self absorption, is there anything else happening in the world I should know about? I mean, I’ve heard about the Senate wins and the state legislature and governor wins, but I’m going to assume that John and Mitch will squander the control of Congress, just as the House leadership did in 2010, and that they’ve already probably capitulated on any number of things while talking tough and throwing out crumbs to the people who put them in power but whom they always forget to actually represent.

And then there’s Obama, who has nothing to lose and will likely just petulantly tell the American people who’ve repudiated him to fuck off and do as he pleases. After all, the only ones with the stones to take him on are the conservatives, and they are systematically smeared, scolded, weakened, and denigrated by the establicans. Obama knows Boehner. He knows McConnell. He knows McCarthy. Not personally of course — at least, not well — but he can smell their fear and play to their naked power hunger.

Article V is the way forward. The GOP has 31 governorships. And a large number of state legislatures and assemblies. Now is the time to push to take the country back — before a 16 million person amnesty “changes the demographics” and propels us, once and for all, down the road to serfdom and the United States of Banana Republic.

Only without all the khaki.

Update: Thanks to SDN, Blitz, Timothy K, and Romain B for their generous contributions! If I’ve missed anyone I apologize. It’s been really hectic here.