I was just outside  peeing in the rain—(10 inches worth—rain that is– in the past 4 weeks, or so says the news out of Seattle)—doing my ‘deed’ partially as in invite to Jack, who hates the rain with a purple passion, and just about has to be pulled off the porch lest he get his big furry paws wet.  The boy actually put his head between my legs out in the field, to try and keep from getting wetted by the rain, while he dodged the man made variety (must be the lab part of his lineage was dropped from his chromosomes!).  Granted, the Pacific choral frogs  are out in force, singing their full throated greetings to the warming spring down pour, but dang it if we don’t have a large handful of friends and family sending facebook, post card and phone calls from the warmth of Mexico, Arizona, Hawaii, while we are pretty much stopped from adventuring far from the ‘home base’, because of the ongoing requirements of post transplant cancer.

There is so very much to give thanks for:  caring family & friends;  daffodils blooming;  flocks of robins taking baths out in the mud-puddles and gorging themselves on lots and lots of worms, while we watch bemused from the warmth of our front room; our comfy home; the best in medical care; the clamor of the neighbor boys  down the road, getting their skills  honed  for the soon to come baseball season;  dinners, cards and golf with friends (an Alaskan friend just visited for a few days dodging  her return trip to the colder climes, and remarked that she had never played ‘under water golf’ before—our version of NW linksmanship, Xtra tuffs required!).

The dark, wet times tend also to dampen the spirit.  Another friend from Alaska just bit the ‘proverbial dust’;  a constant danged reminder of our own fragility and the  pain that comes with the lose.    Shann has the virus CMV again.  It  poked its head out of the ‘blue’—-yea right!  It’s to be expected that with a depressed/immature immune system that these things  are bound to happen, but it still sucks!  Our very good health insurance still requires pre authorization  (some of Shann’s drugs are unholy expensive!) and many hours have recently been spent trying to make sure there isn’t a lapse of her chemo Glevec family of drugs—Sprycel.  Just more stuff like that—–

OOOOOOO I guess I should just go have a slurp of single malt and watch a movie, lest my mood darkens more! …..Tonight I am going to dream about a spot in Hawaii with our name on it—Jack will just have to suffer here in the rain and hold down the fort on his own, until later in the Spring when we hope to hit the road again (keep an eye out for a small self contained van for sale–we’re in the market!).  Daughter is flying in from S.A. soon to deal with her own set of medical issues.  Sorry to not be more ‘spring like’ in this missive.  The sun will come out, and all will look and feel better as the winter leaves us!   Movement and growth are happening!

‘Carry on’, as my old Alaskan buddy Bullwinkle used to say!    Steve