A bit of green is showing in my lawn...

though it's still colder than I'd like outside and going to get even colder the next few days.

   I'd never intended to let 2 months slip away without finding my way back in here again, but I've been either busy or miserable, without any in-between. The holidays, the family gatherings, the visitors...the respiratory bug I fought from just before Thanksgiving until the last few days...it's been a lovely winter so far!

   Finally I seem to have shaken it though; I finished my umpteenth round of antibiotics a few days ago and though I cough a bit of stuff now and then, it is clear and seems to just be my fibrosis at work instead of anything more sinister! I've seen the pulmonary doctor twice since we last visited and had a follow up with the cardiologist this last week, partly an annual because of my episode 23 months ago and partly because if I can get that new fibrosis drug they wanted an echocardiogram done to make sure everything was OK.

   Dottie and all of the kids and grandkids are doing well. It's amazing to have been granted another cycle of the sun to watch everyone grow and change. I was diagnosed 2 years ago December and really didn't figure to still be here; instead I'm really not in bad shape for the shape I'm in!

   This last week I've finally been feeling good enough again we slipped out to a few movies. Dottie really likes the "Hunger Games" movies, so I got her to the latest in that franchise, then the next day we saw the final Hobbit movie. Yesterday it was bitter cold again, so instead of going out to the movies I got her to watch the first movie to win Best Picture with me, "Wings". Bill and Laura bought me a BlueRay of a lovely restoration of it to replace my old recorded-off-the-air VHS. Quite a treat, recorded with an orchestra playing the original score. It actually holds up very well across the years!

   Still no news about the new drug. The pulomonlogist has submitted paperwork and resubmitted, as have I; we're waiting to hear if there are more hoops to jump through or if the company is going to grant me the drug gratis...I can't imagine many can afford $320 a day for it!

   I'm starting to cautiously look towards spring and think a bit about traveling a bit once the snow and ice are done for the year. I saw footage a few weeks ago of someone climbing the ice at Niagara Falls from exactly where we were only a couple of months before that...hard to believe I was there in sandals!

   I hope the world is being kind to each of you!

alan