Hello Everyone,

I had a good visit with the neurosurgeon on Friday. Good news. Though my inside likeness by film is not attractive, it's as bad as I would have thought. He says I need a cortisone shot in my lowest disk in my back and hopefully that will stop the pain for a good long while. This procedure can only be done 3 times in one's life, so hopefully the times inbetween will be very long indeed. Coupling that with a new exercise program to retone my atrophied muscles and in time, I will be fully functional again.

Death tolls for the India quake will no doubt keep climbing until all of the victims are located. I saw death the other day. I was on my way home from dropping my daughter off at school. I was so angry with her for being late. So as I was almost home I came upon an accident scene that was only a few minutes old. I saw two cars stopped in the left lane and noticed a man and a woman sitting and hugging each other in the center divider. A second later I saw the victims legs and feet in front of the first car. I sheltered my left eye with my hand and said to myself, "don't look, don't look." But somehow I couldn't resist looking in my rear view mirror. I saw a jacket over the man's head and then I knew. Turns out he was a 73 year old man, taking a bike ride on a rainy morning and he rode right into the path of a driver. After that I was thankful my daughter was late again.

Don took me to the doctor on Friday. I asked him to go with me so that I didn't have to drive and also I wanted a second pair of ears to hear what the doctor had to say. I've found sometimes there is so much said that you forget what you heard or you forget to ask important questions. In the world of men, you would find it difficult to find anyone who could hold a candle to him. God knows, I've tested his patience and somehow he seems to just ignore it. I've learned a lot from the man who upon asking how he is says, "finer than frogs hair." He's a beacon of light on any dreary day.

I am so glad to live in a place in the world that some building safety standards. I thought of what it might have been like to be a tourist in India when the quake came through and it was kind of scary.

Petra