Hello Readers.
It’s been a long, long time since I’ve posted on this blog and a lot of water has gone under the bridge. I was going to start anew, but changed my mind. There’s a lot of me in the old posts and I don’t want to lose them to the aether.
We and most of the world are currently under ‘stay at home’ recommendations, and in some cases orders for a pandemic caused by a virus called Covid-19. It’s flu-like and deadly. More about that later.
I’ll start where I left off a little over 4 years ago.
The stem cell transplant went well. There were a few setbacks early in the process, but I won’t bore you with the details and I honestly don’t want to relive it again via writing. I spent about 6 months starting in early March of 2016 in a bubble unable to associate much with outsiders. Your immune system is a wreck after stem cell replacement so it’s imperative that you avoid just about anything that might cause an infection. Well, that’s just about everything.
I made it through the sequester and have been doing well ever since. My numbers are good, the cancer is still there hiding, but too small to measure. I currently take a low dose chemo pill and get regular checkups. Onward and upward.
I found the true meaning of friendship. Some good, some not so good, but all in all positive. I’ve also been enlightened, thanks to my inevitable demise, that there are a lot of things that just aren’t that all fired important anymore. I worry far less about the world, and much more about me, my family and my friends.
Several years ago JoNell began to get a bit burned out with her job at the Collier County Visitors and Convention Bureau. Seems she was doing all the work with very few pats on the back except from her clients. An offer came in from the Broward County CVB and as they say, the rest is history. We sold the house and moved to Fort Lauderdale this past December. Our friends and some of our family thought we were crazy to head back to the big city, but we are very happy here and love the ability to travel quickly to one of our favorite places, the Florida Keys.
Before the move I was teaching fishing classes at Bass Pro Shops in Fort Myers and I continued to do my radio show. When the news came that JoNell was offered her dream job in Fort Lauderdale I made the decision that driving across Alligator Alley would be a bit much. I quit teaching and retired from my radio show after almost eleven years on the air. Bittersweet, but I’m actually enjoying sleeping in on Saturday mornings and sharing weekends with JoNell.
I’m going to promise to be better about writing on this blog. Not only for readers, but for me. I find writing very therapeutic.
