Catching Up

Several readers have asked why we were at the Mayo hospital in Jacksonville and have asked about our well-being. We appreciate your concern. We were there for several days of testing and procedures to determine the extent of Terry’s internal damage from the intense radiation she received during her cancer treatment in 2000. It was hard on Terry, but it was worth it because they have come up with some ideas that they think will help her.

One thing will be physical therapy and the other will be to implant a device in her back that will help control the nerves and hopefully alleviate much of the pain she has been in for so long. At our appointment on Tuesday they thought the soonest they could get the implant done would be in early January, but they called yesterday morning and said it is now scheduled for December 2. To our way of feeling, the sooner the better.

We had to shuffle some appointments around to make everything fit, but we got it done. It looks like for the next couple of weeks we will be running back and forth between here and Mayo for pre-op appointments. Terry had been planning on cooking a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, but since we have to be at Mayo at 7 AM the day after, we plan to go up to Jacksonville on Thanksgiving Day and check into a hotel. I told Terry it looks like the turkey will have to be postponed and we will have take-out pizza instead. Or maybe we will find a Chinese place. That works, too. We are not big on holiday traditions anyway.

All of this means it is very unlikely that my new Big Lake book will be out for Christmas as I had planned. That’s why I try very hard to avoid giving a publication date for a new book. Every time I do, something gets in the way to throw me off schedule. Hang in there folks, I will get it done and out as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of my friend Ben Rehder’s Gone The Next, the first book in Ben’s excellent Roy Ballard mystery series. Ben is one of my favorite authors, and if you have not read any of his books, you don’t know what you are missing. To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening.

Thought For The Day – Trying to please everybody is impossible. If you did that, you’d end up in the middle with nobody liking you. You’ve just got to make the decision about what you think is best for you and do it.