Snowbrush

Peggy’s cousin, Lynn, is a practicing Catholics and the mother of a serviceman who recently returned from Afghanistan. She often forwards ul...

John Kennedy was killed 45 years ago today. I was 14 and skipping school in Brookhaven, Mississippi, when it happened. My mother was watchin...

Peggy and I took the van to the Chevy dealership yesterday for an oil change and a grease job. Afterwards, we went to eat. Before I went int...

Recent reading. Lots of books. Always lots of books. One about an elderly couple who were the first to walk across the Gobi Desert. Another ...

My computer has been in the shop for a week. Twice, I complained about the slow service and was told by different techs that I could go to t...

It might have made for more interesting writing if I had cancer, but I don’t. The doctors don’t know what I have. They suggested that I have...

Twenty-three hours and ten minutes from now, I will be told whether I have metastatic cancer. That moment will either be the beginning of a ...

I don’t have biopsy results. The surgeon said she would replace the bone while I was on the table if the lab could tell right away that it w...

The time is 4:20 a.m. I have to be at the hospital at 5:45. I am calm. What will be, will be, and I am prepared to face it with dignity.

I never saw anyone with their throat cut but what they looked the worse for wear; in fact, they looked dead and they didn’t die smiling eith...

It takes about four hours to do the yard up right, and I don’t remember a time in my adult life—except once when I had the flu and twice whe...

I finally had my appointment with the neurosurgeon. She will be my first woman surgeon (no, my second, come to think of it—I must be having ...

I still have not seen the neurosurgeon. First, her staff lost my referral, then she cancelled three appointments at the last minute due to e...

I came across the blog of a young man who is studying Catholic theology and challenged his assertion that suffering is invariably a lesson f...

I see my new neurosurgeon tomorrow to hear her thoughts about a spinal biopsy. Peggy is sick with worry and can’t understand why I am not. I...

I went to the acupuncturist eight times. Seven of those times, I saw no improvement. After the eighth, my shoulders felt better for a few da...

When I last updated, the diagnostic neurologist had referred me back to the internist for cancer screening. The internist ordered a vertebra...

I cursed God when I was twelve. I was delivering newspapers on my bicycle, and I remember the exact spot where it happened. By this time in ...

Peggy fears being dead because she doesn’t know what awaits. I don’t fear being dead because I envision death as an everlasting sleep. There...

Here is my account of how things have played out current to yesterday. Most of it is actually true. Early in 2006, an orthopedic surgeon ope...