She's so funny....

While in Florida, I got a call from Toni Loomis, who's married to Bill--the pride of Matherville, IL, and a long-time supporter of Western. Toni is one of a kind. She tells it like it is. Toni and Bill live in Fort Myers and her call was short and to the point. "What did you expect, you've always had a big mouth!" We both had a good laugh.

Yesterday, I had a couple of wake-up calls--one I expected and the other I didn't. For the first time, and I did expect this, I ran into someone on the street who rather than speak with me quickly moved to the other side of the square. I don't believe CANCER is catching, but I've seen this before. I call it "the Bruce Craddock phenomenon." When Coach Craddock got cancer, some people who he had known forever simply avoided him. We were at a social event and there he was sitting by himself at a table so I joined him and we had a nice visit. It just doesn't cost anything to be nice. While on the subject of coaches, from now on, I will refer to Don Patterson--my new counselor who has walked in my shoes--as Coach P as that is what I've always called him.

The event I didn't expect happened about 8 p.m. last night when Diane, Gordon, and I were watching the NCAA games. For the first time, I got a persistent pain in my mouth that would not go away. It was not piercing but it was persistent. I yielded and took my first Oxycontin and that helped some. It made me realize that this thing is not going away and I need that second opinion. This little incident makes my mind get a little too active. I mention this as this is part of why I'm doing this--to let people know who may have similar experiences understand the various stages one goes through. It's a sunny day in Macomb and Gordon and I are off to the Rec Center. He will jog and nurse Diane tells me I will walk. Have a great day.