So here's how my morning went. The alarm went off at 6:00 AM, waking me from deep sleep. I stumbled into the kitchen to take my medication, and to make a pot of tea. Hot tea seems to settle my stomach, and the medication makes me nauseated. So, I spent the next two hours sitting quietly, sipping tea, praying and reading until. At 8:00 I was free to eat breakfast. Then I rested, marshalling my energy for...

... shaving, bathing and dressing! Then I rested, to recover from that physical activity. Then I walked some in the neighborhood. Then I rested, to recover. Then I paid some bills and then it was time to eat lunch.

Some morning, huh? Indeed, yes!! It was a wonderful, joyous morning -- the gift from God of a new day! Hans Tiefel called at around noon. It was the first time I've talked with him in nearly two months. He started out by asking, "Are you glad to be alive?" I said, "You're going to make me cry!" (Have I written before that my tears always seem to be tears of joy?)

Want to hear some irony? Before I was discharged, the pharmacist at the hospital explained the liquid anti-fungal medication, and how I needed to take it on an empty stomach, and that it is best absorbed into my body if there's an acid environment in my stomach. So, she said to drink Coke after I take the medicine because Coke is the most acid of the soft drinks! The irony? For more than a year, my cough/illness was treated as acid reflux. So, for that long I dutifully stayed away from just about everything I love -- coffee, tomatoes, red wine, jalapenos -- anything that would add acid to my stomach!! Hoo boy.