You can come out now. Everyone else has left the premises.

Quick update on mom. She is now at home. She ate supper at her own table for the first time in a long time. She actually helped dry the supper dishes. The photo is of her and dad. They are doing their version of watching the 10 p.m. local news. Dad does have the remote, so he can change the channel if he needs to. The status? So far, so good. We plan to go Saturday to check on them. Thanks for all the prayers.

I suppose love is still in the air even as we do our best to deal with today, this one being Thursday, February 16, 2017. I read a report in one of the London online papers that talked about a couple observing their 84th Valentines Day together. That teaser headline got my attention. Essentially, they met in 1931, as neighbors, and grew up together. They married in 1945 after he returned from serving in WWII. They celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary in 2015. I suppose the 84 is calculated from when they were in school together. He says he still remembers the first time he saw her and how he thought what a cute little girl she was. He is now 95 years young and she is 93. They have no children but are cared for by a couple of nieces. That, my friend, is what I call a long term relationship. They had a photo of them kissing but I think we get the picture here. They have been at this a long time and their testimony should be an encouragement to us all. May God bless them is my prayer. Amen.

I had my six-month diabetic check-up yesterday. I was pretty proud of myself. I didn't set off any alarm systems. They didn't have to call security. I wasn't put in restraints. The doctor didn't run away. I call that a reasonably good appointment. Please don't go around quoting those comments because they were written in jest. You know. A joke. I am anxiously awaiting my A1c report. That's the one that reveals over a longer time frame how well I have been behaving myself in terms of controlling my blood sugar. When the doctor asked me how I was doing I thought about an old fellow we used to attend Church with. When anyone asked him how he was doing he would usually give the same answer, "If I kicked, I ought to be." Sure, I have the aches and pains of a 70-year-old caused by naturally occurring arthritis. I would also like to be maybe twenty pounds lighter. But, honestly, I really couldn't come up with anything to complain about. I discussed with him the good results from my recent colonoscopy. I had another talk about the relaxed guidelines for older people with diabetes. (Bottom line, they relax them because after 65, you have a shorter period of life expectancy to worry about.) We talked about my mom's situation. I asked about his family and how they were doing. We talked about the Christmas holidays and the Santa Enterprise. You know, whatever it took to fill in my fifteen-minute allotment. The really good news, I like my doctor, even though I most likely have socks older than he is.

Sometimes I tend to drone on about this pain or that pain. I came away from the medical complex being thankful that I can operate as well as I can. There were folks there waiting to see their doctor, or waiting for lab work, and, well, for lack of a better way to put it, they were pitiful. Very. Some appeared to be elderly but many were not. They were folks with bad injuries or some type of disease. Like I say, if you are able to get up and get going each day, my belief is how, that, in and of itself, is something to thank God for. I had fasted before doing my lab work. No coffee. No food. Just water. On the way back to the office I stopped at the only convenient place, one with the arches, not the fallen ones like mine, the golden ones. One of the Hispanic workers mentioned to her manager that Santa had come into the store. They both laughed. The manager took my order and when I paid I handed her one of our Santa and Mrs. Claus souvenir cards. She was happy to get it but she looked at the card, looked at me, and she said, "That's not you on the card." Not me on the card? Not me on the card? I asked her if she thought I would be going around handing out a Santa card with someone else's photo on it. I tell you. What is this world coming to? Now you know why I need blood pressure medicine. I'm still processing some of what my doctor said. It went something like this. If you are diagnosed with diabetes, say in your 30's, that's typically a long time to concentrate on your numbers. After 65, there are more potential treatment side effects and typically there's not that long span available to work with. See what I mean? Stuff like that causes me to leave with mixed feelings. You know, it's like when you rescue someone on the highway only to find out he is an IRS investigator on his way to your house. I'll let you try to sort some of this out. I obviously need help. Take care and may God bless. Amen. ....More later.