The Long Gray Days

This is the time of the year when the sun rises late and sets early. Persistent overcast gray skies lengthen the period of darkness. The damp, cold air enhances the dour mood.

You can scarf down all the vitamin D you can afford, but unless you take gummy vitamins, there's no benefit you can discern with anything but your taste buds.

Take heart, mates. The sun is rising earlier. The sun is setting later. Soon we will hear the death rattle in the throat of the winter of 2023. Look for it sometime in early March, with a predicted period of relief from the dark day malaise until June. Then we celebrate the 180 days of possible good weather in Wisconsin.

Recent Art Work

The Lakefront

Inspired by a photo by James Rowen

9 x 12 Gouache

Woman Protestor In Iran

12 x 16 Pastel

Cardinal In The Snow

12 x 16 Pastel

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Ring The Bell

It appears there is a tradition in the radiology department at Ascension Hospital that patients, upon completing their course of treatment, ring a bell. ( We know not for whom this bell tolls.) Ring the Bell with My Sweetheart Jeanne. Jeanne drove me to all but two of the appointments. Pam Frautchi took me to the other two. Today, after being zapped thirty-two times, I rang the bell. This begins a roughly one-month recovery period where the effects of the radiation abate and, I'm assured, a return to normalcy occurs. In my case, I anticipate more energy and greater awareness. Books, Books, & More Books I am simultaneously celebrating the end of the third year of volunteering for the All Saints Hunger Book Sale. Next week, we will wrap up the preparation for the sale and open our doors on August 3 for the public. I ran into this humourous but quite accurate cartoon on a T-Shirt that shows most of the volunteer's sentiments at this point. If you think the printed and bound p...

It's time again.

It started in 2004 when we moved to our condo off Downer in Milwaukee. Then we mover to the Westside of Milwaukee when we rented from Ken Karr, the former landlord, now a current friend on Highland and 29th St. Then we moved to Mandeville Louisiana for a little less than a year. Returning to The Fox River Valley, we rented a home in Fox Crossing, formerly The Town of Menasha. When the tree fell on the roof, and the landlord felt no urgency to fix it, we moved to W. Commercial in Appleton. Here is a shocker. Are you sitting down? We are moving. No, I don't mean off the couch and out to the patio. There are too many damn mosquitoes for that to happen. No, we are packing our stuff, or at least the stuff we unpacked from the last move and moving to a home Maria purchased on Mason and Glendale in Appleton. Let me unpack that last sentence (pun planned for). We are moving at approximately the end of September to a house. The house has been in t...

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Many of us in Milwaukee have put away the black armbands recognizing our grief for the Brewer's early exit from the playoffs. The Packers are going through their season, letting Jordan Love grow into the vacancy left by the departure of Aaron Rodgers. The Milwaukee Bucks are daring anyone to try and take this year's championship away from them. Marquette, UWM, and the Badgers have an abundance of hope. Marquette, however, has the talent. My Treatments We are at a checkpoint. Along with my immunotherapy next Monday, I'm having a scan. It's felt that my body has shed enough radiation so we can get a look at the infected area and evaluate the progress. Watch this space. I am feeling well. I had little reaction to the second round of the Keytruda and don't anticipate any from the next injection. I went to Walgreens to get my Flu shot and my COVID booster. Remember when we used to go to the drugstore because they had a soda fountain. Wanderings Jeanne and I decided to g...

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