NEVER DID...GET TO WRITE MORE ABOUT CANBERRA

Actually, after my return to Corning...

I FELL INTO SOMEWHAT OF A SLUMP!!!
A despondence being perhaps the nicer term

Slumps can be hard to figure out, as one can be in a slump for a while without perceiving that 'in a slump' is where you are.

Slumps can be hard to figure out due to that they are at the convergence of several factors. Or the  the slide into the 'slough of despond'  (taken from Pilgrim's Progress), is so gradual as to be almost imperceptible.  Anyway, there I was for several months.

I put it down, in part, to seasonal mismatch.  I did this to myself once before...going to Australia at the end of  Winter (here) to the early Autumn (there).  Winter really hung on here and was very cold. To give all due credit. Spring 'Down Under' was wonderful.  Lots of fine days with only one day of rain.  The problem seems to be that the days (there) are getting shorter when my constitution, at Winter's end, is expecting them to get longer.  Once back here, it was lots of rain and Spring still struggling to get going.  Perhaps a case of 'Not enough production of that happiness messenger molecule, Serotonin'.

But then too there was the signs that my dearest friend's breast cancer might have reappeared.  Uma had begun to experience pain in the hip.  It was thought that this may have been a feature of ageing. However, since this type of cancer is most likely to metastasize to the bone of the pelvic region, dark clouds of dread began to gather. And so it has proven to be.  So we are into a new round chemotherapy and tomorrow is the day when a PET scan tomorrow morning will determine whether the new treatment regime has been effective.

I suppose that I will write more about this sometime, but not yet.  Being the support for a person so situated is a difficult role and one hard to learn.  Along the way I have learned a lot about cancer; fortunately, reading journal articles is something I have done most of my life, so it has been not so difficult to turn over many in this area.  Always one is searching for the next stepping stone.  Most important of all is to surround the one you love with the best and strongest affection.

So I suppose these two streams, converging, have swept me to a place I would prefer not to be.  I am amazed at how the threads of life can so quickly come to disarray here and there.  However, I am glad to report that they are coming together and am accepting of the reality that they will do so in their own good time, so long as I keep pegging away, usually in no particular order.

Uma being no longer to rider her scooter, I have taken it over.  I thought this picture might brighten this narrative for you.

It is a 2008 Yamaha and very swish.  Just 50 cc, liquid cooled, and fuel injection.  Does 100 mpg but is strictly an 'around town' vehicle,  I had it inspected (for registration) at the local Harley Davidson shop.  They asked me how fast it would go.  They though it very funny when I told them this depended on wind direction and slope of the road!

It had been sitting around doing nothing much and seems to like being around and about.  It gets lots of attention, I can attest!

Now at the end of November. the days are really drawing in. Some are fine and relatively warm in the middle (40 to 50 deg F today), and the mornings, especially after a clear night sky, quite' brisk'




This is what my outside (outsize) thermometer showed this morning!  It got down to 10 deg F.

I think I am picking up.  It has been good to write this little piece.  I find myself looking forward to the snow, a little of which we have already seen.

Thanksgiving was fun.  The church I attend from time to time does a TG dinner for any who have no place to go.  About 100 attend.  This year I served the squash.  Late afternoon, I joined Uma and Tara (her daughter) for drinks and something TGish to eat.  A pleasant day indeed.