"Riding Puke Bug Out of Town on a Rail"

I know some mighty angry parents tonight. They are parents of poor little defenseless babies who cannot defend themselves against a nasty, virulent Puke Bug.
Several of us have just been slammed with this stuff all winter,
and we are all weary and tired. Two of our Columbia church babies have been hospitalized this week with the vomiting virus. Both boys, Gage and David Cole, are in Hannah's class. It makes me feel really lucky that she only endured 48 straight hours of the stuff. They have endured much, much more with their weary parents. I think we can proclaim in unison, "Come on, Spring!"

I wish it were possible to gather all the evil forces at work right now and ride them collectively out of town on a rail. It has been a rough week for the saints around here, but prayer has been answered favorably in so many ways concerning some I have told you about.

My friend Tina got her medical report back after her double mastectomy. Cancer had spread to some of the lymph nodes and was found to be stage two and stage three. The good news has been that she has had minimal discomfort and she has a strong, positive outlook. We have heard that the more aggressive cancers respond better to treatment than some of the slow-growing ones. She is hopeful that this will be the case when she begins treatment for hers. In the meantime, she is cracking me up telling me how she is contemplating trying various hairstyles and colors with wigs when her hair comes out. She and some family and friends are apparently going to have as much fun with this as you can have under these circumstances. I told her that she is awesome in my book.

Brother Alvin had his cancer surgery today, too. He got a pretty good report. The cancer seems confined to the lumps they found in both jaws. The lumps and some lymph nodes were removed and will be further analyzed. They scoped his throat and did not see anything bad down there. So for now, they are cautiously optimistic, and we are grateful.

The Columbia hospital became a gathering place for as many as could play hooky from work and school today, apparently. Between the babies up in the baby unit with dehydration, and bro. Alvin in surgery, there was quite a gathering in the hospital today. Several of our dear older ladies are also " pink ladies " which means they help out on a volunteer basis at the hospital, so they have the inside scoop on what is going on a lot of times. We also have a few nurses and therapists who work inside the hospital, so "ve have our vays of vinding things out." It usually does not take too long to run down the answers to our questions, if it is, of course, information the families wish to share with the crowd. I did not try to go, because with Hannah having been sick and then the fact that I was throwing up Monday, I did not want to take any chances on making anyone else sick.

I did manage to get out a little in the gorgeous day today, however, to get a package off to my grandfather for his 85th birthday. He will celebrate on the 2nd. He has had quite a time this year with his wife, my step-grandmother, trying to recover from a stroke last year. She is at home now, but recovery has been slow, and my grandfather and my aunt Martha (Marni) have had their hands full caring for her day and night since she left the nursing home. Marni has a birthday in just a couple of days, too, but we will not tell her age out of respect for a woman's right to keep that a big secret!

I cannot let this blog today pass without commenting on the death of Terri Schiavo. I have to say that I think this whole case is just purely indicative of the growing collective lunacy and moronic behavior of this nation as a whole. While I recognize that there were good people who did their best to try and save her, for the most part, people either did not care or blatantly promoted what amounted to a calculated murder of a helpless individual.

I hope her husband is proud of himself tonight. He pulled it off. He orchestrated a murder and white-washed it as a mercy-killing. God alone holds the keys to life and death, and He alone gives it and takes it as He sees fit. Woe be to the man or woman who presumes to take God's role and make it his or her own. An autopsy will probably determine whether this case ends in the courts of man at this point or not. However, a Higher court will eventually convene, and Terri will get justice then, regardless of what happens here and now. I feel so sorry for her parents right now, but I genuinely feel more sorry for Michael Schiavo when he has to stand before the Bar and answer to the charge of impersonating Deity. Somehow I doubt his eternal "end" is going to be as "peaceful" as Terri's was. As always, JMHO.