Author's Update

May 26, 2011

I'm back with a report.

"Finally!" you all say. And I don't blame you in the least.

This past year has been nothing but old-age crap. Tight social security budgets, fist shaking at Republicans, surgeries and recovery (thank God we have Kaiser Health Insurance...if we didn't we'd be living with our dogs in a refrigerator box on the banks of the Platte River), and add to all that an extreme lack of moisture in Denver for almost a year.

Sigh! Tonight, it's raining. Yay! It's been raining since early morning and isn't supposed to stop until tomorrow. This is the most moisture we have gotten since the Fourth of July, 2010, ten months ago. Although the mountains and the ski areas have gotten record snow this past winter (and it's still snowing up there in the middle of May), the Denver area and foothills didn't get more than a foot of snow all winter, leaving us with major drought and many fires all winter and into spring. This rain, and inches more is on the way, is truly God's grace in action.

Cowboy Frank is getting all my books ready to put on Amazon.com to be sold on Amazon Kindle book readers. I'm editing the books two more times, adding things and correcting errors. Thankfully, Frank is finding errors Mo and I have overlooked for years. Emerald Valley, free on the website, will also be free on Kindle. I'm editing and adding to that book also.

I hope to report on the progress, which has slowed to a crawl recently.

Jim, my partner, just underwent major surgery on his spine to correct deteriorated discs, severe arthritis and scoliosis. He's been on morphine and percocet for over a year for the pain. The two-part surgery was first to open Jim from the front and move aside organs to reinforce his spine from inside. Two days later, they opened up his back and built a latticework of metal to fuse 9 vertebra together. Jim is 70. How could anyone survive that?

I'd signed Jim up with a prayer group, via a good friend, also called Jim, in the Eastern US. He's a reader of my books and we latched on to each other. Jim wrote a book about two gay seminarians in the Catholic church. He never could get it published. I love his book! The East Coast Jim assured me that his prayer group was powerful.

As they were closing my Jim's first surgery, they suddenly lost a pulse in his left foot. The head surgeon, from India, told me all present felt a spark of realization that Jim had a blood clot. They found it. It was 3 inches long and would have killed him instantly if they hadn't caught it. The surgeon told me point blank, "Someone must have been praying for him." I hope my prayers helped.

Jim was in the hospital and rehab for 33 days. At home, he's improving daily. Linda, Jim's ex-wife, flew to Denver from Boise for a week to help us both after Jim came home. Her help and Auntie-Mame attitude was invaluable. She got us through the worst of it. Jim still has a home RN for as long he needs it.

On May 10, 2011, Jim and I celebrated our 38th anniversary. Linda bought us a cake. She is now home with her husband, and our dishes are in their proper places. We both thank Linda. She and Jon are dear to our hearts.

Months ago, we found another Bouvier des Flanders. We both love the breed for their looks (ears un-cropped), their calmness, their loyalty and their gentle fierceness in protection. I read somewhere that Bouvier's jaws can break a man's leg bone. Don't know if it's true. Dawson "1" (or first Bouvier) only got riled enough to do that once when some guy with a tow truck was trying to steal our truck in the dead of night when we lived in the mountains. Dawson tore at him with extreme viciousness in his deep bark. He might have attacked the guy's leg if the man hadn't reached his truck in time. That same tow truck was later seen in various parts of South Park trying to steal trucks. We never heard if he'd been found.

We had to name our new Bouvier puppy Dawson 2 because the names Dos, Dosie and Dawson will always be with us. Dawson 2 has a totally different personality. "Dosie" is much more loving. He obeys with a glint in his eye that I haven't quite figured out. He's very concerned about Jim's recovery. Dosie checks on Jim in bed about every hour or so. If Jim's breathing funny or needs to be covered, Dosie comes up to me, nudges and stares at me for a few moments, then goes into the bedroom for me to follow. It's astounding to me. He's quite a nurse at 8 months old. I saw a TV program years ago that said Bouviers need jobs to be happy. I think Dosie's picked his.

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A week has passed since I wrote the above. Very bad news. From the x-rays of Jim's back, two screws at the top have pulled out and he has to have a repeat surgery, lengthening the rods upwards.

I'll send this on to Frank to post, and promise to keep you posted.

Dave