Total Recall

A year ago today I was awaiting surgery for an unknown neo-plasm...hard to believe that it has only been a year but at the same time it is also hard to believe that year has already passed. I clearly remember getting out of bed midway through a sleepless night, full of anxiety that I wouldn't wake up from the anasthesia!

All things considered, the last year has been rich and good. I have learned an awful lot, both at the U and in life, and have been amazed at how quickly James is growing and developing. [Side note: as I write we are in the midst of a real summertime thunderstorm with abundant lightning and heavy rain -- really odd for late October but should make for a much better sleep than I had a year ago!] Lenore and I are both teaching at BSU this fall, she in music and me back in Biology -- Genetics and Human Biology plus an Honors course on Darwin. We even manage to have lunch together in the Union a couple times a week -- pretty cute or at least that's what I hear from colleagues. We had a neat thing happen a couple weeks ago. I got an email from a guy in California who was recently diagnosed with the same cancer I had -- found this 'blog! He has gone through the same surgery, chemo, and radiation as I had -- he's in his 40s, married with a young daughter and he's a boat builder (see Stephen Dampier under the Tolman Skiff links at right). Anyway, we have written back and forth a couple times and I feel like it is in the cards that our paths will cross in person sometime soon. I am also convinced that I need to build a Tolman Skiff as a reward for (finally) completing my doctorate (hopefully next spring)! The Tolman Skiff builders are interesting crew...Stephen runs a discussion group for fellow builders that has been about 75% politics and 25% boats of late -- gives me more than enough opportunity to read and write political commentary so I'll resist the temptation to rant. That's all for now. /dps