An Old Dog With Friends

   The kids are out the door and on their way to school for another Monday.  My wife is feeling a little better after a nasty weekend cold and cough.  I am home waiting.  So it goes.  For those concerned about how I am feeling, I think Round Three has gone better than the others so far.  I am four days past that experience and I have had no huge residual effects other than the exhaustion and the queasy stomach.  This is all good.  Let's keep going.
   Report cards are due this week.  I will be working on them from afar.  This is the first time in 17 years I have had to produce report cards for students and the last time I did this I used a grade book that was actually a book of grades.  Now of course everything is on line and in a web program and my pre-technological mindset is struggling a bit as to how to do all of this.  I am sure my friends at school will help me out and I know parents will understand if what they see is somewhat prehistoric in nature.  "Old dog...new tricks."  I will keep moving forward.
   Friends, thanks again for the you-know-what and the how-do-you-dos:

• Julie, your gift and your visit were wonderful.  Thank you.
• Matea, your comment ("You don't look so good") made me laugh.  Thanks.
• Eric, once again you skim off the top of your business to bless us.  We appreciate your generosity more than you will know.  Thank you.
• Judy, your e-mail conversation has lifted me.  Thanks for thinking about me.
• Linda (a woman I have yet to meet but I am sure that we will one of these days) I appreciated your kind words and your uplifting sentiments.  Thank you.
• Sean and Melissa, thank you for blessing Tessa with a great weekend.  
• Mel and Scott, I find myself thinking a lot about you all and hope this endurance race you have started is starting alright.  I am sorry I could not be with you.  You may think these things go unnoticed at times and in moments when everything is fine and rosy they have a tendency to drift into the background.  But I think the immediacy of difficulty makes one notice these things so much more clearly and therefore appreciate them so much more fully.  Thank you.

   Let's keep going.