Hee Haw!

Remember Sam Wainwright, who was George Bailey's friend in It's a Wonderful Life? Well, Karen and I just watched that movie recently...

Anyway, Happy New Year everyone! We hope you all had a wonderful Holidays. Well folks, in a day and a half, I will be moseying on down to the hospital for a little tune-up, an oil change of sorts. I go into it feeling moderately terrified but cautiously optimistic. Actually, a lot more than cautiously, but quite optimistic. I've got quite an awesome team behind me. I feel like that Verizon cell phone guy who's got that huge network in the background complete with helicoptors and cranes and not the guy with the phoney "network" comprised mostly of paper cutouts. (My cell phone is Sprint by the way).

You've all probably made some New Year's resolutions, but if you haven't done so, I urge you please to consider becoming a bone marrow donor. The chances are infinitessimally small that you will ever need to donate, but that opportunity to save a life is incomparable. Believe me, before all this happened, I would have been the first to stand in the "No Way" section because I was afraid of the pain and/or torture. This is nothing compared to what the patients have to go through. There's no doubt that my donor came about because of someone else's efforts. I saw somewhere that in the US (or maybe anywhere), there has only been one patient in need of a transplant who has ever found a donor through his own efforts.

These last few months have been great and I wanted to thank everyone who have called us, sent us e-mail, letters and cards, given us gifts, prayed for us, hugged us, gone out to dinner with us, visited us, hung out with us, and basically all out supported us. We've had a wonderful time and learned so much along the way. I've spent a great majority of time over the last six months reading voraciously. I recently decided to write down most of the books I can remember reading and came up with about sixty books. There is fiction and nonfiction and everything under the sun in there, so if anyone needs any good book recommendations, just ask!

More than anything, what I've learned these last few months is that life is good. If, in my 32 plus years here, I can dole out any advice, it is to be kind. We all share the same earth, and in the grand scheme of things, most of us have it so good. So go out and hug your loved ones a little tighter and be kind, be generous. Also, if you can think of it, be especially kind to my family, my in-laws' family, and most especially my dear wife, Karen. I can't imagine going through this without them. I can only imagine that the only thing harder than being sick is to see someone you love have to be sick.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for being my Verizon network (even though I use Sprint!) I'll be okay. This ain't no thang! I'll be looking to party with you in a few months.

Joe