Finally, A Bit Of Good News

 Before we begin tonight's post, I have a bit of good news.  

That Awesome Hunk Of Pure Awesomeness Who Used To Be My Imaginary Boyfriend Before He Married Someone Who Is Not Me Bill Whittle has turned the corner and is finally on the mend.  He posted on his website today, giving us an update.  

Things got pretty dicey there, because thanks to Brandon restricting them, Bill and his lovely bride Natasha didn't have access to monoclonal antibody treatments.  His operations manager finally found a clinic that had some, and she drove them there, only to be told that since it had been longer than ten days, the treatments would have no effect, and could even make things worse.  Sigh...Let's Go Brandon.

Bill hadn't eaten in about 8 days because he couldn't keep anything down, and he hadn't had anything to drink in 4 or 5 days.  He was severely dehydrated, then his sister found someone to give him IV fluids  -- I'm guessing at a clinic.  He said they'd gone to an ER and after waiting four hours without anyone seeing them, they got up and left.    By that time, he was so dehydrated, it took the nurse about 10 minutes just to find a vein.  But she finally did, and got some fluids into him. 

Once he got rehydrated a bit, he began perking up, and after two weeks of The Least Fun Either Of Us Has Ever Had (his own words), he began feeling better.  He'll be back to filming episodes soon, but wanted to check in and give us an update.

That is the Reader's Digest condensed version of what he posted.  It doesn't sound like Natasha got quite as sick as Bill did, but then, she's quite a bit younger than he is, and is in a lower risk group.  Doesn't matter.  I'm just glad he's feeling better.  

I don't know if I could handle losing someone else to this thing. 

Oh, and by the way, another one of my friends is recovering from her second bout with the stuff.  She's not happy.  And in a strange twist of irony, the man who takes our temperatures at work has it, too.  I haven't heard how he's doing, but I hope he's OK, too.  

OK, now, on to your regularly scheduled post.  

I had to run downtown after work today to pay a bill.  As is my custom, while I was in that part of town, I checked on the Little Free Library on the Square.  It was slap empty.  It is no longer slap empty.  I was able to fit almost all of the remaining books from Mr. Clark's house into it.   There were a few old cookbooks -- the kind you make for fundraising -- that I decided were a bit too bedraggled to put into the Library, so I brought them back home. 

After I'd returned home, I said to myself, "Self, let me look through this basket and see what is left that I can put into the LFL."  And that's what I did.  Down in the bottom of the basket, I found this:

Just look at what is in it!   Just look!  

Yeah, that book didn't quite make into the LFL.  Neither did these:

They may look the same, but one is a 1952 edition, and one is a 1957 edition.  They went onto my shelf, too, right next to my 1925 Funk & Wagnalls Desk Standard Dictionary. 

However, I might not keep one of them.  Why?  Because just inside the cover, I found this handwritten note:

For those of you with eyes like mine, it says

To Wayne & Ann

From Mom & Dad

On The 25th Day

Of Dec in year of 1959

Then on the inside cover, written in pencil in a little boy's hand, it says Gary.  

Gary was Mr. & Mrs. Clark's only child.  He died a couple of years ago of a horrible disease called neuromyelitis optica.  It's one of those degenerative things that kills you in slow motion.  Towards the end, he could barely move, and was almost totally blind, but he never lost his sense of humor and his fighting spirit.  

I really feel like I should offer this book to Gary's daughter, his only child.  I wonder if she even realized what she was tossing out when she put the basket of books out by the curb.  

In knitting news, I've gotten this far on the scarf I ripped and re-did.  

I've been checking it for errors almost obsessively.  Hopefully, I'll make it through this time.  My problem is, I've knit so many hats with K2 P2 ribbing, my fingers automatically want to go there.  I have to count out loud and really think...this is a K3 P1 pattern.  

And lastly, I made a little needle felted cactus, which the cat is displaying Vanna style for you:

I didn't have any fiber dyed green, in my practice fiber, I mean, so I tried to blend yellow and blue.  Eh, it's kind of greenish if you squint...from a distance.  

Now, if you'll excuse me, it's past my bedtime, and I haven't even practiced my piano yet.  

Laters.