Home At Last

We arrived home from Mississippi late last night after spending the week with my mother. We are finally home for a month or two.

Mom seems to be doing pretty well after the death of Nelson, her husband of fifteen years. She also seems to be doing pretty well with her lung cancer. Her last PET-CT scan on October 1 indicated some shrinkage (or at least no growth - depending on how one interprets the doctors' doublespeak) of both tumors. Her hair has come back and she looked much better than she did when we saw her in August. She is continuing chemotherapy, but they are no longer giving her radiation. She continues to exhibit an extremely positive attitude.

It is good to be home at last. It has been a busy year we have been home for only about 12 nights since mid May. The lawn has not been mowed since early August, but it's really not too bad. This drought has at least one positive aspect. There are a lot of sticks and acorns on the drive and in the yard, but the homeplace is actually in pretty good shape. We have a lot of house and coach projects to complete before we leave for Florida in mid December. We have no long trips planned before leaving for Florida, but we will probably do some day trips and a few overnighters. We haven't paddled since we left the Adirondacks. I'm looking forward to some canoe time,. If only we could find some water! Next weekend we plan to go on a backpacking trip with our friends Jim and Ann and their family.