WHY AKAKY IS POSTING TO THIS BLOG NOW: Well, and I'm not at this point, but I am feeling much better than I was, although that really isn't saying much; short of driving a red-hot fork into my left eye and twisting it around three times almost anything would have been an improvement. But I am improved so I shouldn't complain. The medications appears to be working, even if they are all doing a number on my internal organs, but I am able to stand and walk after a fashion and one does appreciate the ability to go to the bathroom under one's own power. It's always the little things you miss the most. I am trying to put the past few months into a comic perspective, something that is fairly hard to do when the events are still fresh in one's mind and you missed the comic potential of those events the first time around, but if Wordsworth is right and poetry is emotion reflected upon in tranquility [or something to that effect; I know I'm getting the quote wrong, but Wordsworth's been dead since 1850 and I don't think he cares at this point] then comedy is the bastard child of disaster and time, and as soon as enough time passes I am sure that the past few months will seem hilarious to me and to you too. Frankly, though, I doubt it. I can, like everyone else, bear with great equaminity the misfortunes of others; dealing with my own misfortunes is a pain in the ass. I have, however, lost a lot of weight. I'm down to about 200 pounds, which is a good thing, although I cannot recommend the diet. In any case, I had something half-written before the pestilence struck me down and as soon as I find it I will see if I can't finish the thing and post it [probably not; I rarely like things I wrote months ago]. I trust that all of you are doing well and that you enjoyed the holidays; I know they happened but my mind was on other things at the time.