WELCOME BACK!

Kotter came back. 

The prodigal son came back. 

Sheba came back.  (Did she?  Can't remember that one.) 

What I do remember, though, is that I left, but now I'm joining the returners. 

I feel like I want to apologize for my absence, but I think a quick word of explanation will suffice. 

The underlying issue is that I was getting sick and just didn't know it.  It would take until mid-December to figure out I didn't have the flu and that something more than old age was messing with my body. 

You know the phrase "when the stars are aligned…?"  That is just about what happened in mid-December when I presented myself to the local hospital's ER room and said I needed help.  Those "stars" were  as simple as finding nary a sole waiting in the ER room on a Sunday morning, holding the right papers (from the last lab report) in my hand, and having an answer to a question I had asked my primary care physician a few days earlier, right before he left on vacation.  I thrust these papers into the hand of the nurse who helped me onto the gurney and asked her to give them to whoever was going to help me.  And I told her what my PCP said. 

At that time, although I didn't understand what was going on in my body, I thought I was either a) going to need dialysis, b) have a kidney transplant, or c) meet my maker. 

The stars were aligned that morning, and I walked out of the ER room.  It took me a while to get my strength back, and I'm not totally problem-free yet, but this I know:  through it all, (and continuing up to the present) I missed having my blog at my fingertips.  

It is true that I was having some technical problems with the blog that added to my frustration, but I think even the frustration was all part of the health issue.  I just gave up on asking for help because I didn't want to deal with any more problems.  Getting rid of the blog solved that! 

Now that I'm feeling ever-so-much better, I enlisted my talented son in Sonoma to help me with a computer glitch that I experienced today, and I took his advice to use CHROME as my browser.  The glitch disappeared.  I decided maybe CHROME would take care of my blog problems – and LO………………….!

Now, do I have anything to say??? 

Nothing more or nothing less than I have had before.  As you may recall, I made it clear in the beginning that I write for myself, not for an audience.  But I do love sharing with you and I love the contact with each of you.  Many of you have told me that you missed the contact via HOT COFFEE AND COOL JAZZ.  So my return is for both of us.  Or all of us.  For you, Kenny; for you, Bryn and the readers at the office, for Patsy, and the other Patsy and Anita and Marlene and Olga and Mary Anne and Sean, and especially for Jer and my very smart BF in San Francisco…as well as those anonymous readers who have enticed me over the years with the comments at the bottom of the blog.  Thanks for sticking with me. 

So, for better or worse, "I'm Baaaa-aaaak!"