Hope everyone is well and happy. I thought I'd give a shout out for better or worse. The City has been rather "ho hum," this year. Not much to yell about. Or maybe I'm just getting old...Nah, it's ho hum. Thankfully we have the corner on crooked and disgusting politicians or we'd have no news to call, "Our Own."

I don't know if you all know but the moron who took the place of our "Brothel Loving," Elliot Spitzer (Guv) is about as dim witted and sloppy in his own shanannigans and as he is inept. Not one politician save Sharpton (and he's as good as a hole in your boat,) speaks to Patterson, he's under investigation for not paying for playoff Yankee's tickets, and interfering with an internal investigation concerning domestic abuse. I read an article last week that gave NYS the lead on crooked and disreputable pols. Sheesh!

On the health front...

Forgive my sharing but I kinda need to.

Good News: My heart is in 100% great shape. Yep the spot from my heart attack is indistinguishable, and my aorta is, after 10 years at 50%, back to functioning at 100%. Yep no surgery. Whew, dodged a bullet there.

Good News: My cholesterol was over the top and is magically back to normal. I didn't even have to change my eating except I ate a lot of salsa.

Good News: My blood cancer is back in remission. Again. Second time.

Non-so-Good News: I had another round of chemo, radiation, and (really ouch) surgery three weeks ago today and today is the first time I felt like writing or doing anything. My stupid doctor forgot I was scheduled for Feb. 1, so on Mar. 1, I met with him and after about fifteen minutes I was on the cutting block. Holy Crap what a horror. This one was twice as long and invasive. If he screws up again I'm shoving the radiation radiator up his bazoo and giving him a taste of what it feels like!!! Any way the good news is I should only have one more in four months and the cancer should be gone there. The Colon is still being obstinate. Figures. I have another operation scheduled this or next month. I just kinda block them out so I don't obsess about the aftermath, which is literally a major pain in the ass.

Perks: The greatest part of having all this cancer and surgeries, radiation and chemo is THE OPIATED DRUGS I GET AFTERWARDS.

"Dr. Marks...Dr. Marks, Stat": I pray that all this is gone soon. The chemo is killing me. I just realized how funny that sounds. But it is. I believe it's because I'm taking too much now that so much of the disease is in remission, but do you think my doctors listen to me? NNNOOOOO. I stopped my two times a day dose of one of the chemo drugs because I just couldn't do it any more. I'll start again in nine months, if I need to. Ya do it for two weeks and I had had it after one and a half.

I'm tutoring two of the young fellows from my extended family. I have three back in college or preparing. It's a terrific reward when you witness the turn-a-round. Three of the fathers have asked me to help. One, kid, went from inattention in class and mediocre grades to a 3.25 GPA. I swear all A's and B's. Another after we studied for hours came and swore he failed his test only to get a C. Not bad for one who had no confidence.

Then Ismail dropped out last semester and his father sort of gave up. He's back with very good marks and we have tutorials 2-3 times a week. And finally Ashraf, Ahmed's son, is going back to college. I just have to find a suitable one for him. We should have that complete this week.

That's it for me. Thanks for listening and, again, I hope you are all well and happy. What choice have we?????

Later,

m