FOR AULD LANG SYNE

Here we are on the cusp of the New Year. I hope it's better for all of us.

My wife is recovering well from her shunt surgery of last summer and is the woman I married again. Of course we are both older and can't do the things we once did, and you just have to learn to accept that, but, damn, sometimes it's tough.

I am holding togaether and hope I am through with skin cancers . Eight this past year, including two melanomas, is quite enough. I also have a problem with my right hand which is heavily bruised, the result of atrophy of the tendons around the thumb which seem to have lost strength to some extent. I will see a neurologist shortly to see what to do, recommended by my internist. I'll see the same neurologist my wife saw---a good guy and a straight shooter.

But we're here and still enjoying life, that's the important thing.

Happy New Year to all. We still have a daughter and son-in-law with us for New Year's and my wife's sister and husband from England, so we'll quietly celebrate. My youngest daughter, husband and two boys went home yesterday; another daughter and granddaughter leave tomorrow. It's been a great holiday.