Sitting in our new house in Kensington, watching the sun stream through the windows and warm the hardwood floor, it occurs to me that … I’m happy. Not that everything is perfect. I still have multiple myeloma, and it’s likely to recur in 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 or “x” unknown number of years, and it might eventually kill me. But that aside, things are good. Suzie and I both love living in our spacious, comfortable new house. We love being so close to Berkeley (it’s a 20 minute ride to downtown, and the bus stop is a half block away), and having a new city (a whole set of new cities, really) to explore. We love having the space in our house for the boys to come and visit; having the extra space has made us miss our burned-down Wikiup house a lot less. We are both loving the freedom and relaxation that not working brings, the de-stressed-ness and not-rushed-ness of it. My physical condition is better: I’m no longer feeling fatigued all the time, and the nerve damage in my left leg (which I honestly thought would never go away) keeps getting better and better, and is to the point now where most of the time, I don’t notice it at all, a wonderful thing. I’m able to go to the gym (the Downtown YMCA) and work out again, and can feel myself getting in better shape. I am enjoying learning new things (my latest class is on computer networking, so I can keep up with my son Andrew, who is in an online cybersecurity bootcamp; send any questions about the TCP triple-handshake, IP address subnetting, or ethernet frames my way). Suzie and I are looking forward to traveling more, especially to France, where we are planning to go in late March for almost five weeks, and to the Midwest, which my soul has always missed. All this newness and goodness, and we still have our connections with Sonoma County and, as the last post shows, a beautiful (if small) place to stay when we want to go there.
So after a horrific, excruciatingly painful, dangerous, and uncertain last 12 months, it seems I’ve reached the other end alive, healthy, and … as happy as I’ve ever been. Not a condition I’m used to, truth be told, but one to which I believe I may be able to adapt. This isn’t to say that I’m not aware of the risk of some other shoe dropping, of some big turd appearing suddenly in the middle of the pool, but for now, well, wow, things are great. You all are welcome to come to Kensington and see this oddity of nature, a happy SSS, for yourselves, while it lasts.
Categories: Comments on Life