I spent my first night alone in my home since I have been here. It was devine. Matthew, Ramona, and Karsen pulled out of the driveway around 1o'clock yesterday. Flash chose to stay her with me and I like that. I like to have dog that belongs to someone else permanently and whom I can enjoy in the interim. Flash sleeps with me. He is an Italian Greyhound, which is a very skinny and small dog. He sits in my lap when I am seated and sleeps with me each night.

I finished watching the Texans whip da Bears and then went to Walgreens to pick up my perscriptions which had been retrieved from the Newburgh Walgreens. When I picked them up, I thougt well, I am back in the grove with my meds situation .

Then I went to bed and slept for a good while and then woke up around 2.M. and checked my e-mail and Facebook info and returned to bed. Several times, I took Flash outside, or rather let him go out in my back yard to relieve himself. Life is good.

My plan is to rest my knee today to the max and hopefully be more able to get around on it without the walker. If i need to use the walker, I will. It is just so embarrassing to use it in my own hometown. I don't want any of my friends to see me using it. I think they will cry and the word will get around that I am about to croak. I don't want that. Hopefully if i can give it just idle time today, it will respond positively as it has in the past. I think i have not done it right since I have been home. I am walking on it and making it weaker and weaker. Hopefully these few days of aloneness, accompanied by inactivity, will be just what the knee needs.

Don't get me wrong, I love having Matthew , Ramona and Karsen here all the time. It is nice to know I will interact with human beings daily. I get to see Karsen and hold him and talk with Ramona and get to know her better and of course, I do enjoy Matthew and his personality and the work he does for me.

Remember the outside pond? The fish are really big now. Robert is almost big enough for one person's dinner. JK (JUST KIDDING) This morning I went outside while Flash was relieving himself and sat on .the patio furniture and fed the fish. It must have been too cold for them because they never did come to the top of the water to get the food, but they did swim around in bottom of the pond. The water is clear and I can see all the way to the bottom of the pond. It appears that I have four fish. Helen, Robert, Chico and some other fish I can't really see that well to name. Actually, I am not sure I really know anyone's name except for Helen. I do know that Bandit did not make the life journey to December. I may be mistaking Robert for Vern. I will have Matt and Ramona reintroduce me to the fish when they return, which is supposed to be on the 31st or the first. I am hoping they return on the first to give me more time to do the cleaning and straightening in my own bedroom and bathroom that I want to do before they return.

Another wonderful thing about them living with me, is my ability to see Karsen every day. I know Matthew and Ramona will move out at some point in time, but I think it is good for me to have daily company and forced interaction with those I love .

My weight has not been coming off, but rather maintaining the huge weight I was before surgery. I will go to the doctor sometime this week and determine the course of action. Hopefully, I will return to exercise and weight counseling . It is embarrassing to have such a self-control problem, but I am in a place here in Houston, to get the extra help needed to help me accomplish my goal of a physically healthy body which will enable me to be productive and do things with ease, or with more ease than I now possess.

I spoke with Matthew when he was thirty minutes from his Clovis, New Mexico destination so I am confident they completed the trip successfully. They drove from about one until 11:30. What a drive, but don't you know they were glad to be able to stop and rest?

Hopefully, all is well with you all and I trust you will have another grand day.

May God richly bless you, my loved ones. jk