Anticipating vaccine jab No. 2; Why oh Why?

My wife Phuong and I were supposed to get our second vaccine shots next Sunday, which I believe might be a prerequisite for us to travel to the United States if the waiver for my wife's visa is approved. We'd be getting AstraZeneca shot No. 2 nine weeks after the first jab. I guess that's fine since we'll probably need a booster eventually, especially the senior citizen in our family. I'd rather be a human pin cushion than fighting to breathe on a ventilator. Update (Wednesday morning): We ended up getting the shots in a hurry-up scramble Tuesday. We're very pleased. New coronavirus cases here in Vietnam have dipped, from about 12,000 a day a few weeks ago to 3,000 to 5,000 a day in the past week. You can credit the lockdown, which was recently lifted, and the vaccines, which I believe are the only way to truly control and ultimately eradicate the virus. My view is that along with vaccines, maintaining a mask mandate for the foreseeable future will help reduce the spread of any possible variants, and add to the public's confidence. Again, that's my view ... maybe not yours, his or hers. One problem I see here – and I suspect in many other countries – is that once the number of new cases drops, some people act like there's no more Covid; they discard their masks, gather in groups, and ignore social distancing, just like in the days when the virus really took off. The virus is still soaring in some places, like the UK, and the U.S., unfortunately ... maybe not like before but enough to be worrisome, which should make simple, relatively easy precautions become simple, relatively easy procedures.

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My daughter Joanna has discovered a new word: "Why?" She applies it to everything she really wants to know – Why do giraffes have ossicones? They use ossicones as weapons when they fight, like smaller antlers ...  as well as to every situation and circumstance – Why do I have to wash my hair?  Because it's dirty. Why is it dirty? Because you were outside and it's hot and dirty outside? Why is it hot and dirty outside? It's hot because we live near the equator and it's dirty because of all the motorbikes, cars and factories. Why do we live near .... At this point, I'll cut her off, change the subject and tell her we'll see about washing her hair ... and ossicones. Our son Elijah seems a little delayed in his speaking. He'll make sounds and point, but only occasionally makes attempts at words.  Like Joanna, he's dealing with two languages. Joanna made a choice to speak English, and now she's interested in Vietnamese. We'll see about Elijah, of course. I just want everything to be OK for these guys.

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Joanna has become less enthusiastic about some of our homeschooling work. I'm challenged to get her started on anything academic and she seems to genuinely dislike math. I figure that we've been at this since last November with no extended time off, and we sometimes have school on Saturdays. Probably time for a break for both of us. She'll draw and color with no prompting, she'll read books she likes, but doesn't like to write words or do basic math, even with jelly beans. Yep, sounds like a 5-year-old to me. I'm not concerned because in addition to a break from school I believe she needs peers and a teacher who isn't her dad.
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The initial results are positive indeed. The massive cleaning effort and subsequent chemical warfare on the ants that invaded our house have put the little pests on the run for the time being. I haven't seen more than three ants in three days. I've seen a few more flying roaches and giant spiders in our house, possibly on reconnaissance missions, but they're easily removed and not nearly as unnerving as swarms and swarms of ants. Adequate living conditions through toxic chemistry!

Lockdown lifted; ants launch massive counterattack

The lockdown was lifted in Vietnam last weekend; the country has chosen to try to live with the coronavirus rather than aim for 0 cases. The biggest plus now is you don't get hassled if you take a walk. Masks are still required, which is good news to me, and most restaurants and coffee shops are takeout only. Some businesses are opening up gradually, while others just threw open the doors. I believe there are limits on gatherings, but I don't know for sure. There is no taxi service that I'm aware of, so for the most part life as I know it hasn't changed a whole lot. I did buy Indian food (takeout, of course) and pizza (also takeout) with Joanna in tow; we're slowly returning to our routine of a late afternoon walk. I still shop at the little market around the corner and cook whatever they have to offer, which seems to be a lot of Australian and Canadian beef and Da Lat potatoes.  Since the strict lockdown ended, the market shelves are better stocked and there's more variety. The country had to end the strict lockdown, in my opinion, because the economy was starting to struggle. Some surefire signs things are starting to return to normal: a car came ripping out of an alleyway and almost hit Joanna and I during only our second walk since the lockdown was lifted; another car came up on the sidewalk very close to us while trying to park; a girl on a motorbike roared down our street and swerved between Joanna, Phuong (holding Elijah) and I rather than slow down while we crossed the street; and two women and a man cut in a long line at the market to get served quicker instead of waiting in line like the rest of us lesser humans. I don't actually miss the lockdown, but I miss the reduced traffic, etiquette, gentile manners and slower pace of life it seemed to create.
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I was battling ants, as I had mentioned in a previous blog, and thought I had the upper hand until the little rascals launched a major counterattack. This was an attack the likes of which I've never seen from the insect world. It looked like our dining room and kitchen floors were moving. Elijah spotted it, baby-babbling and pointing in disgust at the sea of ants. The ants were filling the spaces between nearly all of our dining room tiles, which probably could have been a lot cleaner. So I bought some acid-type tile cleaner often used in toilets and bathrooms and poured it between the tiles on the grimey grout. This stuff bubbles up a little when you pour, so you know the toxins are doing their dirty work. The stuff was so nasty, it made the dining room and kitchen cloudy, and actually hurt my lungs and burned my fingers (gloves and masks for solo cleaning are for sissies), but it made the tiles and spaces in-between look like new. I spent seven hours over three days pouring poison cleaner, scrubbing, rinsing, rubbing, rinsing again, and drying. I'll be curious to see how the ants react. If they come back in any significant number, I'll try to negotiate a settlement. I won't let then know I'd be willing to surrender ...  and let the geckos fight my battles for me.
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Joanna got her passport, but she didn't receive her old passport. Unless the situation is dire, phone calls to the U.S. Embassy in HCMC don't get a response so I had to email my complaint on Saturday about the missing passport. There's been no email response yet, but the passport came Monday morning via courier. We're trying to get everything in order in preparation for the waiver response, which could come at any time, We're hoping to get our second vaccine shots next week. Elijah will get vaccinated for chicken pox, flu and some Japanese brain flu next week in spite of the wisdom of Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio. If the waiver is approved, we'll pack a couple of suitcases and be on our way. If rejected, well, we've got a wonderfully clean dining room and kitchen where we can sit and stew over more than six years of rejections and thousands of dollars spent in vain.  Boo hoo.
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Finishing up Big Fella, a book about Babe Ruth. It's one of the few non-science fiction books I've read in the past two years -- 99 weeks and 680 days in a row of reading on Kindle. As noted before, only a few of the days were forced to keep the streak alive. Living in a tropical climate with heavy monsoon rains daily hasn't hurt the streak, but staying up late reading and the dealing with two active, engaging young children each day, and cooking and cleaning, presents special challenges of their own. ... Joanna has been spending more time with mom these days and is so much better for it.  Still homeschooling Joanna but I'd be happy to let true professionals do the job right, and also get her around other kids who have similar interests and speak her language. ... I use an extension cord with multiple outlets for our toaster over, refrigerator and microwave. I changed the quality extension cord with outlets I was using for a cheaper, longer version. Almost burnt down the damn house using the toaster oven. I went to the store, Phuong heard poppping noises and smelled plastic. She arrived just in time to put out the fire with minimal wall scorching. Thanks, dear.

Trying to eradicate a small but persistent pest

I feel like Bill Murray in Caddyshack as I try to rid our house of an incredible ant invasion. Ants have found their way into everything from laundry soap to clean dishes to the silverware to the microwave oven and toaster oven. In the morning, I'd see an ant on my spoon as I was about to scoop up some cereal and milk, and ants on the plate during any meal.  Ants crawled on our tubes of toothpaste and played in the soap dish. Our kids carry food all over the house, and both Joanna and Elijah have contributed to the problem. My wife and I have done our share as well.  Also, ants appear in bigger numbers after a rain, and since we're still in monsoon season with nightly rain, we were seeing bigger numbers daily. And this is the tropics, so ant season is year-round.  We're not big on sprays like Raid. My wife resists using sprays and was more tolerant of the ant situation than I was, but last week when I came downstairs and had ants on my forearm, glasses and behind my ear while preparing my daughter's breakfast, I decided enough was enough. The itch alone will drive you crazy. So first, I cleaned the heck out of the living room. I washed the walls, toys, the floor, the couch cover and pillows, and finished with a "healthy" dose of Raid everywhere. Then the kitchen was next, where everything was rearranged so all the walls are now exposed. Again, scrubbing followed the rearranging and Raid concluded the day's events. Food very rarely makes it way upstairs in our house so ants aren't a super huge issue in the bedrooms, but they make their presence felt in the bathrooms. Again, Raid to the rescue. Since my neat freakout, the ants have been dramatically reduced. I rely on Joanna's powers of observation and good eyesight to spot any colonies or gatherings of ants, and she's picked out a couple. (So I got that going for me, which is nice.) The kids and wife are then forced to go elsewhere while I clean and spray again. It's been a real learning experience and lesson in patience – and cleanliness.
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Covid cases are dropping in Vietnam – roughly 5,000 new cases a day are being recorded, down from 12,000 a day – most likely because of vaccines and the strict lockdown. I was walking to the pharmacy to get eyedrops and wet towels on Sunday when two guys on a motorbike rode up to me and said I shouldn't be out and to go home. They weren't cops, but most likely cop-wannabe volunteers of some sort, but I didn't squawk. I turned around and went to the market near our house and then home. On the way home I noticed lots of folks out in the streets, most without masks, playing with their kids and such. I always wear a mask and shield when I have to go out. I have one vaccine shot and I'm waiting to hear about the second. I don't understand folks here and everywhere who won't wear a mask. I understand even less the folks who won't get a vaccine, especially in the United States where I see anywhere from 70,000 to 140,000 new Covid cases a day. Screw politics; vaccines are available and this is about the well-being of family, friends, co-workers, and everybody around us.
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My two children are getting increasingly fed up with being home all the time. My daughter Joanna and I used to take long walks daily, risking life and limb amongst the motorbikes and cars on the streets and sidewalks. Now we would risk life and lungs if we walked too much, although we went around the block the other day -- wearing our masks and shields -- to photograph some dragonflies. Our son Elijah would run and play soccer for long stretches in the heat and park, which meant at naptime and night he slept like... well, like a baby. With the park closed and walks prohibited, we have two frustrated children on our hands. I'm sure we're not alone.
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I talked to my friend in the U.S. on Skype the other day, the friend who was at death's door with heart issues, lung issues, kidney issues and major back surgery. He didn't go through death's door and he was driving to an auto parts store to get a new battery, presumably for his car, not his heart. We joked about the joys of aging and had a nice little chat for 15 minutes.
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I changed the picture at the top of this blog. Joanna saw the previous photo and asked a simple question: "Where's Elijah?"  That prompted an immediate change. The blog most likely will end when we find out about the waiver. If approved, we'll head to the U.S. If the waiver is rejected, I'll try to get more sleep and work on improving homeschooling lessons for Joanna.

Nothing brutal yet, but lockdown is getting old

   No need to be dramatic, but things are a little difficult here. We're approaching three months of living under lockdown due to Covid. It's not easy or fun, but it's not brutal yet. Characterizing life as brutal here is going a little too far. Life may be brutal in Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Haiti or probably the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Vietnam, we still have internet, TV, and a market around the corner where we buy what's available. The variety of food is limited, and that's inconvenient, but no one is going hungry or wanting for food to the best of my knowledge. At least not in our area. So while life is a little bit boring, or challenging, or inconvenient, or a hassle, it's not brutal yet. I don't want to go there -- ever.
   I've no doubt mentioned before that certain foods are not considered essential by the government during the lockdown and are nearly impossible to get. Things such as butter, raisins, peanut butter, and, oh my God, now coffee, are getting extremely difficult to find. Deliveries have ground to a halt, so to speak, which has made the delicious coffee I've been buying from my mother-in-law the past seven or eight years impossible to get, so I battle for what may be available at the market. I guess there's still instant coffee, but regardless of what anyone says, ground coffee is an essential for me. With deliveries halted in our area, our bottled water could be the next casualty. That means there's a possibility we'll be boiling tap water for drinking -- at least that's what I would do since I'm reluctant to drink straight from the tap. I wasn't born here so my body probably isn't ready for the tap.
   There was talk the lockdown would be lifted Sept. 15, but the cases continue to cluster around Ho Chi Minh City, and we're close to Ho Chi Minh City. Our province, Dong, Nai, has been reporting close to 1,000 new cases a day. The lockdown has been extended at least until the end of the month and is expected to last even longer. One of our neighbors lost his eldest daughter to Covid. She caught it from her husband and died only a week after getting ill. I was told she had no pre-existing conditions.  A couple of items were gossiped to me: 1) The rent-by-the-hour motel behind us reported yet another Covid case, and apparently (and finally) has been shut. 2)  Police came and told our mask-less, outdoor-badminton-playing neighbor to either go inside or go to the police station to pay a substantial fine. He chose inside. I think a lot of people in our area, like me and my wife, are sitting on one shot waiting for the next jab to come. I also heard the Army may be sent to our area to enforce social distancing and curfews, and assist with food distribution.
 We shall see.
   The goodwill of people has become more evident here the longer the lockdown continues. People share food like pomelo and other fruit, coffee jello, and assorted vegetables. Neighbors have purchased stuff for us and have refused to take money. Tough times can bring out the best in people.
  The lockdown is starting to get to our kids a little. Some parents defy the rules and let their kids outside sans masks to ride bikes and such. Our daughter Joanna sees this and wants to play outside. Our son Elijah really seems to miss kicking the ball around outside, so he'll play soccer with anything that's loose on the floor in our house -- stuffed animals and even Legos are fair game. Joanna is a little impatient and bored with our classes, even the drawing and coloring, so we're playing more games and doing stuff like scavenger hunts. It isn't brutal, but it's certainly difficult and challenging to keep the kids entertained.
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   I continue to read a lot, which is more difficult than it sounds even with the lockdown given the rigors of child care, cooking and cleaning. I'm at 95 weeks and 657 days in a row. I finished Jack Vance's Night Lamp, which is 384 pages, in three days. Now I'm reading Big Fella, a biography of Babe Ruth. ... Joanna helps a little with my cooking, but mostly grabs and eats food I've just cooked, or pleads her case for candy. ... Elijah constantly goes up our dangerous stairs, and I slipped and fell while carrying him back down. I sacrificed my left knee to make sure he wasn't banged around and now there's a little clicking sound in my knee when I go down the stairs. It's not a big deal because Elijah didn't get hurt and hardly noticed the fall, and I'm still walking. 

I take a jab, pursue passport, visa and peace at home

 My wife's nephew saw old people like me getting Covid vaccines at a farm near our house. It was 7 p.m. on Sunday and we rushed to the farm. The vaccines ended at 7:30 p.m., and we just made it. Officials had the folks line up in single file, and all but a few people behind us were told to come back the next day. My wife Phuong got her vaccine at this location earlier in the day, but at that time she was told I was too old for AstraZeneca. Someone must have had a change of heart and I was in line waiting. My wife did my paperwork and after a little pushing, shoving, apologizing, and cutting in line from a few folks, all turned out well. (Lessons in queueing would be appropriate here.) After I got my shot, monsoon rain poured down, but my wife found the umbrella she left at the farm earlier in the afternoon when she got her vaccine. Fortuitous, indeed. My wife's side effects included soreness in her back, stomach discomfort, fatigue and headache. I only had a mild headache, but I don't know for certain if it was from the vaccine or from missing my after-dinner coffee. We will return for a second shot in 8 to 12 weeks. There were long lines at the farm for a few days after we got our shots.
Next up was the renewal of Joanna's passport. Because of the strict lockdown, Phuong had a friend in Ho Chi Minh City go to the embassy for us, and he paid the fee for the passport that we mailed in for renewal, and he also paid to have EMS deliver it to our house. We reimbursed him, of course, and paid him a modest fee for his services. It would require lots of paperwork and perhaps a quarantine, I guess, for one of us to go to the embassy with Covid still roaring and the lockdown in full effect. We don't know when the passport will be delivered. The embassy sent me an email saying EMS won't be delivering until the lockdown is lifted. There's talk that a limited lifting of the lockdown could happen next week. We need the renewed passport to get Joanna's resident card, which I'm told is required to leave the country. The resident card simply needs to be paid for at this point. Simply? Nothing is simple with Covid -- here and everywhere, no doubt. 
Last, our waiver application is about to be sent to the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) by our lawyer either this week or next. If approved, my wife should get her visa to enter the U.S. after more paperwork, sweat, and tears involving the embassy. If rejected .... well, we'll see. Covid is raging in the U.S. even worse than here, and vaccines are happening now in Vietnam. Almost everyone is on board to get jabbed and I'm not really sure resistance or refusal to get the vaccine is an option here. I'm pro-vaccine, of course, so it's not an issue for me.
The lockdown is getting to my kids a little. Joanna and Elijah have been at odds over toys lately. Mostly, Elijah wants to grab Joanna's stuff and run away, and she'll go a little ballistic if he succeeds. But he was not well for a few days, throwing up and dealing with a low-grade fever. I must have taken his temperature about 20 times, driving my wife crazy. Elijah didn't mind because he loves gadgets and remotes of any kind, and the digital thermometer we have was exciting for Little E, who loves all things electronic. When Elijah was ill, Joanna was so sweet to him. She's got a wee bit of temper and is one of a kind to be sure, but she can be so kind and caring when the chips are down. We continue with her schooling, focusing on insects and animals  (that has to pass for my science instruction), math and reading comprehension. We're on a second go-around with bees, learning about beeswax, the proboscis and pollination. She'd rather draw, but she understands so much more than I think, and I love when she corrects my mistakes if I mispronounce or misidentify a body part or process of one of our creatures. Joanna has taught me more than I've taught her in so many ways.

More testing, conservation, no school, rain and ants

We had our third Covid test in 8 days on Sunday, and it was handled tactfully -- no ramrod action. This test is supposed to be the most accurate and thorough of the three, with swabs going to a lab. The results are revealed in two or three days.  I've been told that three negative tests make you eligible for the vaccine. That sounds good to me, but so far, talk of a vaccine has been just that  – talk. The first test, administered by a nurse, was fairly comfortable considering a giant cotton swab on a stick is being shoved up your nose. The lady was as gentle as she could be. The second test was given by a policeman, who wasn't as gentle, and I think he brought back some brain on his swab from a few of us. Our 5-year-old daughter Joanna was supposed to take the third test with me and my wife Phuong, but the crowd and heat were a bit much. I'll endure quite a bit for negative results and vaccine shots because the lockdown is a bit of a hassle and it's extending indefinitely ,,, and Covid can be deadly.
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There's not much bread now, no honey, and only very little (and very expensive) cereal. We found some wonderful wild blueberry and raspberry preserves, but with limited bread and butter it doesn't work so well. We got a little bread on Friday (for the weekend) and we're nursing the little butter we have. There's nothing quite so effective as a lockdown and shortages for forcing people (like me) to conserve, reduce, reuse, recycle. Aluminum foil is precious, since it's essential for keeping our frequently used toaster oven clean when we cook. Trash bags are gone, so we use grocery bags and recycle everything we can. Since almost all shops are closed, my wife gave me a haircut. She did a great job even though she had little to work with. A small, all-purpose store down the street stayed open through the restrictions and this week several people there tested positive. Obviously, Covid is all around us. That's why I'm baffled when I see folks on our street not wearing a mask and walking around talking to neighbors.
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There's no school but there's talk of online kindergarten starting in the middle of September. Our daughter should be starting kindergarten now, but she's made it clear she would much rather continue with homeschooling with dad than go to a school here. The web and printer help me with lessons. We've been studying insects for the past month. We've just finished a week of ladybugs / lady beetles / ladybirds. We have a standard joke now: "Oh no, not the life cycle of the ladybug / frog / butterfly ...." We started dragonflies with a video on Sunday and starting Monday we will read, identify body parts, where they live and so on until we finish with a "test" on Friday. These lessons were from the teacherspayteachers website; it costs some money but it's worth it for me. Our 2-and-a-half-hour sessions also include: math, which she hates, except when I use jellybeans; singing and dancing, which she loves; drawing and coloring, which she super loves at the moment; reading, which she enjoys and excels at if the subject matter interests her; and trying to beat the timer tracing the alphabet and numbers 1-20. She loves playing with little plastic frogs, lizards, iguanas, snakes, crocodiles and alligators that we bought back when the Vincom mall was open before the lockdown. Otherwise, she'll hang on mom, bug her brother, and help me cook just a little. Elijah will kick a ball or anything else he gets his feet on around the house; climb the stairs up and down; and really hang on mom, although he's starting to single me out for rough-stuff play. Both will sort of watch Babytv.
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Cooking is a real pleasure for me, even in our hot as hell kitchen. I cook most of the meals, although my wife has been nosing around the kitchen more of late. I'm soaked in sweat after cooking, but the new toaster oven and microwave keep meals warm while I tidy up ...  I finally finished the Dune series and I am so happy that the one Jack Vance book that I couldn't find online -- Night Lamp -- is finally available as an e-book. I found it just as I finished the final Frank Herbert Dune book, Chapterhouse. The reading streak continues with 630 days in a row ... Thunderstorms come almost nightly, and the rain is driving the ants inside. Every house is battling ants like crazy. I pick up my spoon to eat ice cream and there are ants on it, along with ants circling around the ice cream bowl. Not real appetizing.

Covid test (all good); bought butchered pig (super good)

Everyone on our street was asked to get a Covid test this past weekend. If you weren't contacted by police within 24 hours after the test, you don't have Covid. I'm enjoying the sounds of silence on this one. I was more than happy to be tested even if the nose swab was mildly uncomfortable. Lots of people milling around made it feel like it could be a super-spreader event, although everyone was masked. I was surprised that some people refused to be tested -- a couple of our neighbors, for example. People here often seem to focus on the greater good, the welfare of the group. I was told a neighbor got one vaccine shot and didn't think a test was necessary. Testing is as much about those around you as it is about yourself, but I won't waste any more (cyber)space on this topic. If you don't understand the benefits of testing by now, I'm not sure you ever will. We get about 500 new cases a day in Dong Nai, our province, and Vietnam is now recording 10,000-plus new cases a day. The Delta variant is obviously highly contagious; the amount of new cases in the United States is proof of that -- around 150,000 a day of late.  So we continue on lockdown indefinitely here with no word (to me at least) when the situation may change. No word on a vaccine I'm supposed to be on some kind of waiting list for, so ... I'll  just keep ... waiting.
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A guy my wife knows sold us pork that he said his friend has just butchered. Sorry, Wilbur, but this is about the greater good. Maybe that's why the huge spider we called Charlotte came to our house a week or so ago. Anyway, folks, that was some of the most delicious pork I've ever eaten. We got quite a load, so I made pulled pork a couple of times and it was the best pulled pork I've ever made, and daresay, I've ever tasted. My wife's brother has supplied us with wonderful grapefruit three or four times a week, and we lucked into barbecue sauce at the little market around the corner, the only place we're supposedly allowed to go. I will walk to the pharmacy for vitamins, soap, shampoo, that kind of stuff. I do this as much for the walk as the for the items I purchase. My back struggles unless I walk a lot, so I find excuses to walk to the little market. It's not a long walk at all, but it's a little better than nothing. I probably could just go out and take the walk my back needs, but I'm nervous about, and uncomfortable with, mask-less people in front of their houses, some spitting in the street, or coughing (honest to God), so I pass on walking for exercise at this point. The heat makes it rough anyway. And rain kind of just pops up these days, although thunderstorms have been fairly regular at night.
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The guy across the street started pounding on metal with his hammer one morning at 10 a.m. Once he crossed the 20-minute mark of pounding, as our son was being put down for a nap, I got pretty upset and went over and asked him to stop, telling him that Covid prevents us from leaving our house to get away from the loud noise he was making on a Saturday morning. He just smiled at me, so I told him in English I wasn't going to leave until he stopped and I would scream at him the entire time. This is the same guy who creates the welding light flashes and also pounds on metal for hours at a time. He didn't have a mask on, either, so I said let's talk to the police together about the noise and no mask. A neighbor intervened and he packed up his metal and went inside. I really don't think this guy is evil; he's just bored and not that bright when it comes to living in close quarters with people like me during a surging pandemic in his country.
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I'd like to watch the news more to pass the time, but my son Elijah demands attention from any adult in the room, and the ones who leave the room as well. The situation in Afghanistan dominates TV news at the moment, and it's grim, of course. Also, it's not doing much to boost Joe Biden's presidency. My son served a tour of duty in northern Afghanistan, but we haven't really discussed the current situation there.  He just got married, and I just got locked down.  The lockdown is starting to affect my kids, especially at bedtime. They don't want to sleep, and bedtime has become wild time due to the unused energy in the day, I believe. It's fun to watch them chase each other ... until I'm ready to read or sleep. Then,  it's a little less fun.
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My friend in the U.S. has emerged from his near-death ailments more alive than most of us. So happy to hear he's improving daily.