Looking for an end

I am so tired of the hospital. The people who work there are great, I will say, but I am just tired of being there, seeing the institutional colors and answering the same questions 20 times in one morning. And I get to do it all again tomorrow afternoon.

I had the procedure to put in the stent this morning. It went OK and I was home before 1 p.m., when the Home Depot contractor came by to install my Christmas present from my mom and dad -- a storm door for the front entrance to the house. It works rather well. We had the front door open for awhile and couldn't really feel any cold air coming in. If only we'd had this for the last couple snow storms! It has a retracting screen in the upper part, so that will be nice when warm weather comes again. Nipper didn't even try to walk through it. He just stood and had that "open, already, wouldya" look on his face he does with other doors.

Poor dog is starting to go stir crazy. He pulled a small football out of his basket of toys and played with it for a bit, and Mom and I kind of tossed it around for him. He's not really a plays-with-toys kind of dog, so that's a sign he's bored and has a lot of pent-up energy. I don't go back to the hospital until noon tomorrow, so maybe I can take him out in the morning and throw the old shoes he likes to play with in the yard or take him down to the creek and exercise his sniffer, too.

I'm really grateful for Mom & Dad being here, and Nipper too, because I can't imagine going through all this stuff by myself. I know my brother would be here if he could, but your e-mails are a big help, bro. And same for those long-distance friends and even you complete strangers who have wandered by here somehow and left comments. It's been hard these last few days to keep upbeat about everything. It seems like everything was going so well, and then BAM this happens to knock me down a bit. I'll keep going though, because what choice do I have?