Feb. 29,

I talked with dad this afternoon and I am pleased to report that he doing well. He went for a short trip to the store, more to just get out of the house than to buy anything important and he sounds great. The "high noon" portable pump medication swap is becoming less stressful as Joanna and Utah continue to fine tune their daily routine.

After nearly a month in San Francisco and the long hours sitting in dads hospital room being home again is a little strange. Although there are many things I need to do I find myself sitting around doing nothing. There are many extraordinarily difficult things we do in life, some we are forced into still others we force ourselves into but leaving dads house, something I do every spring, was the most difficult that thing I've had to do. We say good bye to people every day but when you say good bye to somebody that you might never see again the words good carry with them a heavier feeling. I remember sitting in his living and asking him if there is anything he needed to talk about his reply "no" mine was the same, we had both cashed in our markers long ago. But I am lucky, I'm lucky, not only because I had the chance to spend the last month with dad and Joanna during this difficult time but that I have - after being apart for long expanses of time - had the good fortune to spend the last several winters on the road with Bruce? Utah?......no Dad. It made saying good bye as simple as saying I'll see you later. I'll see you later, four such simple words yet words because of our recent past say so much and carried with them so much significance. It was beautiful moment.
I am truly lucky and ever time we do see each other in the future will just be mustard on the hot dog...... I don't like cake.
Duncan