Hey folks, I just got home about an hour ago, only to see nearly a month of unread ferret-related emails. Ouch! It will take a while to wade through them, and some have a priority, so please be patient as I slog through them. It has been a very interesting time since I last posted (almost a month). As I drove out to Reno, I received a phone call telling me my mom was in the intensive care unit at a California Hospital. I called the doctors and was told she was stable and not expected to die, so I elected to continue on to Reno and give the talk as I had promised that Saturday. By Sunday morning, my mom was extremely ill and we were told death was imminent, so I dropped everything I was doing and bee-lined it to her hospital bed in the Central Valley. In technical terms, she was as close as death as you could get without actually dying. I stayed as long as I could, and after assurances from her doctors, I sprinted out to Missouri. I still had the Chicago talk to deal with. I went in my house, hugged my ferrets, and took a 3 hour nap before leaving for Minnesota in my pick-up. I was headed north on I-35 when a semi-truck merged into my lane, which would have been fine except my pick-up was in the spot it was merging. I was knocked into a concrete barrier, but was basically unhurt. That is, until the next day when I realized I had a deep bruise in my left hip and a couple of cracked-broken ribs. And cut lips. And a sore nose, but now I'm being a baby. My son came over, picked me up, and back to Columbia I went, slept 3 more hours, and then a sprint in my car up to Chicago. I got to Chicago a couple of hours late, but the talk went fine, and I spent the night at a good friend's house, partially because I am an honorary uncle of a great kid, and partially because I think I slept 6 hours in the last 4 days and just needed a place to snore. I was calling (and on call) about my mom, and I got even more bad news, so I sped down to St. Louis and hopped a flight to California. I've been there all week. When I got there, my mom was on a respirator and unresponsive; when I left, she was talking to me and ready to go home. No one can believe it, and I am just shaking my head about it. Even three days ago she thought I was a number of different people, calling me by four different names in as many minutes. She went from last rites to picking fights in just a week. Ok, make that just over a couple of weeks counting from when she first got sick, but Monday to Saturday was quite a big difference. I did NOT lose my mom, BUT I did just disappear without explanation, standing up friends in St. Louis, Reno and Chicago, and for that I deeply apologize. I have a deeply held and steadfast rule that my family and ferrets come before ANYTHING else, so when things go bad, I become a brake-less locomotive on a single downhill track without sidings. Hey, it's better than being a tugboat without a rudder on full throttle. One of my greatest fears is that she will die without me at her bedside. So, since my last posting, I have been to California twice, talked in Reno and Chicago, smashed my pick-up truck, stood up a half-dozen close and dear friends, AND managed to collect 4 speeding tickets in four different states which I think is a record (strangely, I was not speeding when the truck hit me). And when I think about it, it tickles me pink. It was such a cheap price to pay to still have my mom. I will work hard to catch things up and I appreciate the thoughts and prayers of my friends during this time. I am sorry for not reading my email, but you try to access Yahoo while driving down a freeway at 85 miles per hour! ;-) I'll try to get as much of it answered as I can before I leave for the east coast in less than two weeks. Bob C [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 5026]