First, let me address the regret:  A little over a week ago I shared what was going on with my left femur, and what the probable outcome would be.  Shortly after I posted that blog, I called my dad to fill him in on the latest developments, and during the call I had a few minutes of raw human emotion.  Some would call it a “breakdown”.  I shared with him my frustration over having been waiting for so long to get this fixed, only to find out that I’m likely to be denied again because I’m now too old to have the surgery safely.  I regret this call for one reason – my dad decided that this was the perfect opportunity to try to get me to return to Christianity.  He’s been calling every couple of days ever since, either to check on if I’ve talked to anyone he recommended (all Christian ministers) or to recommend another pastor.  He just can’t accept that, with my recall of past-life memories combined with the absolute betrayal of a minister I’m related to, I can’t see any way that going back to that would work.

But, on to other notions.  About 4 years ago I blogged about planting a tree in our front yard, and then 2 years ago I blogged about the city putting in a new sidewalk that nearly required moving the tree.  Well, they didn’t move the tree, and this morning I went out and used a pair of long-handle pruning shears to trim low-hanging branches so that people could continue to use the sidewalk without having to duck or leave the walkway.  It is one of the largest of the trees I’ve planted on this property since we moved here 9 years ago.