dhw going away (General)

by dhw, Friday, December 21, 2012, 19:07 (4147 days ago)

This will be my last post for about ten days. My wife and I are going away for Christmas, and I shall have no access to a computer.-Normally at this time of year I try to pen an ode, but at the present time circumstances are not conducive to versifying. My wife has been diagnosed with a form of lung cancer peculiar to non-smokers, and it has spread too far to be cured. She is under medication which can temporarily halt the spread, and she is not in pain, so we are hoping for a period of good quality life before the inevitable. Even though none of us have ever met, I have come to regard many of you as personal friends (and hyjyljyj, I hope that you will stay with us as we obviously have so much in common), and it has been difficult for me over the last few weeks to participate in these discussions as if everything was normal.-Nevertheless, I shall look forward to resuming battle when we get back, and I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all those who have put up with my mixture of ignorance, criticism, pedantry and stubbornness for so long. It's a genuine privilege to discuss these complex subjects with such well-informed and ... almost always! ... rational and polite correspondents.-Have a great Christmas, folks, whatever your beliefs, non-beliefs, and disbeliefs.