Excellent, excellent news.

Things just keep getting better.

One of the men in my Sunday School class - call him J. - had gone in last week for bypass surgery. He came through the operation fine, but then while he was in ICU, he went sharply downhill neurologically. People did keep visiting him (and I think that may have helped) and praying for him. I know the minister was over there almost daily with him.

At one point one of the doctors expressed an opinion (I am not sure on what grounds) that he might be brain dead. (A later MRI showed activity, so it seemed to disprove that claim).

I got an e-mail this afternoon that he's now opened his eyes, seems somewhat responsive, and apparently asked for the television to be turned on.

I have heard of people having really terrible reactions to general anesthesia, where they are completely out of it for days, but then make a full recovery once all the breakdown products of the anesthesia have left their system. I hope this is the case for J., because that will mean he should progressively get better.

But I know it was a huge worry for a lot of people, lots and lots of people (this person included) were praying hard for him. And I could see that the minister was having a hard time dealing with it...so it's a huge relief to see J. getting better.

I am very, very grateful to hear he is doing better.

(Another older member of our church is in hospice right now, but he seems to have made his peace with the fact that his life is drawing to its close. The minister commented that it was difficult to be working with two families, one where the person was fighting hard for life, and the other one where the person was coming to terms with mortality. I can imagine that would be hard and stressful. I confess I am not as good at visiting people who are sick or in hospital as I might be because I never know what to say...)

***

I also checked the websites for my two main destinations on Friday, and they both still live. (I have a "thing" about worrying about stores closing down unexpectedly...because it seems to happen in my town a lot). (But at any rate, Laura would have known if either was closing up shop, seeing as she lives much closer...)

I went and cashed my check today, and got a bit more cash, for the Friday trip. (I like paying cash for stuff on these jaunts; for one thing, it helps me to limit my spending knowing I'm going to be forking over the Jacksons for whatever I buy, and also that means I don't have a big credit card bill looming the next month).

As I said, I don't have anything I NEED, but it will be lovely to get out and be able to look at yarn, and consider buying some of that yarn to take home.

***

I'm also finding lots of good background stuff for the writeup of my summer research, and getting some interesting interpretation of results. I think I've got enough done on this yesterday and today that I can, in good conscience, take Thursday off and do some sewing. It's been too long since I've worked on a quilt top.

I'm actually pretty excited about this project again, I think some of the stuff I've found, while not earthshatteringly new, is interesting and does tell us something more about forests in this area and the effects of human-constructed lakes on natural vegetation.


So anyway, if someone right now asked me, "what are you grateful for?" I'd be like, "Let me start making you a list..."