An Anniversary

About this time of morning one year ago, my surgeon was telling
me that I needed emergency surgery for a ruptured colon.

There were some dark times there, and pain enough to accompany
them. But Diane remained my steadfast companion and support, there to
send me off to surgery and there to help me when I was coming out of
anesthesia. I’ve had the goodwill and support of my family, on both
sides of the aisle, as it were. Willard and Margaret, Sam and
Marguerite, Joe B. and Pat, they helped me when I was pretty
helpless. My friends gave me their best wishes and often their
company; Mark, Genie, Glenn, Nick, Alan, Jean, Dave, and others.
And many more wrote to tell me that I was in their prayers, and I am
grateful to all of you.

Recovery has been slow, but things have proceeded. I’ve taken up work
again, and continued with things going toward my zoological research.
I was able to review a paper for the Acoustical Society of America a
couple of weeks ago, and contribute to a paper on linking behavioral
states and types of click trains in bottlenose dolphins. There are
three papers in various states of getting through clearance and
submission, and more in various stages of writing up. I’m getting to
know some of the people at U.C. Davis where Diane has her postdoc, and
there’s the possibility of some research collaboration there. It’s
been a pleasure to collaborate with the crew at the Panda’s Thumb and to be able to
be a part of the TalkOrigins
Archive Foundation.

And Diane and I were able to get out a little bit with the hawks and
dogs before the end of various hunting seasons. Though I tired fairly
rapidly, it was good to be in the field again. I’m hopeful that my
condition will be better come the hunting season at the end of summer,
and we’ll be able to go afield more often than was the case this year.