MY FACE, MY BOOK

Check that face, will ya!  Yikes!  It's been a year since I been working at it.  It's almost like a normal human face now.  Exactly 12 months ago it was like a normal, 90 year old, undernourished ape.  This shot is from July, but the aspect has not changed much since then.  Actually, I don't have too many pictures of myself.  I am usually the one with the camera, so I keep a low profile.  
My thoughts these days often go back to the time last year when we had a rather large ration of pain and suffering around the ol' corral.  It is easy for my mind to get back there because I awakened this morning with burning reminders in several joints that this is the first anniversary of when God took over and let me know who is really in charge.  Let me tell you who had a great day today.  Oh, you already know?  Now how could you possibly come to that conclusion?  It was kind of a fun day.  Sore elbow, sore wrists and sore knee and now at 8:30 pm, I just got done washing the blood out of my ears.  365 days later, no mercy.  All day I wanted Denis [my saintly brother] back.  But, of course, he is buried in snow this year [Massachusetts] and I am buried in a blizzard of recriminations from the Voice from the kitchen.  I have no idea why the burning devil came to me over night, but he did.  Maybe he knows how to get even with me.  Last year this place was so full of God's love that Beelzebub didn't stand a chance.  The physical pain was so evident, that everyone, and I mean everyone, all four of them were angels flying around on fluffy clouds, keeping me comfortable and happy.  This year, today, there was no such luck.  There was physical discomfort and auditory flagellation.  That's what I get for accepting God's gift of continuing life last year.
Wait, wait, there is a silver lining to this.  Of course it comes from Massachusetts again.  The sender, Auntie Em and Uncle Jack sent a card that they found cute.  When I got it I laughed and cried all at the same time.  You see, today is the exact anniversary of the first time in one month that I stood up, unaided, in front of the porcelain fixture to take care of minor business.  It didn't look exactly like this but I will never forget it, ever.
I have lost the memories of about two weeks, maybe more, of my life from last February and March, but this milestone is too powerful to forget.  So, Auntie Em and Uncle Jack, I owe you big time for making my day with a toilet joke that means a lot more than you could ever have imagined.
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In case you are counting, in exactly 4.5 hours from now this work will have completed 100 days of 
liberté, égalité, fraternité.  Every single syllable is enjoyable.  We presently have 49 "subscribers".    We have had 1,602 visits since November 25, 2010.  When I started to write for www.ParishWorld.net four years ago, I would listen to the publisher tell me about what happens when you write for the public on a regular basis.  I did not buy into his "pipe dream" talk.  Now, as I write this, I am the one with the stories, all of them true and not a single one based on a deal that I cut with Mammon.
Therefore, I ask you all to continue praying for me and thank God for the grace that He gives me every single day.  Plus, you have to promise me that not a single one of you will Cry at My Funeral.