Been a long couple of years since I was active here. 2 years ago I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Went thru 9 months of chemo which reduced the size of the tumor to a point where I could have the Whipple surgery - I'm reminded of the line from Little Big Man where Jack Crabb says "they're whittlin ya down pretty good there, Mister Merriweather." I went from 210 pounds to 115 pounds, in and out of the hospital, and was in surgery for 10 hours last March and am just now getting some semblance of strength back, and am all the way back to 140 pounds, which I think will be my fighting weight from now on. I do not recommend this disease to the faint of heart. On top of all that, we moved from Indiana to Illinois 4 months ago, and most of the packing, movers, etc fell to my incredible wife Julie - all 4'11", 100 lbs of her. What a dynamo! Love that woman. We went from a 3500 sf house to a small 1300 sf house near my daughter and new grand daughter in the chain of lakes area in northern IL, with all my shop stuff in storage until the spring when I can finish fixin up the one car garage. (my shop space will be cut in half from the old one in Morocco.) Seems like as I shrink, everything else does to. LOL.

But considering that 85% of the folks who get this disease die from it, I fell pretty dam lucky to be typing this. My last 2 cat scans showed that I'm in remission, and I'm feelin pretty god dam good, all things considered. I think once the shop is set up I'll be making children's stuff - chairs, toys, etc - small things that will fit in the shop, and that won't be so heavy I have to call for assistance from the Dynamo.

So I'll be pursuing the forums and dropping my 2 cents worth every now then, and it's worth every penny. Also looking for sawyers/mills up here where I can get some decent q-sawn white oak if you know of any. Cya around.