I ended Christmas “Vacation” with the Flu, and was sick the second week of January–wild waves and storms, so just as well. Truck and Rent issues are resolved by the end of February, and my health slowly settles into mild despair and distress.  Steve is drinking quite a lot, and takes a Friday Night header, one of several, perhaps off the porch steps.

Saturday April 7 we left early and headed for Red Rock Canyon, our traditional first stop on the way to the DESERT! Sunday, Lone Pine, Hunter Mountain, Saline Valley Road, Panamint, full moon in Snow Canyon

4/9 Monday, storm, and hail–Death Valley, west side drive, Tecopa,  baths and camp

Tuesday night, Sunflower Springs, Old Woman Mountains

Wednesday night Painted Rock

Thursday, shopping in Blythe, Anza Borrego south entrance

Friday, Agua Caliente, Borrego Springs, Clark Dry Lake

Palmdale April 14, 4:30 PM, Easter, Church with Elsie  .  .  .  dinner with Craig and Marth

Return home to –Biopsy, and my 50th birthday.

By this time, Steve’s sister was fully embroiled in the giant fishnet in Southern California, and we began to spend more time traveling to the High Desert and taking trips Down Below to the County seat.  Things were sketchy, but didn’t seem a total disaster, until  .  .  .

S E P T E M B E R E L E V E N

From there, things went swiftly downhill.  Also, I had had a bad scare, the biopsy that was a clown show followed by a debacle, and a diagnosis of, “I dunno”.   In fact, I had a follow-up doctor’s appointment for that very morning (9/11), which I had cancelled in frustration with the lack of information or care I was getting in return for a summer of fear and dread.