Yesterday I received my "Golden Buckeye" card from the Ohio Department of Aging. I had no idea we had such a department but.......Anyway, I was a bit depressed.....okay, a lot depressed. Then I thought how happy I was to be aging and recalled the importance of the date in my life. It was another step towards a tighter community here at the 'Cat as well. Do you remember?

On April 28, 1999, I had a dissecting aortic aneurysm running from the aortic arch to the femoral arteries. Its the same thing that killed John Ritter and its pretty high up the morbidity ladder. The difference between John Ritter and myself amounted to about an inch as mine extended into the aortic arch but not into the heart. There is no real repair for this short of replacing the aorta which is far more dodgy than heart replacement with all kinds of ways for it to go wrong fast. Ten years later my ripped aorta and I are still here which put a different perspective on the Golden Buckeye status.

That was also a turning point of sorts for Mudcat. The membership was slowly growing. We were all talking back and forth but it was still early in our development and some of the threads then were pretty humorous as old folkies learned what you did (or weren't supposed to do) on the internet. The bonding and friendships that mark us as different were forming. When I went to the hospital, Mudcat went from being a group to being a true community. Believe me, I had nothing to do with it. I was just the one in the barrel.

What happened next was remarkable. I had well wishers galore. Mudcatters were completely stunned at their own reactions to the troubles of someone they had never met. Folks drew together and began relating as though this cyber world was a real one......and indeed it was, and is. By the time it was all over a month later and I returned, I was amazed at how the place had changed. The openness, the camaraderie, the banter, the true neighborly feelings had grown far beyond where things had been only a few short weeks before. We leapt forward that day and, for good or bad, the place has never been the same.

And if you don't believe it still can be that way, just read about Severn's accident
a few weeks back or the search for Ezra. I'm awful happy to be here on many different levels.

I hope you are too............


Spaw