I thought I'd send a few words just to keep any rumors at bay, and any worries over the length of time since my last post.

First off my thanks to Mrs. Sandy Allen and to Dr. Mark H. McKinney of The Citadel Electrical & Engineering Department for their contributions in my name to the Mayo Clinic Hematologic Malignancies Program -- Amyloidosis Research. Your gifts are very much appreciated.

Thanks also, once again, to all of you who have posted your well wishes for me. It means a lot. More than I can say.

As for me, I am still doing a little better each day. The work on the elevator is done, so I can sleep in my own bed again, which is terrific. I still do poorly with stairs and with walking very far. My current goal is to make it around the block without stopping to catch my breath even once. And to do so at a decent pace. I truly hate the creeping sort of walk I've been reduced to lately. I know that, too, is getting better, but it is still irritating.

I've begun working out again, but on doctor's orders, with very light weights. 10-lb and 20-lb dumb-bells, with 40 lbs for pull-downs. It still surprises me how much I feel a session with such light weights, but then, I am almost forty pounds lighter than I was on tour, for those who saw me then. Harriet says I am skin and bone, and in some ways she has the truth of it. I haven't been this light since I was a sophomore in high school. I am finding sessions on the stationary bicycle exhausting.

I am persevering, however. And trying to get back into the work, I'm sure you'll be happy to hear, though at nowhere near a full schedule yet. Besides, I have asked my brothers and cousins to come to Charleston in August to fish, plus I promised Harriet to take her to a spa hotel for her birthday that month, so I need to build up my strength as quickly as I can.

I can't recall whether I mentioned this earlier, but we got to the bottom of me sleeping 20 hours a day. One of my medications, for nausea, also had drowsiness as a side-effect. And, boy, did it make me drowsy. Getting rid of that -- no problem since I never did have any problems with nausea -- got rid of the desire for so much sleep.

Now it is just a matter of waiting until July so the Mayo can tell me whether those tests were right. And more importantly, what they really mean. Whatever the report, though, you should know that I'm still here kicking. And writing when I can.

Talk to you later, guys.

RJ