The dog ate my homework

I've been quiet lately, and quiet about why. In the meantime, a beautiful leaf season has rained chaos upon the house, hitting Charles hard this year and turning me into a continually runny nose. Rally has taken to running squirrel patrol in the backyard, which one expects, but at his size he pops back in for love and approval with a coating of leaf dust and mold spores that would challenge the best of us to survive. Really, how can you not kiss a schnoodle?

Quietly, too, my return to chemo has been interesting. It seems to be working...the tumors on my lower chest are MIA, the lump under my arm is softening and burping. I don't want to say too much or kvell; the universe hates my butt dances. A small bone is tossed to me at midnight, I promise not to wake you and tell you how good it tastes. 

All good trails bad in its wake. For me, it's something called hand syndrome, a side effect of 5FU. It causes sores on the hands fissures in the nail beds and brittle nails. And it has roosted here. It is officially painful to type much. Band aids on the fingers or no. 

So production will be lower until this goes away, but it has been remarkedly persistent. Like Rally, it has come close enough to winning to make the game viable. I've seen him within inches of a tempting piece of squirrel tail, though I'm not rooting for him. Those squirrels bring me some sport to spectate, ticket-free. I need that right now!