Personal update, plus random notes

A number of people have written, both email and comments, asking how I was doing- and I'm grateful for the concern. I haven't been posting because I've frankly felt terrible. My red cell count had gotten down to 6.5, (13-14 is normal), for which I received a transfusion. It's currently hovering around 10, which is good enough to stand up with only dizziness rather than fainting, but still leaves me too weak (especially when combined with pain that mere Vicodin is no longer coping with) to even follow long posts, let alone write one. In about 12 hours I will be undergoing two operations that should clear most of this up, followed a few weeks later by a procedure in which I swallow a digital camera that radios pictures to a receiver/recorder I will be wearing. (surprizingly enough, they don't want the camera back) I hope to be back to regular blogging by then. Until then, everyone else keep up the good work and I'll follow you care of UUpdater.

As to the current controversies, I have little new to add, so I'll just recycle some old quotes. About the disaffiliated independent affiliates- don't do anything to make them feel not wanted. I said this in another context, and I believe it still applies: "... if all the UU Christians and UU Pagans left, the average age of the average congregation would approach triple digits, and the membership list would drop down to double digits- and half of them would be Buddhist."

About the brown bag controversy- this quote from another context sums it up well for me: "... and the UUA plays more with rhetoric than any other denomination I’m aware of. If the UUA could be considered to have a central doctrine at all, it would be that controling the rhetoric controls the reality."

So goodbye for now, and assuming I don't die on the table, I hope to be back blogging regularly in one-to weeks. Thanks, friends.

UPDATE
I'm told that both operations were successful! Recovery mode, full speed ahead!