A personal note to my readers of gratitude and many heartfelt thanks.

Thank you for the very kind words. I had a pretty smooth life until I was 50, then the warranty ran out I guess. Prostate cancer hit me in 2010, then again in 2012. My father had dementia and even though I was not close to the man, I was the only one left that could help him, so I did. Then while we were in BK at Tribune, they sued me for $250,000. Ended up winning that but took five years. Then I got fired for being ethical and they thought I was the whistleblower. I would have been happy to be that but I didn't do it. Then I retired the first time and my wife asked for a divorce. Then I was lucky enough to join a great company Hearst and was quite happy in San Francisco planning on retiring again in May, 2020. And I had a house in Wisconsin and I purchase a home in San Antonio. (A great city) But God is an iron. (From a Quote from Author Spider Robinson. "God is an iron," I said. "Did you know that?" "If a person who indulges in gluttony is a glutton, and a person who commits a felony is a felon, then God is an iron..")

So now I have ALS and it caused me to loose my best gift, the ability to speak and speak well. Not perfectly by any means, I was always kind of a firehose kind of speaker and often got into and out of jams with my mouth. But I always thought that was my best skill. Communication. So it strikes me as truly ironic that is what I have lost. But I am doggedly an optimist. So I have to be thankful he didn't give my intellect a good stir to with a spoon. I still have that and I know I will figure out another way to communicate. And since I went public with this I have been blown away, amazed, dumbfounded and stunned by the number of people who have offered their friendship, support and love in response. It has really touched me an way that makes it seem like all that I am going through, and will be going through, are worth it in the end.

I am recently converted to Religion and I am thinking all the prayers that I know have been offered has to help. So a heartfelt thanks to you and everyone else that has touched my heart. I am grateful for that.

Russ