I am awake most of the night with annoyances due to itching and dryness. I take Tylenol and suck ice cubes, but the night passes and I have not slept.

I find some company with the chatter of my nearby police scanner which broadcasts through the night. There are a million small, often unhappy dramas that beam across the frequencies constantly. A police chase, domestic violence, suspicious people loitering, bar fights. You name it. 

I am appalled at the numbers of young black males which are frequent victims as well as perpetrators . It seems every description of individuals sought for any violation involves young, black males, all seemingly dressed alike. Who can address this? The calls continue.

I lie awake through the final night in February and good riddance. M state’s two most winter months are January and February and thank God, with the morning, both are behind us. March is a promise of better things. 

When I was a boy, March was the time when Dad would reinstitute the Sunday drive and we would spend some pleasant Sunday afternoons in the warming spring sun. Often these drives would end at some small, out-of-the-way beer joint where the folks would mingle with the bar crowd and we kids would suck on a Nehi and explore the community outside.

On one March trip not to be forgotten the family car ended up at the yaqcht club where we explored the many yachts and sailing craft, now ashore for the winter, and played among them. It was probably my favorite March trip.

But today baseball is being played in earnest in Arizona, daylight savings time and the first day of spring are only days off. Sometimes in March you can see crocus and maybe a robin “scout” out on the lawn. The newspaper advertises the appeal of the annual sports show this week  There’s the basketball tournaments and later this month,  major league baseball teams begin to plan for real.

All in all, a hopeful month.

The euphoria of the transfusion is fading as I experience difficulty with breathing, energy loss, lack of rest, lethargy. I have begun to increase the insulin levels to those levels prior to the transfusion. In spite of the hope the coming spring brings, my depression never seems to lift,

I have noticed dark stools but they may be attributed to the addition of iron tablets to my medicine diet.  I see a doctor on Tuesday and will confirm this. I am in no way losing the water weight I must, and in fact seem to be gaining.  This is not a good thing.

 I was surprised to receive a telephone call from Mary Louise Schumacher, the arts editor of the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel, who called on an old story we had discussed months ago. She was concerned about my health and we talked a long while.   It is good to talk to a journalist.  Our conversation reminds me why I miss the business so much.

The mayor of my town has been in touch. She has called to wish me well and writes occasionally to tell me about plans she has for the renovation of Hart Park’s sports facilities. She will now press an effort to find a sponsor interested in buying naming rights for the football field, the tennis courts and track, and she is eager to tell me about that.

I have sought for eight years to have those facilities named for the chief architect at the park, Thomas Greenwill, but to no avail. But now I am a financial backer to whatever is to be done at the park, thanks to a cash donation made in my behalf by my sister Judy andher husband Jeff Henley. So the mayor stays in touch.

I support such an effort I tell her but have suggested that the Greenwill connection somehow be considered as part of the name that might be chosen. I have done some research and discovered that sponsors of such plans are reluctant to put money into naming facilities that are established and aging such as the facilities we have at Hart Park. There are alternatives and I have listed these and sent them to the mayor for whatever help they may be. 

I have grown more and more afraid of the decisions of the new, young president and the direction he is heading. I follow the news almost all day and am aware of those who fear the presidet is following radical politics.  He justifies his choices by stating that he follows the promises of his campaign. Those ideas which to many now seem irrational and unreasonable to many, were embraced by millions.