A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the Earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: “What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.” The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, “What is the tortoise standing on?” “You’re very clever, young man, very clever,” said the old lady. “But it’s turtles all the way down!” Stephen Hawking in the intro to A Brief History of Time.

Today was a beautiful Spring Day, warm under a clear blue sky. It seems like the long, cold, rainy winter is ending.

Both my email and my blog disappeared last week at about the time Michele left for Mexico, although there is no connection between the two. I know Michele went to Mexico to see the Great Eclipse, but I have no idea why or even how the blog and attached email disappeared; all I know is that, when I went to make an entry in the blog, it wasn’t there. All I got was a sign that said This site can’t be reached. Check if there is a typo in srstern.com.

Every morning, I would get up and go to my website only to see This site can’t be reached. I would text Michele, and she would tell me that she was working on it and that the site was still there. She would say, “They say, ‘They can see it.'” whatever that means. About a day after I gave up – but, obviously, Michele hadn’t – there it was…back.

Also, on the good news front, I am getting a new heart valve—or, to be more accurate, a Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement. This means that they will not have to open my chest to get to my heart; they will just fish a new bioprosthetic valve in through my groin and up a vein to my heart. In my imagination’s eye, it is sort of like one of those collapsable paper umbrellas you get with rum drinks, only safer. The cheery handout I got from the surgeon’s office said that it will Help you live longer, Helps you feel better, Less invasive procedure, Shorter recovery time and Almost 98 out of a 100 patients are still living within two years and more than 2 in 100 patients will die.

So, as far as I am concerned, it is good news All The Way Down.