"And HOME sings me of sweet things..."

[BY SUSAN]

Those words are from a Karla Bonoff song.  You can hear Bonnie Raitt sing it here:

  HOME - Click the "listen while you read" link.     

(http://www.songlyrics.com/bonnie-raitt/home-lyrics/)

And home sings me of sweet things
My life there has its own wings
Fly over the mountains
Though I am standing still.

So we got home safely, though a little late, last night (2-21).  We flew out of Trenton, NJ, which is its own adventure.  At one point Peter looked at me and said, "Let's not use this airport again."  But we later discovered that if we'd used a major airport we'd likely not be waking up in our own bed this morning, as the spate of storms created cancellations everywhere.  Our pilot told us that we were lucky to get home, but we were still grumpy about the airport and didn't quite believe him then.

Ah!  There is so much to tell!  I didn't write my snow saga, and guess it will have to wait.  It seemed odd to come home to a place with no snow, as there was plenty left when I took off on Wednesday, and of course Philadelphia was covered.  Here are a couple of street scenes:

Peter is feeling very good, and, really, couldn't have done better with this course of radiation, especially considering how weak he was (from the pneumonia) at the outset.  They have given him a lot of IV fluids, and he will be battling dehydration for a while - partly an outcome of the treatment and partly from his post-surgery anatomy.  As I write this he is off at the gym already, and is playing a gig tonight with his Red's Rhythm band.

Here are some scenes we encounter as we walk to the Pearlman Center and the Roberts Proton Therapy floor inside.

After his treatment on Friday he got to ring the bell!  

BELL (or go to http://youtu.be/CXlxehxCUDg if the link doesn't work).

Peter's cousin Lori Ginzberg came for the ringing.  She and her partner, Joel Steiker, have been Peter's caretakers along with Lori's sister Janet and Janet's partner, John Caskey.

Lori is away Monday-Thursdays teaching at Penn State, and during two of the four weeks that Peter was in their home, Joel and Lori were also looking after Janet and John's kids, Simon and Hannah.  Of the 10 school days during that period, Philadelphia schools were closed for 5 of them due to snow, so Joel had his hands full.  Still, he made meals for everyone and managed to get a few pounds on Peter during his 4 weeks there.

Joel Steiker and Lori Ginzberg

  I think Joel and Lori might be happy to get their house back!

After Thursday's treatment Peter took me to some of the places he'd enjoyed, and these photos are from our walk to the Redding Market - an amazing food emporium that Lori and Joel visit with friends every Saturday.  En route Peter enjoyed the Hard Rock Cafe guitar sign.

 Oh, I wish Blogger would let me make a tile out of these pictures.  Perhaps one of my techie daughters will help me later.

Finally, after treatment and the bell-ringing we rested a while back at Joel and Lori's, packed up our stuff (not much!), and pointed the rental car towards Trenton.  Storms had been raging all over the east coast.  I got one of those warning calls from Greg Fishel about conditions back home, and even Philly was under a rare tornado watch.  It was still raining when we left, but the skies brightened as we neared Trenton and then, behold:

A rainbow appeared!

We took that as a good sign, even though we did later grumble over the conditions at the tiny, disorganized airport.  But we made it home, safe and sound, and boy did the dogs whine when Peter came in!

HOME.