...has a silver lining.

First, I want to thank everyone who sent me nice messages. Your thoughts are truly appreciated. What really got to me the last 5 weeks are all the fine people who sent me cards, or messages or stopped me and talked to me on the street or at work. Knowing there are so many fine, caring people in this great country of ours was sometimes almost more than I could handle. It truly makes me appreciate all the good things and people in my (and our) lives.

There really is a silver lining to all this. Since I've been paying off bills, I haven't had the cash to make any new purchases, although I did have enough to renew my membership. I've even started a submission, which I hope to send in within a month or so.

Since it's been a fairly snowy winter here in southeastern Iowa, it's been a good time for indoor projects. So I've been redoing all my coin photos! and deciding what sets to make. I'm happy with the bulk of my redone pictures. Really, right now, it's been my Sac Dollars that I'm unhappy with. So I guess that's not too bad, as they're only a small part of my collection.

I've really been happy with how my proof coins came out. I finally have space to have a little room between my camera (which is on a small tripod) and the little wooden holder my buddies made me at our local lumber yard. This means I can get more light on the coin, and boy does that make a difference. As is my custom, I'm attaching a photo of the reverse of my San Francisco Mint commemorative dollar. I think you'll all agree it came out exceptionally well.

So, the last 5 weeks have been a roller coaster ride of sorts of emotions, but also of thanks.