Family Surgery - And, Jury Duty, Here I Come

Well, I called the Jury Summons telephone number, and heard a recording telling me that if my assigned juror number was between this and that, then I needed to be at the Courthouse at 8:15 in the morning.  The beginning number was only 25 before my assigned number, and the end number is 110 after my number.  Looks like I'll be there!
  But my thoughts today are with my sister, Kathy.  Being sisters, and having six and a half years of age between us, we haven't always seen eye to eye; and I am frequently upset by her  (in my perception) regal and arbitrary decisions. I am sure that I make decisions that she doesn't like, either.  But she is my flesh and blood, my closest living relative; and I do love her very much.  Kathy checks into Foothills Community Hospital this morning before 7 and will be on an operating table at 8:30.  She is having a double mastectomy; they are also removing the sentinel lymph nodes from each arm pit.  Hopefully, both of them will show no signs of the cancer that is eating her body, and that will mark an end of the removals.  If so, the surgery will last only 3 to 5 hours.
   Kathy has been diagnosed with invasive ductal breast cancer.  The good news is that it's been found early; that it's the most commonly found cancer in women over the age of 50, who have had children; and there is a very high recovery rate without a recurrence of the cancer, if found and treated early.  The worst thing is waiting for the results from the surgery, which will take a few days - waiting to find out if Kathy will need to under go chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and/or hormonal therapy.  As she and Jim lead a very active lifestyle, Kathy has selected not to have reconstructive surgery - to hasten her recovery, to save money, and to be able to run her half-marathons without being stuffed into a Sports Bra.  If all goes well, she should be returning to work soon after the New Year.
   In the meantime, one of Kathy's former co-workers will stay with her in the mornings while Jim runs and takes care of business, and while I'm walking dogs.  After noon, I'll be Kathy's hands and arms, cleaning, doing laundry, washing dishes, cooking, reading to her, and writing for her, while Jim takes care of house-hold items (like shopping).  Connie, Kathy's neighbor, will fill in when neither Bernie nor I are available.  I am scheduled to house-sit the week of Thanksgiving, but I'm only two blocks away from the houses...  so things will be easy to handle.
   Boulder has really dodged winter so far.  However, after some rain tonight,  we're supposed to be sunny and in the 60s Saturday and Sunday.  Monday, however, the temperatures are forecast to fall all day with about 3 inches of snow in the evening, with a low of 17 degrees.  Tuesday (thankfully, it's Veteran's Day, and a Holiday) they say we'll reach a high of 32 and have snow falling all day; Tuesday night's low is forecast at 19.  Looks like Winter is actually on it's way!