Firstly, it's not mortal news, okay? It is bad news, but not that bad.

I'll get the news off my chest first: I have to go in for another stent, and a bit of cleaning around one of my earlier stents. It's not a big deal; it's in an easy place to work. By way of comparision, I had three stents put in a Y-junction, and the doctor said if I needed work there, they'd have to ... well, let's just say I'm glad I don't.

But that's not the point of this entry.

Bad news happens in all our lives. This one isn't event hat bad. The implication is the weight -- this is six months after my angioplasty and I'm in need of more work. This is likely how the rest of my life goes.

So that is somewhat bad news, that the possible time-bomb in my heart is still ticking. I guess they call it a ticker for a reason.

The point of this entry isn't the bad news, but how I dealt with it. Or rather, how I didn't.

I shut down. I basically retreated to mind-numbing things, origami, TiVo and Xbox. I just didn't want to deal with things, with telling friends, with making plans or even looking at my life. It took a good cluebatting from a dear friend to get me to get my act together, and even that took a few hours to sink in.

I do have reasons to live. I have SpouseKitty and Kitten. I have a few friends, such as my two high-school buddies, one of whom shares these climes (he was here first, actually) and the other who is planning to visit this summer. He's the one with whom I was staying when I visited SF to see my ailing mother, so it's high time he got a chance to spend the night at my place!

I have online friends and real-life friends. Truth be told, aside from those two, I can't claim any real-life friends who are closer than my online friends. You know who you are. (And thanks for the cluebatting.) I have memories full of happy laughter and warm smiles from you all, and I hope to have many more.

I shouldn't have shut down. Yes, the news wasn't great. However, I should have read it as a wake-up call, a reminder that we are all finite, and our time in the here and now is limited, and should be treasured.

That's why we call it The Present, no?