Ernie's First Blog Entry Transcribed By His Secretary

Woohoo! I'm finally getting to write you.

Sorry for the lack of updates. The past two weeks have been nothing but an emotional and physical roller coaster.

I'll try and sum this up as quickly as possible.

* My vision in the left eye has rapidly declined. I can no longer post blog updates by myself but together with people helping me I can establish some consistency.

* I put my cell phone in the washing machine, and it is now broken. All of your phone numbers are gone except for the ones I have memorized.

* Two weeks ago, I walked two miles in 30 minutes on a treadmill. Now, I can barely walk to the end of the street and back.

It is amazing to see how quickly Leukemia has taken over. Honestly, there are days when I am so sick that all I want to do is fall asleep and never wake up. But I still press on.

When your daily conversation focuses on your end of days, it really changes your perspective about life. Hardly anything matters to me except for spending time with God, my family, and Paul.

I don't know at this point whether I will see some of you, but I do know that you are thinking of and praying for me.

If you did not know me and walked up and asked if I've lived a good life the answer would be an emphatic "Yes!".

I just wish that I was able to respond to all of your kind emails, voicemails, and text messages.

This is not my final blog entry. I will try harder to update as often as possible.

Thank you all for your love."