Three doses and no change in symptoms or temperament. I’ve been going to the Park Forest library to job hunt. I read the want ads in the Times Herald and Aviation Week, but it’s mostly to get away from the loving scrutiny of my wife. Today, I looked up vitamin D in the medical encyclopedia. It has a lot to do with calcium in your bones. My joints do feel like they’re raw, arthritic, but Landis claims it’s the nerves, not the bones.

I have no idea if I’m even taking vitamin D, but I read the instructions from the MS Society and checked with Landis—I’m allowed to drink, so I’ve set a two-drink limit on myself while undergoing this trial. Two drinks to prove the point. No more and no less. And to be honest, I think it’s doing more good than the vitamin D. Two drinks is a balance I can live with. Moderation in all things.

February 11

Slightly nauseous before coffee and stiff getting around this morning. Otherwise right as rain.

Went to the copy shop and then sent out 100 letters to everyone I know—just a “hello and if you hear anything here’s my résumé.” Dan helped—licking stamps and envelopes. Such a good kid. Anyhow, shaking the tree.

February 12

You can feel my wife’s mood from the other room, from the other side of the house. Worry, worry, worry. It’s driving Dan and me crazy. To-do list: get a job, just to escape this woman’s gravitational field.

No real changes. Three pills. Two with coffee, one with vodka and Seven.

February 13

Dilemma for V day tomorrow: get her flowers and get yelled at for wasting money on flowers, or just go with a card and come up short that way? I understand now why they named the holiday after a martyr. I should dragoon Dan into this—if it comes from both of us, A. Mulligan will like it.

February 14

My legs, knees, joints, plantar f all feel fine for the first time in weeks. Promising. Will stick with the three doses. Dan and I got the Mrs. a black forest cake from Tom Thumb—too much chocolate, but it averted another Valentine’s Day massacre.

February 15

Two weeks in and this might be working.

February 16