Thanks for the kind words following my return to the anchor desk this afternoon. I’m still dealing with pain from the chemotherapy given during the surgery in December, and it makes sitting in a chair very difficult. You may see me standing more in the weeks ahead. I will always be grateful for everyone who has watched me throughout my 25 years at WTVA 9 News. It has been an honor, and I hope to continue as long as God allows.

So I returned to work today after being away for a few months following cancer surgery, and I found this in my office. (It was in the window. I put it in my office chair for the photo for my wife.) It just goes to show the sense of humor my coworkers have — just one of the many reasons I enjoy being at WTVA.

Seriously, I’m back even though I still have pain from the chemotherapy during surgery in December. That pain makes it difficult for me to sit for extended periods of time. At some point, I’ll return to the anchor desk. But for now, I’m just happy to return to the place on Beech Springs Road that has been a part of my working life for 25 years.

• Photos with my wife, Stephanie, and our family of dogs. Sadly, cancer took the lives of Rudy (far left) and Preston (top right) early this year just weeks apart.
• A bulldog from Teddy Williams, my late uncle and proud Mississippi State University alum.
• A bell as part of a gift package from Mary Carroll Sullivan and Aundrea Self of WCBI-TV that the two of them sent after my first cancer surgery.

“Partisans gonna partisan, hacks gonna hack. We are undeterred, and the proof will be in our work, as it always is.”

Jon Ralston, the CEO and editor of The Nevada Independent, defending his newsroom’s political coverage.

“A man is not a plan.”

Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis

My high school Spanish teacher recently sent some pictures from Smithville High School that included me. She wrote that smiling would be good exercise as I recover from my cancer surgery. She was absolutely right. Thank you so much, Mrs. Vallarian.