As the space ship landed, he looked out the window and all he could see was a granite wall, a cliff, with little red critters scurrying around; they looked like salamanders. Then he noticed they were all lining themselves up in some sort of pattern; the window was so close to the wall, he had to crane his neck to see the full pattern they were making; he was startled to see the salamanders were forming letters of the alphabet: he slowly read out loud what they were saying:

"This... is... a.. test."

And I once thought that my lessons were done.

This new condition that I have - I am fighting back at it with all available weapons - and it is a bit better now that it was 3 weeks ago, and that was better than 3 months ago. I think it's another beast to chase away with everything that ancient beasts don't like. It ain't over until it's over.
In Quebec French we say "il n'est pas fort; mais il n'est pas mort."
(He is not strong, but he is not dead.)