"Of course you're not a machine, though if you were, you would be an excellent one. Though I do wonder what sort of machine you would be..." Ernie was definitely not someone people would want to get started on the If you were a ____, what would you be? game because with him, the game never ended.
"Oh, he's nowhere near ready to go yet. His body has lost some muscle mass from being prone for long periods and he needs to rehabilitate, but then he also needs to work on some mental recovery as well. I don't anticipate him being gone for another two months at least, but it's nice that he's more awake and aware than ever. And once we calmed him down and he realized what happened, he felt awful about it."