Happy Ought Eight ...........

C’n you believe it? We got ourselves over 300 million people in the old red, white, and blue. ‘Course, they have us divided into red and blue these days. Makes you kind’a wonder where all the white has gone. Or is that a racist statement? I don’t mean it to be.
I ain ‘t really concerned about the changing demographics of the country although I may be in a minority in that category.
I studied French as a ‘foreign’ language all those years ago when I was considering a career as a student. Hindsight tells me that I should have studied Spanish but I was enamored of all things francaise back then in my stone age. The women. The wine. The food. The women. Especially Brigitte Bardot. Who was, in todays parlance, hot! Le Sexbomb Hot! But if you mention her name today, most of the 300 million inhabitants of our insular nation will develop a blank stare of incomprehension. Ah well. C’est la vie!
It’s been so long since I got out of high school that if I were Johnny Carson making that statement, my doppelganger would be asking, “How loooong is it?” To which I could reply, “When I graduated from high school, I went straight into the military and took my basic training at Valley Forge.”
Of course, it would help if whomever I was talking with actually knew to whom I was referring when I mention Johnny and Ed. And it’s absolutely no use at all to bring up Jack or Dave and J. Fred Muggs. It’s odd to think that in this world of quantum leap population, when you get to be a certain age, the pool of people you can relate to grows smaller with each passing moment.
And speaking of passing moments, there’s a phrase that all of us should be able to relate to for what is life but passing moments? I think there is probably a lot of people who don’t want to be reminded of that but you know what, their moments are passing just like yours and mine.
Makes me wonder at times if time ceases to have any relevance after death. If you believe in life after death, do you believe in time after death? Do oxymorons exist after death? Does a plethora of oxymoronic phraseology signify anything at all?
Probably not!
Anyway, all this is simply my long-winded way of saying “Hi!” and Happy New Year!

Justin Other Smith
Ought Eight

Last Sunday in Ought-seven........

Got dem jumpy legs again tonite......I’m sleepy but they ain’t
Been sunny most of the day but now they say there ‘s a storm comin’.....s’pozed to bring about ten foot of snow to the sierra....GOOD! We need it, the water, I mean..... and snow in the sierra means water in the valley.
Last Sunday in Ought -seven .....I never gave much tho’t to it before, the turn of the Century and all. Even when it happened, it didn’t seem to be all that much. ‘Course, when you stop and think about it, not many of us get to see more than one of ‘em.....’n the ones that do are either too young to remember the first one or too darn old to really care about the second one....maybe that’s what God intended anyway.......
Last Sunday in Ought-seven..........
One more chemo to go. That’d be on Jan 15 which should get me pert near chem free in February, Ought-eight..
March and April for exercise therapy and high protein diet and, of course, watching the mirror for signs of new hair.....
It’s just a question of priorities, people............
HA PPY NEW YEAR..............Justin Other Smith

Been sunny most of the day but now they say there ‘s a storm comin’.....s’pozed to bring about ten foot of snow to the sierra....GOOD! We need it, the water, I mean..... and snow in the sierra means water in the valley.
Last Sunday in Ought -seven .....I never gave much tho’t to it before, the turn of the Century and all. Even when it happened, it didn’t seem to be all that much. ‘Course, when you stop and think about it, not many of us get to see more than one of ‘em.....’n the ones that do are either too young to remember the first one or too darn old to really care about the second one....maybe that’s what God intended anyway.......
Last Sunday in Ought-seven..........
One more chemo to go. That’d be on Jan 15 which should get me pert near chem free in February, Ought-eight..
March and April for exercise therapy and high protein diet and, of course, watching the mirror for signs of new hair.....
It’s just a question of priorities, people............
HA PPY NEW YEAR..............Justin Other Smith

Been sunny most of the day but now they say there ‘s a storm comin’.....s’pozed to bring about ten foot of snow to the sierra....GOOD! We need it, the water, I mean..... and snow in the sierra means water in the valley.
Last Sunday in Ought -seven .....I never gave much tho’t to it before, the turn of the Century and all. Even when it happened, it didn’t seem to be all that much. ‘Course, when you stop and think about it, not many of us get to see more than one of ‘em.....’n the ones that do are either too young to remember the first one or too darn old to really care about the second one....maybe that’s what God intended anyway.......
Last Sunday in Ought-seven..........
One more chemo to go. That’d be on Jan 15 which should get me pert near chem free in February, Ought-eight..
March and April for exercise therapy and high protein diet and, of course, watching the mirror for signs of new hair.....
It’s just a question of priorities, people............
HA PPY NEW YEAR..............Justin Other Smith

Saturday......5th Day of Christmas

It being Saturday morning at long last and me on my on my next to last cuppa coffee.....I’ve had my toast and my protein shake, da dawgs have been out, had breakfast and (most important, snack)........read about Bhutto and Pakistan (tragic) and American Politics (tragi-comic)...also read the comix (American art form that SacBee has dumbed down so far they’be become pathetic) Makes ya wonder if the newsprint industry is actually pushing people towards the internet.........prob’ly some kind of massive tax writeoff promised them by the Dems..........Whatever happened to the fearless fighting press of yesteryear? O, I know. It only existed in the movies...same as pre- development California........
Some distant Archaeoligist is gonna fish us out’a the sea and wonder whatinhell we wuz doin’ here............
Justin Other Smith

O, da good nooze is dat de gurls is comin' home.......... hope the weather cooperates........Grandpa

4th Day of Christmas

My right leg won’t sleep. It just keeps dancin’ some kind of jig on its own. And becuz it won’t sleep, the rest of me is havin’ a problem also. So, I just got up and went to the kitchen and fixed myself a p-nut butter sandwich. Probl’ly should have a small glass of milk to wash it down but I’ll think about that.
I’ts probably the predisone that keepin’ me awake. It’s famous for that. I have some sleeping pills in there but they make me feel so bad I hate to take ‘em. Like being drunk all day without the fun of getting that way. All dizzy headed and staggering about, bouncing off wall and feeling like I’m gonna fall down. All that and no whoopee, no dancing and no girls. Ain’t hardly worth the effort. ‘Sides, it was never fun getting drunk alone. You need people and music and someone to dance with and someone to hit now and then. Otherwise, what’s the purpose? Also, you should wake up broke and with a hangover.
Lessee.....Tues was Christmas.......Wed was Chemo Day.....Thurs was the 3rd day of Christmas.........this must be Friday.....the 4th day of Christmas.......four calling birds, I think.....or was it three calling birds and four french hens? I’d ask Sarkozy but I think he’s Hungarian and his new girlfriend is Italian. Way to go, Sarkozy...............
I’m glad we’re friends with the French again. They’re a snotty bunch but they have great bread and they let their dogs shit in the street. And besides, it’s someplace where Jerry Lewis and Michael Jackson can go and be welcome. And if they get dogshit on their shoes, no one cares.
I wonder what kind of crap I might have written if I’d gotten some real honest to goodness illegal type drugs into me. LSD and Heroin, Cocaine and Morphine......You lies de castle of me fadder, kuklastan & ollie.......... prob’ly a good idea I never fouled out....found out. hell, maybe I fouled out and just never knew it.
H appy 4 th day of Christ mas everyone.....Justin Other Smith

2nd Day of Christmas.......& 3rd Day

The 2nd Day of Christmas

On the 2nd day of Christmas,
my true love gave to me,
a ride to Kaiser and chemo intravenously......
Hey, it rhymes.....and that’s the best I c’n do this early in the day on two cups of coffee and a protein shake.......
From 10:15am to 1:30pm.....that wasn’t too bad. One more on Jan 15....3 weeks to recover this one and 3 more to recover from the next and last.
Well Hell.....everyone needs sumthin’ to look forward to.....”O joyous day, calloo, callay, he chortled in his glee.......”

On the 3rd Day of Christmas...

I kind’a forgot I was s’pozed to get my montly vitamin shot so after breakfast I tho’t I’d just take a nap.....Millyrose tho’t that was a good idea so she joined me...Trudy & Rusty had no objections so they went along with the crowd............At 1:15, I awoke in a flash, tore open the windows and threw up the sash and exclaimed to the afternoon sky........”I forgot my 1’30 appt for my vitamin shot.”
So we rushed in a dither, in a snither hit the road to Roseville and Kaiser as fast as the l’il matrix would fly where I apalogized profusely to the sub-NPR who assured me, ‘no problema, senor’ and stuck me in the right arm and scheduled me for my next one. Pretty girl too. Had cancer 1 0 years ago, came back lookin’ good.........
Then Millyrose and I stopped at the waffle house and had waffles for lunch ...........what a day? When ya get out’a step, takes some shufflin’ to catch up........
Happy New Year..........Justin Other Smith

The 2nd of Christmas..............

On the 2nd day of Christmas,
my true love gave to me,
a ride to Kaiser and chemo intravenously......
Hey, it rhymes.....and that’s the best I c’n do this early in the day on two cups of coffee and a protein shake.......
From 10:15am to 1:30pm.....that wasn’t too bad. One more on Jan 15....3 weeks to recover this one and 3 more to recover from the next and last.
Well Hell.....everyone needs sumthin’ to look forward to.....”O joyous day, calloo, callay, he chortled in his glee.......”

On the 3rd Day of Christmas...

I kind’a forgot I was s’pozed to get my montly vitamin shot so after breakfast I tho’t I’d just take a nap.....Millyrose tho’t that was a good idea so she joined me...Trudy & Rusty had no objections so they went along with the crowd............At 1:15, I awoke in a flash, tore open the windows and threw up the sash and exclaimed to the afternoon sky........”I forgot my 1’30 appt for my vitamin shot.”
So we rushed in a dither, in a snither hit the road to Roseville and Kaiser as fast as the l’il matrix would fly where I apalogized profusely to the sub-NPR who assured me, ‘no problema, senor’ and stuck me in the right arm and scheduled me for my next one. Pretty girl too. Had cancer 1 0 years ago, came back lookin’ good.........
Then Millyrose and I stopped at the waffle house and had waffles for lunch ...........what a day? When ya get out’a step, takes some shufflin’ to catch up........
Happy New Year..........Justin Other Smith

Christmas Morn '07..............

I just had a ‘croissant’ for breakfast...with home made apple butter and coffee. Apple butter is a comfort food for me. Not the store-bought stuff that tastes vaguely cinnonamy and about as apple-like as mock apple pie, but the real stuff. Well, as close to the real stuff as we c’n get today. We go to Apple Hill and buy boxes of apples and Millyrose cooks ‘em up on the stovetop the way my Mother did in her later years.
But the apple butter I grew up with was cooked outside in a big iron kettle by my Grandma Smith ‘n I couldn’t begin to tell you her recipe altho’ I would if I could. I think the world’d be a better place if everyone would go public with all their old ‘secret’ family recipes so that the world could have a continuity of comfort-food memories.
‘Course, I can’t imagine my Grandma Smith having a croissant for breakfast. ‘N if she ever would, she’d ‘a called it a crescent roll. Nosirreebob, she had her apple butter on a biscuit the way God intended it to be eaten.
And Grandpa would ‘saucer’ his coffee. It was black and strong and hotter’n......well, you know. Anyway, that’s how I learned to drink coffee in the first place. Hot and black and sipped out of a saucer. I think some traditions need to fall away with the passage of time ‘n that was prob’ly one of them.
My friend, Mollie Burke Phillips, has a new liver and I hear she’s doing well. I only mention this becuz’ until she got too sick a couple years ago, Mollie cooked apple butter every fall. Outside. In a big iron kettle. The way God intended it to be cooked. And yeah, I have a selfish reason for praising Mollie’s apple butter. I’d simply like to have some more of it.
Merry Christmas to whoever’s bored enuff to read this blog...........Justin Other Smith

Christmas '07

Christmas is almost here.....well, tomorrow being Christmas Eve which is a pretty special day all by itself...
I’ve been trying to recall Christmas’ past but my seventy year old memory kind’a runs them all together.....they’re all special but, there’s a je ne sais quoi quality about them that makes it difficult to pull them apart and remember them separately.
Oh, there are moments that I recall clearly...like the first time I ever went to Midnite Mass.....Vic and Marvin and I walked the bridge and went to the service at the cathedral in Portsmouth. It was in Latin, of course, and we didn’t understand a word they said.....or all the standing and kneeling, the rituals of the Catholic church. It was all foreign to three Kentucky boys. Afterward, we walked home thru the cold night, across the bridge toward the dark hills of home.
There was the time in ‘49 when Pop was in Lexington. He was laid off from the N&W and had taken a temp job with the C&O. He wasn’t going to be able to make it home for Christmas. He’d work Christmas Eve and had to be at work the day after Christmas and it was a long way back then. Little two lane roads that twisted and turned thru the hills. It was freezing cold and blowing snow and not an easy drive in good weather.
I was twelve years old and knew about the Santa myth and I stayed up after my brothers were in bed to help my Mother put the presents under the tree. I remember it well as the last Christmas I got a ‘kid’ present. We were just finishing, about 11:30, and I remarked to Mom that it sure wasn’t gonna feel like Christmas without Dad when we heard a thumping on the front porch and the door opened and Dad walked in brushing the snow off and wearing an enormous grin. I think that’s when my belief in Santa was reborn and I’ve managed to keep it all these years.
Christmas is much bigger and flashier these days. ‘Way more commercial. Some stores had Christmas stuff for sale before Thanksgiving. And the TV commercials...
O my! Avoid the rush! Buy now! More presents under the trees. Heck, the tree alone prob’ly costs more than most people spent on Christmas back then.
Yeah, Christmas is bigger and fancier and costs a lot more money today but it ain’t any more fun. The simple truth of Christmas is that no matter how hard we try, no matter how we secularize it, it’s basically a birthday celebration and for children of any age, it’s still the most special time of year.
Merry Christmas everyone.......

Crossing the Lone Star Bar.........uh, State.........

Onwards to Alabam...........

Looking out the window as I write....T’is a sky blue pink morning out there.....(sky blue pink being a phrase from those old timey Uncle Wiggly books from an age predating both television and (gasp) radio) Gahd! I’m way past getting old..............
Got an e-mail from the eastward-trekking fambly......They lingered in El Paso a trifle overlong where they found out their CalMex Spanglish was insufficient...AND that quesadilla is evidently a California invention...ah well, TexMex cuisine is absogreat w/out California influence.....
Driving at nite thru Texas (according to an informed source) is an experience in sensory overload) Texas may well be the ‘Lone Star State’ but the sky is full of stars.......I’ve tho’t for a long time that we have way too much ambient light here in Calif...........wonder what it’d be like to see a nite sky full of stars again.........or, for that matter, to go to sleep w/out street lites and sirens...........
Merry Christmas, Justin Other Smith

Carry me back to Ol Virginny.........

Or...taking the g’chilluns to spend Christmas with the other G’parents.
So they left around fourish this AM or at least, that was the plan. I was asleep at the time. I s’pect they’ll call sometime later today. I hope they didn’t have any of our famous tule fog this morn.....that can be really nasty stuff.....
Sunny skies in Arizona.....Emily has her camera and is searching the landscape for Jackalope....make a nice memory if she c’ud get a foto of a Xmas Jackalope.....
My Chemo Doc poked her nose out t’day and must’a saw her shadow ‘cause she sez “six more weeks.” What she really said was that she was thrilled that I beat the cancer and that it was unusual to find that it was all gone after only three treatments and why didn’t I seem more enthuastic about it?........ I told her that I’d be more thrilled if I didn’t have to do any more chemo treatments at all and if it was all gone, why the heck did I have to continue?..... So that’s when she told me, “Two more and then we don’t have to worry about it coming back.” I tho’t, but didn’t say, ‘wot chu mean we, chemo sabe?’
But, she’s a lovely girl and she’s done a pretty darn good job of knocking out the cancer and I inherited a couple of white hats from Pop and I’m tryin’ to be one of the good guys, so keeping in mind the spirit of the season, we wished each other a Merry Christmas and went our separate ways until after the holidaze.......
“Breaking up is hard to do......” Neil Sedaka

Of Bags & Baggage........

Way, way back in the Age of Aquarius, some forgotten hippie wit quipped, “It ain’t too hard to get your shit together. The hard part is carrying it.”

Lotta travelin’ this time of year.....lotta luggage, lotta packages, carried or shipped here and there, from one part of the country to another. Heck, from one part of the world to another. And a lotta people nervous about what might be packed inside that luggage and packages.
My son, Archbishop Dave Smith, renown trekkie, motorcyclist, raconteur and world traveler, recently went to work for the TSA. Basically they check the luggage of everyone who flies. While that may be seen to be an exercise in tedium for most of the employees, a great many of whom are retired military, policemen, firefighters, etceteras, who work long hours for relatively low pay in part because of 9/11. Because they wanted to help. Because during hazardous times, people sincerely want to help other people.
That attitude has always seemed worthwhile to me. As to how effective a job they might or might not be doing.......I don’t know and neither do you. Maybe the simple fact that they are there is a major deterrent to the aberrant idiots who believe that mass murder is a righteous answer to injustice.
And speaking of injustice, I won't. Much too large a subject for a country boy like me.
But, I digress, something I seem p’tick’ly good at. (Hey, you can’t always pick and choose your talents. Ya take what ya get.)
Anyway, when you take a trip today, you get your stuff together and pack it in something and that becomes luggage. What a concept!
When you get to the airport, a TSA officer goes through your luggage and if they find a prohibited article, (and that changes from day to day,) they confiscate it and your luggage automatically becomes lighter.
Doesn’t work with the baggage you acquire from living. That stays with you through thick and thin all the way to the end of the line. (Or at least, what we perceive to be the end of the line.) There are no TSA officers to lighten your load, nor porters to carry it for you. Sort’a like a really long golf course with no caddies and ya gotta carry your own bags.
Gee, is that why so many people consider golf to be a metaphor for life?
Not that I’d know. I’ve never harmed a golf ball in my life. I love golf courses tho'. Great places to while away a few hours. And with a little effort, you can turn whiling away a few hours into an art form.
Lush greenery, the smell of newly mown grass, a libation or three; you shouldn’t spoil that by whacking a tiny ball with an expensive stick.
Whatever! Looks like a lot of the country may get a white Christmas.......Merry, merry, everyone!
Justin Other Smith

An Early Christmas......

I know that lots of families have to have their Christmas celebrations early or late because circumstance dictates. So, we accomodate. This year the Smith Family Circus is making that accomodation.
Kellye and family are heading for Virginia to spend Christmas with the other G’parents (regretfully only fair, I spoze) and Gina and Andrew will spend Christmas cruising the Hawaiian Islands with his Mother and Stepfather. (Again, I spoze it’s only fair)
Anyway, we’re having Christmas today....well, part of it anyway......festive dinner, presents under the tree and CD player loaded with Xmas songs...Gene is singing Jingle Bells as I type.......and if you don’t get the reference, you’re too young......anyway, Santa Claus is on his way......Merry Christmas.....Justin Other Smith

Stuff & Nonsense

Saturday nite.....Justin Other Smith

Everyone has stuff....and everyone wants more stuff. We fill our homes with stuff. We put so much stuff in our garage that the car must of necessity be left out in the cold. (Figuratively speaking, of course.)
Stuff is such an important part of peoples everyday life that storage units have become big business all across our fair land. When we run out of space at home, we simply rent a storage unit. Or multiple storage units.
Miser and hoarders who fill their homes with old newspapers and magazines are mocked by the news media. Often their stuff is taken away to be archived in the nearest landfill. Often, they themselves are taken away to be archived as well. Of course, they are extremists and not to be confused with the rest of us who merely collect stuff.
I once had a fellow collector explain his actions with the statement, “He who dies with the most toys, wins.”
Toys being the euphemism he favored for his collection of stuff. Cars, tools, whisky bottles, assorted camping gear, etcetera ad infinitum. Not to be confused with my personal collection of art, rare books, vintage photographs of long forgotten friends and family. Oh, and some childhood toys that I’ve managed to drag into my seventh decade.
Of course, I do get rid of stuff. I bundle it up and pass it on to various and sundry charities (and occasionally, the nearest landfill) And I’ve never had to resort to renting a storage unit to keep my spillover stuff.
On the other hand, and just to be completely honest, my house is kind’a full and I never go upstairs anymore and rarely into the basement. Not that I can’t go there. I could if I wanted to. But I’ve told the grandchildren that monsters live in the upstairs and ogres in the basement and I just try to set a good example for them by not going there.
“And how are you, Mr. Wilson?”

Opinions, observatons and non-specific BS........

Justin Other Smith


Once in a while, stuff happens. That’s just the way it is and the way it’s always going to be. You have to make your peace with it as best as you can because you have no choice in the matter.
When you’re young, you fight against it. You scream, you yell, you slam around and all you accomplish is to cover yourself with all the stuff you’re trying to avoid.
As you age, you learn to make as few waves as possible hoping to avoid getting stuff in places where it’s hard ro remove. Or where it tastes really bad.
I’ve come to look on stuff happening as a learning experience. Sometimes the lesson is readily apparent. An epiphany, if you will. Sometimes it takes longer. Often, we’re stubborn and resistant and only the fullness of time allows us to see the way.
Even then, we’re full of doubts. Human nature, I suppose.

Into each life some rain .........

It’s raining tho’ not very hard...guess I could’a just said, “It’s drizzling.” On the other hand, it’s been a while since I’ve seen rain so I might be a little confused. And it’s spozed to snow in the sierra. That’s a good thing. We need the snowpack. And not just for skiers and snowboarders and the people who make their living off them.
Y’know......the ski resorts and the people who work them.....the restaurants and the service stations and the chain monkeys.....the highway patrol and the snow removal guys.....the tow truck drivers and the body shop people who rebuild the wrecks....not to mention the hospitals and doctors and nurses and pharmacies and the undertakers and cemeteries.......an awful lot of people are dependent on weather related activities.......
Y’know.....like farmers and undocumented aliens....can’t ja just picture E.T. chopping lettuce in the Salinas valley.....OK...bad example, just shows how old I am.....I haven‘t a clue about the aliens of t’day but I’m sure they’d all have super powers that would enable them to clear a lettuce field in record time..
I was having a CT Scan and it got me thinking how many people are involved in cancer related occupations......Heck! Health is big bucks in this country and around the world. Cancer, diabetes, heart disease, wonder how many people would lose their jobs if they found a cure for cancer? Ah well, ain’t gonna happen anytime soon!
One of the big ongoing research projects is to find a cure for aging. News flash! The cure for aging is death. Always has been. Of course, I don’t think they really want to stop aging. They just want to slow it down. Imagine what that would do to the economy. Draw Social Security until you’re 150 years old.....boggles the brain when you think there’s a problem with too many old people right now.
Besides, with children having children, how could anyone keep up with great,great,great,great(?) grandchildren?????? Justin Other Smith

Thank you......

First off......I want to thank everyone for their prayers and support. I got the results of my mid-term exam yesterday and was informed that I am now Hodgkins-free......I s’pect that I shall have to continue with the Chemo treatments but I won’t know that for sure until after I talk with Dr. Hutchinson.....
As most everyone knows, I’m not p’ticularly religious. Doesn’t mean I’m a non-believer. I consider myself a Deist and that there is much that we, as humans, don’t understand of the world wherein we reside let alone the universe we know so little about.
I believe devoutly in the efficacy of prayer. I believe that ‘good thoughts’ and positive thinking can encircle the world and accomplish miraculous things. I believe that most people are good-hearted and forgiving and caring of others. I know that I received sympathy and support not only from family and friends but also from total strangers.
I’m grateful. Justin Other Smith

T'ain't football.........

Four down......two to go........T’ain’t football, just chemo countdown.......Dec 26 then Jan 15 and no mas....
there’ll be some tests afterward, I’m sure......Heck! There’s always gotta be tests, that’s why hospitals have so many floors..........ANYWAY the really important part is......wait for it.......TA DA! End of Feb, my hair should begin its comeback........”oh, is that all?” you say. And I say, “Delilah cut Samson’s hair and got a whole chapter in ‘the book’ and I’m pretty sure I won’t even get an honorable mention......”
Not to think that I deserve an honorable mention in that p’ticklar book. Plus, I don’t believe anyone has attempted to add any chapters in recent memory (excepting J. Smith, no relation and thank God for small favors, I say) nor is likely too. Anyway, to quote the eminently quotable Gershwin, “things that you’re liable to read in the bible ain’t necessarily so.”
‘Course, things that you read in a blog ain’t necessarily so either.........Justin Other Smith

Yada,yada,the lazy brown dog........

Friday as my ‘good’ week drags to a close.....I have an early morning app’t with Dr. Kendra, my C-Doc.....I hate early morning appointments for anything....I like to poke around in the AM’s.....have some toast & coffee, read what passes for a newspaper.....Newspapers, I think, are becoming less and less relevant as time goes by.......The SacBee is losing money.....can’t help but feel that in some way, they’re only getting what they deserve...I recall when they ran the SacUnion out’a business and we became a one newspaper town. The Bee never was much of a newspaper, mostly it was ads and it still is.....on the other hand, coffee and the morning paper has been a tradition for most of my life....
Someone dropped the ball on scheduling my mid -term exam but Dr Kendra sed she’d fix it for next week
I’ll be eating Prednisone then, but wot the hay.....she said I seemed to be doing well,.....also told me that the tiredness thing just increases with the continued chemo....chemically induced laziness.....nice to know it ain’t just pure ol bred in the bone triflin’........ ‘n I’ve always said that I wasn’t really lazy, just a little bit triflin’........ Here t’is Sunday already.....Kellye & Ashby came with ‘da gurlz’ and Cary came so we all loaded up and went Xmas tree shopping.......Ashby carried it home in the back of his truck and got it in the stand......Kellye got the lites on and now they’re all in there decorating......easiest tree I never had to do anything with.......
Gotta go in the morn for my 4th Chemo fix....hate those IV’s but I don’t think they have an easier way of doing it..........guess I’d better not pout or cry about it, Santa’s comin’ to town.........Justin Other Smith

PC Hair................

Friday.........and my ‘good’ week is almost over. Monday I get to start my 4th Chemo week. Only two more after that......the day after Xmas and 3 weeks later........THE LAST ONE.........
Had some really good news yesterday.....my friend, Mollie Burke Phillips, got a new liver......and a new open-ended lease on life.....it’ll be several months before she’s out of the woods but at least it’s the right direction. I left her a message that I’d see her in the Spring and we could watch each others hair grow back.....Maybe, since it’s going to be Spring, it’ll grow back green...........that’d be a change....politically correct hair.....
“It ain’t easy being green.”.......Kermit the Frog

A little fall in the air..........

So Tuesday morning the alarm went off at the usual time and Millyrose hit the snooze alrarm.....twice.....can’t blame her, 5:30 in the AM is, well.....5:30 in the AM, same for everybody....anyway, third time is generally the charm and, as usual, when it went off again, she shut it off and rolled out of bed.........and fell down. She didn’t believe it so she pulled herself up......and fell down again. That “I’ve fallen and can’t get up” button won’t work if ya’ don’t have one, so she emitted a high-pitched distress signal (translation: scream) for Super Baldguy to come to her rescue.
Reacting immediately, as any superbly conditioned 70 year old Super Baldguy would, I fumbled for my specs and staggered to her rescue where I executed a perfect ‘Fireman’s Carry’ ......Thence, to the kitchen, I flew like a flash, tore open the pill drawer and searched thru the stash......then with aspirin and water in hand......well, it happened more or less like that........
Not to worry, gentlefolk.....she had a touch of vertigo.....flying too high in her dreams, I s’poze.....Kellye transported her to the ER where, a hunnerd bux and a couple hours later, she returned to spend the day on the sofa, sleeping peacefully thru the daily junk.
Cary Heather came to commiserate, ate lunch and departed for a dental date. After some period of time, Millyrose opened her eyes, said “Which kid was here? Cary or Kellye?” and dozed off once again. Ah, the miracle of modern medicine. Better napping thru chemistry.
So Ma, in her kerchief, and I in my cap, with a dog at her feet and one in my lap, spent the day dozing ‘til it was time for bed......I wonder what adventures the morrow will bring............Justin Other Smith

aka...'Thanksgiving'.......

The day before ‘Turkey’ day.......aka, Thanksgiving....
The sun is shining here in Northern California tho’ the air is cool.......they’re making snow in the mountains becuz Mama Nature isn’t providing any and what’s a ski weekend without white stuff?
I’m already tired of all the ads for ‘Black Friday’...I feel sorry for all the people who work for the stores that will be open at 4am....I’m not sure what that sez about our society but there is a major difference between people who actually get up in the middle of the nite to go spend money and those people who are forced by their employers to be there to serve them. Of course, they’ll have to let those people go home by noon or pay the overtime.
Now you’d think that the Big Shots wouldn’t begrudge overtime pay but it’s surprising how many of them think their employees should just be grateful to have a job without going into overtime and benefits, etc. I have a feeling that the big shots who tho’t up the idea of opening their stores earlier and earlier are all going to be home in bed. Which is where I intend to be.....sleeping in on the day after the multi-caloric intake of Turkey Day.
Millyrose sez she’s gonna make me a nite-cap.....Nah! Not booze. No alcohol during Chemo. No, a real cap to wear to keep my shiny pate warm during my long winter nap.......’Course, I’m not gonna hold my breath. She’s multi-tasking like crazy and stressed to the max about me. She’s driving here, she’s driving there, that Millyrose is driving everywhere....... driving, working, shopping......helping kids and friends and coming home to walk the dogs and reminding me to hydrate.....’gotta flush those chems’.......She's a driven Millyrose!
Anyhoo!......Looking forward to Turkey Day at Gina’s Manse......hate to leave the dogs at home but I s’poze it won’t hurt ‘em.......Trudy prob'ly won't mind but Rusty'll be heartbroken.....and mad....at least until we return.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ONE AND ALL...........Justin Other Smith

And the illegals come and go, talking of Michaelangelo......

Just one of the more stupid items that take up space not only in the media but in the minds of the various and sundry ‘Wabbits’ who appear to be leading our parades is any mention of what we taxpaying citizens should be doing for illegal immigrants.
It’s popular to say, “What part of illegal don’t these people get?” And I must confess that I don’t understand when otherwise seemingly normal people don’t get that ‘illegal’ and ‘criminal’ behavior are one and the same. That being said, if you're a 'legal' citizen of this country and you do something illegal, ie. criminal, you're s'pozed to pay the two dollars or go directly to jail. Unless you're a celebrity, of course, or a superstar athlete where somewhat different rules apply. Otherwise, Justice is blind.
Unless you're (shudder) colored. Can we still say that? Blacks and Hispanics go to prison twice as much as 'whites' unless they're illegal aliens and protected under the so-called 'Sanctuary Laws' of the various and sundry Superior Liberals who need nannies and maids and gardeners, etc. The Super Libs say we need more compassion for our down-trodden compatriots. Of course, they make their pronouncements from the top of Mt. Olympus, their gated and protected sanctuaries for the rich and famous where the more equal than other animals reside.
And the problem like the bulk of taxes paid still resides with the middle class who still seem confused by what is meant by the word, 'is'........but who know that even combining compassion with Justice, something needs to be done.
For example, if they’ve brought an illness into our country, we need to quarantine them and attempt to cure them before sending them home.
Pretty much ‘ditto’ if they have an accident and become incapacitated while here.
If they commit a crime here, they need to be arrested and detained until they can be deported.
If they commit a violent crime here, they need to go to one of our overcrowded prisons before they are deported.
If they have been ‘under the radar’ for a period of time; have American-born children or an American spouse, their particular case should be given as much individual, comprehensive and compassionate attention as possible.
And we need to understand that not every citizen of the world that makes their way to our country is seeking a better life but that’s all that most of them want. Just like our ancestors.
B.C. said, when asked if he’d had sexual relations with ‘that girl’.....”It all depends on what you mean by the word ‘is’.......Taking a page from that tired old grammar book, Hilary, in response to a question about illegal aliens and drivers licenses, said “Did’ja ever have de feelin’ dat’cha wanted ta go and still have de feelin’ dat’cha wanted to stay.......” Wait a minnit.....Dat was Da Schnozz hisownself what sed dat..............What Hilary said was that she was ‘fer an’ agin it’.....depending what you mean by the word ‘it’.....
What the ‘Wabbits’ of the world want is to have their cake and ours too. And what a pack of Wabbits we have pushing and shoving to head up the parade.
We have the ‘Hydra’ Wabbit in Hilary & Bill, quite possibly the most conspicuous double-headed Wabbit in our short history. We have the ‘Eyetie’ Wabbit from NYC and the Mormon Wabbit from Mass Achooey...We have the tired ol’ Wabbit from Arizoney and the actor from Tennessee. We have Mr. Poof, the blowdry guy and we got a token black. Obama’s Barak and he’s black. Or is he black and barack? And that rhymes with pack, which is all the rest of ‘em jus’ tryin’ to hold on ‘case the front-runners stumble.
“Just like Humpty Dumpty when he made his great fall,
I’m sitting on top of the world, just rolling along, singing my song....” Brenda Lee

Fight or flight ...........

Ambivalence in humanity is a normal response to most non-threatening situations that do not require fight or flight; whereas extremism in thought and action in all but extreme situations is illogical.
The logical response when faced with a problem, ie, a non-life threatening situation, is to weigh the pros and cons, make a reasoned assessment and deal with it to the best of your ability.
The non-logical response, either attack and destroy or take to your heels and run away is therefore, by extension, abnormal.
So take heart all you ambivalent fence-sitters; whiling away a lazy afternoon pondering both sides of the fence is a perfectly normal avocation. Of course, should it rain, it’s logical that you should seek shelter. Therein lies the question; should one be conservative and head for the nearest shelter or broaden one’s horizon and search for a more comprehensive umbrella?
Huddling by oneself ‘neath a bush or tree might be enough if t’is but a Spring shower but suppose one is faced with an epic storm. That might require a sturdy shelter and like-minded folk with which to share. Life is full of such decisions. To go it alone or travel with the herd? To gain it all or settle for a piece of the pie? Not easy questions but ones that we are faced with each and every day and if we don’t choose then the choice will be made for us.

“Where I’m going, I don’t know. When I’ll get there, it won’t matter. All I know is I am on my way.......”Ben Rumsen

Amen......Justin Other Smith

Onramp to.......

The Yellow Brick Expressway......
I’m off to see the Wizard.........well, it’s only 7:30 here and I won’t leave for an hour.....it’s a holiday so there shouldn’t be any ‘real’ traffic which ought'a cut the 30 minute or so drive down to 20 min’s or thereabouts.........it ain't Kansas, y'know...
Kellye offered to bring me lunch, sez she and Gina are coming to visit me (party in the Chemo Lounge) I told her, it ain't like 'Desperate Housewives'....I don't have a private room and there's not much room for multiple visitors and they don't encourage dining and dancing.....don’t really get hungry during Chemo. ‘Course, you don’t move around much, the occasional trip to the BR is a big deal.....unplug the platform (switches auto to battery power), gather up the assorted cords, tubes, etc. and drag everything with you...sort’a like travelling in a motorhome 'cept without the dogs.......
The first Chemo took 9 hours...the second only took about 5.....we’ll soon find out what t’day will bring.....
Dave’s out of ‘Showbiz’.......starts his new job t’day.....gets his badge and uniform, etc......first ‘tour of duty’ on Tuesday....he do get some innarestin’ jobs tho’....from showbiz to homeland security in one swell foop.....ah well, in t’day’s brave new world, diversity is everything.......
later y ‘all............

I love a rainy nite............

There’s just something about a rainy nite, especially a rainy Saturday night......a quietude, if you will, of what is normally a boisterous eve. No sirens, no screaming tires, no street racing at all......not even much traffic on Sunrise which of itself makes for a special evening.
It rained all afternoon, a quiet California rain, a soaker that squelched the multitude of the feral fowl of Fair Oaks and that in and of itself is a blessing and gives you something else to do on a rainy afternoon. Did I mention that it rained all afternoon and is still raining? I did. Oh well, reiteration may be boring but it helps all those who didn’t pay attention the first go ‘round.
Gotta get up in the early morn ‘n go to Kaiser for a blood draw. There’s a little Country Waffle place on Sunrise...think I’ll stop ‘n buy sum breakfast for Millyrose and me.....diabetes or no, everybody needs a waffle now ‘n then........
Rusty is behind me, talking to my back.....dunno if he wants me to go to bed or to open the door for him.....ok...door it is.......
g’nite all.........

Mid-Term Exam...........

Went to see Doc Kendra t’day.....prep for the half -way shot.......she has me scheduled for a mid-term exam in a coupla weeks.....the CT scan where I have to drink ‘the goop’....10 oz every 1/2 hr for 90 mins.....it’s distasteful but it beats the tar out of the gallon of stuff that I had to do for the colonoscopy.....lesser of two evils kind of thing, y’know? .......an ant may not be able to move a rubber-tree plant but we got high hopes (I know, sighhhh).......
Swartzenegger’s flyin’ high...n’ Nunez’s layin’ low....the Guv is gunna sue the Shrub, I hear.....this Green thing is gettin’ big......and Pete Stark (remember him, the mouth that roared) seems to have gone underground.....good place for him.....just needs a tombstone to mark the place where he’s hiding so nobody accidentally finds him.......gotta be really hard for Meglamaniacal Pol’s to actually avoid the public eye......
I saw a story on a prototype trolley in Japan that runs on rails or, with a flip of a switch, can run on tires...takes about ten seconds to switch over....I only noticed that becuz I saw an article last week that Sac was looking into reviving their long-gone trolley system.....’course, if they revive it and allow the wunnerful mgmt of Regional Transit to manage it, it’ll cost us a lot of money and provide darn little transportation. When they talk about ‘bang for their buck’ I wonder if bureaucrats have a glimmer where that phrase originated....hmmmmmm?.......
It seems that Sac City is also about to spend a couple hundred million dollars to figure out how to spend a billion or more on developing the downtown railyards....s’cusi, RE-developing.
The thing is, redeveloping is really a good idea. Developers should be barred from converting any more open space (what we have left anyway) and forced into redeveloping the blighted urban areas that every city in California has in abundance.
Of course, since I’m not one of the Liberal (nobody knows better than us) Elite, that just has to be a terrible idea, absolutely unworkable and unworthy of any serious consideration.
And it’s a long road out of eden.......the eagles
Justin Other Smit

Wascally Wabbits......

Okay! I don’t really know what happened. I tho’t I’d lost that post (Wonks & Wabbits) entirely. It disappeared into the ether and was gone and I couldn’t find it. I never tho’t to look at the darn blog itself. Makes me wonder what happens to all the really, really dumb things I write that I purposely delete. Are all those idiot tho’ts floating around in space just waiting to post themselves somewhere?
Prob’ly no more than I deserve for thinking all those uncharitable tho’ts about my betters. Nah!!!!...... Can’t be!
So this’s my ‘good’ week........I’ve made it to the club twice......a little swim, a little sun on my bald pate, a little steam to clear my sinus....I’ll go again later this morning and to see the big C doc this afternoon. My eyebrows are disappearing even as I type. The character on ‘Desperate Housewives’ who was undergoing Chemo lost her hair but not her ‘brows.....prob’ly not too many people noticed that ‘cept the for real Chemo fellow travellers.....ah well, Cancer is getting a lot of media attention at the moment and that’s a good thing....more attention means more money for research and more research equals (hopefully) more cures.......and I’m for that.
Now on to more mundane things. Sarkozy (?) I’m sure that’s misspelled, is visiting the new world. That’s what old-world Europe used to call us. Anyway, he seems to be here to kiss and make up. I think that’s a good thing. Long, long ago I tho’t that was the best part of a relationship. The more quarrels you had.....etcetera, etcetera..........anyway, I think that as ‘Shrub’ nears the end of his lease agreement with the White House that he knows he needs to ‘kiss and make up’ with all those he snubbed at the beginning of the dance......Wascals can’t help themselves, y’know. Bred in the bone and all, as Granny used to say. A tiger can’t change his stripes and all that. Altho’ I doubt that any tiger ever wanted to change his stripes and I futher doubt that any politician ever wanted to actually be honest. I think that WW’s view honesty as an inherent disadvantage. I think that what most of view as a moral lapse, WW’s see as a God-given talent.
Lamont Cranston, as the Shadow, had the ability to ‘cloud men’s minds’.....so too, the WW’s are seemingly born with the ability to obfuscate and deceive.
Humpty Dumpty said and I quote, “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less. and Bill Clinton said, “It all depends on what you mean by the word ‘is’.....”
Justin Other Smith

Wascally Wabbits......

Okay! I don’t really know what happened. I tho’t I’d lost that post (Wonks & Wabbits) entirely. It disappeared into the ether and was gone and I couldn’t find it. I never tho’t to look at the darn blog itself. Makes me wonder what happens to all the really, really dumb things I write that I purposely delete. Are all those idiot tho’ts floating around in space just waiting to post themselves somewhere?
Prob’ly no more than I deserve for thinking all those uncharitable tho’ts about my betters. Nah!!!!...... Can’t be!
So this’s my ‘good’ week........I’ve made it to the club twice......a little swim, a little sun on my bald pate, a little steam to clear my sinus....I’ll go again later this morning and to see the big C doc this afternoon. My eyebrows are disappearing even as I type. The character on ‘Desperate Housewives’ who was undergoing Chemo lost her hair but not her ‘brows.....prob’ly not too many people noticed that ‘cept the for real Chemo fellow travellers.....ah well, Cancer is getting a lot of media attention at the moment and that’s a good thing....more attention means more money for research and more research equals (hopefully) more cures.......and I’m for that.
Now on to more mundane things. Sarkozy (?) I’m sure that’s misspelled, is visiting the new world. That’s what old-world Europe used to call us. Anyway, he seems to be here to kiss and make up. I think that’s a good thing. Long, long ago I tho’t that was the best part of a relationship. The more quarrels you had.....etcetera, etcetera..........anyway, I think that as ‘Shrub’ nears the end of his lease agreement with the White House that he knows he needs to ‘kiss and make up’ with all those he snubbed at the beginning of the dance......Wascals can’t help themselves, y’know. Bred in the bone and all, as Granny used to say. A tiger can’t change his stripes and all that. Altho’ I doubt that any tiger ever wanted to change his stripes and I futher doubt that any politician ever wanted to actually be honest. I think that WW’s view honesty as an inherent disadvantage. I think that what most of view as a moral lapse, WW’s see as a God-given talent.
Lamont Cranston, as the Shadow, had the ability to ‘cloud men’s minds’.....so too, the WW’s are seemingly born with the ability to obfuscate and deceive.
Humpty Dumpty said and I quote, “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less. and Bill Clinton said, “It all depends on what you mean by the word ‘is’.....”
Justin Other Smith

Wonks and wabbits

WONKS AND WABBITS
by Justin Other Smith

This’s my ‘good’ week......I feel...well, not really good but pretty okay and that’s better than a jab in the eye with a sharp stick. Feeling good is a kind’a relative thing anyway. I feel better now than I did last week and I’ll feel even better as the week progresses.
One of the side effects of feeling better (and I don’t know f’sure if it’s good or bad) is that I begin paying more attention to the news, both on teevee and in our sad excuse for a newspaper, and since I get bored with talking and thinking about the big C, I tho’t I’d relieve my boredom with a little talk about wonks and wabbits.
Wonks, of course, are the pundits and public relations people whose job is to either build up or tear down the wabbits. And the ‘wabbits’ of course, are those people who run to the front of the parade so that they may be seen to be leaders.
Now everyone knows that the person who actually leads the big parade is the Drum Major (or Majorette) who might or might not have gender identity issues and is desperately seeking acceptance.
That said, I found myself p’ticklarly struck by the statements by the League of Nobody knows better than the Liberal Elitists when they blamed everybodys favorite doormat, George W. (Shrub) Bush for not tightening the leash on Musharraf. Poor Ol Shrub, darned if he do, darned if he don’t....if he sticks his nose into another countrys business, he’s damned for intervening in another States affairs. And if he doesn’t intervene in Pakistan, then he’s damned for ......, wait! I’m getting confused. Again.
If we can get an equal number of candidates from the Dems and the Repubs, and then maybe an equal number from the Indies and the Libertarians and then give them all matching funds so they could politick around the world, would those matching funds match the funds for the military?
Sure would make for an interesting debate if anyone would watch it. Of course, I s’poze they could always pay an audience. Congress could create a fund called ‘Bread and Circuses’ to fund the candidates (and their audiences) and there’d be no need to actually elect a President. We could just go on and on, ad infinitum. ad nauseum. Limbo and Nirvana.
“Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.” The Queen in Wonderland.

Wonks and wabbits

WONKS AND WABBITS
by Justin Other Smith

This’s my ‘good’ week......I feel...well, not really good but pretty okay and that’s better than a jab in the eye with a sharp stick. Feeling good is a kind’a relative thing anyway. I feel better now than I did last week and I’ll feel even better as the week progresses.
One of the side effects of feeling better (and I don’t know f’sure if it’s good or bad) is that I begin paying more attention to the news, both on teevee and in our sad excuse for a newspaper, and since I get bored with talking and thinking about the big C, I tho’t I’d relieve my boredom with a little talk about wonks and wabbits.
Wonks, of course, are the pundits and public relations people whose job is to either build up or tear down the wabbits. And the ‘wabbits’ of course, are those people who run to the front of the parade so that they may be seen to be leaders.
Now everyone knows that the person who actually leads the big parade is the Drum Major (or Majorette) who might or might not have gender identity issues and is desperately seeking acceptance.
That said, I found myself p’ticklarly struck by the statements by the League of Nobody knows better than the Liberal Elitists when they blamed everybodys favorite doormat, George W. (Shrub) Bush for not tightening the leash on Musharraf. Poor Ol Shrub, darned if he do, darned if he don’t....if he sticks his nose into another countrys business, he’s damned for intervening in another States affairs. And if he doesn’t intervene in Pakistan, then he’s damned for ......, wait! I’m getting confused. Again.
If we can get an equal number of candidates from the Dems and the Repubs, and then maybe an equal number from the Indies and the Libertarians and then give them all matching funds so they could politick around the world, would those matching funds match the funds for the military?
Sure would make for an interesting debate if anyone would watch it. Of course, I s’poze they could always pay an audience. Congress could create a fund called ‘Bread and Circuses’ to fund the candidates (and their audiences) and there’d be no need to actually elect a President. We could just go on and on, ad infinitum. ad nauseum. Limbo and Nirvana.
“Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.” The Queen in Wonderland.

Wonks and wabbits

WONKS AND WABBITS
by Justin Other Smith

This’s my ‘good’ week......I feel...well, not really good but pretty okay and that’s better than a jab in the eye with a sharp stick. Feeling good is a kind’a relative thing anyway. I feel better now than I did last week and I’ll feel even better as the week progresses.
One of the side effects of feeling better (and I don’t know f’sure if it’s good or bad) is that I begin paying more attention to the news, both on teevee and in our sad excuse for a newspaper, and since I get bored with talking and thinking about the big C, I tho’t I’d relieve my boredom with a little talk about wonks and wabbits.
Wonks, of course, are the pundits and public relations people whose job is to either build up or tear down the wabbits. And the ‘wabbits’ of course, are those people who run to the front of the parade so that they may be seen to be leaders.
Now everyone knows that the person who actually leads the big parade is the Drum Major (or Majorette) who might or might not have gender identity issues and is desperately seeking acceptance.
That said, I found myself p’ticklarly struck by the statements by the League of Nobody knows better than the Liberal Elitists when they blamed everybodys favorite doormat, George W. (Shrub) Bush for not tightening the leash on Musharraf. Poor Ol Shrub, darned if he do, darned if he don’t....if he sticks his nose into another countrys business, he’s damned for intervening in another States affairs. And if he doesn’t intervene in Pakistan, then he’s damned for ......, wait! I’m getting confused. Again.
If we can get an equal number of candidates from the Dems and the Repubs, and then maybe an equal number from the Indies and the Libertarians and then give them all matching funds so they could politick around the world, would those matching funds match the funds for the military?
Sure would make for an interesting debate if anyone would watch it. Of course, I s’poze they could always pay an audience. Congress could create a fund called ‘Bread and Circuses’ to fund the candidates (and their audiences) and there’d be no need to actually elect a President. We could just go on and on, ad infinitum. ad nauseum. Limbo and Nirvana.
“Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.” The Queen in Wonderland.

Wonks and wabbits

WONKS AND WABBITS
by Justin Other Smith

This’s my ‘good’ week......I feel...well, not really good but pretty okay and that’s better than a jab in the eye with a sharp stick. Feeling good is a kind’a relative thing anyway. I feel better now than I did last week and I’ll feel even better as the week progresses.
One of the side effects of feeling better (and I don’t know f’sure if it’s good or bad) is that I begin paying more attention to the news, both on teevee and in our sad excuse for a newspaper, and since I get bored with talking and thinking about the big C, I tho’t I’d relieve my boredom with a little talk about wonks and wabbits.
Wonks, of course, are the pundits and public relations people whose job is to either build up or tear down the wabbits. And the ‘wabbits’ of course, are those people who run to the front of the parade so that they may be seen to be leaders.
Now everyone knows that the person who actually leads the big parade is the Drum Major (or Majorette) who might or might not have gender identity issues and is desperately seeking acceptance.
That said, I found myself p’ticklarly struck by the statements by the League of Nobody knows better than the Liberal Elitists when they blamed everybodys favorite doormat, George W. (Shrub) Bush for not tightening the leash on Musharraf. Poor Ol Shrub, darned if he do, darned if he don’t....if he sticks his nose into another countrys business, he’s damned for intervening in another States affairs. And if he doesn’t intervene in Pakistan, then he’s damned for ......, wait! I’m getting confused. Again.
If we can get an equal number of candidates from the Dems and the Repubs, and then maybe an equal number from the Indies and the Libertarians and then give them all matching funds so they could politick around the world, would those matching funds match the funds for the military?
Sure would make for an interesting debate if anyone would watch it. Of course, I s’poze they could always pay an audience. Congress could create a fund called ‘Bread and Circuses’ to fund the candidates (and their audiences) and there’d be no need to actually elect a President. We could just go on and on, ad infinitum. ad nauseum. Limbo and Nirvana.
“Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.” The Queen in Wonderland.

Wonks and wabbits

WONKS AND WABBITS
by Justin Other Smith

This’s my ‘good’ week......I feel...well, not really good but pretty okay and that’s better than a jab in the eye with a sharp stick. Feeling good is a kind’a relative thing anyway. I feel better now than I did last week and I’ll feel even better as the week progresses.
One of the side effects of feeling better (and I don’t know f’sure if it’s good or bad) is that I begin paying more attention to the news, both on teevee and in our sad excuse for a newspaper, and since I get bored with talking and thinking about the big C, I tho’t I’d relieve my boredom with a little talk about wonks and wabbits.
Wonks, of course, are the pundits and public relations people whose job is to either build up or tear down the wabbits. And the ‘wabbits’ of course, are those people who run to the front of the parade so that they may be seen to be leaders.
Now everyone knows that the person who actually leads the big parade is the Drum Major (or Majorette) who might or might not have gender identity issues and is desperately seeking acceptance.
That said, I found myself p’ticklarly struck by the statements by the League of Nobody knows better than the Liberal Elitists when they blamed everybodys favorite doormat, George W. (Shrub) Bush for not tightening the leash on Musharraf. Poor Ol Shrub, darned if he do, darned if he don’t....if he sticks his nose into another countrys business, he’s damned for intervening in another States affairs. And if he doesn’t intervene in Pakistan, then he’s damned for ......, wait! I’m getting confused. Again.
If we can get an equal number of candidates from the Dems and the Repubs, and then maybe an equal number from the Indies and the Libertarians and then give them all matching funds so they could politick around the world, would those matching funds match the funds for the military?
Sure would make for an interesting debate if anyone would watch it. Of course, I s’poze they could always pay an audience. Congress could create a fund called ‘Bread and Circuses’ to fund the candidates (and their audiences) and there’d be no need to actually elect a President. We could just go on and on, ad infinitum. ad nauseum. Limbo and Nirvana.
“Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.” The Queen in Wonderland.

"What, me worry?".....Alfred E. Neuman

Natter on...........
Here t’is, Saturday morning with my ‘tired week’ coasting to an end.....I drove down to Round Table yesterday eve and Millyrose & I shared a small sausage and black olive pizza.....haven’t had pizza for awhile and after checking my BS during the nite, probably won’t have it again for awhile.......’Course, it prob’ly didn’t help that I washed it down with a glass of Boylans Ginger Ale made with ‘real cane sugar’ .....just reinforces the old adage that, ‘cheaters never win’...........especially when it refers to diets.........
Sumtimes, y’know, a fella just ain’t got nuthin’ to say.......Most days, that ain’t me.......as ever’one knows, Anyway, my oldest daughter suggested that I do a blog to keep everyone up to date on my cancer treatments which I have been doing not quite on a daily basis but purty darn close to it.....the thing is, I’ve found writing about the chemo to be very beneficial.....at least, I think it’s beneficial if I c’n keep a sense of humor about the ‘hull thing...........
A couple of the side effects of some of the drugs that I take are depression and anxiety which bring up tho’ts like......uh, there’s no future in gettin’ old.....and when the lite at the end of the tunnel is blinking dimmer and dimmer, y’know y’might be in trubble.....and there's no time like the present to find out you're too late......."Yatahay Nathan, let's get drunk and go fishing"........being aware of these side effects and knowing that they are drug induced makes it easier to cope with them......and nuthin’ helps more than laughter.....I’m fortunate that I have family and friends that find a great deal of joy in bursting my bubbles ever’ chance they get.....and I say and do enuff dumb things that they get a lot of chances........Justin Other Smith

"Hope springs a kernel"...........Denny Crane

Millyrose informed me this evening that ‘WE’ could probably start hiding our own Easter Eggs this coming Spring........I’m pretty sure that the ‘we’ didn’t really include her but was meant solely for me.....and the truth is, she’s prob’ly right. She usually is. I blame it on the drugs but since I don ‘t really trust my own judgment in so many areas today, it could be most anything. But, I still blame it on the drugs. Like the aging hippies and baby boomers who ingested too many recreational drugs, I’m inhabiting a sort of different world today. And I don't even have the fun of recreational drugs to blame.
I have determined that driving during chemo week and the ‘tired’ week that follows is prob’ly not a good idea. That was softly pointed out to me by my friend, Nick, the retired cop. Can y' imagine? 70 years old and taking advice from an old cop on the dangers in driving while stoned. On the third week, the good week, I should be good to go.
That’d be November 12th, which will be midway in my chemotherapy. So by December, I should have my fourth treatment and be two thirds of the way. With any luck, I’ll be finished in February and mayhap my hair will begin growing back in March. I don’t look like Telly Savalas altho’ my son did give me a bag of lollipops to go with my bald pate, and I can’t remember the last time I shaved my face. Almost as smooth as a babys watchamacallit. Well, not quite but pretty darn smooth for an old fart on the downhill side.
Britney Spears released a new album on the same day that a bunch’a old farts that call themselves ‘The Eagles’ released their first album in about 35 years and Denny Crane said, “hope springs a kernel.”
Capt. Kirk rules..............David

Soda crackers and milk in the wee hours.....

.......I gave up on soda crackers a year or more ago becuz of my diabetes......they’re made of white flour and contain high fructose corn syrup, both of which have deleterious effects on BS......still, soda crackers, saltines, whatever ya want’a call ‘em, have a soothing effect on an upset stomach and Chemo can give a person an upset stomach.....sooooo, I bought a box of crackers and have been working my way thru them.........and crackers and milk have been a comfort food in my family like f’rever.......I don’t know just when that began but my Mother fed them to me and my brothers and we fed them to our children.......anyway, as my BS normalizes after Chemo week, I find myself waking in the small hours with dropping BS.....and a small glass of milk and a handful of crackers seems to be the perfect comfort food to bring the BS up and allow me to sleep out the rest of the nite......so there you have it.
Now on to other, much more mundane tho’ts......I miss my hair. I miss washing it and combing it but mostly I just miss having it.......like coffee......almost two weeks ago, I got my taste for coffee back (having lost it during the first go-round)......I was back to my routine of grinding beans and making coffe first thing in the AM when, yesterday, to my suprise, it began to taste like mud. Again! And I couldn’t even drink one small cup......Now bear with me here, people. I know coffee and hair is small stuff and one shouldn’t sweat the small stuff....I don’t know if the Devil is in the details or not but I think I’ve always fretted over the small stuff just so I wouldn’t have to spend a lot of time worrying about the big stuff that I couldn’t do anything about anyway......so as Red Skelton used to say, “G’nite and God bless!”.........David

Minimum fan............

Chemo week is a week spent on Prednisone which does wierd things to body and mind.....f'r one thing, it causes N-Som which means you get to prowl a sleeping house wond'ring why you alone should be awake....so this last week, Kendra the Cancer Doc prescribed sleeping pills. The combo had me walking around in a twilight state, neither here nor there......light-headed and unable to walk a straight line.....also made my driving a tad erratic so on the next go-round, I'll be giving that up for that p'ticklar week......The steroid sends my BS thru the roof which affects the little cognitive ability that I have so no one should be surprised by what I might say (or do, for that matter).......Anyway I woke up about 5:30 or so this AM feeling a bit anxious....got up a little after 6, checked my BS to find a 'normal' reading..... hopefully, I'll be able to keep it in a normal range for the next two weeks.....this week is s'pozed to be my 'tired' week and next week should be my 'good' week and then I get to do it all over again. The good news is that the next treatment will be the halfway point.....Please don't misunderstand me.....I don't mean to whine.....a lot of the people I've met during this treatment are in really dire straits and I feel blessed to be so lucky....I have a highly curable cancer, good medical treatment, and lots of good friends wishing me well.....I AM ONE FORTUNATE PERSON...........
so I have no p'ticklar reason for ranting, I only do it for the heck of it.......
I try not to eat at fast food restaurants anymore. I don’t think they’re really healthy. Lots of calories and lots of high fructose corn syrup equal lots of rotten teeth and lots of fat bodies and Gawd only knows what all that stuff does to the already hormonally imbalanced teenagers. I’m not actually saying that it’s really bad for everyone just that I think it might be.
That said, I do occasionally eat a burger from In ‘n Out. And have a chocolate milkshake also. Their fries, however, leave a ‘hull lot to be desired. They’re like faux fries that come with li’l kids make believe kitchen sets. They’re not made of plastic but they might as well be cardboard. I think they’re really made of potatoes, I just don’t know how they take all the flavor out.
Speaking of being a minimum fan.........todays movies seem to be all about more violence, bigger crashes, and less character. You take a likeable actor like Denzel Washington, put him into a really, really bad guy and let him impart some humanity to a truly evil character. Ah well, lots and lots of bang-bang, shoot-em-up and explosions. Saves all that witty dialogue that Hollywood used to be famous for. And I know you’re not supposed to end a sentence like that but I just plain don’t care.
I think I’m a minimum fan of the current crop of television shows. None of them are very good but some of them are watchable. At least part of the time. Las Vegas, which wasn’t very good with James Caan, and hasn’t got any better with Tom Selleck, is a total waste. Caan was wise to exit when he did. There must have been contract issues for him to have stayed as long as he did. And poor old Selleck who is a very watchable actor appears to be bored almost to tears. When you’re an over the hill action star like Tommy, I’d guess you’d do almost anything for money and a few more moments in the sun.
With few exceptions, ya just gotta be a minimum fan of teevee writers. And now they’re going on strike. Boo-hoo! There are prob’ly a hundred thousand bloggers (maybe more) who are better writers. The most dreadful thing about a ‘writers’ strike is that it will undoubtedly mean more (lack of) reality shows. GAHD!

JUST A THO'T...........Justin Other Smith

I just saw in the SacBee (ain’t that a wunnerful name for a wunnerful w’atchamacallit kind’a used t’ be newspaper) heralding the fact that former Guv Pete Wilson is going to be paid $400 an hour (way less’n normal for him and peeps like him) to negotiate a new ARENA. It should be painfully, obviously clear to all the movers and shakers that the citizenry of Sactown don't want to pay for an expensive boondoggle that benefits only the MALOOF'S, OVERPAID ATH-LEETS, and all the insiders who hope to exact some sort of profit from the backs of the ordinary people. At least in ancient Roma, the bread and circus's were paid for by those hoping to keep the populace from rising up and tearing everything down. Our guys today seem much more clever. They want us to pay for our own demise.
There should be a law about putting former pols out to pasture and making darn sure they stay there. There are a few execrable examples (choose y’r own) that should have been simply put down the way society does every day with unwanted pets.

ANOTHER THO’T........
Sactown now has this almost brand new ath-a-lete named Justin Williams who seems to envision himself as much larger than he has yet to become and who evidently feels it just must be his right to pick up a star-struck idiot, take her home with his g’friend, give her a taste of GHB and after she is sufficiently woozy, he and g’friend rape her. Or attempt to rape her. Guilty or innocent? Doesn’t really matter, does it? Talk about terminal stupidity ending a career before it really begins.

BOB LYONS died this week. He was an old friend, 73 years old, given to random acts of violence and joyous abandon in his youth. He was a burly guy in black leather and boots. It was said that once he rode in an open convertible in a Lincoln Day Parade in Detroit, unfurled a large Confederate battle flag and had to flee the city. Could’a happened. Bob was fun and he had fun. Don’t know what life was like for him as he grew old but I imagine he enjoyed the hell out of it.

On the home front, I'm a third of the way thru Chemo....the 2nd time went a little easier. Or seems so at the moment. My friend, Mollie Burke Phillips is in hospital in Lexington......here's hoping for a miracle......Love to her and her family.....David

Thurs Nite Nonsensical ...............

My toes are wiggling and I can ‘t sleep even tho’ I’ve taken the sleeping pills.......Dunno why that is.........feel like I’ve been a little drunk all this week... lite headed and bouncing off the walls......very strange and can’t seem to type.....spacing my words a litte strangely .....not sure what that’s about either.........t hink i’ll run in and have a glass of milk.....brb.......BS is out’a whack but that’s because of the Predinisone or so they tell me.........Probably a good th ing that I stuck with booze and tobacco back in the day...no tellin ‘ what chemicals mig ht’a done to me............LSD, Marijuana, all the rest of that st uff that w as floating around.......wonder what this world would’a been like if so many people hadn’t screwed wit h it.............Course, it don’t look like we did too well on booze and ‘baccy.........and we had Cannabis and Heroin and Morphine. Heck, we even put Cocaine in Coca-Cola for awhile. And old ladies used to get smashed on Lydia Pinkhams Tonic..........guess shit has been with us one way or another for a very long time..........I wonder if we invented God under the influence of drugs or maybe that’s the way He did us. Still, I don’t see that as any reason for sticking up with politicians
I can maybe understand ‘roided out athletes and greedy developers and predators of all sorts have been with us from Day One.. Heck, that’s always been part of the game.
Maybe the old-timers had it right. Maybe there’s a multitude of Gods watching on widescreen, high-defininition teevee screens as we run willy-nilly for their amusement and nothing more. Some Giant Damn
Raven somewhere quoting “Nevermore!”
In the meanti me, inbetween time, I’m hoping that soda crackers ( hig h fructose, et al) and milk will help settle my stomach and send me off to beddy -bye..............Justin Ot her SMi th

just a little politics.....skip if you like.....Zionist Creation of Israel....

Contrary to popular belief, the USA did not create the State of Israel. Nor did we help them. At that time, we were firmly in bed with Great Britain and Great Britain at that moment in time was engaged in a conflict with the Zionists over control of what was destined to become Israel.
The Zionists through determination and a successful campaign of terror finally brought the British to a bargaining table and were able to end the conflict by winning certain concessions from the military governing bodies that were ruling the middle east after World War II.
Thus was developed the State of Israel. The Palestinians living there at the time were not forced to leave; many stayed. Their homes and properties were not ceded to the Israeli’s, were not confiscated, they were in fact part and parcel of the State of Israel guaranteed the rights and privileges and responsibilities of all the other Israeli’s.
Many of the surrounding Arab States saw Israel as a threat to the stability of their own governments and encouraged the Palestinians to flee Israel under the promise that when Israel was surely to be destroyed, they would be able to return and take what was left.
Obviously, this never happened. The Jews had a huge backlog of wealthy people in the USA and GB an other countries and many of them emigrated to the new state of Israel bringing not only their accumulated wealth but their powerful contacts with other countries.
And the ancestral homeland of the Jews prevailed. As it does to this day.
Granted, Israel is a small country surrounded by large countries that hate them but they have the USA as a friend able and willing to offer friendship and material and the unwavering belief that helping Israel is the right thing to do.

more political than persona;...a letter to the editor

It doesn’t come as a major surprise that NY Dems would come up with the idea that banning the noose will put a halt to ‘hate’ crimes. The same mentality thinks that banning Nazi symbols and burning crosses can accomplish the same agenda. They talk of California as being the ‘Land of Oz’ but MiGawd, it doesn’t take a brain (Strawman) to figure out that you can’t legislate bigotry out of existence. It takes education. And with diversity increasing by leaps and bounds every year, it’s going to take ongoing education.
Little children don’t have any trouble accepting other children of different color or different religious persuasions. Childrens mindsets come from the adults in their lives. There’s a song, I think from the show ‘South Pacific’ that children have to be carefully taught to be prejudiced.
And people, not just Americans, but people seem so terribly adept at; teaching hatred and bigotry and prejudice.
But looking around , I see lots of Tiger Woods, Because after all is said and donewe are all one race ansyway. There is no white ra ce or black race or brown race. There is nos such thing as mixed race. There is only the human race. Hopefully there will come a day we we Americans, indeed the world will be so mixed that we have find other reasons to hate our neighbors.

A good line is a good line plaigarized or not...........

Wherever you go, there you are........(attributed to Linda Ellerbee but I’m pretty sure she lifted from someone else).......w’ot the heck? A good line is a good line................
So today, where I wuz......wuz the oncology dept at KP doing my second chemo day.........two down, four to go.........just found out that one of my upcoming appt’s is for Xmas Eve.....and since no one will be working, that’ll have to be changed......just as well, I don’t want to be Zonkered on Xmas Day any hoo..............
Had some interesting conversations with a couple upbeat chemoyans?
chemoites? fellow travellers, as it were.......nice people.....reminded me again how much I have to be thankful for......my p ‘ticklar cancer is spozed to be ‘highly curable’..............a lot of other people have considerably lower odds.......BUT they all seem to be fighters, determined that they’re going to win out in the end.......
Second chemo was a piece of cake.....went in at ten in the AM, out by three PM......Millyrose was there and Cary came.....I sent them out for lunch and they brought me an In and Out Burger (no onions) and fries and a chocolate milkshake......probly a little too much lunch but what the heck?......after I left, I felt a little dizzy and was staggering slightly as tho I were a little drunk so Millyrose drove home.......other than that, I felt good......I took my pill, incl my new sleeping pill and went to bed shortly after nine PM.....couldn’t sleep tho so I did some blogging and took another sleeping pill as per instructions........next morning, I didn’t go to Kelleys in the AM......Milly went by herself and then drove to work......she came home for lunch and asked if I wanted the car but I turned her down ........I still felt lightheaded and was staggering slightly as tho I was still a little drunk.......didn’t feel bad, just a little high......went to bed a little after nine but couldn’t sleep so I st aggered out to the ‘puter.......gonna take another sleeping pill (as per instructions) hopefully conteract the prednisone.........Hope I c’n get up in the morn and go to the gym.....need’a get some sun on this bald pate.......O by the way, coffee tastes good again....hope it sticks around

Talked to my friend Nick today.......he’s just home from hospital with a new knee......looking forward to some good conversation with him now that we can both drink a little coffee.........Nick is a retired policeman and a retired Crimonologist and a bit of amateur historian AND possibly a little strange ‘cuz he likes my poetry. He sez he can’t always figger ‘em out but here’s one for you Nick.

A Poem for Manvil Nicolai Hendrickson

Memories linger..............
whether you want them to or not,
good ones and bad ones
all jumbled together,
like a stew slow cooking in your head.
And like murder,
one day must come out.
Justin Other Smith
October, 2007

Just a short note............

Long beautiful hair, shining, gleaming, streaming, flaxen, waxen, down to there hair, shoulder length or longer, hair.........show it, long as i can grow it, beautiful hair........”
Now it’s gone, gone, gone..............well, there’s a stubble left but it’ll go also.......I just got really tired of drifting hair. Seemed like ever’ time I moved, ever’ time I scratched my head, ever’ where I looked, there was flying hair. Hair on my pillow. Hair on my sweater........
Except that was old used to be.......
.And every time I saw my g’daughters, one of ‘em would run up and snatch off my cap to see how much hair I had left.....and I think they were disappointed every time that I still had some............Well, as Roberto Duran one famously stated, “No mas....No mas.”

Thru the looking glass........

Seems like every time I look in a mirror, my forehead gets larger. I’ve spent a big chunk of today just watching my hair fall out. It ain’t like it’s coming out in patches, it’s just sort’a thinning, thinning, thinning. My hair just keeps on thinning....Rawhide!.........Thru rain and wind and weather, we’ve always been together, my comb ready at my side.........Rawhide......Or at least, naked hide.......nude hide......ah well, I think my hair likes my comb better than it does my head. At any rate, they seem highly attracted to each other. .maybe I’ll get one ‘a them temporary tatts..... that’d be a kick......
I go see my oncologist this afternoon to get my marching orders for my second round of chemo. I think it’s all gonna be pretty much the same as the first time. Maybe it’ll go better. Hopefully, it won’t be any worse. I’ve been fortunate so far. Some people get really sick.
I watched ‘Desperate Housewives’ where wot’sername was taking chemo. Nice private room, big comfy-lookin’ recliner, and her friends came and threw her a ‘chemo party’.........I’m in a big room with a bunch of other bald people squirming in the most uncomfortable recliners it was ever my misfortune to recline upon.......a more comfortable chair would be nice but otherwise I wouldn’t trade.........especially not for a party. A chemo party would be like attending your own wake....only SOBER!
I gave a passing tho’t this morning to making some coffee. That was one of the first things I did every morning. Measure the water, grind the beans, sighhhhh.......I miss coffee........there’s no prohibition on coffee like there is on booze but it just tastes really bad now and I couldn't drink it and I’d hate to throw it out.........maybe when my hair comes back in all thick and red and curly, I’ll recover my taste for java......
In the meantime, in between time, ain’t we got fun???????
David

When the brain is sleeping...........

A rainy eve in old Fair Oaks......calls out for a cracklin’ fire. S’pity progress has all but eliminated real cracklin’ fires but (sigh) too much pollution. We’ve lost a lot of time-honored things to progress; roaring fireplaces, bonfires, burnt marshmallows. We’re prob’ly goin’ to lose a lot more as the world continues to change around us. S’pect we’d better adapt or we might find ourselves on the (gasp) Guv’mint Endangered Species list.
I just saw an article that they are digging up one of the worlds largest dinosaurs. Poor fellow! I wonder if he had a clue what done him in? I don’t think most of us have a clue what is doing us in.
A few years ago, I was working at the railroad yard. Away down at the western end of the yard, just off the property, a group of ‘bummies’ (railroad slang for tramps and hoboes) were huddled around a blazing fire taking whatever nourishment they could get from an assortment of cans and bottles, almost every one of them smoking a cigarette. One of the rails commented that the ‘bummies’ were doing more damage to themselves huddled around the creosote-soaked ties they were burning than with all the booze and tobacco.
I commented that in countries where starvation was the norm, diabetes was almost unknown. The rail looked at me then went on to explain in detail just how poisonous creosote could be.
A lot of people can become so engrossed in a movie that they are willing to suspend belief. Some people can sit thru showing after showing. Often, they brag about it, quoting chapter and verse from the memorized movie. Or television show. There are ‘Trekkies’ that actually speak Klingon. Heck, they can barely speak English and they understand Klingon. I guess for some people, reality sucks.
And I prob’ly shouldn’t make a connection between reality (or the lack thereof) and politics. Politicians seem to make their own reality, apparently rooted in a state of suspended belief.
And talking with friends and relation elsewhere, a big part of the USA seems to believe that’s a fair definition of California. A State of Suspended Belief.
Ya gotta wonder why so many of ‘em folly the yellow brick road to get here.
And remember, “Oz never did give nuthin’ to the tin man that he didn’t already have........”

Blogging the nite away.........

My Aunt Eunice died this morning. She was 88 years old, the youngest and the last of my Dad’s family. She was married four times, had two daughters by her first husband and a son and daughter by her third. She raised tobacco, drove a school bus and worked in a convalescent hospital and I don’t know how many other jobs. I won’t be attending her funeral but I bet it’ll be something.
This is my third week of chemo, what they said would be my ‘good’ week. The first week, you’re full of chemicals that have differing side effect; the second week is fatiguing. Really tiresome. The third week, this week for me, is s’pozed to be my good week so I can, as my kids used to say, get ‘guts up’ so I c’n do it all over again next week.
I felt so good this last weekend that I even watched some political nonsense. We have such a lot of buffoonish poseurs running for the office of President that it’s impossible to really satirize them. Most of them have already turned themselves into the caricatures that the least talented political cartoonists have envisioned.
And of the pundits who report their doings, only Stewart and Colbert, who in reality are imitation pundits and in danger of hurting themselves with all the winking and nudging, seem to understand that it’s a joke and everyone is in on it but the candidates.
Of the real pundits, (is that like the real tinsel and glitter beneath the phony tinsel and glitter of Hollywood?) I’m surprised at their ability to keep a straight face in front of the cameras. Of course, in fairness, I’ve caught a few winks and bemused expressions there.

“There are two ways of getting along in this world. You can be oh so very smart or oh so very pleasant. I reccommend pleasant.” Elwood P. Dowd

a little magic............

So, I haven't been keeping up with my posting. I guess I was too dependent on the N-Som and was writing in the wee hours of my sleeplessness and when that passed and I began sleeping 15 or 20 hours a day I just couldn't find the whatever to sit down and say something clever. I finally realized I wasn't all that clever to begin with and while this blog is about my tho'ts and my reaction to events in my life, it really isn't about me. Or at least, it ain't spozed to be just about me.
I'm a 70 year old Diabetic with cancer, undergoing chemotherapy which tends to focus my tho'ts pretty much on myself. I'm sorry but that's what humans pretty much do all the time. On the other hand, I have every expectation of beating the cancer and dragging out my unexceptional life for another 10 or 20 years. 30 may be pushing it but what the heck? I just saw a 97 year old woman on the telly that just ran for Congress. She seemed a heckuva lot smarter (wiser?) than her opponent and it's a shame she didn't win. God knows that she couldn't have done worse than the nincompoops that presently represent us.
Anyway, back to me. I'm a lot better off than a great many people. I know what I'm fighting and I have the help of a lot of friends and family and the resources of a great medical center (Kaiser Permanente) to help me so in many respects, I'm way ahead of the game.
I have a long-time friend in Kentucky named Mollie Burke Phillips who needs a liver and it seems to be touch and go whether she's going to get one in time. Mollie and I share a birthday tho' she's several years younger than me. She's a curly headed blonde with a big smile and a bigger heart. Up until a few years ago when her liver began to kick her butt, Mollie cooked apple butter every Autumn. She did it the old way, the way my Grandma Smith did it, outside over an open fire, in a large iron pot. Now I don't know that cooking apple butter in that fashion imparts any special flavor but I know what you do get is magic. And the world needs magic.
And for the magic to work, you need to believe.

Is it laziness or lassitude????????

They told me that a couple days down the road I would feel fatigued. I've claimed to be lazy all my life so I warn't sure that I'd be able to tell the difference. And sho nuff, I cain't tell the difference. Just feel like taking a long Autumnal nap, maybe wait for the holidays. Of course, anyone my size might be taken for a hibernating bear. Pr ob'ly a Hibernian Bear, all that Irish whisky over the yearssss......I think it's what they told me tho'......fatigue over the chem's.....I don't seem to have much of a whatchamacallit, a sense of continuity.....I'm losing track of whatever it is I was gon na do next......watch ten mins of Andy Griffith, read three pa ges in a book, go to make coffee and drink somethin' else instead.....mind is wan dering like a black Lab..........I started out to t ake a nap is how I got here in front of this puter.........just a ramblin' man, I guess..........David

.....and the sky is a hazy shade of winter.........

Even tho' it ain't even cold, it looks like it ought'a be....but, that's NorCal for ya........temp is gunna be in the 70's today...they say if you c'n remember the 70's, you weren't really there.....thanks be to a higher power, I have spotty mem'ries of the 40's. 50's,6o's,70's & 80's, 90's and the 21st Cent as well.....and all w/out the use of recreational drugs......that is if you don't count the whisky, gin, vodka, tequila, various and sundry beers and ales and the lunch and dinner wines.....that stuff does tend to fog a body's brain just a bit......

WARNING: from here on out the rest of the stuff is just me venting about cancer stuff!

I ain't even going to try to tell ya the names of all the stuff they're shootin' me with today.....#1, since I can't remember 'em all, I'd have to transcribe 'em from a list and that means I'd have to compile a list....it's difficult enow just to count 'em out every day and then swallow 'em.....and that's not counting the ones they stick in my arm in the Chemo Room altho I do have a list of them as well.....Still, I don't take as many as some do and I'm not having any radiation.....I have my hair shorter now than I have for years but I'm just preparing for when it falls out;
I've met a lot of bald-headed people and most of 'em got it worse than me but they're all hopeful either of a cure or remission. For the most part, everyone seems to have a positive attitude and all the Dr's & nurses I've met seem to be wonderfully patient and caring people.
And I've yet to meet anyone who seems to feel that the Lord has a p'ticklar & personal bias 'gainst them tho' I feel that someone, somewhere, must feel that way.
Cancer comes in odd ways. Sometimes you c'n pinpoint what caused it in a p'ticklar case but most often you're just left to wonder about it.
My Dad died from Mesothelioma. That's lung cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. He smoked when he was younger; cigarettes, cigars, and he chewed tobacco for a long time but it was the asbestos that got him.
I smoked pretty heavily for about 35 years and I have Hodgkins Lymphoma. 'Course that doesn't mean that if I live long enuff, I c'd still come down with lung Cancer.....fearsome thing, Cancer. Sneaky. Lies in wait for years then kills you off before you get the chance to die from old age.
Of course, people don 't really die from old age. They die from complications of old age. The complications being that you get sick from other causes and you're too old and too tired or maybe just too damn cantankerous to fight 'em off.
Anyway, that's enuff for one day. The dogs want'a go for a walk.........Later, David

Somewhere over the rainbow.........

Tripping merrily over the yellow-brick road the day after the day after the day...........Chemo Day #1 was not the worst day of my life. Heck it didn't even hold a candle to some of the not so bad just generally pissy days I've had over the years.....mostly it was boring, hooked up to an IV that I had to haul around with me on my uncounted trips to the patients restroom where the most interesting thing that happened was the one time that I peed red. And it wasn't even a bright red at that. Certainly nuthin' to ri te home about......
I don 't know if all the books I took w/me were all boring or if they were boring 'cuz of the pills & chemicals I ingested whilst sitting there in one of the most uncomfortable recliners I've ever met.....( prob'ly a combo of both)
I understand that a big part of my N-Som has been the result of the prednizone but I slept well last nite which is why I'm posting at this time of day....it's also s'pozed to gimmee more energy but I don t' feel like running 'round the block tho' I might take the dogs for a stroll later this AM.....and maybe, just maybe, I'll go swimming this afternoon. They tell me that some people don't get really nauseous (thanx to the anti-N pills) but that fatigue sets in two or three days later and that is sposed to be difficult to deal with...altho frankly since I've been lazy all my life, I don't know that I'll be able to tell the difference.
Still, it's a lovely day here and while I have no interest at all in cleaning the yard, a little stroll around town with the dogs doesn't sound at all bad......wish you could join me whilst I still have hair on my head.........David

The first BIG C day is over and done.........

from 9:45 in the AM to 6:30ish in the PM is a longish day. 'Course goin' into the first day they fill you up to the brim with information and by information, I mean they tell you everything that could possible go wrong so that you go into this type of stuff just plum full of trepidation. And try as I might to be the Cool Smith, I don't think I fooled Millyrose at all, at all. So, I'm pretty sure it was harder on her than it was on me. She'd picked up the virus or whatever that Sophie had and spent the previous day in bed. I told her I'd go alone but they had informed me that I would probably need a driver to get home afterward. (NOT TRUE AS IT TURNED OUT) Then I told her to go home and get a nap but she refused (STANDIN' RIGHT BESIDE ME, LORD, THRU EVER'THING I DONE)....'Course when we did get home, she was in bed before 8:00 PM....plum' wore down to a frazzle, she wuz.........I was kind'a tired myownself especially after I took the Atavan.....tho't I'd sleep the 'hull nite thru but the N-SOM grabbed me and shook me awake so here I is......this first session is spozed to fry up a lot of things inside me, good and bad, including my hair.....Millyrose asked Kellye to take some pix of me with and without that I will hopefully be able to post on this blog......if not, maybe y'can get 'em from Kellye.....if you're interested, that is...if not, well I ain't the prettiest thing that ever came down the pike anyway so you won't be missin' much.
So, while I was tied up in the Chemo Chair, EMMMMMMMM got a taste of what Sophie had t'other day and came home sick....she didn't get to hang w/me however....she had to get Kellye to come home and I'm pretty sure that Kellye didn't have a freezer ful of fudgsicles & popsicles etc......which come to think of, I no longer have either since they were over here t'other day and wiped me out. I didn't hardly eat any of 'em myself.........anyway that circumstance calls for a trip to WINCO.....Grampa's house w/out various ice cream treats is just wrong........besides, it's October and time for a trip to Apple Hill and everyone knows that all apple desserts go better with a big scoop of ice cream.....remember, when you're past 70, eat your dessert first 'cause you just never know............David
Got a Post -Script here : Millyrose went over to Kellye's this mornin' to get the kids off to school as one of us normally does. She was taking pity on me cuz my N-Som kept me up all nite long which is prob'ly the real reason for this p'ticklar post....and found that all five of 'em are down with the Sophie Virus..........So I reiterate: In this world today, you just never know. .........David

Cancer and chemotherapy.......

go together like love and marriage.....horse and carriage......donutz and coffee......coming up for a rhyme for chemotherapy is beyond my poor talent this AM.........anyway, today is the day I begin CHEMO!.......calloo, callay, he chortled in his glee.....and Millyrose isn't feeling at all well....I think the stress of coping with me has finally gotten to her....
They told me to dress comfortably (hell, I'm 70 years old, I allus dress for comfort now).....bring a snack and a book, or for the young and more gifted 'mong us, one of those doo-hickeys you strap on your arm and plug in your ear that enables you to listen to Gawd knows what......I'm told that I c'n expect to be there for 5 to 8 hours which pretty much uses up a day.....
I tell ya, time flies whether you have fun or not....if I was still working and had to find the time to do this, it could pretty much mess up a day......
Jerry Lee just had a b'day.....Happy Birthday to THE KILLER!.............David