Me 'n Soph.........

are hangin' on this overcast, breezy, Autumnal Friday......Sophie hardly ever misses school but then she's hardly ever sick.....she got up late this morn, picked at her cereal, (one of those multi-colored, sugared, bits and pieces) then went running for the b'room where she heaved it all, et al, in the general direction of the porcelain throne....we took her to breakfast at Annie's where she had one bite of pancake, (we boxed the rest of the pancake and the scrambled egg and brought 'em home). I no sooner unlocked the door than she ran past me headed for the b'room and almost, more or less, made it before tossing some clear liquid.....NOW she's ensconced in my recliner with a bottle of water & small bowl of pretzels watching Westside Story.......AND SO IT GOES..........I attended a research seminar on taxes last nite hosted by the Franchise Tax Board.....told 'em that I wasn't unhappy with the worker bee's or even the amount that I had to pay but I seriously objected to the way that out Legislature spent our precious tax dollars......I then added that I seriously objected to our Legislature on many levels.....of course, my voicing my displeasure with the Legislature is sort'a like tossing a pebble into the Pacific and watching the ensuing ripples.........ahhhh wellllll.......it's all happening at the zoo..........David

Revisiting the Witching Hour..........

Can't seem to get away from it, y'know whut I mean?........I go to bed, close my eyes and images appear weaving in and out of my sub-conscious....I slip back and forth from sleep to awake and back again, I'm aware that I'm dreaming but not altogether sure that I'm asleep, and then the eyes pop open and stay that way 'til finally I crawl my way out of my nice warm bed and make my way to this cavernous hallway that houses this mind-numbing Solitaire machine and, co-incidentally, this blog.......ain't life grand? we've made a science out of insomnia.......
I start Chemo the first of October but I don't think that's what is keeping me awake....actually, I think I'm kind'a anxious to get started on the premise that the sooner I begin, the sooner I'll finish.........
They tell me I'll probably lose my hair in about two weeks....Kellye and the gurlz bought me a wig called a 'Kentucky waterfall'.......it's a mullet, sort of a palomino ponytail.....maybe I'll have Kellye take a pic and see if I can post it on this blog.....I'm spozed to be able to do stuff like that but I ain't the most computer literate person around......Heck, maybe I could get Emily or Sophia to do that for me........well, that's some kind of plan anyway.....may not be a good one but Mom always said, "Ya gotta have a plan, Fritz."........Peace on the world.........David

September storm

Heckuva month.....this September.....always has been.......this p'ticklar one has been full.....myriad Dr's appt's for one....been running back and forth to Kaiser as tho' I were a yo-yo doing tricks....I can feel the string that's jerking me from here to there and back but I can't see the manipulative hand......I guess all yo-yo's are like that....spinning and flying, walking the dog,etc....I saw a bumper sticker the other day....said, "Darwin's dead and he ain't comin' back."
My oh my...........The temperature drops to 70 degrees and everyone grabs a sweater and starts thinking about turning the heat back on....it's cloudy and they're talking possible rain on the morrow......looks as if summer may be over for this year but we can look forward to INDIAN SUMMER...that's when the temp will climb back where it belongs and the sun will come out......I bought some baby sunblock, 50 PF or whatever,.....that's what my CDoc told me to use after my hair falls out....use the baby stuff becuz it has less chemicals than the grownup, full-throttle stuff.....Millyrose and I (and Kellye, Emily, and Sophia) attended a chemo class at Kaiser....Kaiser has classes for darn near everything.....Emily was most struck by the fact that "all your hair is gonna fall out, even your eyebrows!".......Sophia was giggling over the fact that I'll probably pee red after the treatment.....(Kids cut right to the chase, don't they?)
I had another petscan done today....this one focusing on my heart.....I'll tell ya, they want you to be healthy when they start this stuff............ANYWAY I hope to be back exercising tomorrow.......IT'S RAINING......AND THUNDERING.....WOW.....time for dinner,.......Joy to all the boys n girls.........David

Why don't they speak out?

Where are the moderate Muslims of the world? Or do all the millions of them support the terrorists call for the destruction of America and Israel? What about all the Muslims that make their home in America? Why would they come here to work and live if they want to see America destroyed? What's the purpose of them holding a job, going to school, raising a family here if their desire is to see America destroyed?
I don't understand! Do they just hate do-nuts and mocha lattes? I can't believe that. I know that Starbucks and flat-screen teevee's are popular in Muslim countries.
I've heard it said that they don't hate Americans. They just hate the American government and all it stands for. Well, that just sucks. George Bush likes cowboy boots and Texas belt buckles. I bet he likes Starbucks and pizza also.
Maybe it's just Democracy that the rest of the world doesn't like. Well, George has been pushing that pretty hard but, hey, you can lead a kid to a pizza parlor but you can't make him eat and I, for one, don't give a damn if the rest of the world doesn't want to partake of democracy. I think maybe people get the kind of government they deserve.
Anyway, It has been said that all that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good people do nothing. And in that regard, I keep wondering why the Muslims of the world don’t speak out against Islamic terrorists. Oh, I hear them protesting that Islam is a religion of peace. But it is Islamic schools that teach that all the other religions of the world are not only wrong but a blasphemy in the eyes of Allah, the one true God.
Of course, Jews and Christians alike believe in the same God of Abraham but somehow the Jewish and Christian God seems to differ from the Islamic Allah because Jews and Christians don’t call for the total destruction of Islam while fundamental Islamists like Osama bin Laden call for the destruction of Israel and America on a daily basis. Bin Laden recently called for the western world to convert to Islam in order to avoid destruction.
I don’t recall him saying anything about the Hindus or the Buddhists or any other of the myriad religions of the world so perhaps they don’t matter. Of course, it’s hard to imagine such monumental intolerance overlooking even the most obscure religion so once they finish off the Christians and the Jews, they can go after the rest of the world at their leisure.
I’m thinking that I don’t really know any Muslims but I do cross paths with the occasional one and I wonder what or how they would reply if I were to ask them why they would even want some snotty Christians or arrogant Jews to convert to Islam anyway. Groucho Marx said that he “didn’t want to be a member of a club that would have him as a member.” I guess I’ll never understand the fundamentalist mind that feels it necessary to harangue the non-believer.

Sunday mornin' comin' down.....

well, not really n'or goin' up neither.........more like status quoing s'what I'm trying for......actually what this is or is intended to be is an update...kind'a silly word 'update' or at least that's the way it strikes me this AM.......the operation to clear my carotid artery was successful (I didn't bleed out or have a stroke).....I have about a five inch scar running from behind my right ear down almost to my collar bone and I'm just beginning to be able to stretch my neck a little.....hopefully, I'll be able to get back in the pool later this week......I went to the Oncologist to find out about my pending chemo treatments and happened to mention that I had a toothache....seems that dental problems and chemo are incompatible and I have to have the tooth removed and heal prior to starting chemo......which is supposed to be the end of this month or the beginning of next....we're scheduled for a 'chemo' class on the 18th and told that we can invite whatever friends and family that are inclined to come, so you're all invited.......when I actually begin Chemo, I'll go into a large room full of recliners and spend most of the day there (one day, give or take, about every three weeks).....I'm told I'll prob'ly get nauseous altho' not enuff to be a real problem.....sez the biggest thing is I'll get fatigued.....I told her I was a lazy guy and been fatigued most of my life but she tho't I was joking.......
ANYWAY yesterday was Kellye's b'day and Friday is mine so we're all going to Carmelita's for Mexican food today (I think I'm going to order beef flautas to go with a cold Dos Equis Amber (maybe two).....afterward, we'll all come back to our ramshackle manse on the hill for cake 'n stuff.....I think Millyrose is making me a chocolate cake a'la Granny Smith......Least I hope so.........Joy to the world, people..........David

It's a long way around the block sometimes........

Came thru my surgery just as bold as brass.....spent one nite in ICU with a bunch of friendly nurses.....if we had played poker, I would have lost my shirt if I'd'a had one on.....first, they gave me ice to eat and then, kind'a grudgingly, I tho't, gave me some water......then round about midnite, they told me I should get some sleep 'cuz they were gonna get me up at 4AM to see if I could dance...I couldn't but that wasn't a surprise to me....... then when the surgeon came in the next day ( I think it might have been during his recess period) he said I could stay or I could go so I came home. Didn't feel too bad even tho' I couldn't talk very well....mostly I just felt tired. That was Friday. Saturday I felt pretty good but I still let Millyrose walk the dogs by herself. It's a long way around that block sometimes. David

Mid-nite in the garden of ambivalence........

Or, stuck astraddle of the fence, as usual. "Did'ja ever get the feeling that you wanted to go but still you had the feeling that you wanted to stay......" Jimmy Durante
I was wondering what came first, insomnia or solitaire. Hadda be insomnia. Can't you just picture Neanderthal Man lying sleepless beside a dwindling fire while the wind howled outside his cave and everyone else in his whole tribe was sound asleep. I bet he was thinking that blasted Cro-Magnon Man ain't lying awake. That SOB has got it made. He's taller, smarter, faster, AND he has better looking women. Life ain't fair! After all, underneath the skin we're all the same. Do I not bleed when you prick me, etc., etc..
'Course ya just gotta know that Old Cro-Magnon was lying awake by his fire wondering what the N-word Man was up to. (And I bet you tho't 'political correctness' just came about in the last half of the Twentieth Century.)
Just imagine the world with no ambient light except for a few scattered campfires. Awful dark and scary out there.
Here was Neanderthal Man lying awake wondering if every little nighttime noise was Cro-Magnon men in white bedsheets comin' for to carry him home and Cro-Magnon men wondering if every little noise presaged an uprising by the dreaded Neanderthal. Funny how the more things change, the more they stay the same. We all still seem to fear every little bump'n thump in the night.
So tomorrow, the sixth day of September, I go in hospital to have my throat cut a second time. This time they're going to clean out my right carotid artery. I think it's a fairly simple procedure but when they explain the "well, what could happen's" it tends to make a fellow a little nervous. I'm not expecting any problems and whatever they shoot me up with beforehand should kick the crutches out from under my insomnia.
I've been quoting from songs lately so....."Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea and Joy to you and me."
David

A lazy Labor Day morning.........

Paranoia strikes deep but trepidation usually lies just below the surface and constantly nags at a body......I say this because I'm feeling trepidacious these days. It's been my policy for a long time to not worry about things that I can't do anything about and most of the time I'm able to make that work for me; however I just found out the other day that my upcoming procedure (less scary than operation, don'cha think{NOT} but wot the heck) rather than being the in and out, go home and sleep it off thing that's so popular today what with the high medical costs and all, is prob'ly gonna keep me inhouse from one to three days; hence the reason for my trepidation, i.e., must be more serious than they made it sound when they first began talking about it.
Now commonsense tells me that this trepidation is merely unfounded fear brought on by three months of running back and forth to Kaiser for multiple tests and that the biggest thing I have to fear is fear itself. One of these days I'm gonna have to find out where Roosevelt stole that line.
Anyway it's a beautiful Labor Day morning with just a hint of a breeze and a slight cooling. I had apple pie and coffee for breakfast and that of and by itself makes it a kind of special day. At least it does for an aging diabetic. The rest of you can eat whatever you want, anytime you want but us old diabetics must pick and choose our dessert moments.
Happy Labor Day.
David