Nothing to see here...

Not much going on in my life right now.

I'm still living off taxpayer money... (no job in sight)

My father did get me a spiffy new smartphone though! (my first one)

I'm trying to get a new RPG started. (Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, it's fun!)

The latest season of 'The Walking Dead' ended. (But 'Game of Thrones' new season started.) :)

Anyway, I'll try to keep a more regular cycle of updates... (yeah, right)

Port Out!... Starbord Home?

The Medi-port that was implanted in my chest to administer my chemo treatments was removed on Friday.

It was an outpatient surgery and only took about an hour but, with blood tests and waiting, I was in the hospital from Eleven-thirty in the morning till nearly Four in the afternoon. Afterwards my Dad took me to a local place called 'Classic Diner' I had a Southwestern Philly sandwich. It was good.

This is the last medical procedure related to my cancer ordeal. I call it an ordeal but it wasn't that bad. Don't get me wrong, if you can; please avoid getting cancer. It's just that my experience was relatively tolerable. Lots of people got it worse than me.

But it's still really weird to think I could have died.


(yes, I really wanted to write this post just so I could use the POSH pun)

It's all over but the... port removal.

Good news. On October the 2nd I had a second to last visit with my Doctor and I am now officially cleared of the big C!

As the title suggests I still have to go to the hospital to have the port they installed in my chest to administer the chemo removed. But that is an outpatient procedure and I don't anticipate any difficulties. Then there is one final follow up visit to see the oncologist and then I'm free!

Technically the cancer might return in the next year or two and that would be particularly bad but it's not incredibly likely. It's better than the small chance that the cancer could have caused organ failure before they could get things under control enough to actually attack it with the chemo in the first place. A fact that my Doctor didn't inform me of until our latest visit. (Under the theory that it would worry me unnecessarily. It would.)

Unfortunatly that's it for the good news part of this entry...

I'm still unemployed and it's hard finding someone who will hire a 46 year old with no real documented skills. Did you know that Avis car rental requires a fricking Bachelors degree to work their customer service desk?

Bad News

It's been a little rough over the last two weeks.

I'm still undergoing chemotherapy every three weeks for the cancer.

I learned that my position at work is being eliminated.

I was involved in a major road accident last Wednesday.

Now the silver lining. My treatments are going well and I expect them to be completed by early September. I am getting a small severance from work and will be eligible for unemployment while I search for a new job. I was not injured in the accident (a six car dust up on the highway - not my fault!) even though several people were taken away in ambulances.

My father is also taking this opportunity to get a new family car (primary user: me!) which is nice. He's getting a Ford Fusion. It's red but I still like it.

Nausea

Chemotherapy is loosing it's charm.

The first couple of times it was okay; the novelty of it all, the day off from work. But now I'm over that. I have to get up very early in the morning and sit in a chair all day hooked up to bags of poison. At least there is WiFi available, but the drugs knock me out for several hours anyway. I have to unhook from the power supply and drag the stand into the bathroom with me. And they pump enough liquid in through my chest that I have to go to the bathroom a lot!

And I simply dread the week after a treatment.

They give me all kinds of anti-nausea medications, but I still get these random waves of stomach upheaval. Thankfully I don't actually throw up, but sometimes I feel that It might be better if I did. Eating does nothing to calm my stomach, nor does not eating... The anti-nausea meds are to mitigate the side effects of the actual chemo, but then I have to take pain meds for the side effects of the anti-nausea drugs. And all of these drugs make me drowsy. (I love the one that warns: prolonged or excessive exposure to direct and/or artificial sunlight should be avoided while taking this medication.)

I can only imagine what it would be like without the drugs...

At least I'm likely to live through all this, today I met a woman named Evelyn who listed the extensive cancers she was being treated for, including breast cancer (double mastectomy), several organ cancers including a brain tumor, bone cancer, and a seizure that she woke up from four days later. She still has an amazingly positive attitude, at least to people she's just met.

I don't put much stock in the idea that a good attitude can actually affect the cancer, or any disease for that matter, but it can definitely help you achieve a better quality of life during whatever time you have left.


(but that's true for people without horrible diseases too.)

More Pictures

Someone said there should be more pictures from the recent trip...

Apollo - Soyuz linkup

Voyager and the Spirit of St Louis

A V-2 Rocket with Skylab in the background

A Statue - sometimes a sword is just a sword...

The Grand Army of the Republic

A Golden Naked Chick

The Navy Memorial - Decked out for Memorial Day

Lincoln in front of a Court House

Ford's Theater

The Department of Justice

The Capitol Building

Keith - We finally got him...

That's not every picture I took, but I think it's enough.

What? You expect me to update this thing?

Okay, a couple things have happened since the last time I wrote an entry in here...

My friend Keith and I returned to our nations capitol memorial day weekend (just Sunday). We spent most of the day in the Air and Space Museum. That is one fun place! I took some photos...

The Apollo Lander 'Eagle'

John Glenn

 Space Mural

Me, in front of the FBI building.

We also went to the Spy Museum, they don't allow photos. :(


And also, as an aside, I was diagnosed with Lymphoma at Easter time.

Poor Widdle Me...

I had to work all day Sunday again! It really sucks, our 'short' hours are from 10:00am to 8:00pm. I have to work a ten and a half hour shift, while my friends get to go out to the movies. (They saw the 'Planet of the Apes' movie.)

A more reasonable Sunday hours would be from 11:00am to 6:00pm, or even noon to six! That gives everyone plenty of time to get their 'emergency' shopping done (usually just returning junk they know they shouldn't have bought in the first place, but that's another rant altogether.) and I get to go out while the sun is still shining, maybe I'll even have time to have a little social life... one can dream.

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Now playing: Julie London - Blues in the Night
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That was unexpected.

Yesterday a HUGE thunderstorm ripped through my area.

Trees were felled, power was out, there was talk of tornadoes.

The lights were out in my area for several hours, but there are still people without power now and they say it'll be late today before everything is back on.

Luckily my father got a home generator a couple of years ago after sitting in the dark for several days after a particularly nasty hurricane. So it was hardly even an inconvinience to us.

But my sympathies go out to all the people still waiting for their air-conditioning...


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Now playing: Origa - Rise
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Vision

Recently there has been some speculation on how I might spend my tax return money.

Well, unless I successfully get some or all of it back from my insurance provider, much of it will have gone toward a new pair of glasses!

And, for those of you who feel the need for more fodder with which to ridicule me, they have bi-focal lenses.

They are taking some getting used to.


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Now playing: Devo - Planet Earth
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Dreams

I don't often remember my dreams. So it's particularly strange that I've remembered two over the last couple of nights.

1) I am at work trying to finish some very important task on our system, each time I try to log in to a position it locks up and reboots. For some reason I always move on to another position never checking back to see if any of the previous ones have finished their reboot. (in the dream this is normal) Meanwhile Leonard Nimoy is behind me talking to some of my co-workers and loudly impugning my ability to take out the trash. I proclaim that I take out the trash just fine.

Then it's time to wake up.

2) I am waiting in a gym with many other people, we are all military and are there to begin testing for some special forces type training. For some reason the first test is to run to the top of the bleachers without setting off a motion sensor hidden there. We never actually do this test. While we wait I amuse myself by sliding around on one foot without kicking off anything but by force of will. No one seems impressed. Then I step out of the room for a second and when I return everyone is eating. Then suddenly they are all outside running and I am left with the instructors. I privately talk to one of them and resign from the program as I'm getting out of the military in a few days...

Then it's time to wake up.

There is some pretty freaky stuff going on in my head. Anybody into dream interpretation?


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Now playing: Trevor Jones - Dark City
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1966

It is customary to take note of the anniversary of the date of ones birth.


Duly noted.



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Now playing: Erich Kunzel & the Cincinnati Pops - Theme from Jaws
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Road Trip!

Last week my friend Keith and I visited our nations Capitol City. I had only been to D.C. twice before; once as a kid I visited the Air & Space Museum with my family, and once when we buried my mother at Arlington.

This trip was going to be the full-on tourist bit! I had a list of things to see and a full day to do them. It was just barely enough time.

We left in the wee small hours of the morning and got there a little after 11:00am. After a little hiccup finding parking (the place I had found online turned out not to be public parking) we walked past the Capitol Building. There was a yearly memorial taking place for fallen police officers on this day so we didn't approach the building because of the crowds.

But I got pictures.

Then we proceeded down the National Mall. We took a bit of a side trip north to see the U.S. Navy Memorial. One of the highlights for me. It is a very cool layout and the centerpiece is just an ordinary sailor, not some idealized God figure. I like the realistic memorials enshrining what things actually are rather than some impossible ideal. (not that there's anything wrong with big 'worship' type monuments, more on that later)


Petty Officer 2nd Class, with his hands in his pockets... :)

We visited a Sculpture Garden with some cool stuff in it and a nice big fountain in the center.


As you might expect there were some cool sculptures as well.

Next we visited the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

DINOSAURS! - Who knew the Jurassic was so blurry? (ha ha)


And Very Big Rocks!

We also visited the Smithsonian Museum of National History.

Lincolns top hat.

He wore this to the theater!

Next, more monuments/memorials...

The Washington Monument is really rather large!

Look, there's me! (wave)

And, to answer the burning question in everyone's mind "What would the Washington Monument look like if it were a Batman villain's lair?"...

Whatever...

The World War II monument is a very cool place. I just wish certain people would pay attention to the signs and realize that it isn't a wading pool! Keep your damn feet out of my monument!



The Vietnam Memorial is only but so interesting as I, thankfully, don't know anyone whose name is on it. I think the statue is very cool and appropriate.

Regular guys doing their job.

Then for another 'shrine': the Lincoln Memorial.

As I said before I really like the realistic memorials, as these commemorate 'ordinary' people who have done great things under horrible conditions. But, I also see the grandeur of these larger than life temples to the great individuals who have risen above the tide of history. I like both approaches and feel that the monuments in the Capitol each approach their subjects appropriately, the 'thinkers' who have wrestled with the ideals that make this a Great Nation and the 'doers' who make things work and do what is necessary to preserve those ideals. Each have their place and each receives their recognition.

And speaking of 'doers' here is the Korean War Memorial.


Finally we visited the Jefferson Memorial.

In the parlance of the Internet "Great man, or Greatest man?"

That wraps it up for the places we went and the things we saw.

As a personal aside; Sorry Keith, if I had known your feet were in that much pain we could have taken an easier pace... you should wear comfortable shoes when going on walking tours.

Also, my brain is really dumb. The whole day all I could think about was seeing these sights in the game 'Fallout 3' I mean really, a video game?
I would have liked to stay and see some of the monuments lit up after nightfall, but I was really exhausted when we reached home again and I don't think it would have been safe to drive that tired, so I'm glad we came home when we did. Maybe next time!

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Now playing: The Ink Spots - I Don't Want To Set The World on Fire
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Citizenship Quiz

This is cool.

I got 93%!

Mostly because I didn't pay enough attention to a couple of questions...

Warning: there's 96 questions on the full quiz!

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Now playing: Rammstein - Amerika
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I Voted

And I hope you did too.

Even if there seems to be no one you wish to vote for, surely there is someone or something you wish to vote against!

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Now playing: Devo - Freedom of Choice
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Pain!

For a week now I have been in terrible pain. I have had back problems before, but this is truly a horror. What usually happens is that I sleep in an awkward position or spend too long playing video games/watching TV with my legs dangling over the edge of the bed, and my back gets compressed wrong or some such and all the muscles get tight and I get shooting pains down my right leg. Then after a couple of days of care and sleeping with my legs elevated everything is back to normal.

This time seems different. I have been going through Ben Gay and Ibuprofen like they're free, and it's more than a week now and I can just barely sit in a chair long enough to write this entry. Although I feel much better and the shooting pain is gone from my thigh, I still cannot sit very long without some pretty extreme pain when I try to stand.

At least I can function at work pretty well, I just have to be careful not to twist the wrong way or bend too far.

Your back is one to the worst things to loose the use of, right after your legs themselves and right before your teeth.

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