Semi-Vacation

Semi-Vacation Time
It felt so good to sleep in this morning. I normally wake up around 5:20 AM during the week so I can get to my morning classes at school on time, unlike most of my students. Today, I didn’t wakeup until 6:30 AM. I know that this doesn’t seem like a big deal but it was to me.

I was watching the Fox News Channel this afternoon when I learned that only 5% of all Boy Scouts receive the Eagle award. That made me feel really good since my Brother and I were awarded our Eagle badges together. This was the first time in our city’s history that two brothers received the award together.

Cool.

I went by my local Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf today to get a large mocha flavored ice blended coffee drink with whipped cream and caramel sauce. I did this for medical reasons, I want to keep my oncologists happy and not lose too much weight.

I was only following doctors’ orders.

I picked up some more interesting tea for the Princess and the Golfer; they ought to set in tea for the next couple of months. I also picked up some coffee, extra strong for my friend Lara and strong decaffeinated coffee for her mother. I know everyone will enjoy the tea or coffee.

Because the chemotherapy has affected my appetite, I am drinking a cup of instant decaffeinated coffee. Some days I am really hungry and some days I am not. I think it all balances out in the end.

My Brother phoned me this morning. He is going to be in Southern California next week and wanted to know if he could stay with me for a night. I checked with Doug to see if he was planning on hanging around my flat early next week.

He said that wasn’t planning on stopping by except for the next two doctors appointments. We got to talking about what I was planning on doing when my Brother is here. I said we would probably hit L. A. Food Show because he really liked it the last time he was in town and we both love the Avocado Bacon Chicken Egg Rolls. I also said that the Show has a great sundae which would be good for me to maintain my weight as I head into the eighth chemotherapy infusion cycle.

Doug thought that was a good idea.

I talked to my Brother tonight about staying overnight. He wanted to know what I had in mind for dinner. I said that we should go to the L. A. Food Show because we both love the food there, especially the egg rolls. My Brother said to order to two servings of the egg rolls because he wanted one serving for himself. That made sense since you only get two egg rolls that are cut in half for four pieces in a single order.

I got an invitation from American Express to get one of their platinum cards. I read through about eight pages of small type to find the disclosure on fees and charges. Then I got to the annual fee information; it is USD$450 a year.

I quickly lost interest, a whole lot of interest really fast.

It’s Wednesday May 28th now.

I had a sort of crummy day today. I didn’t sleep all that well last night – early this morning. Police and, perhaps, television news helicopters were flying about in the neighborhood from around 2:30 AM, when I woke up, until close to 4:00 AM when I heard the last of them.

I so wanted to go up on my building’s roof with a couple of Stinger missiles and solve the noise problem. Unfortunately or maybe fortunately for me, I was unable to do that.

The lack of sleep scrambled my plans slightly. I didn’t get all of the cleaning done that I want to accomplish today.

I ended up taking a two hour nap this afternoon. That made me feel good.

I had a semi-healthy dinner tonight. I fixed myself a large salad with a grilled chicken breast that I diced up along with a tomato and an avocado. I used some bar-be-que sauce and some creamy Caesar salad dressing for the salad. It tasted very good and it filled me up.

Tomorrow is the regular dressing change with the Baby Blues; always something to look forward to I guess.

Friday is the regular oncologist visit followed by a visit to see my tailor from Hong Kong. I don’t think Doug will be going with me to see Andy Sippy. Doug doesn’t like any of his current and he doesn’t like the idea of wearing a suit.

Oh well, maybe he will change in the coming years.


Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update - Memorial Day Weekend

Weekend Update – Memorial Day Weekend
If you enjoyed your freedom this weekend, be sure to thank an American veteran for all of your freedoms. Veterans have made the sacrifices that were necessary to preserve your freedom.

Patriotic dissent is a luxury of those protected by better men and women then they.


Programming Notes
This is Memorial day Weekend so my regular post will be on Monday, schedules permitting for me.

This is almost quarter break for me and I do intend to enjoy it to the fullest. I will be taking a vacation at home, going to the beach, catching up on my movie viewing. This all means that my postings will decline.

Next weekend, I will be going to Seattle to see the Princess and the Golfer. I will be posting on Monday after I am back at the beach. Or not; I may just spend some time in the sun instead.

Visitors
We had visitors from Texas [9], United Kingdom [7], Germany [5], Canada [16], Italy [3], Romania, Qatar, Japan [10], Korea [2], Indonesia, Australia [5], Lithuania, France [5], United Arab Emirates [2], Taiwan [3], Brazil [2], Iran [3], Singapore [2], Philippines [2], Ireland, Thailand, Portugal, Turkey [2], Macedonia, Belgium, Egypt, Kuwait, Greece, Israel, Croatia, Finland, Mexico, Bangladesh, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

I do appreciate all of you who took time from your days or nights to visit the blog.

Odds and Ends and Other Errata
Last weekend, it was a wonderful time to live at the beach. It was warm and sunny; just absolutely perfect for me. unfortunately, I spent most of the great weather grading papers from my writing classes.

On Thursday, we had tornados in Southern California that blew some freight cars off of their tracks; roofs were blown off. There was snow on mountains and down into the foothills. I had to go to a school meeting; my Pathfinder was being pushed across the freeway traffic lanes in the winds and rain. It rained off and on for most of the weekend.

Why don’t drivers from out of town bother to read a paper before they sit behind a steering wheel? I was behind two Asian American women from Northern California on Thursday as I drove out to the school meeting. They were busy talking about God knows what when it came time to enter the freeway. The woman drove slowly and failed rather poorly to accelerate and merge into the traffic.

These stupid women got off at the next exit. What were they using for brains?

I had the same experience on Saturday when I went out to school for my last class of the term. Maybe this driving difficulty is growing.

I talked to my tailor from Hong Kong, Andy Sippy, over the weekend. He was calling back to confirm our appointment next Friday. Friday will be busy for me with a visit to the oncologist and then Andy and then pack for the trip to Seattle.

Andy suggested that Doug bring along a suit that he likes so Andy can get an idea of what styles might work well for Doug. I mentioned this to Doug when called me on Saturday evening. After a short pause, Doug said he didn’t like any of his suits. I urged him to give some thought to what he would like in a suit.

The Princess forwarded me an email from her friend Maggie. Maggie is hiking in the Susan G. Koman for the Cure 3 Day Walk in Atlanta. Although the Princess didn’t ask me to contribute, I did anyway since Maggie is a fun person and she was a bride’s maid at the Princess’ Wedding.

Besides, I always want to encourage everyone to take long hikes like I did when I was in the United States Marine Corps Reserve.

I got my invitation to my high school class’ 45th Reunion this week to be held in July. 45th Reunion, man, I’m getting really old now. The tickets are USD$100 per person so we ought to have some good food to eat.

The price of the tickets got me to thinking. I can easily afford the ticket so I will be going; besides I want to show off a much slimmer and healthier me to my single female classmates. If one of the single females shows up on her own, she is either well off and therefore worth checking out or she is looking for a single guy and that could be me.

It does make an element of sense since we have a lot in common starting off with spending four years in high school together. We are of an age that has put all sorts of games behind us.

All in all, it should be fun and may have more to offer in the future.

Time will tell how everything will turn out.


That was my weekend. I hope you weekend was memorable and fun.


Be well and stay happy.

Some Days Are Better Than Others

Some Days Are Better Than Others
Have you ever noticed that some days just turn out to be so much better than other days? I think it can be from the weather or what you are doing or who you are with that particular day.

Today was one of those days for me.

Since today is Thursday, I started my day off with the weekly dressing change at the clinic. I wondered who would end up changing my dressing as I drove to the clinic. I think that almost everyone in the PICC Lines function has changed my dressing by now so I figured it would be someone that I knew.

Everyone knows my favorites to change my dressing are the Baby Blues, Glenda and Jennifer. Glenda was somewhere else and Jennifer had the day off.

Meesung changed my dressing today. I think this was the third or fourth time she has done the change. I particularly like Meesung’s approach to putting the new dressing on; she likes to use as little adhesive as possible which, in turns, makes for less really irritated skin when the dressing will be removed next week.

Perfectomundo for my arm.

It seems that Meesung and I share a couple of common interests. She has read the blog and told Glenda and Jennifer that I wrote about them in the blog. My connection, I wrote the blog.

Meesung and I, and Douglas for that matter, love a really good steak. We both like Morton’s Steakhouse but I like it a little more than she does. Meesung really likes Ruth Chris’ Steakhouse. Doug and I like Rut Chris’. We just like Morton’s more. It turns out that we have even been to the same Morton’s locations, Beverly Hills and Atlanta, but at different times.

There were other great things that happened today in addition to the dressing change.

One of the nurses said, “Give me a hug handsome.” Naturally, I gave her a big hug; how could I deny one of my caregiver's simple requests.

Another nurse said she loved my tie since it was so Summery and colorful. It was a yellow knit tie.

In general, all of the nurses were in a positive and up beat mood. That was probably related to the fact that Monday is a holiday for them.

Life is good for me today.

School
I went to school yesterday for my two classes. They went bye very quickly. One had a final examination and the other was a presentation of the project papers in my Written Analysis course. I was on my way home about two hours earlier than usual.

Ain’t that just grand?

My teaching schedule for the next term was changed to comply with accreditation requirements. Teachers are only allowed to teach in three subject areas and I think I was teaching in four subject areas. I still have my five classes. I still only have one new class to develop lesson plans and lecture notes. I got to drop Microeconomics and I was happy about that.

I told the Associate Dean that I was firmly happy and satisfied with my new firm teaching schedule. That made him laugh because he usually has to deal with teachers who are unhappy with their schedules.

I try to be a team player. Team players tend to get more classes to teach than those who complain a lot.

I’m no fool here.

The school is having an in-service which is a teacher training session this afternoon. It is part of the school’s accreditation program where the teachers get additional professional training. I go to these sessions because I might learn something and I want to support the Academic Department.

Tomorrow, I am going to be spending my leisure time grading papers and entering information in the grade books. I want to be able go to the cinema next week and not feel guilty.

The good and the bad about the in-service is that it is from 4:00 to 6:00 PM. That means it will end on time because evening classes start at 6:00; this is good.

The traffic on the drive back to the beach will be poor. The school will be providing us with food, sandwiches and salads and drinks. That would normally be good except that this means I will miss having dinner with Merit at El Gringo tonight.

Skipping dinner with Merit at El Gringo is probably a wise idea for me. my appetite is nowhere near ready to tackle the overly full plates of food that El Gringo serves. It is also wiser because I am unsure if my stomach is ready for the spicy food at El Gringo. Doug says the food is too spicy for him.

All in all, today was a very good day for me.


Be well and stay happy.

Free Lunch

Free Lunch
There are free lunches in the world if you look for them.

I had a free lunch with an old co-worker; he paid for it. Of course, the next lunch will be at my expenses. It works out in the end I guess.

We went to a Chinese restaurant that he likes. I was not really in the mood for a large meal since this is the first week after my latest chemotherapy infusion. I still have an appetite; it is just more subdued than at other times. Some days, I feel like skipping the meal and hopping back into my bed for a rest – nap instead.

I ordered something that I knew I could enjoy and still not upset my stomach. I had some sweet and sour fried chicken with white rice. It was a nice lunch and the leftover will make a good dinner for me tonight.

We talked about some of the apparent bad or poor decisions the new management has made over the last eighteen months at our old credit union. Most of them do not make any sense to either of us.

My friend compared our last efforts at the credit union to those of the new management group. He found that we outperformed them based on some very simple metrics. We consistently made money while the new group has not. We added to the capital position while the new group has burned through the capital that we added. We treated the employees with dignity and didn’t make decisions in secret. The new group has gone through a revolving door of senior managers.

So much for team building.

My friend and I ran the credit union with the idea of making money for the members. There’s a simple business plan. The new group issued company credit cards to more than half of the employees with limited, if any, controls on them.

So much for profits to pay for the business.

The new group seems to like working from home. I suppose that makes sense today, what with gasoline prices being what they are now. But, I still have one simple question, in a customer contact based business model; how do you interact with a customer or member from home?

You don’t.

Recovery – Part [something]
I forgot what series this was in my Recovery from cancer series this was. I know I can look it up but I have no inclination to spend my time that way.

I’m now in my seventh chemotherapy infusion cycle. I will have one more after this one. My finger and toes seem to be more acutely aware or sensitive to the cold now even though the weather has gotten much better. It was Summer like over the weekend.

I guess my system has built a supply of the Oxaliplatin and Xeloda that will take some time to pass out. I figure I ought to be over the sensitivity by the end of June. I will certainly enjoy being able to drink cold drinks whenever I want to this Summer.

I am getting better so that is all that matters right now to me.

Andy Sippy
Andy Sippy is my tailor from Hong Kong. I have been buying suits from him for thirty five years now. Obviously, I am a very satisfied customer. I have three suits that I am tired of wearing; I have had them for eleven years each. I need a change. I will be seeing Andy at the end of the month for two new suits.

I talked to Doug today about going with me and buying a custom made suit from Hong Kong. I explained how much better it is to buy one from Andy since it is made from the fabric and color that he wants and not what the suit store has in stock. It is also made in the style that he likes instead of what is currently trendy or popular.

We will be seeing Andy at the end of the month after we had our every three week visit with the oncologists. That will be a busy day for me because I will be leaving town to see the Princess and the Golfer the following morning.

Perfectomundo.


Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update - Armed Forces Day Weekend

Weekend Update – Armed Forces Day
If you enjoyed your freedom this weekend, be sure to thank an American veteran for all of your freedoms. Veterans made the sacrifices that were necessary to preserve your freedom.

Patriotic dissent is luxury of those protected by better men and women then they.


The next town over from Redondo Beach is Torrance. They have one of the largest Armed Forces Day parades in the country. I forgot about the parade traffic as I drove home from school; that mistake cost me an extra hour in traffic. Once you got in the traffic, there is no real way around it because of major and minor street closures.

I picked up a small turkey sandwich at Giuliano’s for my lunch. I was hungry and wanted something that was quick before I hopped into my bed for a nap. I was tired from the chemotherapy session on Friday and class on Saturday morning.

My planned nap flew out of the windows when the parade flyovers took place. My flat is about a half mile south of the extended parade route out over the ocean. The first flyover was a flight of four Stearman biplanes, a post World War I relic. They were very nice, flying slowing and relatively quietly.

The Marines made the second flyover with their helicopters. It was a mixed flight of attack and troop carriers; the most common helicopter was a Blackhawk. You can find the Blackhawk flying in harm’s way in Iraq and Afghanistan today.

Lastly, we had the Air Force with their F-16 fighters and the Marines with their F/A-18 fighter bombers fly over. It was loud and it was the sound of freedom.

In the end, I went to bed early, around 7:30 PM after I finished off a Junior Whopper from Burger King. My Korean historical drama that I had been watching had its time slot changed from 8:00 to 9:00 PM to 10:00 to 11:00 PM. That was too late for me to stay up besides Sunday is a school night for me.

Visitors
I didn’t do a very good job of tracking visitors to the blog this week. I know that I missed some of you.

We had visitors from Texas [4], Vietnam, Mongolia, France [2], Portugal, Canada [10], Ireland, Oman, Norway, Indonesia, Australia, Japan [4], Hungary [2], Korea, Poland, Germany [3], Brazil, Spain [2], Turkey, New Zealand, Iran, Thailand [2], Singapore, Peru, Mexico [3], and Luxembourg.

This week was the first time that the blog has had visitors from Mongolia, Oman, and Luxembourg.

I do appreciate all of you who took time from your busy or otherwise days to visit the blog.

Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
On my way home from lunch with Doug on Thursday, I stopped at my local Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf for an ice blended mocha coffee drink with whipped cream and a little caramel sauce in it. It was my last cold drink for a while since I had another chemotherapy session, my seventh in the series on Friday.

I also picked up some more tea for the Princess and the Golfer. One of the teas I purchased was unusual, it is a Chinese tea called Jasmine Dragon Phoenix Pea Tea.
Two tea leaves and a bud are rolled into pea shape and then scented with jasmine. The “peas” are then placed in a tea bag and unfold when they are heated.

If nothing else, it sounds interesting and ought to be fun to watch it unfold. I hope it tastes good.


That was my weekend. I hope you had a great weekend as well.

Be well and stay happy.

Gluttonous Pleasures

Gluttonous Pleasures
I had to go out to school on Thursday to take care of some administrative matters. The school seems to place an inordinate amount of time and effort on paperwork that could have been devoted to educating the students.

It looks like I will be teaching five courses in the coming term. Fortunately for me, only one of the courses is a new one for me.

Oh well, life happens and I managed to survive.

Since I had to go out there, I phoned Doug to see if he was up for trip to the Original Tommy’s Hamburgers for lunch in Westminster. Doug is almost always ready for Tommy’s so he said sure.

We both had Mega Combos. Doug drank a Sierra Mist and I washed my meal done with a Pepsi Cola. The containers are ginormous. You need a large drink when you have a chili cheese burger with an order of chili cheese fries.



It was a very satisfying and very filling meal for me. This was the first time for me at Tommy’s in maybe six months.

The downside of the trip to Tommy’s was that I was still filled when it came time for my dinner on Thursday with Merit the Server from El Gringo. I hope that she managed to get along without me. I will see her this Thursday for dinner so all is not lost.

Be well and stay happy.

Some Women in My Life

Some Women in My Life
These women are not related to me nor am I currently seeing any of them. They exist and they are an important part of my life. I decided to list them in a semi-chronological order of when I first met them. This seems like as reasonable approach as any other one that I could conjure up in my mind.

Lara is my oldest Internet acquaintance in terms of length of friendship. We have been friends for thirteen or fourteen years. We met on the old movie – cinema bulletin board that was sponsored by Empire Magazine. This was back in the days of limited Internet service, I was tossing up posts for Doug and Lara began to write back to me.

We have not met yet. There is always the possibility that we may met some time in the future.

Lara has a lot going on in her life. It makes my life seem calm and organized in comparison, cancer not withstanding. It makes it difficult for her to maintain her circle of contacts the way she used to do when she was at Rhodes University in South Africa.

Lara has one weakness that I continually indulge her. Lara loves great coffee and she is unable to purchase any locally in South Africa. I periodically make a trip to Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and select some really yummy coffee beans for her. I think she shares them with her brother. Since Lara is taking care of her mother, I also include a bag of decaffeinated coffee for her mother, the decaffeinated is better for her mother because it doesn’t raise her blood pressure.

One thing that I love Lara for is her determination and drive. She remembers me, after a fashion sometimes. That is good. Lara is also a very successful businesswoman in a country that generally degrades the role and capabilities of women, especially a white woman. She owns and operates two profitable video rental stores in Johannesburg.

I discovered that Lara has put me in her Facebook pages of friends this morning with comments. I live the farthest from her. This was a surprise since I do not fit the usual demographic for Facebook.

Fascinating.

Amber the Stylist was happy to see me today. Amber knew about the cancer and me so she expected me to be in a very upbeat mood. I was feeling very good today.

I got a very nice shampoo this morning and neck massage. This was a great way to start my day, a massage from a beautiful woman.

Today was my first haircut in about seven weeks. I feel better now that I have it. I will probably be able to go back to my old haircut schedule of once every four or five weeks after I am off the chemotherapy program and the medication is out of my system.

We talked about our families today and what will when happen when Amber graduates from college and moves on to a higher paying job. I may be looking for a new stylist after graduation.

I truly enjoy Amber’s sense of humor and laughter. Laughter is important for me right now. Ands, I believe, that Amber has helped my recovery from cancer with her laughter and love of life. Amber periodically sends me inappropriate jobs and cartoons to help me keep my spirit up.


Be well and stay happy.

Remains of the Weekend

Remains of the Weekend
I got a phone call from my favorite and only former wife to thank me for her Mother’s day gift. She is a big Los Angeles Angels baseball fan so I got her some custom made M&Ms in red, white, and blue with the Angles logos on the candies and an old fashioned coin operated candy dispenser to hold them.

She really liked them and is planning on taking the dispenser and some of the M&Ms into her work today. I suspect the candy will not last for very long.

I talked to the Associate Dean today to let him know about my cancer progress. He was very pleased with my recovery. I told him that I was tentatively satisfied with my tentative teaching schedule for the next term. He laughed when I told him that I would be firmly happy with my firm teaching schedule.

We talked about classes and schedules and I may get to teach a fifth class next term. It would be an evening class on American Government. It should be an easy course for me and it would be the only one where I would have to create a new lesson.

I should have a firm teaching schedule by the end of the week.

As expected, I received a number of emails with good wishes from family and friends as a result of my cancer treatment success.

The local weather is certainly not cooperating with my plans to go enjoy some ice cream this week. As I told Doug this afternoon, I don’t care to go for ice cream in the middle of May when I have to put on a sweatshirt and a jacket. It will be very warm toward the end of the week but only after I have had my next chemotherapy treatment cycle. I will be back to being highly sensitive to the cold again.

Fortunately, the chemotherapy will not last that much longer and I will be very ready for a mocha ice blended drink from Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf when I am off of the treatment cycle.

Tomorrow is errand day for me. I have two doctor’s appointments; one is my family doctor for an annual checkup follow up and the other is with the urologist who placed a stent in urethra in October.

In between the doctors, I am going to see Amber the Stylist for a haircut. I have gone about seven weeks between haircuts and I now starting to get shaggy. I definitely need a nice haircut.


Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update - May 11th

Weekend Update
After the post cancer report on Saturday, the rest of the weekend was sort of dull and boring for me.

I received a number of well wishes from friends who got a Me and the Cancer email yesterday. I do appreciate all of the prayers and good wishes of support from my friends; even some of the flaky ones who sometimes forget me.

As usual, I graded papers from my writing classes. The volume of papers to grade was on the low side. I guess I will be buried next week with late assignments. The students’ grades are going to be lower because of the late submissions.

I picked up my tentative teaching assignment for the next term. I am scheduled to teach four classes; three in the morning and one in the evening. I didn’t get a teaching assignment on Saturday which is a terrible day to teach because of the high frequency of student absences. I have taught all of the courses before so I won’t have to prepare new lesson plans unless the textbooks are changed and that is unlikely. A writing class and course work is not one that is changing constantly.

Visitors
I didn’t maintain a count of visitors this week. I was a little preoccupied this week. I will try to do better next week.


Be well and stay happy.

Me and the Cancer

Me and the Cancer
This is likely to be a shorter than usual post oncologist visit blog posting or email. The primary reason for the short posting is that I have nothing but good news to pass along.

I had my PET Scan on Tuesday. That was fine. By the way, PET stand for Proton Emission Tomography. A PET Scan is designed to find traces of cancer throughout your body. The oncologist, Dr. Wang, used the term that the PET Scan “light up any cancer cells in the body.”

So much for the technical stuff; I’ll go with the simple explanation in words everyone can understand.

The PET Scan showed no new cancer cells in my body. That’s sweet.

My colon is clear except for what Dr. Wang called “physiologicals in my colon.” They are not cancerous and something that appeared in the Scan. It seems likely that they may be polyps and will be removed when I have a colonoscopy at the end of the chemotherapy cycles. That should be in June sometime.

Dr. Wang has set me up for an appointment with a colo-rectal surgeon to discuss what to do with the physiologicals.

The two spots on my liver did not “light up.” But, they are still there. It may be metasized cancer or it just may be the results from my misspent youth. They have not grown and that is good.

I think the oncologists and the surgeons will decide to operate and remove that part of my liver sometime this Summer. This seems to be the most likely course of events and most logical treatment plan.

I have two more cycles of chemotherapy scheduled and they will conclude in June. Beyond that, I don’t know what the doctors have planned for me.

I feel very happy and good right now. I don’t want to say that I am cancer free right now because cancer can always come back, especially in someone like me who has already had it.

I feel like I won this battle with your prayers, kind words of encouragement, and support. I thank you so very much for all of for everything.

Celebrating
Doug and I talked about a minor celebration after we heard the Scan results from Dr. Wang. I suggested that we go to the Original Tommy’s Burgers for lunch. Doug was agreeable to hitting Tommy’s for a Mega Combo. But, as time dragged for what seemed like forever, our options were closing down and we ended up at Giuliano’s instead.

I had thought about going to Coldstone Creamery for ice cream this weekend as a celebration. Somehow, the idea of having ice cream when it is only 64F / 18C did not appeal to me. Besides, I didn’t want to drip any ice cream on my jacket.

The week will be warmer before I have another chemotherapy treatment so there is still hope for an ice cream run to Coldstone Creamery or Glacier Gelato, or the Ice Pan. If worse comes to worse, I can always buy a quart from the market and have my ice cream at home.

The Lighter Side of Medical Treatment
One of the oncology nurses nagged me because I didn’t dress up when I went to her clinic on Friday. I told her that maybe my choice of clothes had something to do with the interminably waits in her clinic. Doug and I had to wait for two hours to get my papers for the next series of tests, infusion, and oncology visit.

There had been a mix up in handling them. The nurse offered to explain why it took so long. I said thank you but I was not interested in learning why it took so long; we just wanted to leave.

For those of you who don’t know, I make it point to dress up when I go for a dressing change; it seems to make the nurses happier and they smile more. That translates into better treatment for me or so I believe. You can look at my arm that has been covered with tape since January and there are no sores.


Be well and stay happy.

Late Night and Early Morning Low Clouds and Fog Along the Coast

Late night and early morning low clouds and fog along the Coast
That is standard weather forecast for our little part of Paradise. We have overcast skies for most days. Usually, the overcast and fog and low clouds stop or end just east of my building. The temperature can change by as much as 10F / 6C in as little as a mile or a kilometer and change.

Chuckay
Chuckay, for the newer readers, is a monthly long celebration of all things Chuck. May is my birthday month and Doug and I use it as an excuse to go visit our favorite fast food and not so fast food restaurants.

Chuckay will be different this year, largely because of my cancer and its treatment. I don’t want to go to dinner at Morton’s the Steakhouse until the end of a chemotherapy cycle so I can indulge and enjoy the Morton’s Chocolate Cake. The cake comes as a cube and when you slice it with a spoon, hot fudge comes pouring out and mixes with some very rich vanilla ice cream. The chemotherapy makes me highly sensitive to the cold and the ice cream will be cold to the taste and thus not very enjoyable for me. Even cold water makes me feel badly.


Doug and I plan to cut back on our eating this time around. I think we will pass on going to In n Out Burgers. Doug isn’t that interested in going there and I can go there anytime I want since it is within easy driving of my flat.

We will, of course, be going to the Original Tommy’s Burgers this month. I would love to have another Mega Combo meal but I think that will be too much for me to eat. One of the side affects of my cancer treatment is a slight loss of appetite; I am eating smaller portions of food now. On balance, this is a positive change for me.


I weighed myself this week. I weigh myself every week so I can track any changes that might be caused by my chemotherapy. My weight is down to 176 pounds / 80 kilograms. I would like to drop another five pounds / two or three kilos over the next month or so.

Visiting the Princess
I finished making my travel plans to visit the Princess at the end of the month. Unlike my regular visits to Atlanta, I will now be traveling to Seattle. This makes it possible to have a good visit by flying up to Seattle on Saturday and flying home on Sunday. The flight is shorter and there are no time zones to deal with either.

After my last flight, I am definitely not going to fly on the Delta Connections. That was a near given for me.

I dialed up Expedia.com to check out the fares from here to Seattle. They were pretty much the same at around USD$180 each way.

Virgin America is a new air carrier here with non-stop flights between Seattle and Los Angeles that is influenced by Sir Richard Branson. Virgin America wasn’t listed on Expedia so went to their web site. The prices were very impressive for me; a coach ticket was USD$79. The first class ticket was USD$230 each way.

I decided to give myself a birthday present and fly First Class on Virgin America for an extra USD$100. I was most influenced by the space that I would have between me and the seat in front of me; 55 inches / 140 centimeters. The fact that there are only eight first class seats meant that I would not be crowded either and the cabin service ought to be excellent.

My hotel is only five or six blocks walk to Morton’s where we will have dinner. Depending on the weather, I will probably walk to Morton’s and then ask the Princess for a ride back to my hotel after dinner.

Dressing Change
I had my weekly dress change this morning. I didn’t see either of the Baby Blues today. I think this was the first without seeing them in maybe two or three months. Oh well, there is always next week and maybe I will see them then.

Dinner with Merit
I went to El Gringo tonight for my dinner. That should be no surprise to any regular reader of the blog.

Doug joined me for dinner. We watched one of the professional basketball playoff games so it was a sort of a silent dinner. I had a taco salad so I can claim that I had some healthy food today.

Merit was working tonight and she was wearing some below her hips pants. I noticed that Merit had a new to me tattoo. Merit said she was getting another tattoo because she wanted to get another tattoo. It was busy again tonight so Merit and I did not have much time to talk.

There is always next week for a conversation with Merit.

Shock and Awe
Yesterday, when I opened my email, I had an invitation to join one of my student’s social network. I don’t recall if it was Facebook or LinkedIn or My Space.

I was in a state of shock and awe as I immediately deleted the invitation.

Accepting an invitation would be unprofessional and unethical from my point of view. It would also be a violation of school policy. I decided to check with the Associate Dean to see if I missed any steps or procedures. He said what I did was proper and that noting further was warranted.

If nothing else, the Associate Dean is on notice that I had this potential problem come up.


Be well and stay happy.

Snow was on the Wasatch

Snow was on the Wasatch
Snow was on the Wasatch Mountains as my plane landed in Salt Lake City on Friday for my fraternity reunion. Snow had fallen and melted in Salt Lake proper on Thursday morning. It was also cold and windy, not a very surprising condition.

[Wasatch Mountains are on the eastern side of the Great Salt Lake Valley where Salt Lake City is located. You could say the Wasatch Mountains are the western edge of the Rocky Mountains.]

One of the nice things about Slat Lake is that it is laid out on a grid so if you can count and remember your cardinal directions, you can navigate anywhere in the area. Most all of Utah is laid out in the same manner, nice planning Mormons. The roads, Interstate freeways, seem to be in better condition than the ones in Southern California. Of course, some will say this is because the roads are not as heavily traveled as they are here in So Cal. This is certainly true but So cal roads are not subject to snow and ice and freezing salt water all Winter long either.

Anyway.

It is a very short drive from the airport to downtown Salt Lake City. I got to my hotel in about 15 minutes. That was nice.

I stayed at the Downtown Salt Lake Marriott Hotel. I have been staying there for years when I go visit the area. I had a choice of a construction view or city lights view from my room. I picked the construction side because I figured that there would be no construction on Saturday and there would be less light from the empty hole in the ground.


I was wrong. I woke up to sound of construction equipment backup alarms at 7:00 AM; so much for sleeping in.

Salt Lake is in the middle of a major redevelopment effort that is largely sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. You probably know them as the Mormons. The Church needs more office space so they are building a combination office and retail environment development in downtown. I’m guessing that the project will take from six to ten years to complete and run into the billions.

Properly built, the project will revitalize the downtown area that already has a first rate concert hall and sports arena. The Los Angeles Lakers will be playing the Utah Jazz at the Energy Solutions Center.

Energy Solutions Center is a dumb name if you ask me. It used to be called the Delta Center when Delta Airlines had the naming rights.

I didn’t do very much on Friday because I had no interest in the one activity that was planned for the night, a get together at a local bar. I was still very sensitive to the cold from taking the Xeloda.

I ended up having my dinner in the hotel bar. I had to join the hotel’s private club, at no cost, to be able to even order a Coca Cola. I won’t go into Utah’s drinking laws; they are almost impossible to understand unless you have lived there.

I did try a couple of new single malt Scotch whiskeys. I tried something called Dalwhinnie. I thought it was on the mild and sterile tasting side; it lacked body and a deep flavor.

The other whisky was Lagavulin. Lagavulin is from the Isle of Islay in Northern Scotland. This whisky was everything that I wanted. It was rich and deep and powerful and full of peat and oak. It was a perfect way for me to end the day.

I know I will be asking for this Scotch whisky the next time I am in Morton’s. That will probably be for the Annual Chuckay Dinner.

Saturday, the only scheduled events were the dinner and an open house at the old fraternity house in the afternoon. I went to the open house because I wanted to see if the Computer Room and Study, that I funded, was still in good condition. I was obviously pleased that everything was in good working order and was being used in a gentle manner.


I will probably upgrade the computers next year. It has been at least five or six years since I last upgraded the computers. By then, Windows Vista should be reasonably well settled down and functioning.

Only one of my fraternity brothers, Fred MacFarren, from my undergraduate period was at the open house. We spent about an hour catching up with each other; wives, children, work, health, and retirement. I think it had been at least twenty years since I last saw Fred. The one remarkable fact, for me, was that all of my fraternity brothers from my period really had not changed all that much beyond hair turning grey or falling out.

The big dinner dance was on Saturday night. Dinner was a grilled chicken breast with steamed vegetables, healthy food. It also included a mandarin orange Caesar salad. Those balanced off the desert which was really rich chocolate cake with fresh fruit with a chocolate sauce.


I met another brother and his wife from my period at dinner. I think the t last time I saw Jim Bailey and his wife Robin was maybe ten years ago in Salt Lake. This is a photo of three of use; from left to right, Fred, me, and Jim.


This was an unusual Founder’s Day celebration for me, primarily for personal reasons. I had several of the alumni who were members of the fraternity when the Princess went to the University of Utah make a point of seeking me out and asking how the Princess was and what was she doing now. One even asked for her email address and he told me that he sent her an email that evening. I do hope she acknowledges the email.

In the past, I have donated money for scholarships. The scholarships are around a couple of thousand dollars, not very much; but any financial aid is very helpful when you are faced with the rising cost of a college education. I had several former recipients of the scholarship come up and thank me for helping them complete their education. That made me feel very good and warm. Several other undergraduates thanked me for the Computer Room and Study.

It was pleasing to see that some of the younger generation have not forgotten their manners and are able to express their appreciation for something that was done for them.

A Word about the Flight Home
Through a scheduling oversight on my part, I booked myself to fly on the Delta Connection, a commuter airline with regional jets, instead of the big airline. The Delta Connection is as safe as the big airline but Delta’s pilots are more experienced. The Delta Connection was operated by SkyWest Airlines.

Experience counts for something, especially when you are flying. I feel much better flying with a captain who has some grey in his hair instead of with Captain Skippy or Skeeter who are still green around the wings.

The pilots on the flight to Salt Lake City were competent and professional. They were able to put on almost understandable announcements from the cockpit

I think Captain Skippy and First Officer Billy Bob flew my plane home. They were incapable of passing an understandable announcement. I think they would have been better remaining silent and leaving us to guess their ability levels.

We landed in Los Angeles on the north runway. That meant we had to taxi for ten minutes to the south runway, where our terminal was located. For some unexplained reason, Skippy and Billy Bob taxied right past Terminal 6 which was our terminal. Then, they taxied on past Terminal 7 and came to Terminal 8. Then, they stopped; maybe to check out the airport maps and look for bread crumbs.

The plane suddenly made a u-turn and returned to Terminal 6, where we should have stopped in the first place.

Of course, there was no explanation from the boys in the cockpit.

A regional jet is a smaller aircraft. I think my plane carried around 70 passengers so there wasn’t a lot of baggage to unload. In spite of not having a lot of baggage to unload, it still took the ramp rats a full forty five minutes to unload the aircraft.

I talked to the Princess and Doug after I go home to let them know where I was. Doug was fine.

The Princess was not impressed with the Delta Connection at all. She flatly declared that she would never ride on a regional jet. I am willing to ride on a regional jet if it is my only choice to get from here to there. I can drive one of my cars but not for 400 miles / 640 kilometers.

That was my trip to Salt Lake City.

Visitors
We had a good month for visitors in April. We had 1,160 visitors for the month. I think we would have had more if I was posting more frequently and if I was still featuring the Woman of the Moment Encore.

In the past week, we had visitors from Pakistan, Canada [15], United Kingdom [4], Romania, Thailand [3], Mexico [2], Slovakia [2], Finland [2], Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Australia [2], Texas [7], Cambodia, Poland [3], Cyprus, Netherlands [2], Switzerland, Greece, Ireland [2], Germany [10], Belgium, Spain [3], India [2], Japan [6], France, Ukraine, Sweden, Turkey [2], Chile, Philippines, Hong Kong, Italy, Brazil, and Korea. This was, of course, a partial listing.

This was the first time that we have had a visitor from Cyprus to the blog. I do appreciate all of you who took time out of your days to visit the blog.


Be well and stay happy.

Snow was on tthe Wasatch

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Snow was on the Wasatch
Snow was on the Wasatch Mountains as my plane landed in Salt Lake City on Friday for my fraternity reunion. Snow had fallen and melted in Salt Lake proper on Thursday morning. It was also cold and windy, not a very surprising condition.

[Wasatch Mountains are on the eastern side of the Great Salt Lake Valley where Salt Lake City is located. You could say the Wasatch Mountains are the western edge of the Rocky Mountains.]

One of the nice things about Slat Lake is that it is laid out on a grid so if you can count and remember your cardinal directions, you can navigate anywhere in the area. Most all of Utah is laid out in the same manner, nice planning Mormons. The roads, Interstate freeways, seem to be in better condition than the ones in Southern California. Of course, some will say this is because the roads are not as heavily traveled as they are here in So Cal. This is certainly true but So cal roads are not subject to snow and ice and freezing salt water all Winter long either.

Anyway.

It is a very short drive from the airport to downtown Salt Lake City. I got to my hotel in about 15 minutes. That was nice.

I stayed at the Downtown Salt Lake Marriott Hotel. I have been staying there for years when I go visit the area. I had a choice of a construction view or city lights view from my room. I picked the construction side because I figured that there would be no construction on Saturday.

I was wrong. I woke up to sound of construction equipment backup alarms at 7:00 AM; so much for sleeping in.

Salt Lake is in the middle of a major redevelopment effort that is largely sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. You probably know them as the Mormons. The Church needs more office space so they are building a combination office and retail environment development in downtown. I’m guessing that the project will take from six to ten years to complete and run into the billions.

Properly built, the project will revitalize the downtown area that already has a first rate concert hall and sports arena. The Los Angeles Lakers will be playing the Utah Jazz at the Energy Solutions Center.

Energy Solutions Center is a dumb name if you ask me. It used to be called the Delta Center when Delta Airlines had the naming rights.

I didn’t do very much on Friday because I had no interest in the one activity that was planned for the night, a get together at a local bar. I was still very sensitive to the cold from taking the Xeloda.

I ended up having my dinner in the hotel bar. I had to join the hotel’s private club, at no cost, to be able to even order a Coca Cola. I won’t go into Utah’s drinking laws; they are almost impossible to understand unless you have lived there.

I did try a couple of new single malt Scotch whiskeys. I tried something called Dalwhinnie. I thought it was on the mild and sterile tasting side; it lacked body and a deep flavor.

The other whisky was Lagavulin. Lagavulin is from the Isle of Islay in Northern Scotland. This whisky was everything that I wanted. It was rich and deep and powerful and full of peat and oak. It was a perfect way for me to end the day.

I know I will be asking for this Scotch whisky the next time I am in Morton’s. That will probably be for the Annual Chuckay Dinner.

Saturday, the only scheduled events were the dinner and an open house at the old fraternity house in the afternoon. I went to the open house because I wanted to see if the Computer Room and Study, that I funded, was still in good condition. I was obviously pleased that everything was in good working order and was being used in a gentle manner.

I will probably upgrade the computers next year. It has been at least five or six years since I last upgraded the computers. By then, Windows Vista should be reasonably well settled down and functioning.

Only one of my fraternity brothers, Fred MacFarren, from my undergraduate period was at the open house. We spent about an hour catching up with each other; wives, children, work, health, and retirement. I think it had been at least twenty years since I last saw Fred. The one remarkable fact, for me, was that all of my fraternity brothers from my period really had not changed all that much beyond hair turning grey or falling out.

The big dinner dance was on Saturday night. Dinner was a grilled chicken breast with steamed vegetables, healthy food. It also included a mandarin orange Caesar salad. Those balanced off the desert which was really rich chocolate cake with fresh fruit with a chocolate sauce.

I met another brother and his wife from my period at dinner. I think the t last time I saw Jim Bailey and his wife Robin was maybe ten years ago in Salt Lake. This is a photo of three of use; from left to right, Fred, me, and Jim.

This was an unusual Founder’s Day celebration for me, primarily for personal reasons. I had several of the alumni who were members of the fraternity when the Princess went to the University of Utah make a point of seeking me out and asking how the Princess was and what was she doing now. One even asked for her email address and he told me that he sent her an email that evening. I do hope she acknowledges the email.

In the past, I have donated money for scholarships. The scholarships are around a couple of thousand dollars, not very much; but any financial aid is very helpful when you are faced with the rising cost of a college education. I had several former recipients of the scholarship come up and thank me for helping them complete their education. That made me feel very good and warm. Several other undergraduates thanked me for the Computer Room and Study.

It was pleasing to see that some of the younger generation have not forgotten their manners and are able to express their appreciation for something that was done for them.

A Word about the Flight Home
Through a scheduling oversight on my part, I booked myself to fly on the Delta Connection, a commuter airline with regional jets, instead of the big airline. The Delta Connection is as safe as the big airline but Delta’s pilots are more experienced. The Delta Connection was operated by SkyWest Airlines.

Experience counts for something, especially when you are flying. I feel much better flying with a captain who has some grey in his hair instead of with Captain Skippy or Skeeter who are still green around the wings.

The pilots on the flight to Salt Lake City were competent and professional. They were able to put on almost understandable announcements from the cockpit

I think Captain Skippy and First Officer Billy Bob flew my plane home. They were incapable of passing an understandable announcement. I think they would have been better remaining silent and leaving us to guess their ability levels.

We landed in Los Angeles on the north runway. That meant we had to taxi for ten minutes to the south runway, where our terminal was located. For some unexplained reason, Skippy and Billy Bob taxied right past Terminal 6 which was our terminal. Then, they taxied on past Terminal 7 and came to Terminal 8. Then, they stopped; maybe to check out the airport maps and look for bread crumbs.

The plane suddenly made a u-turn and returned to Terminal 6, where we should have stopped in the first place.

Of course, there was no explanation from the boys in the cockpit.

A regional jet is a smaller aircraft. I think my plane carried around 70 passengers so there wasn’t a lot of baggage to unload. In spite of not having a lot of baggage to unload, it still took the ramp rats a full forty five minutes to unload the aircraft.

I talked to the Princess and Doug after I go home to let them know where I was. Doug was fine.

The Princess was not impressed with the Delta Connection at all. She flatly declared that she would never ride on a regional jet. I am willing to ride on a regional jet if it is my only choice to get from here to there. I can drive one of my cars but not for 400 miles / 640 kilometers.

That was my trip to Salt Lake City.

Visitors
We had a good month for visitors in April. We had 1,160 visitors for the month. I think we would have had more if I was posting more frequently and if I was still featuring the Woman of the Moment Encore.

In the past week, we had visitors from Pakistan, Canada [15], United Kingdom [4], Romania, Thailand [3], Mexico [2], Slovakia [2], Finland [2], Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Australia [2], Texas [7], Cambodia, Poland [3], Cyprus, Netherlands [2], Switzerland, Greece, Ireland [2], Germany [10], Belgium, Spain [3], India [2], Japan [6], France, Ukraine, Sweden, Turkey [2], Chile, Philippines, Hong Kong, Italy, Brazil, and Korea. This was, of course, a partial listing.

This was the first time that we have had a visitor from Cyprus to the blog. I do appreciate all of you who took time out of your days to visit the blog.


Be well and stay happy.