I talked to Mike Roller last night....he just turned 59! Welcome to the 98% of 60 club.
He said..."You need to blog. I check it all the time.I want to know what's going on with you. Curious people want to know." This picture is from his daughter's, Dr. Jennifer Roller, wedding on April 18. Mike was in a tux and looked good, but he missed the pic with Jerry Smith, Talmon Preyer and me. That's almost 180 years standing there folks!
Sooooo here goes. I'll try to be witty and interesting like Erin although I know I can't compete.
I do have CRS....Chemo Related Symptoms or Can't Remember S---, but I'll try to relate what I've been doing for the last month and how the chemo and related medical stuff is going.
The last weekend of April...Thursday thru Sunday... I took a road trip with three other guys from Second Pres. to a Men's Conference at MoRanch near Kerrville, Tx. I played with my chemo so that I would be on good feet for that weekend and it worked. It was about a 12-hour trip...we split it up on the way down...stayed overnight in Cleburne, TX in a brand new Hampton Inn. I think I was the first person that had ever slept in that room. It was kinda like moving into a new house. Frank Allison suggested that we take out time and not miss the opportunity to find a Dinasaur Park or IQ Zoo, but we opted for a beirgarden in Fredricksburg instead.
The conference was good...450+ Presbyterian men mostly from Texas, eating good food, talking to each other, singing some hymns and generally having a good time being prompted to think. I attended a seminar on Bucket Lists and decided that I don't have one and don't think I'll start one. It's sort of a romantic notion to do things that you always wanted to do, but I don't have a jet plane like Nicholsen and I sorta do what I want to do anyway.
The trip back was done in one sitting...four guys sharing the driving....hunting for ice cream all the way from south of Texarkana to Arkadelphia....who needs a bucket list!
Got back from Texas, started cycle 7 of the Sutent.... 6 days later I start the sore feet thing again. 8 days later I start my off week and on day 10 my feet are good again for 12 days. Who needs a calendar; just take some of this stuff and you'll pay attention to the days.
My friend Vic Sutcliff came up from Dallas on May 9th for a couple of days to help me clean out the garage. After the building project last year, I had accumulated a pretty good pile of good stuff. I was in good-feet mode for those two days but I don't have the "keep on plugging along"
stamina that I used to have. Who cares, I'm almost 60, and I can rest if I need to. Thanks to Vic, we got some heavy lifting done and some stuff hauled off and now that 3rd bay in the garage is only half full.
I also had Joe Amos from work come out with a backhoe and we started pushing down pine trees so we could have some more yard to mow and as a benefit have better views from atop our mountain. Joe cut and burned and pulled stumps for 9 days and we had a whole load of pine logs that we gave to a pulp wood hauler just to keep from having to burn them. I believe that Joe could plant tulip bulbs with that backhoe. He's the best I have ever seen on one.
Now it has poured down rain and we have mud but "the sun will come out...tomorrow......"
That brings us to Sunday the 16th. Emily's 4th birthday and, coincidentally, Mike's birthday. Don't you just love the circles of life. Who needs a bucket list....there is enough going on that we can just barely keep up anyway.
I'm in sore feet mode and I have an appointment with the oncologist tomorrow. I had bone scans done last week (moved up because of a shortage of radioactive isotope) I think the Iranians are hording it ! I actually made the geiger counter go off when I drove a load of scrap iron to the recycler. I suppose I was glowing in the dark that night, but it didn't keep me awake. I'll go in to the Doc on crutches whether I need them or not. I'll get no sympathy. Or, maybe my feet will be miraculously cured tonight...you just can't ever tell. Two more doses of cycle 7A and then yipppeeee I'm off for a week.
Writers block? I don't think so! Debbie says I'm scattered in my writing...and I don't write
linearally at all.... BUT I'M STILL VERTICAL.
I'll do better, I promise.
Bryan
1 comment:
Awww. No comments yet. There goes your so called "self esteem."
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