Johnny the Wad Nicklaus

It was kind of a strange week. I could tell my blood counts were getting lower as the week wore on – felt weak, slight ear noise when I stood up, and I could not get warm. I expected low blood counts 7-10 days after the last cytarabine shot, and sure enough the doc called yesterday. Of course, I was at Morro Rock looking at the surf, and Johnny got the call, and immediately went back to whatever he was doing. Luckily I didn’t surf because I felt so tired and it was cold in Morro Bay. Johnny told me later the doc had called and said all my counts were low, I should lay low. I called the doc and he asked ‘Are you bleeding? Any fevers? How do you feel?’ No, no, OK.

I am now laying low. Dana and Johnny are off to tour Berkeley and Sonoma State, so Mike and I will have a TV/PC gaming fest this weekend, wow.

Pat, you should have started your own blog long ago, I am getting extra work here and I am so busy. Email me some pics from your trip and I will post them, then for crying out loud fill in some of the gory details, how many bodies were floating around, something about fear and loathing, we love fear stuff. Maybe naked people, that’s always big, especially if they are playing blackjack on a cruise ship. I always bring those disinfecting wipes to the naked blackjack tourneys, and you should too.

Mac, it’s back to the basics for my golf game. Watched Golf My Way by Nicklaus, and now I’m reading Dave Pelz’s Short Game Bible. This book is a must, I think. If only you could get your body to do what you watch and read. I’d be a porn star that golfs well!

Seemed like a good idea

Finishing up phase 4, no more cytarabine and what a finish I had with that poison. I got the last 4 shots this week, and the anti-nausea made it impossible to golf with the effects on vision. I tried anyway, and shot God knows what, I quit keeping score, but it was bad. So Friday I didn’t take the anti-nausea (Kytril) thinking I might like to try golfing, and I ended up puking for 3 hours instead. Smart. Didn’t that Doc way back there say the irradiation would make me stupider but I wouldn’t notice? I noticed yesterday. The dang cytarabine gave me a rash on my hips too, started last Sunday, itchy. Yesterday it turned into a red flush of my face, it looked like I was wearing rouge. I stayed in all day.

I am still at a mere 155 lbs, and puking didn’t help. I am actually sucking down weight gain supplements. Gotta call Balco, get the good stuff. And now I need to find some new gang to golf with; the low handicappers are tired of me hanging with them, searching for my ball(s). Subtle messages, like ‘You should golf with so-and-so’. Ah well, we should all have these problems.

Dana and I have found a contractor to do the kitchen redo, and we will start next spring when the rains stop, yeehaw. She lies abed with a new cold, making me ponder a flu shot.

The last phase is coming up, but lasts until 2 years after diagnosis so until Feb. ’07. Vincristine IV ofnumbing juice day 1 of each month, 5 days of steroid pills, methotrexate pills once a week, and mercaptopurine pills every day. Not too bad.

Where to go for the 20th anniversary? We were thinking Mexico, but Wilma is changing that idea. I think Dana will push for Paris, and I am wanting tropical, but tropical is getting relentlessly smacked with weather, so Paris is nice. And the dollar is sure strong against the euro. Uh, thanks George, gotta keep those SUV sales into Europe strong. Not and Not. The guys a real thinker. Forget Paris on second thought, 45% more expensive than in ’01 and it wasn’t cheap then.

Maurice and Pat, where are you? Hope you brought wetsuits and boards, gonna be good waves in FLA. Oh yeah, for any of you goombahs going to Las Vegas, look at a map. I can be there in 7 hours, and I have the time and the inclination. You can win money from me golfing. Yes, Bill, I am talking to you. Sheesh. this boring life is freaking boring, and pushing me closer to radical thought and action. I am going to have start my Big Book of Intelligent Designs. Are there unintelligent designs? If it was designed, there must have been intelligence applied, no? Great article in Esquire this month, Idiot America, check it out.

Limekiln Creek

Weighed in at 155 this morning, sheesh, where’s it going? That’s too light, I am thinking ice cream. Starting Phase 5 tomorrow, IV of cyclophosphamide ass-kicker, shot of cytarabine ass-kicker, pills of 6-thioguanine. Yeehaw. Feeling OK, my beard stopped growing almost completely, but the hair on my head keeps trying to come back. Go figure.

Johnny is home sick with a sore throat, Mikey has the fever/pukey/poopy flu, started Sunday, hope that’s a one-day grippe.

The Beauch and I went up to Limekiln Creek campground last Thursday, and it was Jade Festival weekend at Pacific Valley, our usual campground 5 minutes south. The campsite we had was awesome, right on the river, beautiful spot. The campground is also right on the beach, with some campsites 100 feet from the water. One of the best campgrounds I have seen, big sites, nice bathrooms, showers. Beauch got it for free as a state parks worker, which only happens occasionally. In this picture is our campsite; the bridge leads up the trail to the waterfalls and to the old lime kilns. Oh yeah, I forgot to bring my sleeping bag (doh!), but luckily Mike had some blankets, I wore everything I had, and used all the towels for more blankets. Brrrrrr. I am just now starting to reheat.

The downside of hanging with Mike is the guy hikes and repairs trails for a living, so humping straight up a 14% incline for a couple of miles is fun to him. The guy kills me. We humped all over the joint Friday, then Saturday he had to check this new acquisition of state land and make a recommendation on whether to keep the existing trail. Only a 45 minute hike, he said. Two hours! Beautiful territory, but give me oxygen. Look at how far up from the ocean we hiked!

The Jade Festival was a great hit, polka bands, mega jade, rock and roll; the hokiest little festival in CA. Check out the slab of jade in the pic. These guys all say they’re divers, but we all know they’re digging in the cliff. They aren’t getting this stuff diving in Jade Cove, because the law is you can take from below mean high tide what one person can carry. That puts the limit at 250 pounds for most of us; it’s 150 feet straight up the cliff you have to carry this rock, then ¼ mile to your car.