School of hard knocks

Steroid week and that means it's time for an update. 6:22, ate my breakfast, read the paper, perused the internet and heading for a pill party. I met with the doc yesterday for the first time in a few months, and he reaffirmed that I am essentially cured, or as I paraphrased him, "I am free to die of something else." Blood counts are all fine, chemo is having no ill effects, pass Go, go to the next doctor for some other pain.

I had an Xray of my left hip that showed osteo-arthritis, and then an MRI to see if there was any necrosis, and there is not, which is good because that sometimes happens with chemo and cancer. Now I want to get a nice big shot of prednisone in the hip and give me 3 months of walking pain-free.

Good thing too, because this job is killing me. Nah, just kidding, I am having fun and love a job that is challenging and diverse. The good thing about the old turds I find is, they don't smell, but the bad thing is, they don't smell. Manitoubou, an old bookkeeping turd is something such as a misapplied payment or a missing invoice copy from a year ago that the customer has not paid, and now you are them to pay, and of course the first thing they want is a copy of the invoice. Not unsolvable, but time consuming. I am wading through these turds and sending them to the compost heap, but want to get through this phase and on to my core competency of telling other people what to do.


Live Oak was great as usual, but seemed too thick with Zydeco and Mardi Gras music, not as eclectic as in years past, not much bluegrass. I didn't think it really got going until Sunday night, when the African band Baaba Mal got everyone jumping, followed by Arlo Guthrie, who brought down the house. He remarked, and it is true, how the old protest songs seem to have relevance again. He was very funny, my kids loved him, and it was like old times. I ran spotlight at a concert of his at URI in '79 I think, or '78, and he was sick of doing his old stuff then, but not now, and we all had a great time playing with the pencils and filling in the boxes on the Group W bench.

Young John has graduated, yippee, and I will delay this posting until tonight so I can add his graduating picture. Dana and he and I went to Sonoma State (40 miles north of San Francisco, Pat) last Thursday night for 1 1/2 days of orientation Friday and Saturday. We all stayed in the dorms, which are 6 person suites, 4 bedrooms (2 double 2 single) that share a kitchen and living room, each bedroom with it's own bath. Not like Butterfield at URI. I thought I might finally get lucky in a college dorm, but it was not to be. Maybe when Mikey goes to college.


Anyway, about ten guys and ninety girls attended the orientation. Yikes, John is going to be busy! Seriously, it was the teenage girl babe-o-rama. The ratio at Sonoma is 2:1, but orientation was 8:1 or more. Each guy there had to sit at a table of girls, and I give them credit for not being terrified and huddling up. I guess the other guys don't need to orient, they can get lost on their own, we know that. The campus is great, small college feel, and it is with about 5000 students, 1/3 the size of URI or Cal Poly, in the suburbs of Rohnert Park. Brand new gym just for the non-athletes, new library, new music building, new science building, it smelled like money. Should be great.


The level of poemerizing has really moved up, I have to seriously consider the Poems of the HolyCow Blog as an anthology that needs publishing to the masses. It just needs a little funding.


Speaking of funding, my neighbors Janice and Carolyn have a Team in Training team that will run in the half-marathon in October and raise donations to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I will include their letter here so you can read it for yourself.

Dear Family & Friends,

We have exciting news! My daughter Carolyn and I have joined forces to raise money for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society! For the next five months, we will be training with other Team in Training participants to complete the Nike Women’s Half Marathon in San Francisco, on Sunday, October 22, 2006! We have never done anything like this before and are excited to share the adventure together.

So why are we doing this? We want to take advantage of this opportunity to share precious mother-daughter time together before Carolyn goes off to college in the not too distant future. We look forward to the physical challenge of running a half-marathon. And most importantly, we want to contribute to finding a cure for blood-related cancers. Our next door neighbor, John, is currently fighting Leukemia. While we have not been very involved in his battle, we feel that participating in Team in Training might be a way to show solidarity for him.

And where do YOU come in? We have made a commitment to raise
$5,200 by August. You can help us achieve this goal by making a tax-deductible donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Your contribution is needed and WILL make a difference! Act now! Your donation will bring us one step closer to a cure.

Along with your donation, please send us names of cancer victims or survivors you would like us to include on our pace bands. Each of our 13.1 miles will be dedicated to these honorable people. Their names will become a meditation at the start of each mile to give each step purpose and meaning. Along with the names you share with us, we will be running in honor of our neighbor John Fiore, and in memory of Ray, a family friend who died of Lymphoma.

THANK YOU for your consideration and support,

Janice and Carolyn Campbell
______________________________________________________________________
Mail donor form (below) with check to:
Janice Campbell, 4384 Wavertree
Street, San Luis Obispo, CA, 93401
I will make a tax deductible donation in support of Janice & Carolyn Campbell’s participation in the Nike Women’s Half Marathon
Make Checks payable to: The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
Amount:
______________________________________________________
Name:
______________________________________________________
Address: ______________________________________________________
City, State,Zip_____________________________________________________
Email:
______________________________________________________

To make an easy on line credit card donation, go to the following web address: http://www.active.com/donate/tntgla/tntglaCCampbe OR http://www.active.com/donate/tntgla/tntglaJCampbe

I know I tapped you all for white blood cells last March, and that worked great, but without the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society funding research on these diseases I may not be here, so if there is any way you can make a donation please do so.

The house is going ever soooo slooooow, delays on windows are costing us money faster than I can make it. It's 7 am Wednesday and I have to go to work.