All a Matter of Perspective

I was curious if anyone had time to listen to the story from Kevin Kling that I had posted yesterday? I really like this guy.

When Charlie and Alyssa came over for dinner last night I played it for them. Listening to the story again I seemed to notice even more how it translates so directly to my past year.

Events in your life can turn your perspectives upside down and all around. And like this storyteller I found new perspectives through traumas.

It's easy to get caught up in the details of the lives we create around us - jobs, the stock market, raking leaves. We can become so busy and focused on our needs that we forget about our blessings.

I've always kept in touch with my blessings. But, I too, of course, get caught up like everyone else in my daily needs.

I've always maintained an attitude that the best things in life are free - a sunrise or sunset, a child's smile, the love of family. But I'd also get caught up in the silliest details of work, which in the big picture are meaningless.

My trauma, like the storytellers, has opened my eyes and freshened my perspective, to see all the blessings in life, and to feel thankful for being able to experience them.

Prayer: Once a Last Resort, Now a Habit

I was going to transcribe in my own words a story I heard on NPR radio sometime ago. But then I was lucky enough to find the actual story as told by Kevin Kling on the NPR website, I decided it would be better just to share the link instead.

This was one of those stories that just stuck in my head as soon as I heard it. (And trust me not too much sticks up there!)

With my own battle with cancer this year the story seems even more poignant.

I hope you'll take a minute or two to listen to this story. It's very entertaining.

Click here to listen to story.

And We Learn From Them

Heather and I sharing Thanksgiving Day.

I like to warn people that I'm very immature for my age. As each year goes by that becomes less and less true. But it's still a motto I like to live by. And it seems to make people laugh.

Children have such innocence. Sure they ingeniously work up their tricks and schemes over time. But they approach life with wide eyes and open minds, willing to believe wanting to learn. And they approach life without the prejudices our life experiences have silently heaped upon us.

I do think that it's important, no matter what the age, to keep a little of that childlike enthusiasm inside.

Once, many years ago, I was working in a press shop. I was the art director and I roamed the plant once or twice a day to check out how jobs I designed and set-up for production were working out. It was invaluable. How did I screw up? How did I do well? How can I do better?

Deadlines in press production are often a little insane. One day on one of my walks back through the plant I saw a friend, working a magazine through a folding and stitching machine. I could tell he was worked up. His voice was raised. His body darted about the machine. His face was stiff with anxiety. He was trying to make an impossible deadline.

I snuck up behind him and whispered in his ear, "I like puppies," and I walked away.

I glanced back. He was looking at me walk away. He was still stone faced, still feeling the stress. Then suddenly he broke up in uncontrollable laughter.

At the end of the day he came up to me in my office. He had just finished the crunch job on deadline. He said to me "What the heck was that 'I like puppies' comment?"

I smiled and just shrugged my shoulders.

He smiled back, and walking away he said, "Thanks, I needed that."

We all need that from time to time.

So keep jumping out of those armoires Bill!!!

teeheehee

Keeping Pace

My archnemesis, my mortal enemy, my daily battle, is against cardboard.

We seem to drown in it.

We are internet shoppers. With the price of gas, and the extra time necessary to travel to shop, the cost of having something delivered seems to make more and more sense everyday.

And with every delivery comes more cardboard. It seems to build at incredible rates. All the cardboard must be sliced down to required size and boxed for collection. It's quite a process. And quite a challenge to keep up.

I have declared war against cardboard. At present, the battle could go either way.

But we'll continue to shop on the internet. Keeping me out of stores in general makes for a kinder planet. I don't know what it is about people in stores. They seem to forget that any other human exists on the planet but themselves, parking carts across aisles, commandering sections of stores at a time, lost in a far-away gaze at the products around them, hypnotized in another world.

It's like the first time I went to an all you can eat seafood buffet at the shore. It sounded like an awesome idea . . . until we got there. The buffet was a war zone with people diving into crab legs and clearing them all as soon as they hit the warmer, elbowing, jockeying for position. Ugh.

One of my priorities wherever I go is to be conscious of others, to not have any negative effects on anyone else around me, no matter how simple. It's just me. I want to stay out of the way.

Yes. There are some things that you just need to go out to shop for. And I know a couple gals that enjoy the "hunt," and graciously leave sourpusses like myself at home.

I've never been able to complete my Christmas shopping without having to go out to a local store. But, maybe, just maybe, this year will be the first all-internet Christmas shopping event. And through December I'll continue to slice and to rip and to fold and to pack, and I'll continue my personal battle to keep our lives free of excessive cardboard in our basement.

Not So Nice Weather

Rain, Rain Go Away, Come Back Again Some Other Day.....

This messes up the plans that you end up having for raking any leaves and preparing them for pick up on Wednesday. Jim and I always share the responsibility of raking on Monday's and bagging on Tuesday's, but it's not going to happen today. I just don't want to see the leaves lay around for an extensive period of time that they rot.

On the other hand, I wish luck to my daughter today in one of her permanent license test for the salon that she works at. I can't imagine with all the hard work that she has put into it, that she won't do well.

I certainly hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, I had the pleasure of seeing both my family and my husband's family including his Aunt from Florida. Everyone had a very memorable time.

All of you take care until another day.

Enjoy the Quiet

During the Thanksgiving holiday the world goes quiet.

Now if you found yourself stuck in holiday traffic or joining the masses on Black Friday you may not feel the same. But for Barb and I the Thanksgiving weekend just slowed everything down, which is a refreshing break.

Not that things are real fast paced in good 'ol Marietta. But the lunch time traffic at the deli across the street was certainly much less. There were very few trucks rumbling through town. No one seemed in much of a rush of any kind.

I'm learning more and more that the chemo brings me a different adventure each and every week.

This week, if I bend my arm at the elbow just right and then slowly swing my arm back along my body to just the right point I suddenly get neuropathy of a nerve, which is a tingling, burning sensation. I've had it in other areas, including my neck, hands and feet. So far it's just come and then gone away. (shrugging shoulders) Strange huh?

Also my stomach decided to go cramp crazy this week. It feels like someone's inside there just squeezing. That has come and gone before too.

Each week it's a certain combination of various ailments.

But I continue to feel stronger, slowly but surely. I continue to fight towards good health.

The Thanksgiving quiet will end tomorrow and the hustle and bustle will be back, amidst a predicted full day of downpours.

And I'll be back exercising and working, nursing all the little aches and pains.

Because as everyone exclaimed at Thanksgiving festivities when I entered and pulled the beanie off my head . . . "Oooooooooo HAIR!!!"

Thanks

I am thankful to wake up every morning to enjoy another day of challenges anew.

I'm thankful to people, those around me who've helped me so much, who without I'd be dreadfully lost.

I'm especially thankful to Barb, for all she's dealt with, helped with, and just simply done over and over again and again.

I'm thankful for marshmallows. I don't know why but I think they're neat.

I'm thankful for cancer survivors who share their experiences so others can learn and prepare and beat these diseases.

I'm thankful for morning sunlight, shooting horizontal across the landscape, crisping the edges of all objects in its path.

I'm thankful to anyone who tells a a story, cracks a joke, makes an expression, and makes me smile.

I'm thankful for doctors and nurses who care, who show up each day not because they're getting paid to, but because they want to help, they want to accomplish.

I'm thankful to God for all that he has created around us.

It was great to be around all of the families this Thanksgiving Day week. There was lots of food, fun and friendship, and plenty of smiles. Barb and I feel very thankful for that. And there's just no better entertainment than the young ones faces, and their endless energy.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Chasing a Wild Pig Running Loose

Taking my chemotherapy drug is a bit like letting a wild pig loose in our house. The wild pig tears through the house destroying almost everything in its path. But it can't destroy the house itself.

And you don't know which direction the pig is heading, to the kitchen maybe, over to the office, the family room, up the stairs?

Each morning at 5 a.m. I grab two Nexavar tablets, cringe just a little, pop the pills in my mouth, and swallow, letting the wild pig loose in my body. I'll sit down and continue to wake up with a glass of ice water and wait to find out what the chemo has in store for me today.

Some days the chemo will create fatique, at any moment. Like a child falling asleep in his oatmeal, suddenly I can be gripped with fatique and desperately need a nap.

Some days the chemo will create digestive problems, at any moment. I try to chase around the digestive problems with medications and well-timed eating. It's tough though chasing that wild pig around.

Some days the chemo seems to just make me feel sore, somewhere, somehow.

But as long as the chemo continues to allow me to wake up everyday and hug my wife . . . bring on the side effects. I'll deal with them.

Four Letter Word

Snow.

Jeesh, snow. That's definitely a four letter word around here.

It's not much. But just the sight of it as we woke up this morning was enough to remind us that the bucket of salt and the shovel are not far away.

I never much cared for the cold. And even though I grew up on top of a sledding and snowfort paradise, I've always preferred summertime, cut-off shorts and cannonballs into the deep end.

Since snow seems to have had a great deal to do with the original diagnosis of my cancer, it's met with even more mixed feelings from me. After a big snow in February of 2006 I found myself shoveling for a couple of hours. The next day problems appeared and I was off to the doc, off to the CT scans, and off to surgery.

On one hand, of course, the snow reminds me of originally learning of my cancer. On the other hand, without all the physical exertion that the snow created I may not have learned of the cancer for who knows how long.

So perhaps I should be thankful to the snow.

But I'm still hoping for a warm, dry winter.

Thanks!
Barb's family held an early Thanksgiving yesterday to help alleviate all of the crazy Thursday running around from everyone.

Thanks to Jay and Debbie and Ellis for inviting us all into their home, being such gracious hosts, and preparing such an incredible feast.

There is so much to be thankful for, and near the top of that list has to be the opportunity to have all the family together like that to share some laughs and some smiles.

It's great to watch the kids tear about when you know they're not your responsibility. LOL

The Holiday Season is Here

Saturday morning welcomes us with a brisk 31-degrees in Marietta, and high, soft clouds that look like they were taken straight from a painting. The red maple off the back porch is covered in fiery red leaves. The yard is littered with leaves.

Freckles tears about with one extra-large clump of hair left on his back. He's almost completely shed into his winter coat now. I think he misses Summer for similar reasons to me. We both like to sit out back, feeling the warm breeze gently blow in from the river, watching the birds and squirrels who visit us on the porch.

I'm feeling pretty good. I still wrestle with some fatique, some digestive stuff. My skin has suddenly started drying out pretty good. But I'm sure that's contributed to by the start of the furnace and the closing of all the storm windows.

In my world I worry about everything and nothing. So many "things" have come and gone you kind of take it in stride. At least through the past few months everything I've dealt with seems to be related to treatments rather than being caused by the disease itself.

And the feeling in the cancer world seems to be "I'll gladly take a punch in the stomach today if you don't punch me in the head." Or in other words I'll gladly deal with side effects from treatments as long as the cancer stays away.

Thanksgiving has arrived. It's my favorite holiday, all of the friends, fun and food . . . none of the presents. Plus it's a holiday of fine tradition that we haven't completely commercialized yet . . . outside a little football.

I certainly have a lot to be thankful for this year. Everyone around me has shown such incredible support that I will never be able to match it in return.

Before long Christmas will be here. I've never felt like much of a qualified Santa Claus. I have no problems with generosity and giving. It's just giving what to whom that I've far from perfected.

But this year, because of a laptop computer and generally more time on my hands I've actually ordered two Christmas presents already. They both arrived last week. This is by far the earliest I've ever shopped for Christmas. It's completely unheard of for me.

And I've already given both of these presents to Barb already (commercial strength coffee maker and new sneakers). LOL

Like I said, I never felt like much of a qualified Santa Claus. I don't even have the patience to hold the presents until December 25th.

But then I've always felt that unexpected gifts at unexpected times were a little more special than holiday gifts.

Keep your eye out for those unexpected gifts. Sometimes it may be new sneakers. Sometimes it may be as simple as a smile.

Balance

Every now and again, in one of my reflective moments, I'll think of the stark reality of Earth - everything on Earth must consume other things on Earth to survive. What a set up huh?

With each passing decade we successfully separate ourselves from that reality. One hundred years ago I would be expected to hunt to supplement the family's food supply. There's nothing like having to kill to understand the meaning of survival here on Earth.

Today I only hunt in that cold section of the grocery store. And I like it that way.

So Earth is an environment of competitiveness, a survival of the fittest. I'd say we're winning. We're everywhere.

And I believe if the Earth gets sick of us it will kick us off - earthquakes, tidal waves, volcanos, climate changes, disease . . . cancer.

Our spirituality often draws us to look to the skies, upward to heaven, to the stars and beyond. But don't forget to also look below your feet, to look all around you. This Earth was built as one unit, with a delicate system of balances, which includes us.

If balance is an obviously important value of successful life on Earth than shouldn't we respect that? We look to the heavens for answers to some of our most troubling affairs. Have we already been given the guidance we need in everything around us? Are we missing the clues? Or just ignoring some of stark realities?

I do believe that being good custodians of the planet is part of spiritual awareness.

But as we separate ourselves more and more from the natural realities around us we forget more and more about the significance of balancing all that was created. This also removes us further from our spiritual awareness.

I once knew a woman who worked hard to draw song birds to her backyard. She was successful and soon song birds were enjoying feeders and baths in her yard. One day working in her backyard she watched in horror as an owl glided silently towards a feeder and snatched a small bird swooping it away.

She called a wildlife resource to ask what she could do to get rid of the owl. A local park ranger told her that the owl was there because his food was there. So she could get rid of the owl by getting rid of the song birds she worked so hard to draw.

It's a balancing act.

Some will say, "Let's save the Earth." I say, "Let's save ourselves!"

The Earth can take care of itself. But, if we upset the created balances of Earth, will we be able to take care of ourselves?

So...way too philosophical today. I better take in a little Sponge Bob Square Pants.

Good Friends

There is nothing like seeing a good friend that you haven't seen in quite a few months or even had an opportunity to talk to. Jim and I had a surprise visit by one of my good friends from Clipper Magazine (Ms. Robin), she actually did come over with some books I had left behind at Clipper. I was so glad to see her because I miss alot of the people that I had worked very closely with, and they know that, or at least I hope that they do. She did hang out for awhile and we chatted and caught up with some time lost and we hope to get together some time soon with some of the other people that I worked with at Clipper, which I feel would be a great thing to do.

I hope the people that I worked closely with, know that I think about them frequently and know how much I miss them.

Super Heroes

When I was young, oh about 11 or 12, I'd drop into a five and dime store on Main Street in Myerstown. If I was lucky enough to have a nickel or dime in my possession I'd gladly spend it on a comic book. It was the only place to find a comic book in town.

Spiderman, the Fantastic Four, for me it was an early appreciation for graphics, illustration, and publishing at large. I scoured each comic book that I was lucky enough to get my hands on. It was one of the first things I wanted to spend my hard earned nickels on. Later came candy and baseball cards.

In many of these comic book tales ordinary people became extraordinary after accidental exposure to radiation. I'm still waiting to see what super power radiation bestows on me.

Since I took the radiation to the head, perhaps I'll be able to read minds, or shoot laser beams from my eyes! I don't think the radiation is going to turn my nature of goodwill to a mindset of evil bent on ruling the world. Please warn me if you see any indication of that!

But even when I was a young kid with a nickel in his pocket, I knew that super heroes were only fun fantasy, just a tickle to the imagination. But the comic books weren't really that far off.

When I see all of the people fighting cancer, or those who have fought cancer, people of all ages from little tiny guys and gals to our elders, they all remind me of super heroes. When I hear stories of what people have endured, how bravely they've fought their disease while feeling at their weakest, it's inspirational.

To see a three-year-old with cancer smiling ear to ear, running and playing while feeling completely lousy, you see a comic book super hero in real life.

A Little Sweat on the Forehead

I do enjoy simple physical tasks. Whether it be painting or dusting or mowing the yard, I enjoy being able to step back when I'm done and soak in what I've accomplished.

For someone who has always spent a lot of mental energy each day in my career, having simple physical energy releases were always important to me for balance.

Today Barb and I will start our second major leaf collection. Today is raking. Tomorrow is bagging. Wednesday they'll come to pick them up.

Thankfully (LOL) we only have one rake, so Barb and I take turns. One of us will go at it until we've had enough and then call for a substitute. The other will step in.

You can't get much more simple, or more physical, then raking leaves. And today I look forward to both the simple and the physical. That's right, I'm looking forward to raking leaves.

The physical part is, literally, just what the doctor ordered. I need to keep seeking better fitness. Raking leaves will work out a few important muscles, and a few I didn't even know I had.

The simple part is refreshing, the brisk Fall air, the beauty of the color of the leaves, the pure awe at the amount of leaves, the smell of the neighbors wood stove, the sight of Barb suddenly running and leaping into a huge pile of leaves (as she did last year).

And in the end today we will stand back and look at the HUGE pile of leaves collected between the tall wooden fence and the grand old oak tree. Then we'll take in the freshly cleaned backyard, already accepting a few new leaves to replace the old ones. We'll smile and give each other a nod, no words being necessary, and we'll soak in what we've simply accomplished.

Life is what you make of it.

More Random Notes

Welcome to the weekend, and just a few quick random notes.

Barb got out with the girls Thursday to do a little shopping. The trip was a success and Barb returned with a few bags, even more smiles, and lots of leftover energy. Thanks Susan and Alyssa for getting her out a bit. It must be tough to be locked up with me all the time! But she's such a trooper, with such an awesome spirit.

Barb's smiles quickly turned this morning when Freckles decided to stalk, then pounce, then dig into her ankle. He likes us. Really he does. This is undoubtedly his unacceptable form of playing sometimes. The cat is now in the dog house. I wouldn't let anyone scratch Freckles wide open, and I won't let him get away with doing it to someone else.

The rasta dredlocks Freckles has been sporting have really begun to fall off now. We'll be walking through the house and suddenly discover what looks exactly like lucky rabbits' feet.

I'm keeping busy with household things. The two remaining air conditioning units upstairs finally made it to their winter home in the basement. I'm working on the computer as well. The busier I keep myself the more energy I seem to have. About once a week the fatique will strike me in the middle of the day, and then I'm bound for a two-hour nap to bring the energy back around.

There's some good English soccer on TV later today. So I'm off to get the electric window candles from the basement and begin installing them on all the windows. As long as I'm free for the soccer game around noon. It's important to have priorities! lol

The Incredible Shrinking Man

Around this time last year, I started to notice that the size 36-inch waist pants I've been fitting into for the past 20-years were starting to get kind of snug.

I caved in and pulled dozens of jeans and slacks off my shelves and started to replace them with size 38s. Luckily it was nearing Christmas and before long my shelves were filling up with jeans that fit.

As my brother-in-law said, "Welcome to the other side."

For some strange reason I just didn't have the heart to throw away all of my size 36-inch waist pants. I stacked them at the bottom of my closet, made sure that Freckles couldn't possibly lay on them, and forgot about them.

Recently Barb started dropping hints to me that my clothing was looking pretty big on me. I came to accept the wider waist and really never considered that my size would ever go back down.

For some reason I always remember Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon talking at the beginning of a Tonight Show. Johnny asked Ed if he eats because he enjoys it or because he knows he has to. Ed, a man after my own heart, said that he of course ate because he enjoys it. Johnny made a quick joke or two and then said that he eats because he knows he has to.

I've always found that a bit odd. I ate because I loved to. Or, at least that's the way it had always been. Now I understand the other side, eating because you know you have to.

But I do eat. The portions are healthy, but nowhere near the portions I used to enjoy.

Barb's usually right. Could my clothing now be too big?

I didn't really believe it until I saw a picture of myself. My jeans were bunched in at the waist, full through the legs. They were definitely too big. Barb's always right.

I remembered putting all of my old pants aside at the bottom of the closet. I pulled the pile out and tried the top pair on. It was a perfect fit. I didn't think I'd really see the old size 36s again. But they were back.

Now I have to pile all of the size 38-inch pants at the bottom of the closet.

Working Hard

Getting myself back to "normal" has been a slow process. It's just the nature of the beast. I can tell from week to week that I continue to improve. But this certainly isn't like the flu where you can wake up and say, "I feel a little better today."

I am getting to a point where I can begin to tell what symptoms are the result of the radiation treatments, and what side effects are the result of the chemo.

I've read some testimonials from other cancer patients who've received extensive radiation treatments. Many wrote about just how long it takes to return to "normal," after radiation. Many mentioned a time frame around one year. And for others, some things have just never returned to "normal."

For me, I still do have some ringing in my ears. If my face gets a little red from exercising or doing some physical work you can still see the radiation line above my eyebrows. My forehead remains pale while my face is rosey and it does not appear as if life is yet back to normal in my head, inside the radiation field.

I believe that many glands are still recovering and coming back to life. It's hard to pin a doctor down on this one, since the effects of radiation, beyond killing cancer cells, are a bit of a mystery. My eye muscles were affected by the radiation, as well as my speech, but both continue to improve with each passing month.

With many of the radiation effects waning, the chemo has had more opportunity to present its own fun side effects. Primarily the chemo turns my digestive system into an amusement park. Every day is different, some better and some worse. But dealing with it and trying to control it with medicine and proper diet has been the biggest challenge of the chemo treatments. The chemo is like putting a little poison in your body everyday. But it's a poison that's attacking the poison that already exists - the cancer.

I've gotten more and more serious about my morning exercises. It's meager compared to what I could do before cancer came to town. But it's helping and I'm feeling the ongoing improvement, and that's all that counts.

Thanks to everyone who forwarded me recipes. With very limited amounts of beef now in my diet we're greatly expanding our poultry and fish menu. Last night I made Chicken Tetrazzini for the first time. It was a great way to use up leftover chicken from Barb's roaster that she made on Sunday. The Tetrazzini was awesome. I still can't eat portions like I used to, but I finished a healthy portion, cleaning my plate. By the way that Barb went back for seconds, I'd say the Chicken Tetrazzini is a recipe worth trying.

OK. Time to exercise.

Time to Reflect

I cannot believe the weeks continue to fly by. It's already so close to the holiday season and closing in fast. This year I want to try and get a better jump on the holiday shopping. It's becomes increasingly difficult year to year to figure out what to buy for those on your Christmas list.

My endeavor with the guest bathroom has worked out very well, between the painting and the stenciling and the general decor. (other projects to follow) Anyway, it is also local election day in our area, I wish we knew more in relation to the candidates.

Obviously I am just grasping at things to say because I run out of ideas, but everyone have a good one.

Enjoy the Right to Guess, I Mean Vote

Election Day is tomorrow and I feel a need to get out and be counted and cast my votes.

There are some local issues that I feel pretty strongly about. I feel it's important to do my part to try to change some current local directions.

First of all, in the Spring of 2006 our current local school board raised real estate taxes 19-percent. Nineteen-percent?!?!?!? What goes up 19-percent? Did your income go up 19-percent?

The school board justified the tax increase by saying that years of former boards being afraid to raise taxes made this huge tax increase now painfully necessary.

I considered it horribly irresponsible. That large of a tax increase is impossible for local property owners to budget or plan for. I know it led to at least one local business closing. I'm sure it had a great negative impact locally. Locals were up in arms.

And I have a tough time understanding such a lack of funds when new developments with $250,000 homes are going up everywhere locally and generating more and more property taxes.

To me, it sounds like some school board members need to be replaced. Voting is really the only method of checks and balances we hold over government.

Also we have a renegade mayor here in the borough of Marietta. He fashions himself as a bit of a puppet master who pulls the strings, and makes things happen the way he sees fit. After a snowfall borough personnel and vehicles magically appear at his fortress of a home and clear all of his snow meticulously. Then they start to work on the public roads.

When our borough council decided that the mayor was abusing his oversight privileges over the local police force they voted to remove the mayor as the borough's representative to the police force and voted a council member to assume the position instead.

The mayor reacted as expected. What? You dare challenge the authority of the puppet master?

The mayor tapped thousands and thousands of dollars from our small borough budget to sue borough council. He cited some ancient and obscure state law that provides mayors with the right to oversee local police.

The mayor is not up for election this year (He is running for a school board position though.) But being the puppet master the mayor has convinced a handful of local cronies to run for borough council seats. He's working hard to load council full of folks who will vote as he sees fit.

When you see officials abuse their power at the smallest level, it makes you wonder what's going on at the highest level.

We're a small borough. We're landlocked and we have a pretty fixed tax base and a pretty meager budget. We have a very tough time just trying to keep up with the costs of upgrading our infrastructure. Does the mayor spending thousands of taxpayers' dollars to sue borough council sound like a responsible decision? All so he can have power over the police? Why does he crave such power?

Sounds like I have more reasons to vote tomorrow. It's the only power I have.

But there's a small problem. I don't know anyone on the ballot. I don't know why they're running for office, who they are, what they stand for. And I'm struggling to try to find out anything about any of the candidates.

The Lancaster paper published a voter's guide last week. But all that was published for Marietta Borough and Donegal School District was a list of names. We've only lived here for three and a half years. We do not recognize one name on either list.

More importantly we do not know anything about any of these people, what they stand for, what their goals are. We don't know anything.

I've been searching for information, scouring old news archives online, talking to locals that we know, trying to find out everything I can. I've managed to identify one candidate for borough council that has been hand-picked by the mayor. That's it.

I don't know if I've ever had more personal interest in voting. And I don't know if I've ever been more ill-equipped to vote responsibly. I just can't go into the voting booth and vote for someone based on party affiliation, or a nice face, or a name I like. I have an overwhelming fear that tomorrow I will accidentally vote for people that are supporting all of the things that I'm against.

All of the local papers in the county, who we used to be able to count on for this important local information, have been bought out by large news corporations. Our local Donegal Ledger recently sold to a media group in Philadelphia, and gone is all our local news. The Lancaster papers cover the city news and fighting amongst county commissioners. But when it comes to local municipal news they opt to run stories on Britney Spears instead.

When watching news on TV or reading it in the paper, I always ask myself "How does this story affect my life?" If news doesn't affect my life, I don't bother with it. How does a woman in Texas murdering her five children affect my life? It doesn't. It's like slowing down to get a better look at a car accident.

I'm going to become a news reporter again today, back to my original profession. I'll have to make my own phone calls, collect my own information, to see if I can piece together the local election puzzle.

I'm sure my dilemna is a common one for many. If people are provided the information they need about candidates I believe that they will be interested and they will vote. But to many it just doesn't seem worth the time if it all boils down to "eenie, meenie, miinie, moe."

Good Morning

Morning light over a cornfield just outside of Marietta as shot by Barb at 45 miles per hour.

I started tossing and turning a bit. I propped myself up to peak at the alarm clock over Barb's shoulder and it read 4:30 a.m. I decided to get up since I have to take the chemo at 5 a.m.

Freckles met me in the upstairs hallway. The Berber carpet is just right for him to dig his claws into a little. So his natural instincts take over and he assumes the pounce position, pumping his paws to feel his claws grip the carpet.

I stumble around him and by the time I reach the end of the hallway he takes off like a bullet and lands aggressively by my right foot. He stops there. He knows. I bite back.

Freckles follows me down the stairs. We stop at the bottom. I stare at a foreign object on the floor, while Freckles stares at me. Stepping around the foreign object I reach the overhead light switch, turn the light on, and turn around to return and find a 6-inch by 2-inch matted, hard, clump of Freckles hair. It was a new record, large enough for me to save on a paper towel for Barb to see later.

Freckles has finally started to shed in his annual seasonal ritual. He first becomes covered in large, matted clumps of hair that look just like lucky rabbits' feet. Now shedding time has finally started.

As I move around the kitchen and sun room Freckles matches my every step, circling my feet, and closing in to rub against my leg every time I stop.

I fix myself a glass of ice water and land in the family room La-Z-Boy. As I reach for one of the 57 remote controls I notice that the clock in the entertainment unit reads 3:34 a.m.

3:34 a.m.?

Don't forget to move your clocks back everyone.

Friday Notes

Me in the FJ Cruiser, with Barb taking charge of the camera.

Sorry it's been a couple days since we've "blogged." We've been embattled with a bathroom ceiling light/fan. I'll spare you all the blow by blow details. But with a little touch-up painting today we're going to be able to check that project off our lists.

I've always said that I'll do anything but electrical or plumbing work. Primarily because it always seemed to be important, significant work that should be done by someone more qualified than me. But since buying this old house, I've done both electrical and plumbing work. It's been fairly simple stuff though, mainly replacing fixtures. The bathroom ceiling light/fan will be the seventh light fixture in the house we've changed.

I guess I just feel more comfortable knowing how my house works, so I'm happy to dive into this stuff and learn. Mainly, I want to know what to do if something in the house doesn't work. I joke with Barb that we're on a mission to become more self-sufficient - more Amish.

I know a lot about this house. And I've got a lot to learn.

I'll work to further winterize the house today, while Barb finishes that touch-up painting in the bathroom. Not real exciting stuff, but it needs to be done and there's a sense of accomplishment at the finish. The work keeps me active and the more I'm active the more I'm fighting the fatique from the chemo.

The chemo does make everyday a little bit of a dice roll. You never know what you're going to get. I've had high energy days, and days that have required a nap. But I try to keep building it up, trying to get back to "normal." It's too early to know exactly what the chemo has in store for me today. We shall see.

Happy Friday everyone!