Chondrosarcoma – ah shit, bob's sick

In the interest of breaking the post topics up a bit, here are some updates on what’s going on at our place on this Mother’s Day weekend, and how our schedule is shaping up. What a weekend it’s been already and it’s just getting started!

Friday after work I picked up a drum set for our Beatles video game. Yeah yeah, I know it sounds crazy but I’ve found these rhythm / music games are a great way to bring a family together and give us all something to do together … it is awesome family fun.

I’ve bought drums, microphones and guitars for these games and we can all pick whatever we feel like playing and play individually or together as a band. It’s designed so well, that a five year old can play right along with the adults and keep up just fine. Really an amazing thing. For families that are into music or wish to teach their children about music, or just want to have some fun together, this is a great way to get started. For kids, it’s instant fun and success … and that is important for kids, especially the instant success part.
I guess I sound like a salesman for these products but they are good … and good is good, no mater what it is.

I did this mainly because I sold off all the radio broadcasting gear this week … which is cool. I’ll have more to tell you about that in the upcoming weeks.

This coming week Alberic has a week long camping trip, and it’s a big one. So we’ve been getting him packed up in between the music games. This is really the first time he’s been away for week … of course he’s spent lot’s of overnighters and weekends away … but not for a full week. His whole sixth grade class is going and it it’s going to be a lot of fun for the kids. He’s excited, very excited! Packed with a few duffel bags of gear and a lot of excitement he’ll be heading Monday morning after dropping him off at school.

Sometime around June forth Sher’s son Mike is graduating with his Master’s from M.I.T. in Massachusetts! Nuclear Engineering is the course of study! Of course we’re going (at least that’s the plan), and it should be pretty exciting. I’m very proud of his accomplishments and he should be too. It’s not every kid that do what he’s done. He’s a hard working young man with a very special future ahead of him.

Sher’s other son was up this weekend giving us a hand to bring lot’s of old computer stuff to the dumps (pc’s, tv’s, lights and other electrical items) … and of course to see his mother . They are both great kids we can be proud of. He’s in college too, Environmental Engineering is his direction. Both these kids are one of the few things that give me some hope for the future … maybe, just maybe, our planet will survive long enough for these upcoming generations to help us older folks clean up the mess we’ve left them with. I guess that’s a topic for another post sometime.

We also did a little re-arranging in our kitchen today. One of favorite pastimes is cooking, but it’s been a challenge since standing for any period of time is difficult. So we’ve added a bar-type stool in the kitchen so I can sit down between trips to the stove … and honestly I think it’s going to work out just fine. Kind of weird … but it works for me.

On Mother’s Day, I plan on cooking a nice lobster dinner for Sher. Yummy, we are both lovers of fresh lobster with steamed with drawn butter. I’ll also probably make some steamed fresh asparagus, and fresh baked bread and that’ll be our meal.

Speaking of cooking tomorrow … it’s almost 11:30 and I’ve got an early start to the day.

One last comment for the post. It’s been such a pleasure to have the time to write a little more often for the blog. Hopefully I’ll be able to continue .

Happy Mother’s Day to all!

Reprise? Isn’t that a music related word? Well, when I looked up the definition of reprise, I was surprised to learn that there were so many for the term.

“repetition of all or part of a song which has already been performed during the show;”
“a clown’s short interlude played during breaks, between acts;”
“a return to an earlier theme;”
“a renewal of a failed attack, after going back into the en garde position;”

So I guess I’m using the third definition, “a return to an earlier theme;”, or maybe the second definition is simply more accurate!

What I was trying to say in the last post before I got carried away with the rant on “time” (which by the way, I have a lot more to say about), is that I’m trying to re-arrange my/our lifestyle to accommodate the changes in our lives that have occurred over this past year.
Has it really been almost a year already? … well, not quite. Although considering I was given a mere six to eight weeks to live last August, I think we’ve gotten through the first part of this cancer thing pretty well … and for that I am thankful. A busy time or not, at least I have “some” time to work with. The results of all these treatments and such could’ve turned out a lot different then it did … so understand when I complaining it’s really just blowing some steam off.

As I was saying, there are a few things that I have to do, and a few more I like to do, and do them all before I no longer can. For one thing, I’d love to do a final round of maintenance of our home. One more time around the house repairing as much as I can. Seal it up well, get it painted and repaired as best I can before I’m no longer able to do any of that kind of stuff.

You know all this, is in preparation for the future in the event I take a turn for the worse. It’s going to happen … but who knows when. It could be a few months down the road and in the same breath I can also say it could be years . I don’t know. There is no way of knowing and all we can do is try and plan it out a little bit.

What I have learned is that there isn’t much of a warning … one day you just wake up sick and you stay that way. I’m lucky, I got a reprieve, a temporary stay …

That’s one of the horrors that people with cancer face. Judging time is completely impossible. I know that can be kind of a difficult concept to understand without experiencing it. Can you imagine your mate says, we should start thinking about replacing the roof, or fixing the barn up, painting this or that.

Well my immediate reaction is to “Let’s try and do it now while I still have the energy and an income”. because that could change anytime . Well hold up there for a moment, I swore I was going to write this blog as open and honest as I could. there are actually two trains of thought that tend to run through my head in measuring up things like this. Sure, one of them is “Let’s do it now” and the other is “Who really gives a damn”.

Now for some of you that may seem like a no-brainer . fix it up now and later your mate will be better for it. Nothing wrong with that thought, nothing at all. But is that what your mate really wants? Will it really make a difference at all if I leave the barn or house well maintained?

Maybe we’re better off with more fun-type or interesting memories. You know, experiences that we could share together that could stick for a long time, a life time. Maybe it’s something like letting all the material world items “go to pot” and focusing on things could be so much more meaningful then a freshly painted barn.

So ummmm, what kind of thing might that be? .

Read more…

I haven’t written for the blog much this past month and some folks have been writing asking “why” and if everything is alright. So the short answer to that question is “yes”, everything is fine and dandy.

Now here’s a longer version of fine and dandy:

My last post was April 24th and since then a lot has happened and even a few things have changed. One of the more interesting items that’s been accomplished is that we did our last radio show on April 27th!

I written before about the reasons why we were going to stop broadcasting … but now it’s done. I’ve packed up the studio equipment, everything from cords and mixing boards to microphones and music, and along with all the other equipment that goes with standard broadcasting, boxed it up and prepared it to move to the StreamingOldies studio over in New Hampshire! Now that’s exciting and I’ll be posting more about that over the next few weeks.

What it does for me, is buy more time to work on finishing up some of my current projects, and more time for things like writing for this blog. I simple never realized, just how busy our lives were until I wanted to begin disassembling some of it. It’s been a challenge just finding the time to slow things down enough to begin the process of closing some activities down. I don’t like to simply walk away from things … I like to take them to the end and if I can, pass them on to someone that wants them, and that’s exactly what we’ve tried to do.

More time? Yes, I’d like to do a little traveling (which is another post on it’s own), and have some free time to work on some cancer related projects I’ve been thinking about. No, I’m not going away, I’m simply changing the things I’m involved in, and refocusing my energy on what’s of the utmost importance to me now. Life has changed. You might say I’m altering the matrix.

Even at home, I’m rebuilding our network for easier maintenance, adding new Windows 7 computers, network printers, wireless devices and so on … all in preparation of these changes that are coming.

Which brings me to an interesting point. One of the most difficult things about having and living with cancer, or any disability for that matter, and something you don’t hear about very often is the “time factor”. I know, I’m certainly not the only busy person on the planet, but I was (and still am), a very active type person … but scheduling time, for a cancer patient, can be, not only one of the most daunting tasks, but it also brings a factor of undependability.
Read more…