Chondrosarcoma – ah shit, bob's sick

We’re back. A fast and furious trip to Boston’s  Cambridge area, proved to be the most fun Sher, Alberic  and I have had in some time. It was totally awesome trip with so much packed in our short stay that parts of it are still unraveling in my memory.

We had a fantastic hotel room on the River Charles that overlooked both the river and parts of Boston skyline. That’s one of the things I love about Boston, it’s big enough to have the feel and all the great things cities have to offer,  yet small enough that traveling around it is easy and simple whether by car, train, bicycle, boat, foot, wheelchair or any other mode of transportation you can think of. It even has a Segway rental!

Now my last trips to Boston weren’t exactly filled with fun and joy by any means … but this one was different, I enjoyed this trip to the max. Alberic hasn’t had the chance to visit many cities and I think he really got a taste of what life can be like there and it’s many offerings, and Sher has been many times but not for a long time so she felt right at home.

Our primary goal was to attend Mike’s graduation at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).  Now if you don’t know anything about MIT, I suggest you Google it because it’s just too much to write about here.  I will say that it is one fantastic place, where our future is being designed by the worlds brightest students. Brilliant is probably a better description. I have a new found faith in the future … now if we could only stop warring.

This year, two thousand, five hundred and thirty-three students graduated in every field of science I’ve ever heard of and a few that were new to me.  That’s fifty times the amount of students in Alberic’s entire school!

Being disabled, I must say that we were very well taken care, and help was available from the moment we reached the grounds, right up until the moment we left. Everyone was so helpful and courteous that it was hard to imagine needing anything more.  To say the least, the entire experience was awesome.

That being said, I should mention here that living in the city of Boston appears to be much more friendly towards those with a disability, maybe the word is “disability-friendly”.  Almost everything appears to be set up for wheelchair access.  Basically, getting around this beautiful city in a wheelchair is a no-brainer. You can wheel anywhere you can walk … and Boston is a “walking city”. Everything is close and compact. I guess I’m sounding like a travel agent … but it’s true.

The graduation ceremony was simple awesome. Ray Stata gave the commencement speech and basically lit the entire place on fire! Not bad for a 75 year old.  If you’re not familiar with Ray Stata, Google him and read up. We wouldn’t have a tenth of the technology today without him. Below is a pic of the Stata Center in which Ray, his wife Maria, and Bill Gates have built on Massachusetts Avenue near MIT.

But there was much more to the ceremony then Ray Stata’s speech. The student president gave one of the most inspiring speeches I’ve ever heard, let alone from a young person, and really gave me hope for the future of humanity. If this is an example of the direction that MIT is taking its students, then I have all the faith in the world that mankind will solve all these problems that our world faces today.

There’s a lot more to write about this trip, and over this coming week I have lots of photos and stories to share, but that’s it for this evening.  We also went to the Museum of Science, had lot’s of great meals, and made plans to return.

Just a real quick note:

 We had a great weekend, along with perfect weather. We managed to get quite a bit done around the house, and a bit of entertainment time too! It was a much needed weekend. I even managed to catch up on some much needed sleep … and that was fantastic to say the least.

This week is going to be an exciting and busy week. Tuesday and Wednesday it’s work where we’ve been extremely busy, and then on Thursday we take off for Boston for a graduation at M.I.T. and a little bit of celebrating of Alberic’s twelfth birthday.  Hopefully with a trip to Boston’s Science Museum in there somewhere!

I’m feeling good, and looking forward to the trip to Boston. Hoping that getting around the city won’t be too difficult and this fantastic weather holds out for this coming week. Alberic is looking forward to seeing and being in some multi-story building. He’s always had an interest in city architecture, this’ll give him a chance to experience it!

Hopefully, I’ll get a chance to do a bit more writing before we hit road. I hope all you had a good holiday weekend too … and let’s all keep in mind what this holiday is all about.

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? .

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This Past Week:
This past week has been another crazy week, but I guess you just have to laugh it off like a lot of things or they’ll drive you crazy. Actually, the week started off just fine. Work was good and I was moving ahead on my website projects on schedule and all was well. I was also developing some simple web forms and that was fine too.

On Tuesday we had done our second to the last radio show which was awesome … one of the best ever, lot’s of fun, lot’s of tunes and our guest was just the best. Ray L. who also reads this blog from time to time was our guest and he was just fabulous … and to be honest, I’d expect no less of him. He’s a pro at it and that makes all the difference when you’re doing a live show.

Wednesday was good day at work, Thursday started off well … well, until night that is .

Here’s the scoop … since our electrical fire a few weeks ago, we’d thought we gotten everything under control. New electronics have arrived and we’ve gotten them all situated and working, basically without a hitch. After a few weeks of this we finally thought “great, finally we’re back to where we were before any of this occurred”.

Well, it seems there are always some thing you just plain forget about. Overheads lights for one. We have several over-head fluorescent lights in our house that we seldom, if ever, use. You know, you don’t use every light in your house everyday. As a mater of fact, if you think about it, there are probably a few lights you almost never use. This was the case in our house.

Thursday evening, for one reason or another Sher had placed the overhead lights on, in the dining room … one of those lights we so rarely use.

About an hour or so later, we were in the office when suddenly we got a whiff of that unforgettable scent that had covered the house when we had the electrical fire a few weeks back.

It’s a smell I won’t forget for a long time to come … still fresh in my memory, visions of a house fire flashed through my mind and immediately the adrenaline started to pump through my system.

I made my way toward the dining room and sure enough, the closer I got, the stronger the scent got. Damn! I yelled out to Sher to call the fire department again, as a light film of smoke started to appear at the ceiling level. That heavy scented smoke that thick with the smell of electrical.

Here we go again right! Instant replay. We went down to the basement and shut-off the circuit breakers to that section of the house, leaving in the dark once again, found our way outside and waited.

Flash forward a bit …. After the fire department arrived and checked everything out, we discovered that many of our head lights had taken damage during the original electrical fire and we never realized it.

While no new damage was done, we now need to replaced all the over-head lights and get that damn smell out of the house. Of course I missed a day of work because I wanted to be there when our electrician arrived at seven in the morning and make sure everything got covered and checked this time.

So a lesson learned, if you have an electrical situation like this, make sure you check everything, lights, electronics, switched etc etc., before starting the process of repair. Now Sher will have to write to the insurance company again and start all over … more time spent, more time wasted.

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So last night, my friend Jon emailed me his answer to the equation …
“this works…(10-7) x6 – (9-8) = 17″. Leave it to Jon … I know he worked relentlessly on this to come up with an answer … and he did! Well done …. I mean it Jon M, you’re the only 50+ year old I know that can do still sixth grade math! Thank you.

I also got another reply this evening from another one of Al’s teachers:
“(10×7)-6 divided by 8, plus 9”.

So it can be done! … and now that I look at it … how freakin’ simple!

I got a chance to cook on the new stove today! Sher roasted a small turkey breast and when I got home I made the gravy …. Yummy, tasty Turkey gravy! I spent most of the rest of the evening with corresponding emails and cleaning up some loose little ends of work here and there. Kind of relaxing.

Sher and I have been talking about slowly shutting down some of the projects we have going. One of those things may end up being our radio show and the website that goes along with it. We’re not in hurry to do it … but I think it’s time to start “lightening the load” a bit.

It’s a shame, because it’s one of the things I really enjoy doing. I’ve worked with radio for a lot of years (most of it volunteer) and love it … but it is sooooo time consuming. We haven’t really come to a conclusion as exactly what we’re going to do … but somethings going to happen . We’ll see what happens … maybe some one else will want to run.

So many things to do … so little time to do them. Boy, has that taken on new meaning these days … no really, I mean that. It seems that there are more and more causes I want to get involved with, and less and less time to be involved. Funny how that happens.

I have been doing little bits here and there on my database project …. But over the last two or three weeks, I just haven’t had a chance to set aside a chuck of time, to make some of the larger changes or additions … actually, part of it messed up right now and in need of being re-worked but it’ll have to wait for the weekend.

Hmmm … feels good to say that!

Well, that’s it for this evening …