‘vacation’ Category
Change of pace
Most everyone who reads my blog probably knows this by now, but I’m now officially unemployed! It was a difficult decision, but I decided it was time to move on from the only post-college job I’ve known, after nearly 12 years. Kathie is leaving too, and we plan to spend the spring, summer, and fall relaxing, recuperating, traveling, visiting old friends, etc. Perhaps it’s a cancer-prompted “life’s too short to spend it all working” moment, perhaps not. Either way, we’re fortunate to be able to do something like this, so rather than be our typical wishy-washy selves (“what do you think? I dunno, what do you think?”) we’re plunging ahead! I’m quite confident that we’ll both be able to get good jobs again in 9-12 months when we’re done with our hiatus, and we have COBRA insurance coverage for 18 months, so there’s little downside, and lots of opportunity for taking a new direction in life! Now to just get through the final three rounds of chemo and I’m home free!
Back from Florida
After a few days of hardcore relaxation and stuffing ourselves with food at Hotel Mom, we’re back in Virginia. Florida was mostly nice and warm, in the 80s our first two days which gave us some chances to go swimming in Mom’s pool. About the only “interesting” thing we did was drive up to Tampa (about two hours North) on Saturday to visit the Big Cat Rescue sanctuary. They’re a group of volunteers who take care of abandoned or abused lions, tigers, etc., usually taken from small circuses or private zoos, and also from private owners who paid tens of thousands to buy illegal cubs, thinking “if I raise it from birth, it will be tame”, only to find out that these animals aren’t wired the same way as housecats. Below are a few of the photos we took, of a Lioness, Tiger, and Snow Leopard…
A warm distraction
Today we’re flying down to Florida to visit my mom for a few days, and to get a quick injection of 70-80 degree weather to break up the monotony of an unusually cold Februrary in Virginia. Can’t wait!
Chemo’s taken longer this time to get out of my system… even Monday through Wednesday I was more tired than usual, and the usual bad/metallic taste lasted longer than usual. Pretty much back to normal now though. Have my monthly oncologist appointment and chemo #8 next week.
Next week we’re also getting Verizon FIOS installed for TV and internet access. FIOS TV with high definition will be the same price as our current DirecTV satellite service with standard definition, so it seems like a good deal. I’m a little nervous about the installation process, but hopefully it’ll turn out well.
Skiing and Squirrels
Kathie and I went skiing Friday for the first time in 9 years. We went with some of Kathie’s co-workers to Liberty Mountain in PA, which was about an hour and a half away. Our last ski trip in 1998 was to Snowshoe, almost 5 hours away, also with some co-workers. We were amazed how quickly it came back to us, kind of like riding a bicycle! We had lots of fun and are going to try to ski a little more regularly in the future rather than waiting another 9 years.
On Saturday we had a bit of a wildlife emergency in the back yard. We have a very large, heavy, metal bird feeder hanging in the yard to feed the birds (and squirrels). Well, somehow it must have rotated over time from the wind, or from squirrels jumping on it, because in the morning it finished unscrewing itself from its hanger and dropped to the ground… landing on a young squirrel who was gathering seed under the feeder! The squirrel wasn’t moving, so Kathie got a box and brought him inside. He was bleeding from the nose, so she cleaned him up, filled the box with newspapers to keep him warm and comfortable, and put the box our on the deck. In a few minutes he started moving a little, and before long had hopped out of the box and was slowly wandering around the deck. Finally he hopped down the stairs and out onto the lawn (still frozen-over with snow/ice). We don’t know his ultimate fate… was he well enough to make it home and recover? Was he an easy target for some other wildlife higher on the food chain? One thing we know is that we haven’t seen him back at the bird feeder… but then if a small restaurant fell on me, I’d probably stop hanging out under floating restaurants for a while too.
Two days ’till first chemo
The weather the last couple days has been unseasonably warm, so it seemed like a great opportunity to put some blue icicle Christmas lights up! Kat did most of the work, since I have no interest in being 20 feet up a 28 foot extension ladder. We’re going to try to extend them the rest of the way around the garage roofline in the next day or two. We’ve also got a 6-foot lighted inflatable Homer Simpson on the lawn :-)
We’ve created a St. Lucia photo gallery with over 100 photos from the vacation on our main web site. Even though the weather here isn’t too bad for late November, we’re definitely missing the Caribbean weather!
Still no luck finding a Nintendo Wii. We got to Best Buy in Reston just before they opened on Sunday morning, but there was already a line of at least 30 people, and all the in-stock units had already been spoken for. We’re gonna give it a rest for a week or two and then see where things stand.
Today was my pre-chemo blood test, and on Wednesday I get my first chemo treatment, so I should have plenty to write about after that! I also picked up the results of the blood test I had about a month ago, which showed low white and red blood cell counts. That was just two weeks after my surgery, so hopefully my counts are closer to normal now. I need to have normal (or at least close to normal) red counts, white counts, and platelet counts before each chemo treatment in order to proceed.
It’s good to be home with the dogs again! Max (photo, right) is his usual goofy, cuddly self, and Sheba is still the spoiled princess who has to have everything done her way. We heard from her sitters that Sheba was a big hit at the elementary school bus stop every morning.