WOOHOO!!

I had a short run last week and was back home on Tuesday morning. My truck was due for it's 10,000 mile service job and so right after I got back to the shop the boss told me to run it over to the mechanics and he'd pick me up. Other than the lube, oil and filters, all it needed was a bracket replaced or repaired under the drivers seat so it would quit tilting to the right whenever I made a hard left turn, and the 2 month old radio was acting up. Sometimes it would work, sometimes it wouldn't. Sometimes the buttons on the front would not work until it got warm and sometimes it would just flash on and off without touching it. Seemed possessed to me.

I picked the truck up Friday from the mechanic and my seat was fixed and lo and behold there was a brand new Sony CD player in my dash. And then I looked closer. No! It can't be! Don't tell me it's true! What's that hole there on the right corner. Why, it's an auxiliary jack. WOOHOO! I can plug my Ipod into the radio now and I don't have to wear earphones. That is way too cool! It sounds soooo good! I was listening to my "One Hit Wonders" today. One night in Bangkok, The Night Chicago Died, All She Wants To Do Is Dance, One Tin Soldier, Werewolves of London, Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye. Sweet City Woman. Does that take you back?

Who says life has no soundtrack?! Mine does!

This is getting old

I wonder sometimes if my sons doctor is a little bit of a hypochondriac himself. My son sees him. My sister-in-law takes her son to him. We have a few friends that take their kids to him and it seems that he finds something wrong every time. I'd like to go back to our regular family doc but she moved her practice and it's a bear getting in to see her.

My son has diabetes. Prick yourself 6 to 10 times a day, five shots a day diabetes. It's pretty rough for an 11 year old and he's having a hard time getting a handle on it. We're working on it and learning things about it. But he went to see Doc E yesterday and he puts him on a "Stop Light Diet For Children". He says if he doesn't get control of it he won't live past 20 and his kidneys are already struggling and the blood work looks like they are beginning to shut down. the funny thing is that when his sugar drops he acts like he's stoned. he got some Sweet Italian Sausages out to eat last night and put them in the microwave for about 1 minute. these are the kind that are not pre-cooked. So they're sitting on his plate all bloody and warm and about half pink and half white and looking really nasty. Not realizing his sugar was down I fussed at him and said,

"You can't eat those. For one thing, you're not allowed to eat sausages anymore and for another thing, they're not cooked."

"OK." and he goes into the dining room and tries to log in on the computer. He can't figure out his password.

"What are you doing?"

"Huh?"

"You need to put the sausages away."

"Ok". He continues to try to log in

"What are you doing?"

"Putting the sausages away."

"No you're not. You're on the computer."

That's when it hits me. His sugar is dropping. So I drag him back into the kitchen and check his sugar. It's down to 50. Not good. Give him 3 glucose tablets and fix him a peanut butter sandwich. Check it again. 54. Better but not good enough. Wait a few minutes. Check it again. 227. What! Hint: Don't try to prick a finger without wiping off the peanut butter first. Check it again, on a clean finger this time. 74. Coming up. Fifteen minutes later he's up to 97 which is about where he should be. He goes back now and tries to log into the computer under his account. I'm watching him making sure he's okay. He can't get logged in because he keeps messing up his password so I'm worried again.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I just keep messing up my password."

And then I notice. His password is about 30 characters long. I ask him what it is and he tells me. (I have that power, you see.) It's a complete sentence! Subject, verb, and object type sentence! I'd have a hard time logging in stone cold sober!

I laugh and tell him he might want to pick an easier password. I mean, who's he trying to keep out?

So we are learning. We can't eat like we've been eating but if it's what you know then it takes some education to learn what you can eat. I've been perusing the American Diabetes Association website and there is a lot of good information there but again, one has to learn how to think in those terms.

He goes to Doc D, his endocrinologist, on Tuesday and Sheila is going to talk to her about this diet and what the bloodwork says. So we'll know more then. Tuesday is going to be a busy day.

Meanwhile, go check out the pictures that Kimmyk takes. Just absolutely beautiful. I really like her style.

Today is the AMA's Vintage Motorcycle weekend at the Mid-Ohio Racecourse. It would be cool to go but the tickets are $20 a piece and for 6 people that adds up in a hurry. Maybe we'll go to the mall. I think we all just need to get out of this house. It's too nice out there.





An old, old picture. Back when I thought a lot of my hair. You like that watch band? HA!

Going well.

Ok. All is going well. she had the lumperotomy or whatever and now she's got a black eye on her...not on her eye anyway. She hurt a few days and next Tuesday we hear back form the doc who will give us the results from the pathologist. If the rest of the mass is clear then she starts radiation treatment. If they find something else in the mass outside of the spot that they were already looking at then they will do a mastectomy. It's not just lopping one off anymore. They'll do reconstructive surgery to build the one they cut off back up to size and reduce the other one to match. So she gets a free boob job in the process.

Can you see we're really working here to keep a good attitude?

She wonders if they can make them perky again.

Could be a lot worse

I guess you would call it good news although it could have been even better.

The results are back and Sheila does have cancer. The good news is that it is apparently the lowest form of breast cancer that one can have. It's called DCIS or Ductal Carcinoma In Situ. The website at Breastcancer.org says "In the staging system that doctors use to classify cancer, DCIS is known as Stage 0. And it is sometimes called "pre-cancer." You may also hear it referred to as Tis, which means that the cancer is non-invasive. Tis stands for "tumor in situ" or "in the same place.""

So she has to have a "lumpectomy" and get about 5 or 6 treatments of radiation and the doc says after that there will only be a 4% chance that it could return. The doc also said that they had a cancellation for this Wednesday and if there is going to be a radiologist in they will do it then. Otherwise it'll happen on the 30th.

I would have preferred that it had been a spot on the film or a penny she swallowed as a kid or even a dinosaurs tooth, but I think we can deal with this. I really can't believe her attitude though. She seems so at peace about the whole thing. As if it's no big deal. Me, I'm not doing quite so well with it. But better than I was when I first heard I guess. Prayers are very much appreciated.

Bait and Switch?!

I saw this video on Yahoo's page. They called it Bait and Switch. I've been driving a truck for 8 years and I drove buses before that. The price for fuel has always been higher when paying with a credit card. Why hasn't a fuss been raised until now? All truck stops charge .06 to .08 cents a gallon more to pay with a credit card. It's always been that way.

Update

Why is the wind stronger on the front edge of the storm than the wind after you're in the storm proper? Just wondering. I worry about high wind when my truck is empty.

Clarification:
My wife told me first off that the docs said she had cancer, they just weren't sure which type and all that. Now she tells me that they aren't 100% sure it is cancer but they think it is. Still testing. See how she lies? Thanks for all your concerns though. All will be well and all manner of things will be well.

The radio in my truck is acting up. It turns itself on and off about every 2 seconds. Flash on. Flash off. It's only about 2 months old. Maybe they'll fix it in a couple weeks when this puppy goes in for service. Good thing my wife thought ahead and bought me that Ipod. Maybe they can put in a radio with a hole so I can plug into it.

The weather has been great until I hit this storm at Columbus. Nice sunny weather. And hot too. The only problem with that I can look right down into the passing cars and all the ladies without air in their cars are trying to keep cool and it's not helping my thoughts stay on the straight and narrow, so to speak. Oh well. Life goes on.

I was asked to be...the truck next to me just got hit. A driver trying to back into a spot and his passenger side back corner, which he can't see, hit the parked truck on that side. Looks like there may be a fight. I'll let you know.

Anyway, I was asked to be the entertainment for the annual Foster parent appreciation dinner. I reused the blog posting about COPING that I did here earlier and they loved it. I would have used a power point but we didn't have that kind of access. So I used one of those big paper pad you put on an easel. They loved it. Had em rollin'. Our boss was a little worried though when I started out. She didn't realize my sense of humor ahead of time I guess. I could see her eyes widen when I mentioned the handcuffs.

No fight. He's got his trailer axle too far forward. Makes the rear end swing wide and that's why he hit the other guy. It's happened to me before. Same exact thing. Then the guy who hit me didn't know it and drove off to find an easier place to park. He found one in the middle of 5 empty spots and it took him 15 minutes to get it between the lines. That's a guy who shouldn't be driving. When I told him he hit me on the other side of the parking lot, he asked why I didn't honk to let him know that he was about to hit me. That's when I almost hit him. I was in the bunk, curtains drawn, eating dinner. I didn't even know he was there til he hit me. Some people.

That's it for now. I think I'm gonna pick out a movie and kick back. Since there's no entertainment outside the truck, guess I'll get my own inside.