It gets even dumber and dumber ...

I am getting less and less interested in watching the CBS show "Jerico." Now they're appearantly planning a "Jericho" promotion in Lawrence. Lawrence? What the hell? Because Lawrence is a small town, just like Jericho? Hello, Lawrence has about 80,000 people! Hardly a representation of small-town anywhere. Not to mention it's in eastern Kansas, so definatley NO MOUNTAINS in sight.

If they wanted to promote the feel of the show, why not choose a town that could be Jericho? There's plenty of small towns in western Kansas that would welcome the publicity and fit the bill (even if you can't see mountains). The town of Speed (population between 30 and 40, depending on who you talk to and if you count dogs and cats) recently hosted an event with Mattel's Hot Wheels that brought around 10,000 people to town.

So there.

Flashback

One year ago today:

I can't begin to describe how great it was to get back to work today

It was two weeks after my first chemo, after they took my first CBC (blood test) at the cancer center and were shocked at how low my white blood cell count was (near zero). I had to stay home from work for a week, and that was probably the lowest time I had through this whole journey. I felt fine, but here was the first indication that something was seriously wrong with me, that something as simple as a cold could endanger my life! Of course, I spent the next four months or so in the "isolation chamber" at work, which got kind of depressing at times. But that's another flashback.

Also on this day last year:

I stepped out of the shower only to find I had a bit of a hairy chest. Only it was hair that had formerly been on my head. And all morning, I was brushing hairs off my shoulders.

Fortunately, my hair has now grown back nicely. Maybe a bit grayer. I liked having curly hair (it was more wavy than curly), but the last week or so it seems to be going back to its original straightness. I'm just glad I have it.

Maybe a dye job is in order.

No more rain

As in we didn't get any more rain after Friday, other than maybe a few sprinkles. The creek is pretty well dried up again, just a puddle left. At least the weeds are green!

Not much else going on, just a quiet weekend. With gas prices the way the way they are, I kind of prefer to not do any extra driving. So whatever I need to get done in town, I'll try to do during the week when I'm there for work anyway. If we need groceries during the weekend, we can shop at the store here. Makes me wonder how many other people are doing the same thing, and if this little town's businesses are seeing a boost.

Besides, right now, it's back to school time, and who want to contend with all the newbie college students crowding Wal-Mart all the time?

A river runs through it

Well, I don't know that it's actually running, but there is water in the creek that runs by my house! It dried up this summer, until there's been just a few puddles or pools here and there. But that changed last night, after we got 2 inches of rain in about an hour. Total for the night was 2.75. That's more rain than we've gotten in the last three or four months!

But the bad news with the rain was I found out the roof still leaks in the kitchen. In fact, it started dripping in a new place last night. Not for very long, thankfully, but it makes me worry that there's more damage up there that you can't see, like mold, rotting wood, etc. I hate to think how much it will cost to fix that.

More rain expected later today (ETA: just after I posted, a shower started) and other places upstream got heavy rain, too, so maybe the creek actually will run. I'll have to take Nipper walking and check out the rest of town.

Setback

Monday I had my regular MUGA scan, and got the results today. It wasn't great.

My ejection fraction was at 49 percent. It has to be at least 50 percent for me to continue to receive the Herceptin. There was also a slight enlargement of one of the heart's chambers.

But, heart damage is an expected side effect of Herceptin; that's why they do the MUGA scan every eight weeks. The plan is to just stop my Herceptin treatment for about a month. I'll have another MUGA scan on Sept. 5, and then follow up with my doctor the next week. I'm scheduled to continue the Hercpetin through December, but this could extend my treatment a bit longer.

The good news is that in most cases, heart damage caused by Herceptin is reversible. That's why my doctor is taking me off it for a few weeks. Keeping up with the exercise should help, too.

But on the bad news front, there's an increased risk of coronary heart disease for women who receive radiation for breast cancer on the left side (see more about halfway through this article). Which, of course, is the side I had it on. Even more reason to get off my butt and keep exercising, I guess.

I'll watch, but ...

Check out CBS' info page about one if its new shows, "Jericho." Look closely at the picture on the left side of the page. What's wrong with it?

Don't get it? Read the first part of the show's description:

JERICHO is a drama about what happens when a nuclear mushroom cloud suddenly appears on the horizon, plunging the residents of a small, peaceful Kansas town into chaos, leaving them completely isolated and wondering if they're the only Americans left alive.

Now, look at that picture again. Get it? No? Here's a small clue:

YOU CANNOT SEE THE DAMN ROCKY MOUNTAINS FROM KANSAS!

Was that subtle enough for you?

The producers, in a video interview on the CBS Web site, say they were going for a sense of reality for this show. Well, then they should have done some homework. Or come to Kansas, stood on the freakin' border and looked with their own damn eyes.

Yes, I am a bit peeved about this ... does it show?

Still, the premise of the show is interesting. So I'll watch, and I'll grit my teeth whenever there's mountains on the horizon. Or whatever uneducated bunk or hick cliche shows up.

As long as there's not a girl named Dorothy with a dog named Toto, I'll give it a chance.

Fall TV

So the days are getting shorter, the kids will be back in school next week and that turns one's thoughts to ... the new fall TV season!

I watched the pilot of "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," the new show from "The West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin (courtesy of Netflix), and I liked it. If it keeps up that quality, I'll probably stick with it. I haven't watched the pilot for "Kidnapped," which is on the same disk, yet. The preview for "Heroes" looked interesting, too. Not a football fan, so "Friday Night Lights" is out for me.

So looking at the networks' fall lineup, here's what will probably be my viewing schedule, at least in the beginning:
Monday
7 p.m. The Amazing Race, CBS. Can't do without my Race fix!
The rest of the night kind of sucks.

Monday
7 p.m. The Class, CBS. I'll give this one a shot.
7:30 p.m. How I Met Your Mother, CBS. Better than most sitcoms that have come along in the last few years. But this hour might be my Web-surfing-while-watching hour.
8 p.m. Heroes, NBC. The preview looked interesting. If it tanks, I stick with CBS with Two and Half Men and The New Adventures of Old Christine. I didn't watch these often last year, but what I saw was good.
9 p.m. Watch Studio 60, tape CSI: Miami.

Tuesday
7 p.m. NCIS. Mark Harmon. Need I say more?
The rest of the night looks dull. Maybe House, on Fox. Maybe a movie night after NCIS. Unless CBS gets smart and puts Amazing Race back here.

Wednesday
7 p.m. Jericho, CBS. Depsite the fact the producers are too dumb to know geography, I'll check this one out.
8 p.m. Lost, ABC. Seven episodes will air in the fall, then the series will resume with 15 new episodes in the spring. That episode No. 7 better be DAMN good.
9 p.m. Probably CSI:NY, CBS, unless I get hooked on Kidnapped on NBC. Then tape CSI and watch later.

Thursday
7 p.m. Survivor, CBS. Hopefully it hasn't jumped the shark. Or maybe it has, but I'm just still hooked.
8 p.m. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CBS. I'm starting to get tired of CSI shows on about every other chanel all day, but at least they don't change the cast around like Law & Order.
9 p.m. Maybe Six Degrees on ABC or Shark on CBS. Don't know yet.

Friday
Except for Numbers on CBS at 9 p.m., looks like Friday will suck this year again.

Saturday
College football and reruns? Who's in charge of programming this crap? Not everyone goes out, you know.

Has it been that long?

A couple days ago, I got a call from an old-high school friend. She was collecting addresses and contact information of all our class members to help plan our 20th class reunion next year. "TWENTIETH?!? No, way!" was my first reaction. But, yes, it will be.

She e-mailed me a list of all our classmates, with addresses and phone numbers. About half have e-mail. I remember at our 10th reunion, whenever I talked to any of my friends and eagerly asked "do you have e-mail," hoping to build up my address book, all I'd get is a blank stare, like they were thinking "oh, that's for geeks ... like you." Now, I bet they can't live without it.

Just under half are still living in town, which is kind of surprising. Another 10 live within a couple hours' drive. There's a handful around Kansas City. Only about half a dozen live outside the region, and there's one overseas.

Six of us are dead.

One is now the principal of the high school we graduated from. Two are married to each other.

I haven't even been back to my hometown for about five or six years. Once in awhile, I see someone here when they come up for shopping or something. Or I see their parents. And their lives all seem as ordinary as mine. I'm sure we all had big dreams of where life would go. And then reality happened. We grew up, got jobs, started families, whatever, and now we shake our heads at the youngsters around us who think they will achieve Great Things and listen to that godawful music too loud ...

But we're not old or anything. I'm just sayin'.

New view

Saturday, Nipper and I walked somewhere we've never walked before in about four years of living here -- to the park, about four blocks from home. How we got there is the new part. We walked the dry creekbed.

The creek is almost completely dry all the way through town, until it gets to the small dam on the east side. Nipper and I have been walking in the evening from the wooden bridge near my house to the bridge that's just south of us -- about a mile or so as you follow the roads. But then we've always turned and gone back home after reaching the bridge. Yesterday morning, I thought, what the heck, let's walk as much as we can. It took us close to a couple hours, mostly because the creek is awful twisty, and at one point, loops around almost back into itself. It was also pretty sandy, so the walking was a bit more difficult.

I wish I had taken my camera with me, because there were some interesting things that you can't see by sticking to the roads. Like the little skunk that just went about his business along the creek bed's edge, confident we wouldn't dare bother him. Or like when we came around the first bend and saw there was still one large pool of water, with a couple dozen or so fish trying to stay out of the mud. Or the large hole in the bank at the pool's edge that is home to who knows what kind of critter (I wasn't going to take a closer look!).

Also at that point, it looked like there was another channel that entered the creek (on a map, it looks as if it's a natural draw from the bluffs up north), but even stranger was that there were three or four large concrete structures crossing it, as if there was a bridge there at one time. But I saw no evidence of a road there. I'll have to check with one of my sources for local history about this.

We walked a little farther, and suddenly there was a loud crashing sound to our left, and then to our right! My heart pounded until I saw the white tails of several deer running through the woods alongside the creek bed. They must have been bedding down there for the day when we startled them.

At one point, the limestone bluffs that are common around here come right up the creek bed and towered over us. I imagine that back in the day when the creek was deep, that was probably a popular spot with the kids for swimming and diving in the summertime.

We got a little farther, and through the trees on our left, I could see some familiar sights of houses that line the road we usually walk on, so I knew we were getting close to the park. It was interesting to see the backyards of some of the houses we've walked by so many times.

We got to the park and climbed up to rest in the shade and get some water before heading home, since it was already getting hot. I don't know if we'll go that way again, but it certainly gave a different perspective on where I live.

All clear

Had my second mammogram since surgery on Tuesday, and got the notice today I am clear of cancer. Yay, me!

It continues to be hot, with temperatures above 100 degrees. Yesterday was a record-setting 112! I haven't been working out since the only place I really have room is in the garage, and it's even hotter in there. Tomorrow is supposed to bring some relief, with highs in the 80 for a couple days, then up to the 90s, so maybe workouts will be possible again. I'm tempted to go get that second punch card through the cancer center exercise program. Six weeks would get me through the end of August, and most of the hot weather around here.

That's all for now.

Hot!

The thermometer under the pecan tree read 110 this afternoon. That's in the shade, people! It is right now, at 8:45 p.m., still about 95 degrees.

The fish in the pool under the bridge near my house are starting to die. There were four dead ones today. I might end up taking the shovel down there to bury them, to keep down the smell and the flies and the chance of Nipper eating them a couple weeks from now. Yuck.

Since the creek is pretty much dry, and it's so hot, I set up a birdbath in the back yard. It's pretty easy to do. Birds are more attracted to moving water over stagnant water for bathing and drinking (wouldn't you be?), and this is a cheap way to help them out.

Just find a large dish -- just a couple inches deep at the most. I first used a plastic planter dish, then got a larger terra cotta one (the kind you would put under a pot to catch the water that leaks out). Set that someplace attractive to the birds. Mine is on the ground, but it could be on some kind of stand, too. Set it in the open somewhat, where predators won't be able hide and get the birds while they're drinking or bathing.

Then you need to hang some kind of container above it. I used a shepherd's hook, but you could use a tree branch if that's handy. For the container, I used a small drink bottle (not too small -- you don't want to have to constantly refill it -- and not too large that it will be too heavy for whatever you hang it from). I drilled a small hole near the top to put a bent wire hanger through to hang it from the pole. Poke a hole near the bottom with a pin and hang it up. The hole in the plastic of the bottle I used was actually too big, causing the water to spray, so I endup up putting some duct tape over that and poking a small hole in the duct tape. That seemed to make for a good drip rate.

I've seen robins and starlings and finches using the bath, and I'm sure they'll be more as word spreads. I'm sure the birds tell each other these things, because in the winter, they all seem to know when I put out fresh seed! And today when I was refilling the bottle, there was a bird in the tree singing. It sounded like it was trying to tell me to hurry up.

Here's some instructions for birdbaths/drippers:
Easy milk jug dripper
Bird bath water dripper with pictures.

It's OK!

Got the call -- the MRI is fine! Whoo-hoo!

Had the MRI today, and I think it took less time than the last one. Makes sense, since they were just doing my head this time. Don't know when we'll get the results, though, so I might be on pins and needles for awhile. I'm not too concerned, but it's still kind of nerve-wracking not knowing.

Well, looks like the thunderstorm has passed, so I better get my workout in!

Feeling stronger

Today I had my final assessment with the exercise program through the cancer center, and I was kind of surprised. My resting heart rate is lower than when I started about six weeks ago, and I took an extra 30 seconds on the exercise bike to reach a target heart rate compared to the first assessment. Both mean my heart is pumping more blood with each beat, my trainer said. I also did better on the strength test, getting 2-4 more reps on the leg press and chest press. Not bad for just twice a week!

I've even been starting to exercise at home. I did strength training Saturday and Sunday, and got on the exercise bike tonight for 20 minutes. I probably won't get quite as good a strength training regimen at home as I could at the fitness center, but it's a lot cheaper to work out at home!

I have been having a lot of headaches lately, and that's been a bit of a concern. They feel like tension/stress headaches, and there has been a lot stress at work, but I just need to make sure it's not something else. I'm coming up on one year since the biopsy, and that's just had me thinking a lot lately. Someone from an online group I'm part of died recently after her breast cancer metastasized in her brain, and someone from my local support group is dealing with a recurrence right now, and I guess that's been on my mind lately. So I talked to my nurse about the headaches today, and she talked to the oncologist, who suggested we could schedule an MRI. They were pretty understanding about it. I rarely ask questions or have complaints, so maybe they thought if I had something to say, it must be serious! At the least, the MRI should relieve some anxiety.

History mystery

This item was in my city's newsletter, about the corner at the other end of my block:

The pavement at the intersection of 11th and ****** streets has had a long-running problem in that it would not hold level. Several times over the years, the sink hole that would develop there was filled with asphalt. That would solve the problem -- for awhile. Just recently more asphalt was induced to the low area and it also sank.
So on June 7, 2006, the Public Works crew went to evaluate the problem. While excavating the area they found that a large tree, complete with branches, had been buried north to south across the middle of 11th Street. Its decomposition over time had continued to create air pockets that in turn caused the street to sink as those air pockets collapsed under the weight of the ground and traffic above.
As you can imagine, it was a shock to find a tree buried in the middle of the street. This is just another example of the strange things that are encountered from time to time in the process of updating the city's infrastructure.

Now, it doesn't say how big the tree was, but this street was once lined with cottonwoods, according to a book on the town that had been written by a local newspaper reporter years ago. There were big floods here in the 1950s that could have probably taken down a large tree, and the sludge could have buried it. My house was built in the 1930s, though, so you would think there would already be a road here (maybe not paved).
Strange little mystery.

Sad tonight

I got some sad news earlier tonight. The online friend I wrote about earlier this month died Saturday. Some months ago, she had seemed to be getting better, but then found her breast cancer had spread to her brain. They got some of the tumors through surgery and tried radiation and drugs for the others. But it just didn't work. Whenever she posted on the bulletin board through which we met, she always sounded upbeat; even just a week ago her final post on the board sounded better than she probably felt. She kind of went downhill from there, though, having some pain toward the end of the week, but didn't like taking the drugs she had because of the way they made her feel. She died in the ambulance that was taking her to the hospital's hospice care, where they could better manage her pain.

I didn't really know that much about her, other than what we'd discussed about cancer. She lived in the Philadelphia area, she had two cats (as of last Monday, she still had them; I hope they were a comfort). She wasn't on the best of terms with her family. I didn't know her that well, but she provided some good advice and calming words when I first got diagnosed and in my treatment.

Her friend who posted the sad news said that she hoped people would plant a tree in her memory, and others noted she liked red flowers. So maybe when the weather cools, or next spring, I'll plant something for Laura. May she rest in peace.

Catching up

Well, it wasn't the root beer at the steakhouse that brought on that headache a couple weeks back (has it been that long since I last wrote? Geez). We took dad there for Father's Day, and I did not have root beer, but I did have grilled chicken and got that headache again. I had a grilled chicken sandwich the time before. Ergo, it's the chicken. Guess I'll just have to stick to the steak when I go there. Oh, darn.

I have four visits left with the exercise program through the cancer center after today. I haven't lost any weight, but I feel a lot better. I even bought some exercise bands to use at home along with the dumbbells I already have, and have already gotten in a few workouts with them. I even cleaned out the garage last weekend, and that created some decent space to work out in (at least when it's not 100-some degrees in there). I've even gotten on the exercise bike a few times in the last couple weeks. I hope to pick up the home workouts, at least three times a week, plus getting back into my yoga tapes. I can really tell the difference in my flexibility pre-cancer and post-cancer.

Getting into the exercise routine would be easier, if I weren't addicted to all the stupid little Flash-game puzzles I keep coming across. There's some good ones here, particularly the Hapland games. Chasm is kind of cute (beware: the walkthrough is missing a step). The Crimson Room is good, but the "escape the room" games all get a bit old.

The creek is almost completely dried up where it runs (ran) by my house. There's a pool under the bridge, and a big puddle about 100 or so yards down the creek bed, where a neighbor told me there's a spring. I take Nipper walking down the dry bed some evenings. There's still some fish in that spring/puddle, and a couple ducks and what looked like a young great blue heron were there the other night. And there's turtle tracks everywhere as they look for some water to hang out in. It's kind of sad to walk through the park a few block away, where the creek has been dried up for weeks, and see a solitary goose or duck waddling through the weeds in the bed, like they're thinking "there must be water just up here." There's still water in the city lake, but for how much longer without a good rain?

Nipper chased a baby skunk through the backyard this morning. No stink, though. I think that pretty much covers the last week and a half.

Missing out

Tonight, hundreds of people are walking, luminaries being lit, names being read. I'm not there and I wish I was.

Tonight is the local Relay for Life. There's a "survivor's victory lap" at the beginning, and I had wanted to be there. But, thanks to those small-label root beers I had at the new favorite restaurant last night, I had a massive headache that lasted from about 7 p.m. last night to 10 a.m. this morning. It was so awful, it had me feeling a bit nauseas this morning. Even though it did go away, the day at work was awful and busy and I never got a chance for a break, so I felt like that headache was just lingering, waiting in the tenseness in the back of my neck for an opportunity to hit me again -- like walking a lap around the track in the sun in 100-degree temperatures.

So I didn't go, didn't meet with the support group I've quickly grown to like, marching behind our banner and getting our picture taken. I kind of wish I had gone. Given the choice, I'd rather not qualify for this group or the survivor lap, but I do, and that support means a lot. So I feel like I'm missing out on something special, especially as this comes so close to the time a year ago when I found out what I would be facing.

On top of that, I found out tonight that an online acquaintance has made the decision to end her cancer treatment and is at home under hospice care. I don't know her real well, or even know that much about her life outside of her dealings with cancer, but she offered me advice and comfort when I first started down this path, and it's hard to keep the tears out of my eyes trying to think about what she and her loved ones must be feeling now.

I'd say tomorrow will be better, but I have to work.

Gone with the wind

That's where my weekend seems to have gone. It's been blowing about 40-plus mph since early Friday, and it's stirring up something that has my sinuses making me feel pretty wonky. As long as I stay inside, I'm OK. All I have to do it seems is stick my head out the door and I start feeling bad. Add to that the near-100 degree temps, and it's not a great weekend.

So I've been spending it mostly inside, playing around on the computer. I found a couple of point-and-click games, Domestic Bliss and Carneyville. They're kind of weird, and also very frustrating, but I've killed a lot of time with them.

I did finish mowing the hill yesterday morning, without killing any fuzzy creatures. There's another rabbit hanging around the fenced-in backyard, but so far, no sign of a nest anywhere. We don't need to go through that again.

Hope everyone's weekend is going better.

Getting Lost

My theory on "Lost," based on watching the show and half-assedly surfing for clues:
Hanso was a weapons provider, so he went in search of a natural source of electromagnetic energy to experiment using it for a weapon and found this uncharted island. Something went terribly wrong, and they had to quickly come up with some way to contain the energy, hence entering the numbers to recharge the containment system or whatever. To ensure continual manpower, they concoct the Dharma project, disguising it as some kind of touchy-feely peacelovenamaste thing and psychological experiment, and meanwhile all the poor suckers go insane. A group of Hanso people charged with overseeing the island go a bit nuts, too, take the psychological experiment stuff seriously. They're the others.

There. That's as far as I've thought this through, because I actually have a life.