Lost...................in "Cowtown" yet!

I can't believe it! Went to the OSU Medical Center yesterday in Columbus and got lost on the way home. Since I have been in Athens ('69) we have always referred to Columbus as "Cowtown"--I guess because of the large ag school and the fact that it seems to be a town in the middle of a bunch of farms that just "got big"!

Maybe it also comes from the fact that Ohio U is a much smaller school often mixed-up for Ohio State (ooops! I mean THE Ohio State University). For years OSU has had one of the best sports programs in football that money could buy--not so true lately though. Maybe all us former hippys and "pseudo-hips" of today are just jealous!

My getting lost is the result of two things: 1) the major highway to OSU (315) is having most of the ramps worked on; and 2) I really don't know my way around this Cowtown that got big. I missed the correct detour and then couldn't turn around so I ended up on all kinds of weird little streets that didn't go anywhere! Eventually I found a street I had heard of (S High) and a highway (104) and made it back to highways I knew.

Pretty embarrassing! Made me doublely (you know, twice) glad that I am back to little Athens where I can even walk lots of places. We loved Kauai, but it is always good to be home! I took my morning hike up the hill with Roxie, the wonder dog, the other day and ended up with an extra hiker--Evelyn (see pic). We even found some wild raspberries on the way down the hill. It was so much fun!

So, a whole blog without discussing the dreaded c word. It feels good.

Happy Birthday America!

You Know You Are An Introvert......

....when you need to retreat by yourself to "recharge"!!! Well--let me say this, I most definitely am not an introvert!

I have not been feeling well since returning from Kuaui. A combination of letharga (is that a word?), headache, accompanied by some dizziness and the inability to get to sleep. So I have spent the past few days just "hanging out" and trying to make something of my days. Of course, with the constant pain in my side this sort of thing makes me wonder if this is "jet lag", "cancer fatigue", or something else?

For much of this time I have been home alone as Anne is in NYC to see her son and attend the Origami convention! (I think they tie knots or maybe paint by numbers?!) Well, this alone time was almost enough to kill me outright and definitely prove that I am not an introvert. Not going to be with others or laying around ill were very hard on me.

The good news is that I am feeling much better today--enjoyed the farmers market with Evie, Lili, John and Mary. I also managed to nap and go to a B day party for a while for another ski (!) buddy. I guess I just needed some time off an maybe a nap a day as well? Monday is another doctor, chemo day and hopefully that will go well.

Oh yeah, I promise (maybe) that the above pics are the last of the Kuaui trip--the fields, the falls and the sunsets were the greatest! It was so beautiful there.

extrovertedly, wil

If you didn't like the chickens in Key West........

........you definitely would not like it here! They are almost everywhere--luckily not in the condo, but outside bragging that it's morning or outside bragging that they "had a good lay" (either sex seems to brag about this in different ways)

We have been here 10 full days and it has been wonderful. As the cornball sayings catalog says, "a trip of a lifetime"---now to lengthen the lifeline and try to top it! We have been unabashed tourists and gone almost everywhere and done lots of things, most of them "tourist items" but they have been great!

A brilliant sunrise at Kealia beach, a Luau near Lihue--which was lots of fun, walking down lots of steps to "our beaches", today we walked-only a mile each way-to Queens bath-and walked down, down past waterfalls to some beautiful rocky rough ocean pools. Pictured are these times, but there has been so much more!

Scenery from the lani at this condo; kayaking; the Na Pali coast boat trip (met an OU grad, '71 a hockey player), the Canyon, beaches and so much more. It has been delighful. Now we are preparing for the long trip back. Not looking forward to the trip, but it will be nice to be back home and see everybody.

When I think of it, my illness seems at once so "spooky" and so far away! I need to continue to see things, people, places, and work on beating this thing! (Cancer is such a terrible word, I don't like to use it.) Oh well, we do what we can wherever we are in life and I will continue doing just that!

I hope the two or three people reading this continue to do the same things--namely have fun while searching for meaning in your lives. Aloha for now!!

The best laid plans of mice and men.......

...can often go astray. Wait a minute, as usual, I didn't have any real plans!! Only to take a trip to Kauai and have a good time.

So, even though none of them knew it, a group of musician friends played a "get the hell out of here" concert for us at Pat Light's 'country estate'. That's right, none of them knew it and the gathering wasn't for us at all, but I prefer to see it as our going away event! It was like a little private concert by some of the best musicians around.

After endless plane rides we arrived on Kauai and began to see what everybody means when they talk about paradise! It is gorgeous here and even the pictures from the cliff and the condo don't show how great the sunset and ocean are. This is really great and all thanks to our friends Mark and Lynn who insisted we make the journey.

We have been to farmers markets, kayak trip to waterfall, lighthouse, more beautiful beaches than any little island deserves with lots more things in the plan. Of course, that means more boring pictures in future blogs. I do become somewhat morose at times thinking that such a dream trip might be the last big thing for me, but hopefully those thoughts will be fleeting and I will prevail in this battle. It's funny how I feel "almost regular" and then something--in this case another lung cancer statistic--pops up to remind me where I am!

Enough of that!! Today some regular site seeing around the island and then tomorrow a helicopter ride with more things in the works. I do miss everyone back home--but this is really the greatest!

love to all, wil

Outta here!

....or, as I say, "outta beer, outta here."

We are almost packed and ready to head out on our major journey to Kuai (every spelling I see is different, I guess it is a different kind of place). Don't ask me for the "route" as I am thinking it was really dumb to go the way we are going! Oh well, I should live long enough to do more dumb things.

Bought a "netbook" (?) as I have dreams of writing things while I am there. (You may remember that I was the guy who was going to clear out his garage in retirement!) Anyhow, after a big party weekend all around, it is time to go to Columbus to wait on our 6 am flight!

We are psyched and very ready to go! Back to Atown late on the 20th! Remember to have lots of fun, cause we will be!!! Enough, I am ready!

I think I'm a gonna die......

....just not right away! I am planning on holding on for a while yet! So Monday was another doctor/chemo day in metropolitan Columbus on the semi-beautiful OSU campus. What a day this always is, first the blood stickers, then the oncologist, then the chemo, and then the integrative doctor!

I missed photoing the blood stickers--they think I'm kinda "funny" anyhow--but this is the "view" from the 10th floor of the OSU Martha Moorehouse Cancer center. Pretty spiffy, huh?

So the Oncologist meets me here and tells me that my CTscan may have shown a new lymph, but they really think the condition is the same as last time. Now everyone tells me this is great news, but I guess I had dreamed he would say it is slightly smaller. No such luck. Anyhow, I got a pic of him. Smiley guys, huh?

So then on to the penthouse for "infusion" of the chemo. This takes place on the penthouse floor of the center--the 11th. Only takes 1/2 hour for the infusion, but it takes them an hour and a half to get it ready. Still for the $36,000 a pop, they should spend some time. It's just that I don't want to.....

Then down and out to the little building next door where the integrative doctor and his crew hang out. Cozy little building but certainly not a place where Martha(any martha) would like to pass the time! I am never sure where on the blog the pics will turn up, but notice this office has T111 paneling on the walls

I thought I would include the dietitian in this pic as well as the integrative doc. They are both great, really hard working folk. They are pleasant, easy to communicate with and adaptable (except when it comes to messing up with one's "suggested" eating habits!). They make us feel much more "positive" about the situation.

(I can't believe it! This damn blog picture program insists upon putting the pics up only where I don't want them! Well, I am too tired to argue with a machine, so there we are!)

I guess I should be happy, cancer not worse, I have a pain in my chest--but not too bad, and I can still do all the things I used to do. Just not nearly as "wildly" in any way. It was great to stay overnight at the house of some friends just 5 minutes from the hospital. What a difference without the trip up. Also, they are going to rip up the major highway past the hospital this summer and we don't have to go that way!!

That enough for now. Oh, one more thing, did I mention that we are leaving for Hawaii early Monday morning? ho hum.