Memory, such a fleeting thing.

Woke up at 4:30 this morning, read for a while, decided to get up at 5. I had a pain pill sitting on the night stand and rather than leave it there for either Noah or the dog to find and eat, I picked it up and thought about taking it myself. Decided my pain wasn't real bad and thought maybe I would put it back in the bottle. Now, you have to know that these are really small pills. I put the pill in one hand, water bottle in the other, than took my walker in both hands and came out to the living room. Thought about sitting down here, at the computer, and decided the couch was a better spot. While arranging my cushions I realized that I no longer had the pill in my hand. Oh crap, now what. I may have eaten it, put it back in the bottle, or it fell out of my hand and I never noticed it. I am fairly certain that if Noah found it, he would pop it in his mouth. I know the dog would. It is a really bitter pill, and it dissolves really fast, so he might not ingest any, but the thought that he might is freaking me out. The dog is funny. He will inhale a decent size piece of meat and really chew a sun flower seed, so he might spit it out as well. Sometimes I am such an idiot. Why didn't I just eat the stupid pill. It's not as if I would be overdosing. My last one had been at 9 the evening before. Why didn't I put it in my pocket, why didn't I .................. There are so many things I could have done differently. Anyway, now I think I will go wake up Chris and Mike and get them to help me look. I will let you know later how we make out. What a great way to start the day.

My chicken dog

My son's have been working on our deck, making half of it closed in with screen and lattice like a gazebo. It was already roofed a number of years ago, so they are just closing in the walls. I say just, like there is nothing to it, and for me there isn't. I lay on our porch swing and read and the boys work. I think Johnny's done most of it and he has done a great job. It looks really good and when he is done we will be able to sit out there without worrying about those pesky bugs. When they put the screen on, they use the stapler and the sudden snap of the stapler lifts my dogs head, and he is alert. He can be sleeping and he hears that first snap. If it is closely followed by numerous other snaps from the working stapler he will get up and find a place close to me or Chris or Angie (she was here yesterday) and attempt to hide. We can usually get him to stop being such an idiot and lay down on the deck somewhere. But it has to be close to us, preferably with his head on your foot. But then, oh boy, out comes the dreaded compressor and the brad nailer. The compressor pumping up just freaks him out. He starts to pant like he has run for 20 miles, and he just can't stay still. He just slinks around and trys to climb into your lap. As soon as someone puts in the first nail with the brad nailer he just picks it up a notch. Its like Nascar after a caution and the pace car leaves the track. Yesterday I let him climb onto me while I was laying on the swing. He promptly stuck his head in my armpit trying to hide. He stayed there for about 2 minutes, realized he could still hear the nailer, jumped down, and continued his pacing. He will try to get under anything at this point, even if he doesn't fit. Oh, did I mention that this is a 75 lb. Golden Retriever, and not a lap dog. If you let him into the house he is almost as bad. He hides behind the living room chair and watches the doorway. With each bang of the nailer his ears twitch. If you stay inside with him you can calm him down, but it takes awhile. I should have taken pictures. If Johnny comes to work on the deck today, I will take some and post them. I know, I have never posted pics on my blog before, but Chris has, so I will get her to help me.
Anyway, its 6:30 a.m. and I want to shave before I go to church. See ya later.

untitled

This time I am not even going to give the title enough respect to use a capital letter. It just sits there with its bold font and empty space telling me that I must fill it up and come up with something catchy, that will grab peoples attention and make them want to read it. Much like Shirleys blog. She always has catchy titles. Sometimes I wish I had that kind of talent, to always come up with a really good title. But wait, then I remember. The title is just there to lord it over us and mock us when we don't come up with a good one. I can't stand the pressure.
Anyways.
There is no church service today. As Pastor Kevin said, the church has left the building and went up to the lake for the weekend for family camp. And it is a great weekend. The sun has been shining the whole time, I hope they had a great time. We didn't go. I would not have been able to travel that far yet, so we stayed at home and played with my Christmas present. My wife bought me a really nice metal detector and I finally said, "that's it, pain or not, I am going to try this thing out". So I watched the instruction video, practiced with some coins in the house and then stepped into the great unknown, my backyard. Before I quite knew what happened I was competing with Roscoe for digging holes in the backyard. I started with the area around my fire pit. We have had it for years, had lots of people over in that time, and what better position to be in to lose money, than in a lounge chair, sitting around my fire. Even if you knew some coins had fallen out of your pocket, if you found some of it on the chair, how hard would you look to see if there was more. Apparently pretty hard. I either have the poorest friends in the world, I was going to say cheap, but that seems a little harsh, so, most frugal will do, or these people have cats eyes and they can see in the dark. I started to walk around that pit swinging my detector over the area, making sure I didn't lift at the end of my swing, and I barely made it half way around when I heard a beep. Where was that, my heart started to race, but I stayed calm, I remembered the instruction video and came at the spot from a different angle. What had I found? I was already thinking about the books I would buy so that I would become knowledgeable about the coins I was going to find. I would have to buy these photo album type binders with small individual little pockets to put all my precious coins into, so we could page through them when my family comes over. There would be a story connected with each coin and I would spend hours telling them these stories. Oh, it would be so much fun.
I stood above the spot, while Jonny dug and before you knew it, my first coin. A penny. I was not completely devastated, but a little disappointed. I moved on. I went about another 5 feet and it beeped. I stood and watched, not quite the same heart rate increase, but still excited; another penny. I couldn't believe it, did you all just keep looking for your money until you had every thing but the penny's. Oh well, I shouldn't be digging holes in my yard anyway, it just encourages Roscoe. Next week if I feel up to it, Chris and I are going to go to this old picnic site, about a mile North of town where the province had put in tables, barbeque's, and even a Red River Cart. Over the years it got wrecked, and about 35 to 40 years ago everything was taken away. But I remember where it was and hope to find a few coins there that might be worth more than a penny.

Good to be home.

Does anybody still come here? Hello? Gonna write anyway. Don't let the title fool you, I've been home for a while. I have just been to lazy to write anything. I have just been cruising my family's blogs and seeing what they have to say. But alas, some of you are know better at posting than I am so, I guess I am forced to post at least once a month. I was finally released from the hospital on May 4, and considering the way I went in versus the way I came out, God has definitely been at work in my body. I went back into the hospital the Tuesday after Easter like a stick of cordwood in the back of my daughters van and had to be moved out of there by ambulance drivers. When I left, I rode out in my wheelchair and sat in the car without much pain at all. We stopped to pick up my meds on the way home, and I was still okay when we got here. For the most part I walk around the house without my walker, unless I have had a long day, like going to town and walking around to much. Then my left leg and hip start to hurt and I use my walker pretty steady.
It was so good to see all my family from BC while I was in the hospital, it sure cut the stay down when I got company every day. The only one I didn't get to see much of was Carolyn, but through no fault of hers, her little ones got sick and by the time they were healthy enough, they had to go home. Next time. To all my nieces and nephews out in the big old world, whom I didn't get to see, I know you are thinking of me and praying for me. Please keep it up. I covet all your prayers.
Yesterday was my first excursion out of the house on my own. As I am sure you are all aware from Beckys blog, she gave Sam his chicken pox vaccine just before she came here and from that I have a good chance of catching shingles from him. So Glen and Sam stayed at his Mom's house and Becky and Ben stayed at our house. Yesterday Becky had Bens birthday party at the pool in the city and I could not go because that would have meant Sam couldn't go and that would have be totally unfair as that little guy just loves the water. So I took the car and went to see Mom and Dad. It is much easier for me to go their than it is for them to come here. Dad just does not do stairs at all. Last time they were here he literally climbed down them on his hands and knees and butt. This is hard to watch when your father is 81, but wants to see you bad enough to do even that. From now on I will go their instead of him coming here. I did find out that it is easier to ride in the passenger seat than it is to drive. By the time I got to Osler I was in quite a bit of pain, and in the passenger seat I can move and lift a little weight off my butt so I can ride a long way. In the drivers seat it is a lot tougher, so from now on I don't think I will tackle driving myself that distance until I am a bit better. Someone will have to drive me.
I am on a cycle of 4 days on, 4 days off with a steroid called dexamethazone, this lasts for a month. I am almost finished this month and then I have to go into the cancer center for a few tests and this will determine my future treatment. After talking to the nurse there on Friday I think I will be put on another round of steroids regardless of the test results, and then do a bone marrow biopsy in July before going on chemo. That is mostly guess work right now and I will try to keep you updated, maybe the next time on the blog the Becky is setting up for that purpose.
On a more personal level, you can pray that my wife won't have to go back to work. She is off on stress leave right now, and her workplace wants her to come back to work. I can get along without her during the day, but I would have to do some things differently. Before I was diagnosed she seemed quite scared, but as time went on and they finally told me I had cancer, my wife just got stronger and stronger. I know that it had to be God that gave her the strength to be able to deal with everything that came our way. To this day she has to help me with my showers and a lot of the physical things that I have trouble with. But that is the small part. The biggest thing she gives me is the strength to go on day to day. She doesn't complain about the things she does for me, she is just a rock in my life. After almost 33 years of marriage I have come to know my wife in a whole new way again. We talk and share things like we haven't in years and God has awakened a love for her in my life like I haven't had in years. I pray that as the cancer goes into remission in my body, that this love won't go into remission as well. This awakened relationship is something that I treasure and I pray I continue to work at it.
So that is my life right now, and again, please don't stop praying for me and my family, as we continue to deal with the cancer that is affecting us all.