response 164 of 257:

Sep 9 23:03 UTC 2003

Jim better not be muscling in on "my" pear tree in Vets Park.  ;)

response 166 of 257:

Sep 10 13:49 UTC 2003

No it is a local nursing home with an orchard.  There is a pear tree in Vet's
Park>  We know of two apricot trees but mostly just apples on campus and city
hall has apples too.  Probably failed grafts to crabapple.

WOnder if we can dry most of the pears from the friend's tree.

Today the rash no longer itches and is lighter.  I stopped allopurinol
yesterday.  The throat is much the same.

Jim has been cooking breakfast for an hour or so.

response 168 of 257:

Sep 11 15:56 UTC 2003

We were probably a bit premature in cutting my hair.  When I pull on it little
bits come out.  Most of it does not come out.  My mother (who had radiation
for brain tumor) said she had greying hair before and it grew back dark, in
her sixties.  Got to plan ahead and find some sort of cotton cap.  This is
minor.  Jim wants to put in a shower filter to trap the hair.  Good thing I
got sick in warm weather but it will continue through December and I will have
very short hair in January.  

Off for another blood draw and they can phone me the results as I expect
nothing unusual.  Jim liked the looks of the lunch he found me Monday (cooked
chopped vegetables inside a pizza like crust).  They serve until at least 1
or 2 pm.  (Hospital cafeteria has less of a captive audience than the kitchen
serving the low-fat patients).  There is also a Wendy's and a Pita place that
has Veggie (cheese) and Very Veggie (?) pita sandwiches.  

response 170 of 257:

Sep 12 01:30 UTC 2003

We had blood draw, lunch and some back to normal blood test results which
means it is time to knock out all those multiplying blood cells again.  The
lymph cells are also back to normal and should be killed off mostly.

The nurse there explained to me how Monday would go.  They add another
chemical which takes 4 hours by itself and may cause fever and chills and you
need to monitor blood pressure.  Plus the other three chemicals (CHOP).  The
first is called Rituxin.  I may look it up.  Maybe I don't want to know.  It
could take 8 hours if they slow down the Rituxin to stop side effects.  She
said to bring something to eat, a book or cards to stay busy with, etc.  They
give you a bed and a potty.  I hope it is not a big room with TV blaring. 
Treatment starts at 10:00 and could end by 3:00 or as late as 9 pm (they
close).  Subsequent treatments should be only 5 hours - not bad for every 3
weeks, I suppose.  The last blood draw took up 6 hours total with waiting.

I was told not to be wearing a mask, that is for bone marrow people who have
no immunity at all.  It was hot and damp inside.  So since I have immunity
today and through Sunday we stopped at the library and got a pile of videos.
Did not have the list.  I have sore muscles again from walking around there.

We picnicked outside with the fried vegetable in dough special but I got sore
sitting in the wheelchair so we came inside.  They have little chairs with
attached tables near the window so you can admire the outside from inside.

You can get 8 oz whole milk from a vending machine for 65 cents.  We brought
our own instead (in a milk not a water bottle).

We fetched my armchair (it should work for short periods of reading in an
upright position but not for using the computer) and forgot the fruit dryer.
On the way out our friend who works there was coming in and offered us another
pile of pears.  Jim is still picking from the tree down the street.  Dried
pears for the next few years.  Our own tree was picked clean by squirrels.
The raccoons have not yet judged our grapes ready to destroy.

All the wheelchairs are adjusted for people with two long legs of different
lengths, some twisted at odd angles.  I am lucky I am skinny enough to curl
up in them instead.  They are not readjustable as they are nearly all broken.
I felt sorry for people who had to sit 'normally' in them.  Saw the 90 pound
kid there with his mother.  He wears a mask and needs chemo daily but is in
remission.  

response 172 of 257:

Sep 12 14:36 UTC 2003

Thanks for your advice.  Both my parents died in their sixties of cancer which
was diagnosed when they were around my age.  My mother's two brother's and
the daughter of one (age 30 - Hodgkin's lymphoma) and my father's sister also
died of cancer, each a different type.  My father's oldest sister died at age
88 of a fall after cancer treatment for 2 years before that.  I will think
about telling the two teenage kids.  Cancer in Macedonia is probably a lot
less curable.  Still have to write my Slovene friend who is caring for her
sister who had stomach cancer.  In Slovene.  I wonder how you say spleen. 
I forgot to get that dictionary yesterday. 

I am amazed at how many people I have been notifying.

Today I am trying to help one of them with a Slovak birth certificate that
needs notarizing.  I am not making a trip to the bank, they are unlikely to
notarized if Jim takes in my signature, so we are asking a Polish translator
to print it out and notarize it.  The owner attempted a translation.  It does
not look very English and would be hard to correct.  I hope I have, here, a
copy of some other SLovak (or even Czech) birth certificate that I can send
him as a model, which I will then correct based on the original SLovak which
he faxed, and he can send that to the Polish translator for printout and
notarization.  It might be quicker for me just to do the translation.

Jim wants me to work on getting a prescription for a 3" fancy foam mattress
topper to replace the camping mat.  If my voice worked better it would be
easier.  I hope this is just an allergy to the drug I stopped.  

Breakfast has arrived.  Jim will try to find the model certificate on the
other computer.  Should be interesting.

response 174 of 257:

Sep 12 17:22 UTC 2003

While in my never-never land I sort of let other things slip and the bank has
now charged me $9 for my checking account going too low.  Jim does not
understand how it happened as he says he only took out what he put in.  I
think it may have something to do with my landlord forgetting to cash a rent
check from a while back but at this point I have drawn a line across the
bottom of the balance sheet and started all over.  I am no longer keeping
track of our expenses.  Let Jim count calories instead.  I am starting to
answer mail from a few months ago.  Jim promised to do the wool laundry from
April on a dry day.  Back to reality.

response 176 of 257:

Sep 13 20:43 UTC 2003

((Sindi wanted me to wave hi at Grex from her lunchbox computer.
  I'm over visiting Sindi and Jim.))

response 178 of 257:

Sep 14 20:41 UTC 2003

Today we finally got the form signed for letting Jim make my medical
decisions, witnessed by the neighbors across the street when we took a short
walk (to the near corner).  One of them offered to make me peach cobbler. 
Her husband fixes very expensive Sony recording equipment and a few years ago
helped us fix a receiver by pointing out that a line was missing on the
schematic we were trying to fix it with (which led to our redoing a bad solder
joint that was destroying compnents).

The hike continued into the back yard, where I ate a ripe pear (they are
starting to fall) and admired the sunflowers, ornamental amaranth (which
somehow are thriving despite the weeds -big purple flower spikes), and lots
of cherry, yellow pear, and plum tomatoes plus some kale, cabbage, and all
sorts of bean species twining around in the leaves.  I dont' think I will be
picking any beans off them this year.  The jerusalem artichokes are slightly
shorter than the fruit trees and there is one clump of pawpaws.

I am experimenting grexing from the armchair today but it like most others
is for people with longer legs so I need to sit cross legged.  

I have found the letter from my friend in Trieste about her sister having
stomach cancer.  Her chemotherapy should have finished in July, and it
involved three days in a row of infusion every three weeks.  Probably shorter
days than I will have tomorrow, when they are infusing four things in one
session.  Her sister also had surgery, and was trying to get back up to at
least 46 or 47 kg (x 2.2 = about 100 pounds).  Her sister is a few inches
shorter than I am and I think was less skinny to start with.  My friend said
the symptoms started suddenly.  Her sister cannot eat fats because they
removed her 'vranico' (I don't have a dictionary here) and has to eat a little
bit many times per day.  I really have it easy as regards eating (except the
fuzz will be back on my tongue in a few days and I think the chemotherapy
removed my appetite).  She says the first few days after therapy are the
worst.  Can't be any worse than the hospital - at least I can sleep and the
food is a lot more varied.   I get custom-order meals here.  (Jim continues
to feed himself popcorn and my leftovers and lots of oatmeal).  I should order
yellow pear tomatoes.

If you don't hear from me for a couple of days it was the chemotherapy making
me tireder again.

My friend (who is Slovene - I need a dictionary badly) will be surprised to
hear from me.  We met in 1973 at a Slovene summer school, where she took pity
on me for not understanding a word and tried to help in English.  Since then
we have been through the death of both our mothers (brain cancer) and her
father (old age).  Seems she is always taking care of someone.  I had asked
if she could meet me at the station in Trieste after the summer school and
help me find the youth hostel - I ended up their guest for a week instead.
Trieste is a lovely place to visit - it runs up the hill from the sea, with
many pedestrian-only stairways instead of streets, areas where the water
supply is outdoor fountains, a rocky beach, aquarium, museums.  In the winter
you need to hold onto the railings which are conveniently attached to many
of the buildings on the steeper streets so the wind won't blow you away.  My
friend is still in the apartment her parents had (there is a severe housing
shortage and you need state help to find anything) and complaining of all the
construction noise and dirt as all the surrounding apartment buildings are
being replaced with larger ones.  She is not allowed to move.  Her parents
raised three kids there.  Kitchen, living room, 1.5 bedrooms (the .5 is more
of a storage closet but she slept there).  Nobody slept in the kitchen.  At
one point they took in her divorcing sister with her four kids.  This building
is 3 or 4 floors of two apartments each.  Downstairs is a bakery where they
start around 4 am, and you get your morning rolls.

She hopes I am having a more peaceful and pleasant time of it at the moment
than she is.  She is in for a surprise.  I hope her sister is doing well.

Her apartment reminds me somewhat of the one my grandfather had in Brooklyn
(rent controlled, $90/month in the early eighties) but they don't have a
central open area like the larger apartment buildings in Brooklyn so the
apartments all have clotheslines stretched out between windows in two
different rooms, on the street side, with pulleys.  My grandfather would wash
his laundry in the bathtub and hang it out on some complicated clothesline
arrangement, and I think his building predated refrigerators as there was a
little compartment off the kitchen to put milk in in cold weather.  Brooklyn
must have been a real step upwards for early immigrants from Italy.  Jim
recalls our staying at his apt (without electricity - he was already in  a
nursing home) and having breakfast in Italian pastry shops a block away while
we attended a translator's conference.  The trucks passing by on the four-lane
highway in front let us see at night anyway.  When I was a kid I found the
cockroaches in the bathroom interesting.  He lived there since 1936 (and died
in 1985).

response 180 of 257:

Sep 14 23:32 UTC 2003

Instead of typing !ignore I can edit the .cfonce file but there was some way
to do pico without line wrapping -what is that?  -w?

Jim went out to pick tomatoes and peppers to feed us tomorrow.

response 182 of 257:

Sep 15 00:30 UTC 2003

It may not be the technical item, but it is her item.  I would say she can
discuss anything she would like to discuss.  With or without your approval.

response 184 of 257:

Sep 15 02:01 UTC 2003

Has anyone ever needed approval to say something on grex?  If so, all twits
have my approval to say anything they like but don't expect any response from
me as I won't see it.

Where did/do other people's grandparents live?

response 186 of 257:

Sep 15 04:23 UTC 2003

My maternal grandparents lived in Georgia, near Fayetteville and Jonesboro,
while my paternal grandparents lived in Massachusetts, near the Rhode Island
line.  That is, that's where they were living when I knew them; they'd lived
other places earlier in their lives (all in North America, though).