What's After Work?

In 2015 I started riding for the Great Cycle Challenge to raise money to help fight childhood cancer. I had begun riding my bike for my own health after my heart surgery in December of 2013. I was riding about 40 miles a week when I heard about the Challenge so I'd give it a try. It was a simple thing, think how far you will ride in a month and ask people to sponsor your ride. The first year I raised $250 the next year I rode it was a little less and then even less the third year.  But I wasn't really trying. I was just posting a few blurbs on Facebook and hoping for the best. So the forth year I decided to try and raise enough that they would send me a shirt. So I sent our a few emails and called people directly. That worked and I made the $500 that was required for the shirt and a little more.  In 2020 I really upped my game and raised over $1500 that year. Okay maybe I used the fact that I had been treated for prostate cancer to tug on peoples heart strings and open their ...

January 6, 2020 was my last day of work. I remember that it was rather anticlimactic. It was the day after Winter Break and a teacher work day. Everyone at work had just come back and it was a non-student day. I was there because if you work one day in a month our health insurance covers you for that month, If you have ever priced insurance a month is worth working a day. So after a number of very nice parties celebrating my retirement. (I know that is a strange concept now, getting together in large groups for any reason. ) I had a few weeks to just relax, sit back and contemplate my future. Ummm what should I do? I thought it would be sleep late and watch late night TV. No! My body had other plans . Even without the need to get up and go to work I was still waking up early and getting sleepy around 10 pm. I guess my body was having a hard time adjusting to this new life style. The nearly 40 years of work had taken it's toll. I realized I would  never be able to go back to my 20...

Dr. Galloway and the gang over at West Florida Radiation Therapy have developed a very efficient process of treating their patients. I arrive about 5 minutes before my scheduled treatment time. The waiting room is often empty in spite of having plenty of chairs. I have my temperature taken and wash my hands. Then within a minute or two I will have my name called. As I'm going back to the treatment room there is usually another guy just coming out of that room.  When the technicians are ready they call me in and I climb onto the treatment table. After I'm on the table my feet and legs are aligned using a hard pillow that is molded to my legs and feet. Then the table is moved into position and the technicians adjust me using lasers and my aiming tattoos.  The techs then leave the room and the machines take over. First two arm move into position to x-ray me to determine the position of my prostate. The table will make slight adjustments itself to move me into the best position. A...

How I look in the RapidArc machine. I'm two weeks into my nine week treatment for prostate cancer. So far it has not been too bad. The process leading up to my treatment was worse than the actual treatment. The biopsy and having gold markers placed in my prostate were invasive to say the least. I guess if I am ever abducted by space aliens I can tell them "been there done that"! Even though the actual treatment only takes about 4 minuets. If everything goes smoothly I am in and out of the office in about 10 minutes.  The preparation for the treatment takes quite a bit of time. I start the evening before with stopping drinking anything at about 7:30 PM.  The next morning I get up early, for retirement, at about 6:00 AM to start my morning routine. I start that early because I need to have all liquids I drink to clear my system by 9:00 AM when I start my bladder filling. I started this adventure drinking the requested 32 oz. of water in 15 minuets. Try it, it is difficult. ...

I knew going into retirement things would be different. Not just sleeping in and going places but also trying new things.  As you all have read in an earlier post Jan and I did go to Hawaii soon after my retirement and that was fun. But at about the same time I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. That was not one of the "new things" I wanted to try but at least I now have the time to deal with it. And 9 weeks is the time it will take. I started radiation therapy on June 3, 2020 and will continue for nine weeks 5 days a week. No missing treatments! The doctors office is not far from my house so travel time is not bad and once I get into the groove of things I think each visit will only be about 20 minuets.  I've had 3 treatments so far and the radiation technologists, nurses and staff at  West Florida Radiation Therapy  are all very nice and caring. They have quite an efficient system there for treating a bunch of old guys with prostate cancer.  Dr. Mic...

William Blake  /  Satan Smiting Job with Sore Boils c.1826 A lot has been happening over the last week or so. I try to find something funny or positive to write about. But what's been going on both in the world and in my own life that has been difficult. A little over a month ago I had a blood test that came back with an elevated PSA number. An indicator of prostate cancer. Seriously! It is said that God does not give you more than you can handle. I've read Job in the Bible and I really have no interest in discovering my limit. At the beginning of the month I thought we would be visiting both my daughter and her family and Austin and Morgan in North Carolina. Then travailing on to Evansville In. to visit Jans Dad. With my diagnosis it was decided that they would visit us. Then we decided Austin should not come because of the increasing threat of the Coronavirus and flying was not a good idea. Then we decided that it may not be a good idea for Jessica and Noah to tra...