My dad

First Day of Chemo..my dad

Unfortunately, he doesn't have that nice hair anymore. It's OK though! I took these photos with my phone on that day, but didn't know how to get them off the phone until today. I wish I was a geek! I still can't get the photos smaller without distorting them.

Problem solved..

Saturday I spent hours trying to transfer songs to my Motorola Razr. Never got it done. Well, today I went to the AT&T store and they solved the problem. Seems my phone did not have a memory card in it. Well, $30 later it does. I'm still working out the kinks and trying to learn how to take pictures and transfer them to the computer. The high tech stuff has left me in the dust. I used to be pretty savvy with computers, but not so much anymore!

UMMMM>>>NO!

I'm officially NUTS!

I know because my neighbor told me so. Yes, I was mowing at 2:30 in the afternoon and she did come over and bring me a cold bottle of water, but it was only 91 degrees and there is risidual breeze blowing from the hurricane. In fact, it has blown my hat off twice today and blew my big garbage can over that has been waiting all day long to be picked up. I just wish it would blow in some rain. 91 degrees feels like a cold front compared to what it has been being.

This morning I went to help Mom peel her pears so she can make preserves, but by the time I got there, she was all finished. I did help Dad put a soaker hose on his row of berries. He is so incredibly weak and he can't see because of his macular degeneration, so I help him see and hold things for him. After he went on inside, I stayed out and put pine straw all around his berries. So, now he can stop worrying about those berries.

Mom spent part of the night on the floor. She even had her walker, but fell going to the bathroom and could not get to the phone to call my brother to come get her up. She really hates to call him in the middle of the night even if she could get to a phone. I guess we need to get one of those Life Alert gizmos for her to keep around her neck. She said she would have used it last night.

Is this dark?

I did something today that I have been meaning to do for quite some time....way before Dad was diagnosed with lung cancer. Some people might think it a bit macabre, but when the time comes I know I will be emotionally unable to function to this extent. I burned a song on CD to play at Dad's funeral....Larry Gatlin singing In the Garden. This song reminds me so much of him. It brings tears to my eyes even now. I'm sure I'll be a babbling idiot when the time comes. I already have harvested a picture of both Mom and Dad for the paper. Who has the sense to do these things after they are dead and so many decisions have to be made? Sometimes I feel guilty that I have already thought of these things, but I also know what a pile of mush I will be when decisions have to be made. It would be unfair to my brother to have to be the sole decision maker.

Cuz I can and I feel like it!

We need to add Obama and make this a trio!

I lost my mind today!

I made the assinine and stupid decision to do some yard work today. After 1 hour and 45 minutes, I was completely done....not with the yard work, but just DONE! Used up! Cooked! Melted Down! Just DONE! I knew better, but I just felt the need to tidy up a bit outside. I did the edging in the front yard and side yard and mowed a tiny little bit before I had to quit. Also, got everything blown off the driveway and sidewalk. It's another 100 degree day....5 in a row! We hope that we get a some residual rain from the hurricane off our Gulf Coast even though the forecasts show it going to central Texas. We hope it will pull some moisture up to us as well. We are in desperate need of rain. Most of the area is under a "burn ban" now.

Hot as hell!

It's 7 P.M. and the temp on my computer says 103! That temp comes from Barksdale Air Force Base, which is not far from me. I was a total waste of skin today. All I did was sleep until my bro called and said we were going to our catfish place. When I got to Dad's, he was not going because he didn't feel well enough to even go see his girlfriend there. He's the reason we were going. He told brother this morning that he wanted to go, but when the time came, he just wasn't up to it. He did, however, give us the money to pay for our meals. What a guy! His girlfriend sent him a couple of fish and onion rings with a note that he HAD to eat them!

Anyone know why I am getting this message on my own blog on both my computers? It says, "Internet Explorer cannot open the internet site http://beattybuzzzz.blogspot.com. Operation aborted.

I need my tunes!

Since I have screwed up my Ipod, I spent a good part of this afternoon trying to transfer my Itunes play list to my Motorola Razr, which is supposed to play my music. I was never able to get my computer to recognize that my phone was plugged into it. I followed all instructions and it still failed. CRAP! I need my tunes! Not that I am going for a walk anytime soon, but when I do, I want it to work!

It's too HOT!

It's been over a 100 degrees most of this week, so I have been pretty much useless in the yard. Today I went out to spray the crape myrtles because they have that sooty mildew crap. As I was spraying I saw a birdnest in the tree, but I thought it was empty. The parent bird came and sat in the tree....that's when I realized there were babies in the nest so I quit spraying.

Then I went to Mom's and picked some pears off her tree for her because she told me she wanted a few to make some pear preserves. I did a little power washing on her house, but that didn't last long. It's just too freakin' hot. My grass needs to be mowed, but I just can't get motivated to do it in this heat. It's pretty deep because I have watered it a lot trying to get the bermuda grass to choke out everything else. The guy that sprayed my bahai grass said it would do that if I let it grow a few inches tall before mowing. Well, that's been a cinch!!!

Holy CRAP!

• new brakes and rotors......$543
• my part of first hospital stay.....$1,o47 on top of the $1,000 I already paid and not including the second 5 day stay!
• chocolate milk shake from the local ice cream parlour to ease my anxiety..$3.26

Come over for dinner!

• hot, buttered cornbread
• fresh smothered okra, tomatoes and onions
• new potatoes and onions smothered in butter (not oleo)

All fresh from a garden...not my garden, but somebody's. Dad told someone I liked okra, so someone brought a bag of okra to his house for me. Lots of people would not find this appealing, but to me, it's the best part of summer. Well, at least since I retired from teaching school!

Good news!

It was back to the oncologist today for Dad and the news from the CT scan he had last week was excellent. The larger tumors have shrunk, making his breathing less labored and the small ones are GONE! We started round 3 of chemo today. Doc is happy with the results as are we! He is, by no means, cured. There is no cure for this kind of cancer, but the doc will call it remission after two more rounds of chemo and another scan. After two more rounds, he will be done! He still has had no ill effects other than losing his hair and even that isn't all gone. He is anemic, but that is caused from the chemo and it can be treated with shots after chemo is done this week.

Holy Moly!

At the early service this morning (of which I was in attendance), one of the members (on behalf of the membership) got up at the end of the service and presented our pastor with a little red gift wrapped box for this 63rd birthday. Inside were the keys to a brand new Lincoln Town Car!! Wow! We must love our pastor! A few months ago I got a letter in the mail and an envelope if I wanted to contribute toward the pastor's birthday present. A bunch of people must have given way more than I did!!!! Just sayin'!!!! I'm happy for him. He deserves it!

Political Poo (Obama)

Because I can and I feel like it!

67% Dixie

I took a quiz here to confirm that I am 100% Southern. Holy Crap! I am only 67%. I'm really disappointed. I wanted to be 100%.

FACE FEEDING!

Usually when we are going to our favorite catfish restaurant, I don't eat during the day so I can make a dent in the massiveness that is the SENIOR PLATE. Yes, I am eligible for the senior menu, so don't hate. I might add that the CHILD PLATE is exactly the same thing, so my brother, being the comedian that he is, always orders a CHILD plate. He thinks he's not a SENIOR....funny boy! OK....my point was, before I jumped that rabbit, that I was sitting in QUIZNO'S feeding my face when I got the call that we were going to eat catfish tonight. So now I am still full from that and not at all hungry and craving the wonderful onion rings that our waitress always brings us and never charges us for. Trust me...I will stuff the goodness that is the onion rings in on top of that Quizno's sandwich.

Morons at work!

Instead of those "men at work" signs I see sometimes, there should be one that says "morons at work" on the construction sites next to me. There are two new homes being built by me. Now I know that when I see one of these bobcat gizmos in the picture that my cable is going to be cut. Nevermind that the ground has big red spray painted lines showing the buried cables. When I got back from Dad's, I saw one of these machines at work and when I went inside my house, it was evident to me that my cable and internet were out. I went out and asked the guys if they cut my cable again......."Oh, no Ma'am, we didn't cut anything." Liars......the next time I looked out a couple of hours later, the cable company was there repairing the cable! Why would they just flat out lie? Dumbasses! I knew the freakin' cable was cut!

Dad update

Dad has felt pretty good this week. I bought a few tomato plants to plant at his house this morning and when I got there, he had already been out working in the garden putting pine straw around his berry plants. That's the most he has felt like doing in a long time. I got his tomato plants planted and worked in the yard until I was totally melted down and soaking wet with sweat. Hopefully, we will have some more fresh tomatoes before frost since we planted them under a soaker hose that Dad has snaked through a fence. So, actually it is a drip, but it works.

On Monday we go back to the oncologist, get labs, and chemo. Well, I'm not sure about the chemo. I guess that will depend on whether the CT scan shows any progress in shrinking the tumors.