66.666....% Complete (and Other More Interesting Things)

The update on my cancer treatments is pretty much the same as last reported. This past Wednesday was my 8th scheduled infusion out of a total of 12 planned. Again this time, my platelet count was low, so my oncologist again skipped the first of the two drugs and sent me home with the drug delivered by pump over a 46 hour period. Her plan is that when my platelet count recovers, she will add the first drug again for no more than one or two rounds. Indeed, she indicated that if that could not be done, it isn't a serious problem. Side effects of the drugs continue to be not much of a problem, and I'm leading a relatively normal day to day life. I'm certainly looking forward to putting this entire chemotherapy program behind me by the end of August or so.

You may remember the helium balloon I was given at the time of my surgery in January. This little guy has been a daily bit of happiness ever since. After five months, he is starting to struggle a bit, however. If he eventually refuses to float into my day each morning, I'll look for another way to keep his flattened self around. Thanks, Rex and Chris!!

For my recent 78th birthday, the two of my children and their families who were in town, planned an evening picnic at one of the local parks. Here are Rob and Betsy with me on that occasion. Note the new NY Yankees baseball jersey that Kathie gave me! On the back is the number 7 and the name Mantle, one of two early 1960s Yankees (the other being Roger Maris) who hooked me on that team when they were making a run to beat Babe Ruth's one season home run record.

And here are their five children--five of my eight grandkids--Henry, Frederick, Penny, Eleanor, and Clara. Henry is now 17 and on staff at Camp Wapsie. On weekends he comes to our home, does his laundry, and catches up on a bit of sleep before returning on Sunday for the next round of campers.

When he was here this past weekend, Kathie made a delicious apple pie and labeled it with Henry's initials. He and Kathie continue to frown at my choice of topping for apple pie (melted cheddar cheese--"Apple pie without cheese is like a kiss without a squeeze!). They prefer vanilla ice cream, I guess, which is fine for some pies, but if you really want a treat, try apple pie with cheddar.

The day after the picnic, there was an art exhibit by a local academy that Penny attends. We enjoyed seeing her work, including this self portrait (over her right shoulder) and a number of other pieces.

On Sunday last, we traveled to the Buchanan House Winery. Check out more about this place, including more information about the gorgeous home that was relocated to the winery site during the last couple of years (a distance of 7 miles from its original location). Here is a link to the winery web site: click here. A musician was entertaining while we sampled the wines and had some snacks. It was a very pretty Iowa day for an outing like this and was something we may do again sometime, especially on a day when tours of the house are permitted. The wines, by the way, were all interesting, and a couple of them were quite good for Iowa wine. Our friend Richard declared them "very drinkable."

As for my continuing enjoyment in woodworking, I just completed making two Adirondack chairs and foot stools. These will be added to our back deck, which is currently being rehabbed with new stain and screens. More on that in my next posting, I think. We are working on selecting a good paint color for these chairs to go along with the new deck stain color.

That's all I have for now! TTFN as the British (and others) say!

58.3333...% Complete

 As of yesterday (June 1st), I have completed 7 of 12 chemotherapy infusions. Well, almost. As I write this, I am still connected to the pump and drug that is administered at home over a 46 hour period. So really, I'll complete the infusion tomorrow morning at about 10:00. It is always good to get rid of the fanny pack with pump and the bag of drugs. My platelet count was low again yesterday, so my oncologist decided to skip for this time the drug that is normally administered at the infusion center. She is already contemplating eliminating it completely and has decided that perhaps one more infusion of that drug in two weeks will be enough. This should allow my platelet counts to return to something like normal. Best of all, this is the drug of the two I get that has that strange side effect which makes me sensitive to cold. I'll be happy to leave that behind. Other than these details, everything is good and on track, so let's move on to other things.

The saw saga: Many of you evidently found the story about my SawStop saw and the triggering of the brake due to my unfortunate/stupid attempt to cut a light piece of brass. I had indicated that I was going to send the blade in for inspection, repair and sharpening, which I did. I got it back last week. These blades are quite expensive to begin with, and I choose to keep them maintained rather than replacing them with new ones. Also, I simply don't like throwing things away unless there is no other alternative. The report is that the blade itself had to be straightened slightly, although I don't know that its warp was due to the braking incident at the saw—the blade may have been due for this maintenance simply because of its age and heavy use. On the other hand, the four teeth that needed to be replaced and the three that needed to be straightened were surely a result of the braking. Once these things were done, the blade was thoroughly cleaned and sharpened, and after my paying the $82.50 bill for the repairs and shipping back to me, I have the blade back in my possession. Armed now with more information about the impacts of such incidents, I'll be able to (I hope) both avoid problems and make good choices about future repairs and sharpening.

Lake visit: Between the May 18th infusion and the one yesterday, Kathie and I did get away for a wonderful six days at out cabin in Wisconsin.

We had about three cool and sometimes rainy days, but those were good for reading and watching the Big 10 baseball tournament. Well, I watched more of the latter than did Kathie, truth be told. Iowa had a good run in the tournament until their last game, which would have put them in the championship game. Oh well, maybe next year. On the sunny days, we worked in the yard to clean up leaves and fallen bits of wood from a couple dying trees. I mowed the lawn too, and we took our usual trip to the Winter Greenhouse to buy annual plants for our flower beds. Here is the smaller of our beds with the new flowers added to it. Jackie, a good friend, gave me the gnome you will see—that little guy, who I have repainted at least twice, continues to enjoy lounging among the flowers. What he does at night is anyone's guess.

There was lots of blooming going on, even without our planting flowers. I have two small apple trees that are in their third or fourth years. They looked better and more shapely than ever, and they had lots of blossoms. This time of year, there are also wild trillium blooming. One volunteered in a less than ideal place by one of our decks, but there are others in the woods nearby.

Being up at our cabin was really a nice break for us. Because of my reduced immune system during the chemotherapy, we haven't had lots of interaction with others or chances to get out and do things away from home. This second home gave us a chance to break that pattern, and it was six days very good for our souls.

Bog maneuvers: Over the years, some of you have learned from us various things about the floating bogs in the lake on which our cabin is located. The Chippewa Flowage is a roughly 17,000 acre lake with approximately half known as the west side and the other half, appropriately enough, known as the east side. These two almost equally sized halves are separated by County Road CC which includes timbered land and a causeway with a small bridge over a small passageway for the water to flow from the west side to the east side, where the dam is located. A number of floating bogs are located just to the west of the causeway and are near the bridge.  In windy conditions, one especially large bog often breaks loose from whatever minor anchoring it finds on the bottom of the lake, drifts and blows toward the bridge, and completely blocks passage for boaters between the two halves of the lake. Over the years, enterprising people have called for volunteers to bring their boats to the area and work to push the bog back away from the bridge. The WI Department of Natural Resources used to frown on this, and so these voluntary efforts usually occurred at off hours or overnight and were not much publicized. In the last few years, however, the DNR's attitude seems to have changed. A few years ago, someone published an aerial view from a drone showing an armada of fishing and pontoon boats working to relocate the bog.

Then last week, my friend Richard, found this online story about a more recent effort. Click here to see that story and video.

That's it for now! I should be back with more information in a couple weeks.