Thanks!

 I realized after my last posting that there is something I should have said to all of you, my faithful followers and readers. That is: THANKS! Many of you have written emails to me, texted me, sent letters and cards, and have left comments. All of these to encourage me and wish me well on this cancer journey. I don't know if it is fully over yet, but I can tell you that from the bottom of my heart, I am grateful for your kind words and affection. Thank you once more.

I know that in one of my prior posts, I shared an image of the "Get Well" balloon two dear cousins sent to me along with a bouquet when I had surgery to remove the tumor in February. That balloon stayed afloat well into June, although, like me, it grew more and more wrinkled. It held onto its helium with great tenacity. Then recently, the same cousins brought me another balloon to help celebrate my having reached the end of my chemotherapy regimen. Here are my two cheerful, smiling, mylar guys!

Soon, I'll have my first follow-up set of tests, and I'll meet with my oncologist to hear what she has to say about the results. In the meantime, we are at our Wisconsin lake home enjoying the weather, working on various projects, getting out on the water. reading, and relaxing. Some of our children and grandchildren have been able to come to spend time with us here. Yay!

Two of the more significant projects I finished were getting the hot tub back into operation and completing the disassembly of a rather large electric train layout I had created here. I had started replacing the hot tub electronics the last time we were here but discovered a bad heating unit, so I ordered one, got it installed about ten days ago, and we have been enjoying late evening dips in the tub ever since.

Since my youth, I had always wanted to build a significant railroad layout. I have a very nice collection of engines, rolling stock, and scenery items, and recent retirement years allowed me to finally tackle this idea. Involvement of computers and communications technologies have also found their way into model railroading, so that was quite fun as well. Here are a few glimpses of portions of my layout:

If these pics aren't enough, here is a video I took with my cell phone strapped to the front of one of my engines. Call me a nerd if you wish! I had a lot of fun with all of this.

Nevertheless, one soon realizes that more than half the fun is in the building. The grandkids and others always enjoyed seeing the layout, but it wasn't something one could do for hours--fifteen or twenty minutes of viewing was usually enough. I enjoyed operating the layout. I could keep four and sometimes more engines and their consists running concurrently, but even that is not something one does for hours at a time. So given all of this and realizing that it would be better for me to disassemble the layout rather than to leave it for my children or my spouse to deal with when I'm gone, I decided to tear it all down. On top of that, I decided that I'd like to have the garage back for easier boat storage and safer parking of cars when we are here. So that job is now done--most things are packed up and stored away; the tables have all been disassembled.

My daughter saw what follows and says I am weird. This is a piece of watermelon I was eating recently. I told her I like to save the best part until last. I also use a spoon rather than a fork. The spoon works better for carving out the area  below the good part. By the way, I also eat pizza and pie from the outside crust into the center. These methods may not be considered proper etiquette for polite company, but I'm usually not eating these kinds of things in formal settings. Come to think of it, I'm rarely in formal settings anymore! That's just fine.

One of the next projects is to harvest all of the apples from the two small trees I planted here at the lake several years ago. They did really well this year. The variety is call Frostbite, and the apples are small and tart but nice for applesauce and other baking. Kathie is going to guide me through making a Dutch apple pie in the next couple days. I'll eat it from the outside crust edge in towards the luscious middle. 😋

100% Done! (Well, except for some follow-up from time to time.)

 Last Wednesday, I was connected to the last of my infusion treatments. Today, I disconnected from it and the pump and am now completely finished with the prescribed twelve chemotherapy infusions which began in February. It seemed like a long road at the start, but like everything related to time in my life these days, that road has been traversed and one wonders how the time passed by so quickly. We can return to the lake for longer periods now, although both Kathie and I each have one thing for which to be back home. She has a sorority reunion in October, and I have a post-chemotherapy followup/surveillance appointment in September. At that time, I'll have a complete upper body CT scan, some blood tests, and a consultation with my oncologist. Given earlier good indications and the plan to repeat some of the tests which led to those positive indications, I have no reason to believe that I'll hear anything concerning. However, cancer is one of those things that I suppose everyone wonders if or when it might return. I've been little bothered by such thoughts, am optimistic and living as I wish, and plan on just headin' on down the road of life.

Now turning to other news... (By the way, if you like, you can click on pictures in these postings to see larger versions. A separate window will open to display them.)

Granddaughter Penny recently celebrated her 11th birthday. I made a book for her of photographs collected over the years since her birth. The title is "11 Years of Penny." Here she is with that book and also with the ruby necklace she picked out when we went jewelry shopping together the morning of her birthday.

I have a second cousin, John, in Hawaii who makes beautiful guitars by hand. Each one is made from exotic woods and has interesting inlays, usually made with abalone shell. You can look at some of his work by clicking here if you wish.  I have been thinking for some time about buying one of them to keep in the family. My grandson Anders is the likely candidate to eventually have it, since he already plays guitar and string bass. So, recently I bought the guitar that John is holding and playing in these pictures. I have it now and am beginning to learn a little. The instrument is gorgeous, as is the sound. I had a guitar many years ago and managed to learn to play a bit. I think I'll enjoy trying again until it is time to pass the guitar along. John and I have also been exchanging some family history and photographs, which has been great fun. I'll be updating my genealogical records with some of this and will also include these photographs and information about John's work.

 Kathie and I were back at the lake July 30 to August 8. Flowers at our shore line were on display, and the sunset over the lake was especially beautiful (Kathie's photo).

We have been wanting to use our hot tub at the cabin, but it has needed new electronics. I replaced the circulation pump and the main control boards but discovered that the heating pump was not working. I ordered one, have it now, and will install it as soon as I get back up there this next week.

Daughter Betsy and her family came to the lake for a few days while we were there, this year without Henry, who is working at Camp Wapsie. Kathie took the kids out for a boat ride and a little fishing one evening. That is when she got the sunset photo shown above. Here she is with Frederick and more of that sunset in the background.

We rented a pontoon boat for a full day, and it turned out to be the perfect outing. The temperatures were very pleasant, there was little wind, and we enjoyed just cruising around the lake (which is very large at nearly 17,000 acres). There was also some time spent swimming off a sandy shore, and we tried a little fishing, though that was met with little success. (Pete and Clara did catch quite a few bass on other outings, though.) Here are the female and male passengers on the pontoon boat.

We stopped for lunch at one of the resorts on the lake, and I got this picture of the grandkids at the resort's "photo opportunity site."

We may or may not have concluded the outing with ice cream at another lake resort.

Every vist to our lake home concludes with a record of our being together.

My sister has a knack for finding strange gifts that she thinks I need (bless her heart). Here is an example--a fish below a bobber that is actually a bird house. See what I mean!

Speaking of my sister, Paula's grandchildren live in Sweden, so she has not been able to see them for a number of years due to the pandemic and related travel problems. However, she and Ron were able to go this summer, and the smiles below are a good indication of an increase in Paula's level of happiness. They are still there, and I'm looking forward to hear a full report on the visit when she gets home.

More later! But it won't be about infusions!