I debated with myself whether to post this, but I decided that it might help someone who is in a similar situation in the future. I have a somewhat unusual “brag”. I have a lot to be happy about and a lot to be thankful about right now.
Today I went sailing with my wife, a daughter, and a daughter’s friend. We went sailing to celebrate life, and to mark an anniversary that for quite a while I thought that I would not get to. Today is the 10th anniversary of the day that they told me that I had cancer.
What followed was an approximately 6 3/4 year battle, with initial surgery and two rounds of radiation treatment to deal with two recurrences. Then a bit more than 3 years ago something happened that we did not expect. My oncologist started using the word “undetectable”. The cancer has been undetectable ever since. It might be gone for good. We do not know.
Every day is a gift.
And I want to say a big THANK YOU to my doctors, and to all of the doctors on this web site (and their parents) who help so many people every day.
I don’t know where else to put this, I guess it’s a brag. LEO son called me today because he was bored. He wanted to tell me about the training he did with SWAT. We talked for 25-30 minutes. Towards the end of the call the background noise disrupted our conversation. I asked him why the background noise was so loud. He told me he was on a run. I asked if he’d been running the whole time. He said yes. I had no clue our conversation took place while he was running. I asked how fast he was running. He said he’d been doing 7 minute miles. I can’t fathom that. I couldn’t ever do that. He spoke like he was sitting on a couch.
Both of my children have been charming humans lately.
The older one is in a city where he doesn’t know anyone for a summer internship and he willingly had what I’m calling an “adult playdate” - a friend of mine that he doesn’t know lives in the city and has a son the same age and she volunteered to have her son reach out. My kid hung out with him a few times, including once with his family, and the friend/mom wrote to me later and said such nice things about my kid.
And my younger son, S25, is just being the best version of himself this summer. Older boy did a pretty solid job of “soiling the nest” right before college, this one is doing the opposite. He happily comes errand running with me, has asked his dad to binge watch random tv series with him, says please and thank you more, smiles more, helps with chores more. All of a sudden he’s the mature sweet loving boy we knew he could be most of the time, instead of in random fits and spurts between being kind of a know it all tool.
Of course, both of these things just make me realize how sad I’m going to be when neither of them are home near me next year, but for the moment, I’m going to revel in the fact that they are just being such great guys.
The best BIL in the whole world came over last night to pull up the carpet in the master bedroom. It was disgusting! My parents moved in about 15 years ago and it was probably disgusting then, but it is a room over the garage so my mother thought it needed the insulation and just put throw rugs over it. (She did pull up the carpet in the living room and had the wood floors cleaned and polished, but there is a weird scratch that does a big arch across the room. It’s like a train track but not perfect, so we can’t figure out what it was for)
Under neath? BEAUTIFUL hardwood floors. I need to clean the wood around the edges, but otherwise it is ready to go.
Next? The bedroom next to it which also has wood floors under an even more disgusting carpet on top. My brother moved out last week leaving all his crap, 2 inches of dust on every surface, trash, shoes, some packed but not taken boxes. All being thrown out. Most is too crappy even for goodwill.
I’m hoping my daughter and the best son in law in the whole world will help me empty that room and pull up the carpet.
So proud of my musician who just graduated in May from conservatory. He has been playing as a sub in a major professional orchestra this summer and is playing well and making lots of excellent connections. He said a regular member of the orchestra approached him after the concert last night to compliment him on his tone and interpretation during his solos.
Bravo my DS! You are on your way!
I know many of you do a LOT of gardening (composting, doing flower beds and more), so this is small potatoes compared to that, but for ME, it’s was significant. I trimmed all the guava bushes and the shrubs around our bedroom over the past 2 days and am putting all the green waste in the trash bin and the green recycle bin. There were a LOT of branches and yesterday it involved moving two ladders around to get all the overgrown branches with just a small hand clipper. Today, I got the bigger lopper and the job was easier, but I’m taking a break while it’s hot out and will be back and finish putting all the leaves in the bins after it cools.
H is thrilled because these are tasks he usually does but he’s been busy putting insulation into a new shed that we had built for him to put his tools & other things into. He’s happily busy figuring that out while I’m trying to keep vegetation from touching the house and roof. Haha!
I forgot to say this last weekend. Son did another ride/“race.” He didn’t make top 5, but made top 10. It was HOT and HUMID, and he lost a water bottle along the way. He has been thrilled with his ride results. I and his wife worry a little, because win he wins he wants to focus more on it, and he is “well employed” with a full time job he needs to focus on, plus has wife and animals. But he’s having fun, and that’s important too.
SIL2 passed his NPTE. (National PT board certification exam) He got his results back today. Passed on his first try!
Very proud of him! He’s not an academically inclined guy and going back to school was tough for him. First to grind out all the science pre-reqs after being out of college for 5 years while also working a FT job. Then to gut his way through lots of even tougher science classes in PT school.
I’m bragging on myself! I am a GREAT friend. You would be lucky to have a friend like me.
On Wednesday I drove to my friend’s house, which although she lives in a city considered a suburb of Denver is still an hour from my house (waaay past the airport). Another friend who lives even farther away also came. We helped her pack her house for storage while she decides where she wants to live.
I have a lot of crafting and sewing supplies and equipment but she could open her own Michael’s. She doesn’t have one set of pots and pans, she has 4, with specialty pots and pans for many types of specialty foods. She has 30 suitcases. You’d think she’d never moved before but no, she’s lived in Michigan, NY, NJ, CHINA! She has two children who live in Michigan and she has their stuff. She hadn’t even started on the electronics like printers and computers, tv’s in several rooms, the garage…closing is on Aug 22 and she things she’ll be done packing by early next week. We just roll our eyes. So. Much. Stuff.
And now I’m going back this afternoon to do it all again! And spend the night and do it tomorrow. I’m a great friend. The other friend is really the star of the show. She keeps us all moving, no breaks to look at things and comment “how cool” or “how cute.”. She has people in her small town who need things so whenever something should be tossed, she takes to regift. And then she feeds us. Tonight we are having Frito Pie.
We’ve all been friends since college (to keep on subject for CC), so going on 50 years. Which also means we are old and heavy lifting is difficult. The one moving has been our host for three vacations to Mexico in the last 3 years so we kind of owe her.
I really am a fantastic person (but no, I won’t help you move)
