Have you ever noticed, nothing's quite as good as the original?

Today, As i came home from my abdominal ultrasound appointment, I saw a newer volklswagon beetle getting off the interstate.  it was bright yellow, and a little grey haired woman was driving it and on the bottom of the door it said in black lettering 'Beetle".  At first i thought nothing of it, until i read the word beetle.  It was then it struck me, thats not a beetle, thats the modern bug, Thats when it hit me.  Nothing, is ever quite as good as the original.

the nostalgia that was invoked thinking about the original beetle will never, be able to be invoked by that 2000s era bug.  Cover bands, while good, are not as good as the original.  Even Journey, with their newish lead singer, as good as he is... is not, steve perry. I imagine this holds true most of the time, but I bet there are some times that the newest version is way way better than the original, but id wager that depends on what you're after.  Performance for instance.  The new corvette is hands down better in every form of performance than the original, but does it invoke the nostalgia and class of the original? of course not. it cant.  Its too new for one. 

ahwell.. just a random thought while driving.  ponder it if you'd like.


p.s.  Ultrasound went well, other than the positions and pressure she had to apply or have me in hurt my back, and im hurting a good bit right now.

Chemo Round 2, Second cycle.

I'm exhausted.  Flat out Exhausted, still.   even after a weekend that was pretty mild, and full of a good bit of resting.   Last week, i pushed myself pretty hard.  In fact I'm pretty sure i over did it.  What did i do that was so draining you ask?  well I was off Chemo, so that was a big plus for once, however, i ended up getting up early every day except Wednesday, and going in to the office to work.  That's right, i actually went in to the office, and worked the entire day four days last week. 

Monday and Tuesday, Emily and I car-pooled together.  It was awesome.  I really enjoyed our ride to and from work together.  Yes, i had her get to work real early so she had time to kill, and yes, i had to stay late in the parking lot and wait an hour after i got off work, but it was nice being able to car-pool together.  I was very tired each night though, and pretty much just had supper each day and went to bed. Wednesday i stayed home and worked from home, so it wasn't that exciting. 

Thursday I drove my own Truck in to the office, and she drove her car.  I got sent home a little early as it was a slow evening, and i was exhausted and my co-workers could tell.  I fell asleep when i got home promptly at like 330 pm, and didn't wake up until after Emily had finished cooking supper.  I ate supper and went back to sleep till the next morning.  Friday morning we car-pooled again,  This time because at lunch i had to take her car to Jim Hudson GMC for it's 30 day checkup.  All went well with that, except they are ordering a new steering wheel to be installed for it, as the plastic trim on it isn't exactly fitting perfectly.  They'll call me once the new parts are in, and schedule a date for me to bring the car in for repair/replacement.  So after that, i went back to the office and worked the rest of the day.  I left work and went to wait to pick Emily up.  We picked up supper and went home. Ate, and watched some Live PD before bed.   I was dozing mostly during the live PD though, and dont remember much of anything. 

Saturday rolled around, and Emily let me sleep in as much as I could. Unfortunately that is not much because i tend to get headaches if I stay in the bed too long.  I did nap some more on the couch while she did some Grocery shopping and went to Pets mart to get some litter for the cat.  That afternoon we met a guy about a gun, and had a quiet evening.  Emily had really worked hard all morning/ day  cleaning, changing litter, etc.  I did go with her to the dump, so we did do that too.  It was a busy day for her more than me, but I was still exhausted. 

Sunday rolls around, and yet again, Emily and I are exhausted still. I end up sleeping quite a bit, either in bed or on the couch, and she does the same.  She also was kind enough to go to CVS for me and get my medications, while cooking a home made crock pot chicken and dumplings, which were exquisite. I really enjoyed them, and would love to eat them a lot more honestly. but they are so filling that one serving is all you can manage.  It was early to bed for me then too, as I knew i needed my rest considering that i had to work on Monday. 

Monday, today, is the beginning of the week.  I'm working from home again.  After last week's learning of a new ticketing system, which is primarily what i do, I needed to test out how i'd work from home doing what i would now be doing from home as its totally different from what it was last 2 weeks ago.  Luckily half way through the day, it appears to be going well.  I'm still exhausted mind you, and i started chemo again today.  Which is not my happiest thing to do, but so be it.

Later this week, i have a dentist appointment and i have to go get an ultrasound on my abdomen, due to elevated liver enzyme levels at the last time i was in my oncologist office.  This should be a busy week, and I sure hope i can get some meaningful rest.  Time will tell.  I've not decided if or when i'll go back to the office to work.  Maybe i will do one day this week, i am not sure yet.  a lot depends how i feel and what all i have going on with doctor appointments.Anyways, im going to sign off for now, and i'm gonna leave you without any neat photo inserts this time.. just a nice big, wall of text.  Thanks for reading, and please feel free to comment, or donate through my Go-Fund-Me or Paypal. 

The past week and weekend, up through Tuesday August 20th.

Today is August 20th.  I've had quite a few action packed days since the last posting. Last week, I got a DM(direct message) from one of my dear friends Mike Herring.  I haven't seen mike in quite some time, but we talk on occasion, and this random message and subsequent conversation did me good.  I really enjoyed it, and catching up with him is always fun.  He was preparing to go for a good vacation out to Hawaii.  I pray that the trip is as much for him as it was for me when i went, even though i was in severe pain at the time due to having un-diagnosed cancer at that time.   He and I go way back, so much so he was even a groomsman in my wedding.  It did me good to talk with him, i hope he realizes that.  I hope he also can come by sometime soon to visit in person.  I'd love to see him even if all we do is sit on the couch and b.s. to  chit-chat. 

Thursday, Emily and I had a dinner date with Jay and Danielle Corely.  We met them at a restaurant in Lexington and had a wonderful meal along with great conversation.  In all we probably spent 2-3 hours with them talking and just enjoying each others company.  It was well overdue, as we hadn't really sat down with them for a meal ever. We got to talk about all sorts of things from the past car club years to new things like the new Acadia and what not. It was real good to see them and we made an executive decision that next time we go out to eat it'll probably be a Saturday and we'll go to Shealy's Barbecue .Wanna talk about good, man that stuff is to die for...

Friday rolled around and while fairly uneventful for working at home wise, I was able to get my tasks done in time to relax a bit before an old high school / Winn-Dixie alum came by.  Jason Stull.  He and I have been friends over 26 years now we figure, and have forged a life long friendship through our shared experiences through school, work, and outside of both when we were younger.  He's since high school graduated from Clemson University in Mechanical Engineering, and served 4 years in the United States Navy aboard the USS George Washington Carrier.  He has a beautiful family, 2 kids and his wife.  His wife, Sarah, has a family lake house out on Lake Murray, which they vacation to sometimes.  Jason was unable to go with them this year due to work, but Sarah and the kids met up with family and went down the week prior.  Jason was coming through town to pick them up from the end of their vacation, and wanted to stop in to see me.  So we made the arrangements and he came by around 7 pm Friday night.  We had a great time, and as a little surprise for him i arranged for my good friend Jason Parks to drop in as well, (we all went to the same high school, worked at winn-dixie together, etc) so it was like a mini-reunion.  We talked to what musta been close to 11 pm before we decided it was getting too late and he had better get going again as it was still another 25-35 minutes of a drive for him to get out to the lake house, and i was getting darn tired.  Unfortunately with the cancer i tend to not have as much stamina as i used to have. :(   

Reflecting upon our conversations, which were all over the place, it did me real good to see Jason and Jason together with me.  We talked about friends and folks we haven't seen, even some folks whom i would never have thought ended up like they did sadly.  It shows you time is neat, but more so can be cruel.  And it also shows you that not everyone stays the same over time.  People change... and not always for the better.   The good news was, that both Jason's are doing great.  Jason S's wife Sarah had been fighting Breast Cancer for 2 plus years and is in remission, fighting and living well now, and my hat is off to her, that is  one strong woman.  Cancer is no joke, it effects the spouses like Jason and Emily just as much as it effects the person with it, Myself, and Sarah.  But i will tell you this, without a strong marriage partner, you will not survive near as easily in my opinion with cancer.  Jason and Sarah are blessed to have each other, just as I am blessed to have Emily.    Overall however, the visit was great, and I wish i could have a month more days like that to hang out with him and just do whatever like we did that night.

Saturday was just as busy.  Emily's mom and her handy-man Dan came down from rock hill to help out mounting a motion lamp in the back yard, and around 3pm my co-worker Cleve was planned to come by the house.  We also were blessed by having Emily cook her famous Chili for us, which was ready right around 3 pm.  So right as Cleve showed up, we were all finishing off our first bowls of Chili.  Luckily she made more than enough for us all to have multiple bowls of it, and thus Cleve was more than happy to have some when we offered.  Her chili is to die for.  Everyone was quite happy with the food, and we watched some of Jaws II while we hung out.  Shortly afterwards my Mom in law and Dan had to leave, so Cleve and i continued our talks and movie watching well into the night.  by 11 pm he was tired and so was I so he had to leave to head home.  I really enjoyed his visit.  It is good that he and I are as close as we are as i think he's the one person i'm closest with at work.  We talked about everything at work, positions, the future, speculation about both, people, and non work things too like movies our spouses, his kids, the whole 9 yards really.  It was a great evening that just put a crown jewel on the night. 

                                                   

Come Sunday i was so tired Emily let me sleep in until 10, and i was so tired still i napped on the couch in and out of consciousness until 3:15 pm.  when she wanted to go take our weekly run to the dump.  We did this, and she surprised me with the suggestion of going to rushes for pineapple shakes.  Who am i to complain about this?!?!!  I love their pineapple shakes, so i took her up on that quite quickly.  We then headed home, as I pulled in the yard, Alex Crumpton, who's working on my purple car, texted saying whats going on with the car, so i opted to go on over to his garage to get him what he needs for the car, as well as show him some new stuff i wanted done to the truck.  Alex and his assistant were really making a lot of headway on the car, as well as a massive Diesel truck they had in there in the other bay as well.  Quite an accomplishment.   Alex is truly talented.  I'm excited that he's doing the work on the Purple car, and that he's as meticulous as he is on it. Its reassuring to know that he is that way, as it is how i am too when i work on things. s Which i miss a lot by the way.  The ability to work on ca rs is one of the cruelest things this disease could have took from me and it did.  No, life's not fair at all. 

After a short visit with Alex about the car I was pretty well tapped out energy wise, so i headed back home and crashed on the couch with Emily for a bit, then we went upstairs and lay in bed and was knocked out. before i knew it it was Monday morning, which involved a whole new amount of stress and fatigue, thats right, I went to work in the office.  for the FULL day.  or at least that was my goal.  Im proud to say that i made my goal as well.

  In the morning Emily and I car pooled to her work, and i dropped her off around 745 am so she could go sit outside till 8 am and go into Starbucks on main campus and get her breakfast sandwich and coffee.  She of course loved the Starbucks, and i went on to work.  I worked the whole day at my office.  With out too much pain, of course, as that is the driving factor in my life.  5 pm rolled around and i had made it without too much pain.  Who'd of thought that i was able to do that.  I know I wouldn't have been able to do so but i sure did. So i proceeded to go to the University Health Center to pick up Emily.  after about 45 minutes of waiting in the car she got off work, and we were on our way home.  Once we got home i was so exhausted (as was Emily) we fell asleep on the couch and slept there till about 930, at which time we relocated upstairs, and promptly fell asleep again.  I know i slept like a brick for the rest of he night.  6 am shows up way to fast when you have to go to work in the mornings. 

Today is Tuesday, its almost over at work, i have just 2 hours left, give or take.  I pray i can make it again.  I'm already planning on not going in tomorrow as i have to have my new chemo meds delivered.  That and the fact that im flipping exhausted. So I will plan on trying to work from home tomorrow and see what i can do then. Learning the new system so far has not been trouble at all for me, in fact i think it is a bit easier than the last one, with all of its issues and convoluted ways of doing things.   The new system is much better over all and more intuitive if you ask me.

and that's about it really.  At this time all else is going well, I just wish i had more stamina or energy so that i could maintain my working of every day at the office. but so far being able to do two back to back hasnt been as bad as it could have been.  I've had back pain yes, and stomach pain, and hot flashes as well still, but they haven't been unbearable like they were weeks ago, right now they are just ok, so i'll push through that for the rest of the day if i can. 

Midweek - 8-14-19

So today is Wednesday.  It's been a very busy week so far.  I've had to work of course and that is normal.  Monday and Tuesday I worked from home, but mid day Monday I had to go with Emily to her Doctor appointment.  He checked her out and said she's looking like she has a clean bill of health, but wanted her to start a journal of the times and duration, and activity she was engaged in when  her heart felt slow or fast paced.  That way he can see if there's a pattern to her feeling as she does.  Unfortunately this didn't sit well with Emily, as she tends to think that the doc didn't think there was anything wrong and discounted her complaints, when in reality its not that, its just that he needs more data to see the pattern to know if it is medication related, or otherwise.  I think if she is able to be diligent on the recordings of the variations in her heart rate, the doctor will be able to point us in the right direction .  Doc did also mention it could be medication induced, as some of her meds are a cocktail for slowing down things. 

Then Tuesday rolled around.  Not much change here, except Em started her Fall / Spring schedule of work, which is go in at 9 am and not get home until after 630 pm.  So it was depressing for me because i liked  her getting home by 5:15 every day.

 One thing we've been doing lately since I got back from being in Charleston for the Bone Marrow Transplant is having supper once a week or every couple weeks with my good friend and the man who was my best man in my wedding, Jason Parks.  Jason came by last night with his prepped meal, and cooked for us again.  This time he served Hamburgers, tater tots, and blackberries. He's a good cook, and made a good cheeseburger last night.  I could only eat mine and a few of the blackberries,  unfortunately the Tots were under cooked a little, and well honestly i was so full off the burger i doubt that i could have enjoyed the tots much without becoming totally miserably full.  That is never good so i'm glad i didn't eat them all.  All three of us did however enjoy our time together and our little chats during cooking and eating.  I value these times with Jason more than I've been able to put into words because i'm a guy for one, and for another its just not came up for discussion.  It's very nice to spend time with him though this way.  We've had a pretty much lifelong friendship, and have played an important part in each other's lives throughout the years. I hope he realizes how much his friendship means to me.

Today, Wednesday, I had to go into my work office for the first time in a long time to work. It originally was to be because of some training that i needed to do on a new software package that we are going to be utilizing to log in work orders.  Well like all things that Prisma Health does, they didnt  have the training documents, presentations, or media ready, so they cannot conduct an online training course if you dont have that stuff.  I decided to go into work anyways, because i figured that I should go in and see how long i can last without too much pain.  This is a big deal because my back just doesnt handle being up for too long, its 130 pm now, and i can really feel the pain in my back now, and oddly my stomach has sharp pains in it too.  So I dont know.  I imagine i'll be heading out of here soon to return to the house without too much pain.

The rest of this week is shaping up to being just as busy as the beginning of the week has been.  Thursday night after work Emily has arranged us to meet up with another dear friend of ours Danielle Corley, and her husband Jay, for supper.  We are going to get pizza most likely and enjoy some time with them discussing our lives, and whatever may come up as a topic. We were fortunate to have seen Jay already once this week, last Sunday, he came by the house and weed eated, edged, and trimmed our hedges at the house.  these are the things that Emily cant do, as the tools too heavy for her.  She Mowed last Saturday morning so having the edging and what not done was necessary as the grass and weeds were starting to try to grow up into and under the vinyl siding of the house.  He (Jay) runs his own landscaping company and we've had him out to the house now a few times to actually trim it up for us. 

Friday, I have an old high school buddy of mine named Jason Stull coming by the house in the afternoon.  He lives in Virginia Beach, but he is coming through Columbia Friday and let me know he'd like to be able to drop by. I told him that would be awesome.  I've known Jason Stull almost as long as I've known Jason Parks, and we've had a lifelong friendship since high school / winn-dixie days here as well.  Jason's a great guy, served in the Navy after he graduated from Clemson university, got married and had a buncha kids.  Sadly his wife, Sara, has also had a rough road health wise like me with Cancer.  i should actually reverse that, as she was diagnosed long before I was, and she's been fighting the battle much longer than I have.  Talk about an inspiration.  She is a true warrior.  I pray for her health, and Jason and her often.  Anyways, I look forward to seeing Jason Friday afternoon, as it's been too long since I've seen him last.  Its funny looking back 25 years ago to high school days, and actually saying, 25 years ago, are high school days.  I really wonder where the time has gone. 

Winn-Dixie, my first real Job.

LHS Wildcats for LIFE!

Saturday, Emily's mom will be coming down with her friend/Handy-Man Dan.  Dan's going to put in a Flood light for the back yard, to ensure that we have ample lighting coverage out back as Mary Ann does not think its lit up enough at night as it gets pretty dang dark at the house at times.  If it were up to me, I'd put 2 flood lights in, one on each corner of the back of the house, to illuminate the entire back yard.  I'll suggest it, but I really don't know what Dan's plans are.  Also, Saturday afternoon, my co-worker and dear friend Cleve will be coming by the house in the afternoon. He's been meaning to come by and hang out with me for a while now and we just now have gotten it scheduled so that he can come and hang out.  We will hang out and what not and catch up on what is going on at work and in our own lives.  I look forward to this time with him. 

Sunday aside from church depending on how i feel, i do not think there is anything else that we are planning on doing.  These days our weekends go by so fast, and bless emily's heart she works so hard around the house when shes not at work, taking care of me, the cat, or the house itself, i feel like she never gets a break.  Its one of the reasons i decided to try to see if we could go get the Acadia for her, as i felt she needed to have a reward of some sort, even if she has to pay for it, a reward of what she has wanted for many years, and besides her old pontiac was getting worn down.  So it was time to get her a new car.  I hope she realizes how much i value her, and that she's invaluable to me. I'd be lost without her. 

Friday the 9th of August, and the week preceeding...

Today is Friday. It's been a busy work week, and i have had to visit the doctor yesterday as well.  I'm still having hot flashes, and those don't make me feel very well. I've been having a hard time sleeping lately, at least, getting good sleep.  I wake 2, 3, 4 times a night minimally.  I am not sure what is keeping me from getting a good night sleep, usually, however last night i knew what it was. My stomach was upset severely, and it caused me a lot of pain until about 2 am when it finally worked its way out. 

In regards to yesterday's doctors appointment, it was a standard visit of lab, and then consult, just for check up.  this is the first since i'd been back on my Chemo regimen.  The visit went well, however my labs had not been back by the time i saw my nurse practitioner so we didn't go over much.  I did get a phone call a bit later after i left, and they stated that they wanted to schedule me for an abdominal ultrasound.  The reasoning was that my liver enzymes were elevated.  I don't know what could have caused the liver enzymes to be elevated, other than i'm on new medication (the chemo) especially when comparing my last labs to the last visit i had been almost a month prior.  So for now pray that it is the new medication, and not anything else bad is going on.  I know i'm a bit worried about it since they want the ultrasound.

After the doctor appointment i left and went by the county courthouse to pay taxes on the purple Camaro, and then to the DMV to turn in license plates, and get a new one for my purple Camaro.  I've done this because my good friend Alex, has been working on the car to get it running right for me. It's been damn near 10 years since it was  on the road running and driving, and it's been that long since it's been tagged.  Now that it's been tagged it will be road legal which is good, as its over due, and once Alex has her fixed up and running reliably i'll be able to drive her on a routine manner.  I'm really excited about this, because it has been so long. The last video alex sent me was this one where he'd gotten the driver door poppers to work again thankfully.

As you can see the popper is working again without issue thankfully.  This makes it easier now to secure the vehicle. Instead of having it to have to be in the garage, it can park outside if i need to, to be able to open it up without having to crawl through the trunk, which in my current health condition i can no longer do truthfully.  He's made a lot of head way with the car from what I've seen and he's even looked into things like the dash lighting which is incredibly dim to be lit up by LED's if need be.  I don't know if hes going to swap them out for me or not but i mentioned that and he said he was already looking at it so for that i too am thankful.   Alex has really been  a big help with the car. I'm going to be forever thankful for his assistance with it. I truly feel that without his help i'd never get it done.  And lets be honest here, call it morbid, or call it whatever you chose to but i don't know how much time I will have here on this planet.  You may say none of us do, but i feel that i know i have even less as each day is a gift with my disease, and as such to be able to have my friend fix my car so that i can drive it again, with my wife, like we used to when we first started dating, is a big blessing.  One that i cant put into enough words to explain to him how much it means that he's doing this for me.

So the above image, "I admire people who choose to shine even after all the storms they've been through." was shared to my facebook wall this morning by my wife.  She also wrote this " Steve Hafner, you are an inspiration...I hope you know how much I love you"    To me this meant the world.  I don't know how she knew that I needed to hear something like this today but she did, and she posted it.  There are a lot of times that I feel a bit down, and while i have a great support system from her, and our family, and friends, I can be a good bit dark.  Her posting this though really helped me today, so that i wasn't that dark in feeling.  between how i feel physically and how i can go dark or sad at any time just sucks.  Lately i've not felt 100% and i attribute that to the new chemo regimen. when i dont feel physically well, i tend to get down and get darker thoughts than normal, which i suppose is not odd given my medical condition and current diagnoses.  I hope that things get better and that i continue to heal, but i dont know what the future will hold, and while that is scary normally, its even more so now to me.  I'm rambling.. so im gonna go for now.

August 5, 2019 and the post weekend recap

Since my last posting here. a weekend has elapsed and I'm back at work once more, working from home of course.  Unfortunately over the weekend I didn't sleep well.  I tended to wake every hour on the hour almost Friday night/Saturday morning, and finally getting up around 7:30 am.  It was good to get up then, as my wife, Emily, had a busy day scheduled for herself.  Saturday was her final appointment with her long time hair dresser, whom resided in Rock Hill.  She had to drive up there to go with her mom to get their hair done, and eyebrows done as well.  Since Rock Hill is a little over an hour drive, she had to leave no later than 830 to be there by 930, so she could get her mom and go to the first appointment at 10:30.  After all this she and her mom had lunch, and went shopping some before her returning home that evening. 

During the day, while Emily was gone, I was able to nap some.  That was able to get me to about 1 pm, which is when my buddy Jason came over and we went up to PSA.   Palmetto was slammed with people, which isn't a surprise because it was a gun show weekend.  Either way, we were able to pickup the lower receivers that we had ordered months ago.  Unfortunately while at PSA, I started to not feel so good.  I felt hot flashes, and some stomach issues as well.  I truly hate having the hot flashes and add stomach issues on top of that it really sucked.  As far as lowers go i'm very pleased with my SPACERIDER one. its SN is #21, and that to me is acceptable.  The minute men lowers however i was not that happy with serial number wise.   I bought 2 of them and had hoped that they would have serial numbers below 100.  Unfortunately they are over 400, to be exact they are 401 and 403, which makes no sense, and even less when you know Jasons is 405.  I never will understand how i get such a  high SN on my lowers when i end up buying them within 15 minutes of them being released.  On average i'd be  happy if my SN was within the first 100 produced. 

Now once we had our lowers in hand  we headed back to my home.  I stopped at Bojangles for some french fries, cause i thought that maybe my stomach issue was due to needing to eat something with more substance than just a pack of M&M's and a minute maid lemonade drink.  And about that time we got back to the house and relaxed a good bit it was close to 5 pm.. Jason had  called his girlfriend right before we got home and she showed up around 530 to pick him up.  Em got home sometime around 6-630 if i'm not mistaken, and we had supper.  After supper we went over to Alex's shop, to check out his progress with the purple car.

Alex had made a lot of headway on the car.  He re-wired the battery to be up front in the car, instead of being in back, and then re-wired the starter, alternator and battery. As you can tell by the video, it makes starting the car much easier.  This is excellent because it was so difficult to always crank, if at all. Now as he continues to work on the car and continues to troubleshoot its problems we are getting into more wiring behind the dashboard and issues there.  He's already found a switch that looked like something melted through it, that he has to replace. see below photo:

One thing that self corrected as soon as he wired the front battery and grounded it correctly was the gas gauge.  By doing the battery up front, it gave a proper 12 volts to everything in the car, thus causing the dashboard lights and gauges to read properly.  Thats right, from here on out the gas gauge read right without having to drop the tank.  thank goodness for that.  I do have to do the third-gen resistor soldier on the factory tachometer board.  It's an easy enough thing to do, and i may already have one done, i just have to find it, as i had done a few back when i had my Convertible 91 Z28. I can only imagine what other wiring nightmares he will uncover behind the dashboard as there had been known issues with wiring regarding the heater / blower motor and radio and other things. 

Alex has also been working on changing the fluids in the car, first the radiator fluid.  He found a bunch of gunk in the heater core, and the hoses, so as he has cleaned it out and cycled the cleaner out of it he also has plans to change the oil, the transmission fluid, and the rear end fluid.  After that he will also tune the car, tune the carb, adjust timing, and adjust the valves. He has so much to do, but yet works so quickly I've been amazed at how fast he works and how thorough he is in his work.  I took Alex a little money for parts and a old battery i had here at the house over to the shop with Emily's help Saturday night.  The car sounded even better in person, and i was impressed with the quality of work i saw being done.  Thanks be to Alex.  I cant thank him enough.

Sunday rolled around, after yet another sleepless night.  Emily and I had a busy day planned because of the lack of productivity around the house on Saturday. First stop was Khols.  Emily wanted to go by there to see if there were any deals on comforters for our spare bedrooms, as the one set of sheets and comforters we had for those rooms were getting pretty worn down.  After Khols, we had to go to CostCo, for our normal once a month shopping trip for household supplies and food. 

While at CostCo, we ran into Lindsie, my boss at work.  I was so glad to see him, we spoke for a good 20-30 minutes there catching up on things, and I was very happy to have had this time with him.  It was really great seeing him.  I really miss spending time with my co-workers and work family.  Even though I work remotely, it is not the same as working in the office.  I just wish my back would hold up to being at work physically better than it does at this point. 

After CostCo we went to Publix, and finished our grocery shopping.  We went home from publix cooked up some left overs, and had lunch.  I had two pieces of leftover home run inn pizza that was pretty good, then i napped the rest of the afternoon.  Emily was able to spend most of the afternoon after her nap doing laundry, and then also cooking her family recipe Baked Muscacholi.  It was an excellent supper, with which we had garlic bread.  YUM! 


That pretty much brings us up to Monday morning.  Work commences almost immediately when i get up and get plugged in, so by 730 am this morning i was up and running. I verified i had all the information i needed, all the work orders were clear, and I caught up on emails until the first work orders came in.  This continued throughout the day until about 230-3pm when my friend Judson came by.  He dropped in after being at PSA to pick up his lowers.  He was able to hang out until around 330 before he had to go pick up his daughter from dance.  I was glad for his visit, i enjoy his conversation, and his opinion on so many things. I almost feel like we've not talked much lately and when i do get to see him, its too short of a period of time. Even for today it wasn't long enough.  I worked all day long, from home, and finished up the day just now at 5pm. 

I dont really feel that great, in fact i just had a dizzy spell, and some more heat flashes.  I wish there were something i could do about those but so far i know nothing i can do about them.  I will watch some of the news tonight i'm sure, and be disgusted about the liberal narrative regarding these horrific shootings that have happened over the weekend. I dont know what i'll do for supper, as i'm not that hungry right now, due to the late lunch. Anyways, i'll post more soon, thanks for reading, and for your support.

Steve's Go-Fund-Me

The evening of August 2nd...

She's All loaded up for transport captian!

Wow.. When i finished writing this afternoon i thought i was in for a quiet evening. I was wrong.  After i got off work at 5, I received a text from my buddy Alex.  he said he could come pick up my Purple Camaro today, to be worked on, so that we can get it to be a dependable car.  I've been having Alex work on the car off and on here in my Garage over the past year, year and a half, and since my house's garage is so small it was time to take the car to his shop to get it finished up.  So you know when he called I was super ready for him to get it, and Emily helped me move the cars around, and then empty out the Camaro of any parts or tool that weren't necessary in it in preparation For Alex to come pick her up.  Alex and Tommy showed up with a beautiful rig and trailer, and before you knew it, we had the car loaded up and on the way to his garage.  All that was left was for me and Emily to move the Cavalier from the front yard to into the garage where the purple car once sat. 

Alex Goofing while tying down Purple to the Trailer.

The Rat/king snake that offended Emily

So at this time I get into the Cavalier, and start backing her out of the yard, line her up to back into the garage, and Emily who's guiding me tarts freaking out saying something on the front bumper is moving, and she thinks its a snake!!!  So i pull forward 3/4 the way up the drive way and sure enough this foot and a half long corn or king snake falls out from the front end area onto the driveway.  this freak Emily out of course, she throws me the broom when asked to, and shuts the garage door.  then comes out front with me, and goes and gets our neighbor Chris.  I was going to just sweep him into the gras/bushes, since i didn't think he was poisonous i was just gonna scare him off.  Well, luckily Chris and his father were there for Emily's peace of mind, and they caught the snake, and carried it bare handed to the new phase of our neighborhood and released it. After all that, I was able to back the Cavalier into the garage safely.  Emily popped the hood, and brought in the cover from outside where she had rolled it up.  We then closed up the house, and went to her car, and drove over to Alex's shop, which isn't far from the house, in fact, its about 3 miles away, near Nazareth Church road. 

After the short ride, she's unloaded. 

Once we had got to Alex's shop, we unloaded the car from the trailer, and then put her into the empty bay with the pit.  that way working from below wont be so bad.  Theres quite a bit to be done to the car, to get it in a semi reliable manner, but I have full confidence in Alex, this is child's play compared to him rebuilding an entire C10 truck and swapping frames, LS motors, transmissions, and everything else he's done before.  I don't have much money, but He's going to work with me on it so I'm thankful that he will.  I hope he knows how much this means to me, as with me having cancer now, i tend to feel my own mortality more, and it will be awesome to be able to drive the car again, and remember happier times when Emily and i were just dating, as opposed to now with me having cancer, and not knowing what the future holds or how long it may hold me.  I'm forever thankful to him for helping me like this, it truly mean the world to me. 

New temporary Home over "the pit"

Ready to be worked upon straddling the Pit. 

After she was pushed into place over the pit as seen above, we were pretty much done for the night. I spoke with Alex a bit about what needs to be done, and we decided that I'd make a list of things and send it to him via facebook messenger.  I've got the list here as to what we need to address, now keep in mind this is just a tentative list that gives us general direction on what to start with: 

1 Gas Gauge reading incorrectly.Drop tank and correct.

2 Starter rebuild? Pull starter test, and rebuild if necessary.

3 Grounds to chassis, frame, body, engine

4 Grounds to battery to chassis frame and engine and body

5 Setup front mounted battery. 

6 Check electrical wiring for dash wiring. Heater blower etc.

7 Check radio wiring/fuses/console wiring/fuses for melting wiring.

8 check all dash wiring for ac/heat control to ensure no shorts. 

9 Oil, Coolant, and any other fluid changes that are necessary

10 Tune Carb.

11 Adjust valves, and timing.

12 Ensure electric fans both work, switched fan in console doesn’t last checked.

13 Ensure car starts and shuts off easily each time key turned. 

14 ensure car runs cool, and does not overheat at idle/in traffic/while driving. 

15 Clean engine bay / engine. Make sure shiny is shiny. :) 

16 Change back tires to the two new tires mount and balance. 

17 remove door panels, PB Blast Door poppers, and lubricate and ensure function properly 

                for both doors.

And thats it for now, unless i think of things.  we'll see.  I have complete faith in alex, and know he can get it done without much issue.  With that, ill be signing off now for the day.  4 minutes before the 3rd of august. lol.

August 2, 2019

I honestly cannot believe that today is August 2, 2019.  Time is truly flying faster than I can account for.  I get up each day during the week, go downstairs to my couch, sit down, pull out my lap desk, pickup my work laptop, and mouse and put both on the lap desk.  Each day this happens no later than 720 am usually, if not earlier. I then connect to my VPN, setup my remote sessions into my service desk software applications, pull up my Accounts email account, and begin working.  I manage 2 different software packages for work orders that may be called in each day.  It's my job to sort the work orders, and then delegate them to their proper teams that must be tasked with working on the problems.  I monitor and manage these until 5 pm each day, getting up to use the restroom, get my lunch, which i usually will eat while logged in working.

This would be fine and all, except since I've been back on the maintenance chemo, (which started this past Monday) I've had an increase in my appetite, and a definite increase in my fatigue. I'm so sleepy now its not funny.  I slept a long time last night, from like 10 pm until 7 am, but i still find myself very tired.  to the point of dozing off even at times.  I'm hoping that as my body gets more acclimated to being on the chemo, i'll start to balance out and not be as fatigued and my appetite will return to normal.  I enjoy being a lot thinner now than I used to be, so I do not want to gain a bunch of weight.

I've just received a call stating that some of the lower receivers that I had ordered from PSA have came in, and that i can pick them up at my leisure.  These are specialty "meme" lowers, with special roll mark engravings.  I would probably not build them into full AR's, rather just keep them as a collection piece due to the low number produced of each.  PSA has been producing a lot of these Meme lowers, too many for me to have even one of each really.  there is some i just *Have* to have. and that is a  small number compared to how many different designs they have produced and plan to produce.  One of these lower designs is the F' Cancer lower.  It was designed to express hatred for Cancer in general, and as a popular saying of F*ck Cancer. cause that's what we have got to say and do to it.  The lowers look like this :

While these lowers were being developed on AR15.com (more commonly known as Arfcom) Someone had suggested some proceeds of the lowers sale go to fighting cancer.  Then someone suggested that the proceeds go to someone close to the PSA family, as in a overly rabid fan of their products, Me.  I was shocked and incredibly honored.  I didn't know what to say to it other than thank you.  So they have said that a small amount of each lower will be donated to me to help pay for my bills. This was incredible news, and just made me feel over the moon for the company, and its folks who run it.  I can't speak enough about how honorable and kind PSA as a company has been to me.  It truly has humbled me to be on the receiving end of so much kindness from them, not to mention other folks on Arfcom. 

Lately I've been watching via netflix the Vampire Diaries series.  I had tried to watch this show series when it first aired, but I had so much other stuff being recorded, i couldn't DVR it as well as my other shows due to time slot conflicts.  Anyways, I like paranormal, sci-fi, fantasy, etc, so this seemed to be right up  my alley after a friend of mine reminded me of the series a few weeks ago.  Since then I've watched almost 7 out of 8 complete seasons.  I've learned that in addition to this series, there are two spin off series, one called "the Originals" and another called "Legacies"  the first i imagine to be a prequel of sorts, and the latter a sequel of sorts.   Things I like about the series are the lore of the vampire history, the lore of the witches, the lore of the ware wolfs, and how it all became reality in the series.  It to me is a better take on vampires than the twilight series of sparkling vamps.  Things I do not like is the standard teenage angst/b.s. drama that they had to write in for love stories and all that.  it appears that was the target audience, being early to late high school kids and thus probably why there is that much written into its scripts.  The cast is pretty good, and the acting is not horrible, the special effects are not bad either so it saves the series from being "b-movie" campyness. Anyways, it fills the TV time for me for now.   

I finally was able to watch Avengers:EndGame, thanks to my brother Bobbie.  he hooked me up with his copy of it, and man is it good.  Quite a tear jerker actually.  After so many years, and so many movies, i'd become quite attached to the characters and man it rally hits ya hard when you loose some of the major ones after 2 decades of movies, and almost as long from back when i used to collect comic books.  I cant wait to see what they are going to do with the next phase of the MCU. Now that Disney owns all of Marvel, including the X-Men and the Fantastic Four.  It should be interesting either way now that it is all joined together as well.

Well I think I've rambled on enough for now, I'll try to write again soon. it's never easy to put my thoughts into words like this.  Heck its taken me 7 hours to do this much off and on today. ..

Thanks again for your prayers and support.

Steve's Go-Fund-Me.(click here)