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.
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.
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