A New Obsession

I found something else to obsess about for a while at least.

Her name is Felicia Day.

I was playing around with Netflix the other day and noticed a video in my queue that I didn't remember putting there, but after checking it out, I was probably the one who put it there.

The name of the series is The Guild. It is about a group of on line gamers and their day-to-day interactions with each other the MMORPG that controls their life. I started watching it as a goof on Thursday and finished the fifth and last season (they are short on-line installments that were all put together into about 1 hour "seasons") last night. I'm hoping for a sixth season and my web searches have shown that I have seen this girl Felicia Day before. She has guested on lots of the shows I have watched and is just a great personality.

I see my daughter Brandi in her so much. She is a gamer chick, web savvy and just plain cute.

She has a lot of talent, but it is mostly centered on the geek world. And everyone knows I'm a total geek. I ordered a "prequel" comic book, ur I mean grafic novel that she wrote today too.

Along with this latest obsession I downloaded a free trail on an on-line game called Guild Wars because she mentioned Guild Wars 2 on her twitter account and I think does a voice in that version. I'm also gonna try WOW for a free trial and I even fired up my daughter's Skyrim PS3 game yesterday to see if I like it.

I usually get tired of playing games after a while, so this probably won't last too long, but I found myself researching (read googling) computer headsets today. Last night I started some sausages cooking for dinner and forgot about them as I tried a mission in the game. The house filled with smoke, and I mean FILLED with smoke. Luckily my 21 year old noticed before the smoke alarm went off. We had to use a fan to desmoke the house. I laugh...

So I must be more attentive to my RL surroundings.

Having fun, finding distractions, moving on...

Friday Update

Ok, after a nice night of Bob Marley, here I am. Today I go for a little more physical therapy for my back. Really just some electricity, ultrasound, massage and exercises. I'm not paying for it, so bring it on.

Next Tuesday is when I head back to Bethesda to talk to the Oncologist. We will then decide what the next step is which I suspect will be a Lymphoscintigraphy (Lymphatic Mapping). Such a big word. Depending on what that finds dictates what happens after that.

I'm ready to get started and finished, but will have to take it as I can get it.

Live. Forever

It's funny the word live can be pronounced two different ways. One is what your doing and the other can be what you are. Tonight I decided to do a little Google search of Bob Marley, who I knew had died of Melanoma. One quick search opened up the usual worm hole which I promptly fell into.

One thing I discovered was that he died of a type of melanoma that isn't quite the same as mine, but what's the diff. His was under his toe nail. Talk about hard to detect. That type is more common for black and Asian types. He decided not to have his toe amputated due to his religion and that is what killed him.

I also found out that his last concert was in Pittsburgh (the city of my birth) on September 23rd, (the date of my birth) 1980, (the year of my graduation from high school). Whoa, too many parallels...

Now, I don't think I discovered Bob (and reggae) until 1981 or so, the year of his death. My then girlfriend introduced me to him after a vacation out west in California. I instantly loved this reggae music. The beat was awesome and crisp. The lyrics were cool.

So after discovering these amazing things, I quickly downloaded the album to my iPod and headed to the woods with Ginger, listening to his last concert in the city of my birth.

We spent a little time walking the woods and listening to this amazing LAST concert of an amazing man.

The boys showed up as I had a little fire going and we walked around until dark. I still have some listening to do, but this album will be a strong part of me for the next few months at least.

Time to fight...

We're tied to each other for life

Yesterday's visit to the dermatologist wasn't very fun. In 2001 I had a mole removed that was pathologically determined to be Melanoma. I didn't think it was such a big fuckin deal, but I guess it was. I went through quarterly skin checks after they cut a 9cm slice of my skin ten years ago and for quite a while everything was fine. Everything was benign and hunky dorrie. Until now...

A few months ago I noticed a mole that seemed to spring up overnight and become quite prominent on my arm. I figured I should better get it checked out and assumed it would be the same as usual, benign. Until now...

I'm pretty fucked up right now. First it was helping my bride go through her ordeal with her cyst and all that shit, now I have this to deal with. Plus my back has decide to go out on me and I'm doing everything I can to stay NORMAL. What is that???

I continue on. I am never defeated. I never give up. I fight to the end. Let's just hope that the end isn't "near".

Falling Apart

It seems I'm just falling apart these days. A day after finding out my melanoma was back, my back went out. It gradually came back into alignment with drugs and exercise, but I have started to go to physical therapy to get it all the way back and hopefully keep it there. Last Wednesday was my first visit. Today I head down to Bethesda for a full body check and to schedule them cutting a big chunk of my arm skin off. In a few weeks I visit a podiatrist to look into my plantar fasciitis and see what we can do about that. I'm not 50 yet, but it seems my body is headed down hill.

Friday Entry

All day yesterday, I basically laid around a lot and took some naps because the drugs made me pretty sleepy. My back is already feeling better and now I just need to keep moving to get everything back in order.

When I lay around, my back just gets stiff. If I get up and move around, it loosens up some and I'm not in as much pain. I struggle on.

Tonight is wallyball. I am going to try and play, but I will come out if it isn't working or if I have too much pain. I will be wearing one of those heating things you can put on your back. Let's see how it goes.

Next Friday, I head back to Bethesda to have another skin check. They will be cutting into my arm again soon, but they want to check everything out first.

"Back" to the Basics

My back did its trick again this week. It hasn't gone out this bad in quite a while. On Wednesday morning I was washing my hands in the restroom and all of a sudden, "pop" went my back. It was pretty bad and I had to hunker down a bit until I could stand up and limp to my desk. It was so bad I called medical and got an appointment for 12:30.

I got some drugs to help me get through this episode and will be doing some physical therapy soon. I went home a little early and didn't go in today (Thursday). Today will be all about staying medicated and doing hourly stretches to try and get everything aligned again. These things usually clear up in a few days, but the haze of the drugs should help bear the pain.

I'm not sure I will be able to play wallyball this Friday, but I still hope to.

Melanoma

Back in 2001, I had a large mole removed from my back that turned out to be Melanoma. Over the years I would get my skin checked and every once in a while have something removed and checked, but all had been benign until today.

Last week I had a mole shaved off to get checked. I didn't look bad, but it had seemed to spring up rather quickly, so that had concerned me some.

It turns out that it has some Melanoma characteristics and it is time to do some more digging, cutting and checking.

I guess 10 years is a good amount of time with no other issues, and I always knew it was still in my body somewhere. Hiding and biding its time. Fuck you Melanoma. I will beat you...

Book Worm

I am currently in the process of reading about 12 different books. Some I am actively reading and others I have started and set down for a spell. Some are real books, others are on my iPod Kindle and one is on a real Kindle that I checked out from the library.

The library book is a story of a man's survival during WWII after crashing into the ocean, spending over 40 days in a raft and then being taken prisoner by the Japanese. I am kind of skipping ahead at times as it is due in a few days and I won't be able to renew it. It took quite a few weeks to get the Kindle and it is still pretty popular.

My iPod Kindle books are (in no particular order):

• Barefoot Sisters: Southbound; a story of two sisters hiking the AT.



• Wilderness Survival; a good book on survival and bush craft techniques and the telling of three guys that went into the woods for a few months to see what they knew and would learn.



• Winter's Passage; a free book I downloaded and really only read a few pages.



• Becoming Odyssa; the story of Jennifer Pharr Davis AT thru-hike.
  



• Writing Fiction for Dummies; to help me with my some day novel writing.



• The Awakened; another free book I downloaded. I have read quite a bit, but have set aside for now.



• Violet Dawn; one more free book. Read a bit and also set it down for now.

On my nightstand are four other books:

• A Storm of Swords; book three of the Song of Ice and fire. I set it down for a while when something that pissed me off happened (which happens a lot in this series), but have recently picked it up again to finish it and move on to the forth book. ( I have finished this one since I started this post and now have book 4, A Feast For Crows on my night stand)



• AWOL on the Appalachian Trail; another book on my obsession, hiking the AT.



• A Michael Crichton Novel; something about pirates. Brought it from my Dads and have read a few chapters. Currently dormant.



• Mockingjay; the last book of the Hunger Games trilogy. Back into it now to get it finished. I'm enjoying it a lot, like a lot of juvenile fiction.

I like to read, but sometimes I overextend myself. It isn't really hard for me to switch from one book to another. It's how I roll.

Lisa

I haven't been at work much this week. I took Monday off after the long week before being at the CMC Training Summit and Lisa's surgery was Wednesday. I stayed at home the rest of the week to care for her and work as I could.

We headed to Bethesda Wednesday morning and arrived around 0630. I found a quick parking place and we checked in at the pre-op place. Before long Lisa was being wheeled into the OR and I headed up to the surgical waiting room. It was a total of 13 hours at the hospital and the procedure was successful. At least we hope it will be successful. There is a chance that the cyst can recur, but we are hoping that doesn't happen.

Lisa lost six teeth I think. She will eventually get implants or a bridge or some combination, but that is still down the road some. The took some bone from her tibia and that is where most of her pain is. They had a drain in there and before we left the discharge area it spewed a lot of blood down her leg. Luckily all the doctors were coming in to check on her and they cleaned her up and re-bandaged her leg.

Her lips are still pretty swollen and she has to wear a head bra to keep all her face muscles in the right place as she starts to heal.

Thursday was just resting and recovering. Today we headed back to Bethesda and they checked her out and removed the drain. All is going well, but she has a bit of recovery and healing to do.

I head to wallyball soon. I missed last week. I need to get the schedule so I can make up standings and a better looking printable schedule for the AA Divisions.