Happy New Year!

I've always loved the twilight zone. 

Happy New Year! Last year was a rough one for many people in many ways. Let's hope and  pray for and try our best to make 2017 a better one.

It has been a cold, icy, snowy winter so far. Schools have had so many snow days that teachers might be having July 4th parties in their classrooms as they make up the lost school days. We have been snowed in quite a few days. We have had to miss fun events with family. Our little side of Dixie Mountain doesn't get much sun, especially our driveway which stays a frozen sheet of ice long after the townies have dry pavement. My car, Moony, a mini cooper, sits very close to the ground and can't do what the neighbors four wheel drives with chains can do.  Even after thirty years, we are basically city people living in the country.

Our rain chain. Hope the gutters hold.

Back deck

Tom is eagerly awaiting his surgery in February. His tumor markers are normal and he is feeling well. Tumor markers are substances that are produced by cancer or by other cells in the body in response to cancer. Most tumor markers are made by normal cells as well as cancer cells, but they are produced at higher levels in cancerous conditions. They are not used to diagnose cancer but rather to monitor response to treatment.  Tom's CEA was up in the 90's last summer and recently has been a 4.  Anything under 5 for Tom and his specific circumstances is considered normal. 

Although we have missed several fun events with friends and family due to the extreme weather, we did have a small holiday get together a few days before New Years and were then content to spend New Year's Eve cozily at home. At midnight Tom shot off his last Roman candle. About ten years ago he took a trip to Vancouver to buy a box of illegal fireworks. Maybe it was twelve. Who remembers? This was the very last one.  Looks like its time for another trip to Vancouver this coming July.

Some Good News

We finally met with the surgeon, Dr. Parsons and have set a date to reverse Tom's colostomy.  This is good news, as Tom would really like to feel normal again.  The tumor on his sacrum has been zapped with SBRT (Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy) and appears dormant at this time. He has gained about twenty-five pounds from his lowest weight and feels well. The surgery is set for February 17th. No heavy lifting for six weeks afterwards, so Tom is splitting kindling for us now because that is one thing that I can't (refuse to ) do. I excell at getting the axe stuck in the wood. Last week we went to Lock Lolly, a local tree farm and came home with a cute little tree. We are looking forward to Christmas Eve with the kids and seeing friends and family over the holidays.

Our Little Guy tree.

Took this photo of "our" deer through the living room window.

We got snowed in for a few days but had
plenty of food, coffee, and books.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a healthy and Happy New Year!

Time to Post "Something"

Since it's been a few weeks, I thought I should at least post something. Not really much news about Tom at this time.  He finished his SBRT, waited a few weeks to have a CT scan, and now we are waiting until December 1st to meet with the surgeon, Dr. Parsons.  The doctor will interpret the scan for us and then discuss reversing Tom's colostomy, which he never really needed because he never had surgery. That's water under the bridge at this time, but as Tom has said, he would really like to be normal again.

Right now we are in the midst of dealing with rain coming through our roof. After seeing wet spots on the ceiling we tarped two areas. When that didn't work and another spot developed I called the roofer who installed our roof about seventeen years ago and has come out a few times to patch it after storms. He told me how to properly tarp it over the top and down the sides. (I did not plan on writing about this. I'm going to skip the details and wrap this up, it's making me anxious.)  After discovering a soggy ceiling surrounding the wood stove chimney on Thanksgiving morning plus a spot wet again from a blown tarp, Tom said we are in Hell and I nodded and replied "water instead of fire". Was that before or after I saw a wet spot on the bedroom ceiling and running down the wall? I don't remember. Right now a wanna forget the six leaks, rain everyday, probably a whole new roof and gutter work when the weather permits.

Soooooo now let's gaze upon a few happy photos that I uploaded a couple weeks ago using Starbucks fast internet. When the weather was warm and wonderful.. And dry :-(

A view of Portland and a bamboo sculpture taken at
the Japanese Garden, on a weekday, with my friend Marie.

Gyro House.  Yum

There's my dining partner at Sharis on a Friday Night.
Check out this deal. Prime rib dinner $12.99 and a half price
bottle of wine $8.00-$9.00 Tom doesn't drink wine so we've
never done it, but what deal!

Starbucks on 185th where Tom can get a Chestnut Praline Latte
and the New York Times. Girl on left danced and moved around for
15 minutes straight before her mom picked her up. Girl on right
watching an old Meg Ryan movie and doing homework. Starbucks.

Zien Hong Pepper Salted Squid. Best in the Portland metro area.
It's Tom's treat when we have to drive all the way to a
doctors appointment  at  Sunnyside.

Goes well with Kung Pao Shrimp.

That's a baby squid trying to get a cup of tea.

We took a little road trip to St. Helens and shared a Reuben here at the Dockside.

Yes here we are at another restaurant, Vivi's Vietnamese Grill.
And yes, now I realize that every one of these photos is taken in a restaurant
except the first one. Guess that's what we do for fun. We better exercise more.

Surprise! Eating again. But this time it's not at a restaurant. It's at the 82nd Annual
Verboort Sausage Festival at The Visitation Catholic Church in Verboort. In 1934 they served 150 dinners with 198 pounds of sausage. This year they served 8,000 dinners with 15 tons of locally made sausage. Everyone in the community volunteers. Rain is also a tradition for the festival.
We went with my friend Jill and her husband Rick. Jill's car got stuck in the mud when we arrived.  At departure time Rick  went to get the car out of the mud while we played Bingo.  Tom won blackout and got to split the pot with one other winner! He won $2.50!

Tommy Performs

Not Tommy Gorman, Tommy Stinton!  The quick Tommy Gorman news is that he will be getting some super duper concentrated radiation this coming week. I cannot recall the exact name of this treatment at the moment, but tomorrow when he is receiving it, I will  post some specific details.

I believe I posted this book cover a while back in a book review. I've been trying to find books that Tom and I can both enjoy and discuss. We read Trouble Boys a couple months ago and have been listening to Replacements CDs since then.  When we saw in the Mercury that Tommy Stinton was going to perform at Bunk Bar last Saturday night, we decided to be adventurous and go. Remembering that rock performers in small venues usually start playing late, we rested up for a night of something, we really didn't know what.  Tommy was playing with Chip Roberts and billed as "Cowboys in the Campfire".  

The guy in the front of the book cover photo is Tommy. HIs brother Bob ( in the back) used to punch him and make him learn how to play bass when he was twelve, so Bob could start a band. Bob is now gone but Tommy is still writing, playing, recording and touring.  

In the 1980"s

 Now, I might be a Replacements fan, but I somehow missed that after the band broke up, Tommy spent seventeen years as the bass player for Guns and Roses. Yup, not a Guns and Roses fan.  We really had no idea what we would hear from "Cowboys in the Campfire".  Well, our idea was something country sounding.

The opening duo started at 9:00 and sang mostly country ballads.  By 10:30 Tommy came on by himself and performed a few solo songs, playing acoustic guitar. I would classify his songs as rock and rollish with a Bob Dylan edge. His voice sounded alot like Dylan to me.  Maybe he'll get a pulitzer!

He was then joined by Chip Roberts his ex wife's uncle and a talented guitar player.

"Thomas Eugene "Tommy" Stinson is an American rock musician. He came to prominence in the 1980s as the bass guitarist for The Replacements, one of the definitive American alternative rock groups. Wikipedia"


Note:  I tryed to copy and paste a current photo of Tommy at age 50, but something went wrong.  If you are interested, just google Tommy Stinton. This page was so messed up that I had to redo it, so it was actually posted before the one on SRBT.  Just so ya know.

Inside Bunk Bar. Tom and I snagged a
comfy booth to hang out in. We also had one of their
famous roast beef sandwiches, frys, and spicy cucumber salad.

Tom showing me a picture he drew long ago. It was
in a book that he brought along.

Tommy setting up.

Reflection in a mirror.

We were pleasantly surprised with his music.  And our ability to go downtown to a show and stay awake until we got home!

SBRT

Tom is having his SBRT treatment and I am waiting and using the free internet.  SBRT stands for Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy. It involves delivering a high dose of radiation very precisely to a tumor. It is delivered from numerous angles to focus the radiation at one small point like a magnifying glass.

Expert Radiation Oncologists specialized in this technique are able to safely deliver high doses of radiation with very sharp dose gradient outside the tumor and into the surrounding normal tissue.

Tom went through the first round of radiation with nary a side effect.  Remember...he said he was Godzilla and it made him stronger.  We hope and pray that these three treatments will zap that tumor away.  And that it doesn't turn Tom into Grumpy Cat!

No Real News Yet

The bridge and walking path to the beach

 We finally met with the surgeon, Dr. Parsons. He informed us that the rectal tumor had disappeared completely, but the one on Tom's sacrum was still there and could not be removed surgically because it could cause nerve damage. He suggested that more radiation might help to shrink that tumor.   So we have been waiting for our appointment with the radiologist, Dr. McDonald (aka the Death Angel) for the last three weeks.  We will be meeting with her later this week.

When the kids were little, we tried to spend some time at Beverly Beach State Park every summer.  Early on we tent camped.  We would bring all our bikes and enjoyed riding all over the huge campground. They put on movies and nature shows at night. When I got tired of crawling around on my hands and knees, we started renting their yurts. The yurts had covered decks, windows, futons, bunk beds, lights and heat and made camping much easier.  It took only a few minutes to walk to the beach. At one point the yurts became all but impossible to rent in the summertime because they were so popular, so we stopped going to Beverly Beach.

This year, while checking online, I saw two yurts available in October. Allison and Logan wanted to go so we reserved them. They were situated next to each other but with all the forest greenery they were also private.  Alli volunteered to drive, so we packed our camp stove, sleeping bags, and groceries into her car and headed out on a Sunday.  I don't know if Tom and I were ever the two people in the back seat for a trip.  It was fun!  "Are we there yet?"

Here are a few photos from our trip.

Tree roots in campground. This is huge. The mossy part
is about 18 feet high!

A spruce tree root mass from 4,100 years ago.

It was the foggiest I have ever seen the beach in 30 years.
Tom loves fireworks and doesn't read signs. Alli and Logan are
watching Tom hold and shoot a Roman Candle.

This was the sign we passed on our way
to the beach.

Tom roasting marshmallows at our campfire.

After our 1:00 pm checkout we decided to visit the Newport Aquarium before heading home. Logan had never been there and after growing up in Colorado, he loves the oceany things.

Alli and Logan are in a plastic bubble inside an aquarian tank with an eel.  He's a big guy.

Alli and Logan are posing by Diver Dan. Did anybody get that reference?  When I was a  really little kid I watched a television show about Diver Dan who was outfitted like the guy in this photo. He had adventures under the sea with puppet sea creatures.  Maybe it was just a local east coast thing.

Always my favorites, the jellyfish.  they are so relaxing to watch. Doesn't that top one look like a beautiful Victorian lampshade?

The aquarium has a walk through shark tank. Years ago when the kids were little, this was the area where Keiko lived.  Keiko was the star of the  1993 movie Free Willy. He had been captured in Iceland and displayed at several places including an amusment park in Mexico City before coming to the Newport Aquarium to regain his health and be prepared for life in the wild again. The Free Willy-Keiko Foundation and millions of school children donated  the money necessary to build the facilities to do this. Everybody loved Keiko.

In 1998 he was flown to Iceland and underwent training to prepare his for his release.  The idea of releasing him was very controversial.  Finally when he was deemed ready, he was released with wild Orca in August 2002.  However, about three weeks later he showed up in a fjord in Norway apparently seeking human contact and letting children to ride on his back.

His caregivers moved to Norway and conducted boat-follows for the next fifteen months. They found that he switched between different groups of wild killer whales, usually remaining on the periphery about 100-300 meters away.  Poor Keiko failed to adapt to life in the wild and died of pneumonia in December 2003  at the age of twenty seven.

Tom has a story about a time that we visited Keiko.  Maybe he'll tell it to you some day.

Still Waiting...

Weeks have gone by and we have been waiting. Today, Tuesday 9/13 is the day Tom is getting his biopsy of the tumor on his sacrum.  We were told to be here at 12:30, were escorted to the 2nd floor, and here it is 1:40 and we are still waiting to be called. I have read three magazines already, so thought I would write a post.  After this biopsy procedure which is supposed to take 3-4 hours, we will drive to the Interstate offices tomorrow and he will get a PET scan.

A PET scan (positron emission tomography) involves injecting a special dye that has radioactive tracers in it. It enables the doctor to inspect blood flow, oxygen intake, and metabolism of organs and tissues. Unlike the CT and MRI scans that he has had, it can show problems at the cellular level. It can determine  how the cancer metabolizes, and if the cancer has spread or metastasized.

A few hours later...biopsy is done and we are heading home. Dr. Parsons said that he would have results by Friday. PET scan tomorrow.

It is Wednesday 9/14. Not too much waiting before they took Tom with them and told me he would be done in approximately two hours.  I'm heading to the cafe for the special Taco Bar Lunch today. Me hungry.

Oh my, more waiting involved.  Tom appeared before me before I had eaten two forkfuls of my yummy taco delight.  It seems when he woke up this morning he popped two jelly beans in his mouth.  That's my Tommy!  The sugar in his bloodstream would interfere with the PET scan so they cancelled his test.  More waiting to be rescheduled...

We are back at the facility for the PET scan. It's Friday, 9/16, so only a two day wait. Not bad.

I guess I will try to upload those photos that I had trouble with last time. Kaiser Permanente will provide the internet connection.

In the 1970's when I took a road trip out to the west coast, one of the things that impressed me was how the blackberries just grew wild along the roadsides. These are some berries that we picked one day along the road. Of course we had to wash them. Delicious and free!

 Here's Tom in the lobby of the Evergreen  Regal Cinema, my new favorite place to see a movie. Every seat in the cinema is a wide recliner. These seats are extremely comfortable and adjustable. At $8.10 for senior tickets, I have been seeing way more movies than the two a year average of past. We recently saw GhostBusters (which Tom was surprised he loved, being he disliked three of the female cast members, before the movie). We also saw Kubo and the Two Strings, with Allison and Logan.  It's the new Laika Studio production, a poignant and beautiful story. I know it will be getting some awards come award season.  It had all four of us in tears at the end.

Tom and James at the game.

  

       

 We attended several more Hops games this season. 

The Hops made it to the playoffs, but Eugene won the Northwest League Championship.  Tom's brother James came with us on Bobblehead night, where everyone got a Barley Bobblehead. Here is Barley getting ready to do battle with the Godzilla figure that Tom bought with Allison's birthday gift card.  Who do you think will win?

Godzilla and Barley preparing to fight to the finish.

Tom continues to go to Skyline Tavern to throw horseshoes. Sometimes I go with him, sometimes he goes alone.  Most times he finds someone to play with.  They hear the clang of the shoes hitting the post and draw near.  He has taught several  guys to throw. Here he is teaching Ricky. 

Ricky took a selfie with his girlfriends phone
and she was nice enough to airdrop it to me.

One of the decks at Skyline where I might eat my turkey curry ruben.

Relaxing between games.

I am starting to bore myself so I better finish this post up for those of you who are still reading.  These last photos show Tom with his picking buckets at Duyck's Peachy Pig Farm in search of raspberries. I picked some fresh figs that were wonderful. I also got stung on the nose by a yellowjacket which I promptly killed.  It just flew straight at my nose and stung me. The owners gave me a cold water bottle to put on it. It hurt like h--- for a while. Now over a week later I still have a red mark on my nose and itching. The days of itching were the worst, especially in the middle of the night. What made that yellowjacket sting me? I'll never know. Now that I have your sympathy I'll bring this to a close.  Look at that beautiful sky and landscape. We are doing alright.  When we get the test results, I'll let you know.