Weather Attitude

We all know it and yet we find ourselves helpless to combat how the weather can affect our wellbeing and mental attitude. It has been grey, damp, cold and just plain “September” and so Mom and I have been hibernating in our PJs, lolling on the sofa and watching the old “Poirot” episodes. It’s hard to get motivated when one is still in their pajamas. Its one thing to have a “comfy, cozy” sort of day but it’s another thing to be constantly in the pajamas and doing nothing but vegging out!

Normally we both make the effort to get dressed every morning, even when we have had a crappy night but just lately we have been wallowing and today I said “enough is enough”. Back to the grind, the computer, the blog, to anything but this pitifulness!

Poor Cherie has been wailing and moaning because he, for one, has definitely felt that we were being no fun at all and he wants to go out to play. Well, off you go!

And here’s a little side note; Erik and Mom were really impressed when we were sitting on the deck the other day and I said “here comes John”. I can tell when he is turning the corner and when it is someone else. Most of the other vehicles take the corner at high speed but John takes it slow and easy and so there is a certain hum to his motor that sounds different from the other trucks swinging by. It’s a gift, what can I say?

American Justice

I have been following the Ivy League / Celebrity Scandal or whatever you want to call it. So Felicity Huffman thinks one month in jail for bribing an Ivy League college to get her daughter into is “too much” because “they aren’t those kind of criminals”? On “the view” they were mentioning that a poor homeless woman went to jail for five years because she lied about where her son was living so he could go to KINDERGARTEN (any kindergarten).

Now this is American Justice (and ironically wasn’t that the name of one of the TV shows Huffman appeared in?) and while I find it difficult to accept that “white collar crime” is punished by jail sentencing that happens to be the way it is in the United States so all I have to say to you, missy, is “suck it up buttercup”. Take it on the chin and all that sort of rot.

You may be wondering what I would personally endorse for the “crime” of both Huffman and the poor homeless woman? In the first instance I think honest to goodness community service (not attending red carpet events) would be better service – say in a soup kitchen for the next year so she can see how “those people” survive. In the case of the homeless woman I would suggest giving her a helping hand to get on her feet would be much more appropriate because you are talking about two human beings here, her son as well as herself. Jail time is not going to help her situation – or his. Punitive measures are not always the answer when people have done something wrong.

However “the greatest country in the world” enjoys punishing their people, the more down on their luck they are the more they enjoy grinding their heels into them. All I can say is that I thank the Good Lord every day that I was born Danish and that I live in Canada where people are given compassionate care more often than not. I don’t say Canada is perfect, but we are doing a whole lot better than the USA.

Thank you Canada and thank you Mom and Dad for raising us here.

Dark Place

The last two weeks have been especially horrific for me because I have found myself in a state of almost constant nausea which included the inevitable. This has been my fifth (or is it sixth) cycle of the chemo medicine and it is only now that it (apparently) has caught up with me. It has taken me a while to figure out why I was having gagging and vomiting episodes because it didn’t seem to happen at any one particular moment but I have realized that it MUST be because of the chemo along with the sometimes excruciating pain I have been experiencing. Don’t get me wrong, it is not the cancer per se that is causing the pain but rather the walking. Something is setting off a sort of grinding in my hip socket which may be caused by nerve pain although it doesn’t seem likely (to me anyway).

I don’t want to be a whiner but I have to say that last week was especially difficult for me. Thankfully I finished the chemo pills on Friday and almost immediately I felt better. I haven’t had an episode (well, I should say that I had a slight bit of gagging at noon yesterday but I think it was because I was really hungry – LOL).

I am anxious to see my oncologist next Tuesday with the hope that he may have some solution other than pain medicine because I do not believe that the morphine is helping at all with the particular walking pain I am having. In fact, I believe the Robaxacet that I took early this morning has helped much better because it relaxed my muscles which I think have tensed up considerably over the last few weeks. Unfortunately I don’t think the chiropractor helped at all with that bit.

And that’s enough about that. Onwards and upwards!