Diet and random thoughts

  Before I go on I should warn readers that I've been known to ramble. I'm hoping that by the time it gets to print I've filtered out the stuff that would make it too wordy.That being said when I was growing up my mother used to jump from subject to subject and the only warning you got was "puddle jumping". This phrase was your key to the fact that the conversation was about to make a turn, and you needed to pay attention to be able to keep up. I tend to wander in my conversation and so my writing. And wanderers usually don't signal their literary turns, so to speak.

               Wander at your own risk  !!!

My new diet

I have to admit that some of my latest diet is based on a lot of cream. And I really like cream. Years ago I lived out in the country and bought my milk direct from a dairy. If you timed it right with the giant vat that the milk was in, you could get your milk right when the cream was rising. Many is the time that we would have a quart of cream in a fresh gallon. And it was really fine with me that the kids weren’t all that much in love with cream. So I always had plenty to put on my cereal. We made ice cream and butter with it. So, what I’m trying to say is, I LIKE IT !!!

Now, that being said, the guys that hire on at a certain ice cream company are told when they hire on, that they can eat all of the ice cream they want.  I’ve talked to them so I know it’s true.  The thing is , YOU CAN ONLY EAT SO MUCH !!  I really like chocolate, whiskey, and sex. But there is a limit. Admittedly I have pushed the limits here and there, but with all of my study  (and I’ve done a bunch) there’s a limit to all of it. I’m supposed to be eating cream with everything. Mashed potatoes, gravy, milkshakes and I don’t know what else. At some point you want to have it like it used to be. Without. And to me that is like telling someone you don’t ever want anything chocolate near you ever again. I know that it’s to keep weight on me and that it’s for my well being.

 Enough about cream. Every other day or so we’re finding something else that I can eat without too much trouble.  Chopped barbeque sandwiches. Man I’m here to tell you that was a good thing. To learn that I can still have barbeque briskit even if it is chopped. Other things that I can eat now have to be cooked to a fare-the-well. Black eyed peas, pinto beans, and potatoes. No more steamed vegetables, now they must be boiled until “they yield from light pressure” which means I have to be able to mash them successfully between my tongue and the roof of my mouth. The other day I had some limited success with a McDonald’s breakfast burrito. Since these are about the only thing from the Golden Arches that I can stomach anyway I’m sure that Mickey Dee’s corporate was watching as we drove up and told whoever was on the line to make sure that the tortilla was extra fresh. OK probably not, but I was able to get most of it down in thirty minutes. That seems to be the magic number for how long I will work at something before I lose interest. I know that as my mouth heals more this will change and as the radiation treatments make it difficult to swallow it will all change again. For now I’m taking this one day at a time. Mostly because that’s all I can do. If I could control the situation I never would have allowed cancer into my body. But no one knows what their life plan really is. You can have goals and ideas of what you want to do in life. 

 I need to take a moment to send my undying thanks to all of those who have and continue to pray for me. There may be some out there who get this disease and feel like they must run their gauntlet alone. I am NOT one of those. Although I tend to be a bit of a loner at times, this is not something that I think anyone should attempt to do alone. Not because you don’t have the ability, but because these people want to carry some of the burden. Usually for me this is just being there and listening to me unload about how horrible my experience was with the dentist. I am still capable of lifting a full water jug. So far. But I can tell that prayer has lifted me up on days when it’s too icky outside. My one salvation from partial insanity is to go out back and work in the shop on one project or another. When the weather keeps me from going out to play, so to speak, I’m left with the TV or the computer. And yeah, we have over 500 channels and there ain’t a dern thing to watch. Well, truth be told, a lot of it I’ve seen years ago and I wasn’t that interested in it then. Then there is the computer. And I like many, many thousands of others I have several solitaire games on it. But there are only so many games you can play before you go cuckoo for cocoa puffs. I don’t profess to be a writer but this thing is a really good sounding board for ideas and such that I wonder if they’re ready for prime time. I’ve written one short story and sent it to a friend to edit it.

 Oh yeah, prayer. Sorry my mind has always had the tendency to wander ( told you ) and this has not helped at all.  I firmly believe in the power of prayer. I know that I have an awful lot of people pulling for me. And I truly believe that I have things left to do on this earth. It’s just a matter of getting from here to there. 

 Most of my friends have heard the story but it bears repeating. For those of you who have heard it, skip forward to the next paragraph. Paul Harvey, a broadcaster on both radio and TV, talked about a study done by a university about the power of prayer. It was done on three groups of plants. Group 1 was the control group and absolutely nothing other than water and light was done for them or to them. Group 2 was prayed over daily along with water and light. The prayer for them was simply to grow well and strong. Group 3 was prayed over daily along with water and light. The prayer for group 3 was " Thy will be done".  One guess as to which group did the best. Thy will be done. And I have to say that over the years when I've been smart enough to turn a decision over to God, no matter what happened I always knew that it was for the best.

 Well, I said to skip forward so here's the next paragraph. Unfortunately  I've run out of stuff to say.

Wed   Mar  12  2 appts. in Dallas

Mon   Mar   24  Start radiation treatments