So Long, 2018!

   Let's get that marked off the list.
   I may or may not (probably not) be awake at the stroke of midnight to welcome in the new year. 
   Right now, I'm drinking chocolate milk mixed with Evan Williams eggnog. It actually tastes pretty good. 
   2018 didn't start out real good. I didn't have a job, but I was putting in applications. I put in a bunch of applications, but I wasn't getting hired, I wasn't even getting interviewed. But it was probably for the best. I was able to take Yvette to her physical therapy sessions and doctor appointments.
   And then to have her gall bladder removed. And after that I still wasn't getting hired. There had to be some reason I wasn't getting hired. God always has a plan, but it would be nice to have a hint. I did get 4 interviews. One, I got an email telling me that they had chosen another candidate. The other 3 I never got turned down, but I never got hired either.
   The strange thing was in all 3 of those interviews, they told me the same thing, "If you get hired, the first 90 days is a probationary period, if you miss any work, your employment ends immediately."
   That was in March and April. My van died somewhere in there.
   Then came May. Right before school let out. I went to see Laura Beth West, FNP. I had what I thought was just a swollen lymph node in my neck. I was half right, it WAS a swollen lymph node, but she thought it needed more checking out. As in CT scan the next day, travel to Memphis for a needle biopsy, get a PET scan, have lingual tonsillectomy, have a lump cut out of your neck, have radiation and chemotherapy then wait 3 months for another PET Scan. 
   Whew. It all seems pretty simple written like that. And it was pretty simple. It took a lot of prayer. A lot of faith. And a LOT of support.
   In no particular order: Yvette for sticking by me all the time and putting up with me. Hannah, Caleb, Micaela, Zeke, Zara, Gabe, Jeremiah and Brayden. Albert and Harold. Allison and Pastor Jamie for being there for my CT scan. Elicia for going with us to Memphis for the biopsy and taking me to KFC afterwards for some thick broth (KFC gravy). Regina for showing up at the hospital to stay with Yvette and Hannah while I had the lump cut out. (whew, let me stretch my fingers).
   Mike and Ann, Mike and Gail, Mr Robert and Mrs Claudine, Lila, Linda, Meredith, Beth, Tara, Janet, Uncle Charles and Aunt Carolyn, Ellen, Deana, Harold (different one), Richie and Valerie, John and Susan, John(different one), Robert, Mickey and Robbie, Mr Wilbur, Aunt Farra, NES teachers, Superman and everyone else who prayed for us, brought us food, or in other ways supported us.
   And the last one. The most important one  thank you God for bringing me through this ordeal and this year. Thank you for sending your Son, Jesus. 
   2018. It was rough, but we survived. It made me feel very loved.
   I hope 2019 brings me a better year and I hope everyone who reads this has their best year ever.
   Now those Dang Allergies seem to be kicking in again.

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Merry Christmas to you

   I got a sewing machine for Christmas. I asked for 3 things. Sewing Machine, a quilt pattern template (More on that in the future) and a Clear PET Scan. I got them. Thank You, God!
   I had been doing some quilting by hand. I finished a quilt my mother had been working on before she got sick. Then I had gotten some material at Walmart that was nice, but I was working on dressing it up a little. Not much because my sewing skills aren't the best. But they're getting better....Maybe....
   But having the sewing machine 
Made me want to do it faster.  So I figured I could try out the stitches and see what kind of damage I could do.

Left side hand decorated

Material got bunched up

20" of machine stitching to pull out

How you pull out stitches.

It gave me something to do while I drank eggnog. Little known fact, more eggnog leads to more stitching to pull out.

   The stitching tryouts were different stitches straight stitches, zigzag stitches, twirls and loops and random pattern.

It monograms, too. It says Baby Quilt.

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Those Dang Allergies (part 2)

   So as we're walking to the van leaving the Kirkland Cancer Center I looked at Yvette and said, "If I had that gift card that was given to us for Christmas, I'd take you out to eat at Outback Steakhouse to celebrate."
   She said, "you can take me next time."
   Them dang allergies sort of kicked in again as I told her I didn't plan to go to Jackson but 3 times in the next 3 months. Once to get my port out, once for a CT scan and once to get the results for my CT scan.
   We get in the van and she is looking in her wallet and says "I have a gift card for Olive Garden."
   I asked "You've still got that card? How long have you had that? Is there any balance left on it? Is there an Olive Garden here?"
   The answers to my questions were Yes, 
Since she retired from VISD, and she was checking on it.
   I said I'll see if there is an Olive Garden here. There was. And there was the entire balance of the card still on the card.
   Her objection that I don't like Olive Garden led me to say, "no, but you like it, and that's what's important." Dang if HER allergies didn't look like they were bothering her again.
   We get to Olive Garden and she tells the waitress we're celebrating a clear PET scan saying I was cancer free.
   When the waitress brings our food she tells us to save some room, they're going to give us a free dessert to celebrate with us. I told her thanks and Yvette evidently had another onset of those dang allergies because her eyes started glistening again. Mine barely glistened at all. 
   Then the manager came by the table and said "I heard y'all were celebrating. We're going to cover your entire meal AND dessert"
   She stood there and talked to us for a free minutes and ALL 3 of us were evidently suffering from the same allergies after Yvette was telling her about our kids cause now the managers eyes were glistening so much they ran down her cheeks. 
   We finally leave and come home and when we arrive the kids are excited cause they've either gotten a text or read my blog from yesterday so they know I had a clear PET Scan.
   We go to our bedroom  and Yvette tells me she had a present she had made for me that she meant to take with us. It's in a bag on the dresser. She told me not to look in it and I hadn't. I opened it up and when I saw what was inside I went and hugged her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. 
   So then she tells me my allergies running down my cheeks.  I said yeah, maybe I need to go see Laura Beth, maybe she could prescribe something for these Dang Allergies.
   Here's what she got me. She ordered it sometime before Christmas and was going to give it to me after we got the results. 

   I'm gonna close out like I have been:

Thanks for Reading!

Thanks for Praying!

Thank You for Your Support!

Writing this has seemed to trigger those Dang Allergies again.

   

Those Dang Allergies part 1

   December 27, 2018. Kinda stressful day. Going to get the results of the test I had been waiting for almost 7 months. Plus, my phone had reminded me it was my parents anniversary so it made me miss them.
   Let me be honest with you, I was kinda nervous about getting my results after the voicemail I had gotten the previous afternoon. The thought had gone through my mind that they wanted to wait until Friday because they weren't going to have the results. But I know that they had my results from my previous PET Scan written up within 3 hours. That left me with the niggling thought that they wanted to delay giving me my results because the scan showed that they hadn't gotten it and they needed to set up a treatment plan. 

   I didn't tell Yvette that, hoping it as was just Satan talking to me.
   Strange feeling that, hoping that Satan is talking to you. 
 But first, we have to leave home. Hannah and Micaela were up because they were going to leave to go home. They both gave me hugs and gave me good wishes. 
   Yvette went with me to to Jackson for my doctor appointments and my port flush. We get to see the first doctor at 8:30. He asked how I was doing and I expressed I was a little frustrated and told him about the voicemail from the afternoon before. He said, "Let me settle that for you, I can give you the results, the PET Scan came back clear, that's good, we still want to check you to make sure nothing comes back. But I need to take a look and make sure that what the scan shows matches up with what we are seeing. Hey, Cancer, here's your ribbon: go away, don't come back

 I looked over at Yvette and her eyes seemed to be glistening. Probably allergies bothering her. But I know what is fixing to come. I've had this before. The last time the nurse

 told me to 'just relax and it will make it a lot easier.' Hmmm...I asked her, she's never had this done to her. But when he looked down at my throat by sticking the scope up my nose, that looked good. 

   They schedule me for a CT scan in 3 months and release me to go see the other doctor. Whew.

   We go upstairs  to the second floor and after they finally get my port flushed so I'm good for a month. And they release me to the 3rd for to see the doctor. They weigh me and take my blood pressure. I've lost a pound. In less than an hour. At this rate, I'll waste away to nothing in 9 days. But they're not worried, so I guess I shouldn't either.

   I get it in a room to wait for the doctor. The nurse said 'he's got one patient in front of you.' So I get on the exam table to wait. And wait. And wait. There's another exam table in the room that's more like bed height. Yvette lays down on it, and goes to sleep. I sit there, wrote the blog I posted gateway, play candy crush until I run out of lives and finally decide to go to the bathroom. Just as I open the door, the doctor is starting to knock so almost had one of those 'get hit in the face but the person on the other side of the door moments'.

  He asked if I was going to the bathroom and I replied that I was. 

He said, "oh I'll be back in a few minutes, you go ahead."

  I told him "no, you go in there, I'll hold it. I don't feel like waiting another (look at my watch) 45 minutes."

  He came in, told me the PET Scan came back clear but they wanted to schedule me for a CT scan in 3 or 4 months. Yvette said that the other doctor had scheduled one for 3 months from now.

   So he asked about taking my port out, and I said that'd sounded good to me. He said we'll call when we get that scheduled and let us get up scheduled for a visit the day after your CT scan. And the nurse will be in here in a second to take the needle out where they had accessed my port to flush it.

   He left, I went to the bathroom and as I walked back to the exam room it REALLY hit me, I'm cancer free. They wouldn't offer to take the port out of that they thoought I was just going to need it again in 3 months. 

   Now those dang allergies are messing with ME. The nurse comes in takes out the needle and says I can go schedule my appointment. Got that appointment scheduled and we start to leave.

 (To be continued)

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And The Survey Said----

  The PET Scan that I had yesterday, the day after Christmas.
   We got the results today.
  I wasn't sure if we were going to find out or not. The nurse from the Oncologist's office called at 4:05 or so. And left a voice mail wanting to change my appointment from 9:30 Thursday to 9:30 Friday.
   And said they wanted me to call back and just leave a message to let them know if it was convenient for me.
   NO. I was scheduled to see my Radiologist at 8:30. Because they made that appointment based on what the Oncologist had scheduled. I was scheduled to have my port flushed. Based on my appointment with the Oncologist.
   I tried to call them back when I got the voice mail at 4:40. There was no answer at the Doctors office. There was no answer at the Kirkland Cancer Center. I tried talking to the doctor on call and he tried to call the Doctors office. He couldn't reach anybody.
   So NO it wasn't convenient to reschedule. I've been waiting 3 months to get this done. It's kinda a BIG Deal. 
   Now I'm sitting here waiting to see the Doctor that tried to reschedule. But it's kind of anticlimactic. Dr. Georgiou already told me:

  PET SCAN CAME BACK 

CLEAR!

🍾 🎊 🎂

   Edited to add what I thought I had finished with:

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An - ti - ci - pa - tion Or Antici ----- pation

   It all depends on whether you're thinking of the ketchup commercial or the Rocky Horror Picture Show pronunciation
   Christmas Eve. Anticipation Day. That day that lasts forever when you're a kid. Tomorrow is Christmas. In 2 days I get my PET scan. In 3 days I get results from my PET scan.
   If you see me and I don't seem in the holiday spirit, it might be because I've got that on my mind.
   On the other hand, I've got whiskers on my chin. And I hope that's all that's growing after the chemo and radiation. My weight has been holding steady. It still burns my tongue when I eat something spicy. But it's the Christmas Season, so I can't pass something up just because it might burn me. 

   I finished the baby quilt my Mom had been working on when she got sick. It took me a while to decide to do it. Even longer to get the work done. My quilting skills ain't the greatest. But I've started another baby quilt. It's partially pieced together and partially decorative stitched. It's not going to be pretty, but it's a start. An experiment you might say.
   Either way, if you have a second, could you pray that my PET scan comes back cancer free and I can resume a somewhat normal life. That would be a great Christmas Present. Of course, the Greatest Christmas Present 🎁 was Jesus Christ. 
   That's the guy Christmas is named after. He told us to love one another. He was passing along a message from his Father.

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🎄Merry Christmas From Me and Mine to You and Yourn, Merry Christmas .🎅 

 ✞  Jesus is the Reason for the Season! ✞

Wait. What does that mean?

   "Keep Christ in Christmas."
   You probably hear it from someone. And it sounds good. If you are a Christian, you may have even made the comment yourself. But why limit Him?
   If we're Christians, Christ is always in our lives. Hopefully always in our thoughts and actions, too. Otherwise we're not being really good at that whole Christlike thing.
   Jesus said we were supposed to love our neighbors. He even explained who our neighbor is. Sometimes, though, it's hard to love them. I'll give you an example:
   We used to rent/work a small farm near us. We had cows in a pasture there. One nice cold December day the weekend before Christmas I
When I was probably 12 or 13 Daddy sends me to put hay out for the cows. That Ford tractor with a weather break wasn't too bad, but it wasn't as comfortable as one with a cab would have been.

Or staying in the house reading a book (which is where I would have prefered to be). But I put on enough layers of clothes to stay warm. I put out hay for the cows at home. Then I go put out a couple off bales at the old house. One more to go. I pick up a bale and head there, annnnnnd as I get close I can see the cows aren't in the pasture. They're in the field where we had had soybeans.😕 I drive out in the field and get their attention and they follow the tractor with the hay bale into the pasture. But now I've got to find where the cows got out. They hadn't gone out through the gate we just came through, cause I had to open it. I can see the other gate that's close by and it's closed. But now I need to find where the cows got out.

   So I get off of the tractor and start walking around the field checking the fence. I was dressed for riding on the tractor with the weatherbreak. NOT walking around trying to find out where the idiot cows had gotten out. 😒  I've walked about ½ of the fence and I get to the gate at the back. Nope, it's still closed. I'm getting cold now, those rubber overshoes

I'm wearing aren't real good for walking, the wind is picking up; Christmas spirit is waning away from. I keep walking and ¾ of the way around  I can see where there is a cedar tree laying in the pasture. There hasn't been a storm to blow a tree over. 🤔 I get to the tree and I was right. That wasn't blown down by a storm. It was cut down with an ax. 🙁 and THEN, they cut the top out of it. They cut down a 20' tall tree so they could cut 5 or 6 foot off the top.

They used a bow saw for that. I know because they left it laying by the tree. I walk a little further and found the other gate into the field. It was a wire gate

that we never used. They had opened it, drove into the field, stole a 🎄 and drove out leaving the gate laying on the ground in the field. 😡 I closed the gate back, walked to the tractor carrying the bowsaw, and practicing my cussing. 
   I didn't have any Christmas spirit in me at that moment. I probably didn't have any Christ in me either. But I recovered enough for when we went Christmas Caroling the next night. 
   I got home and told Daddy the whole story. He said they probably needed it more than we did. I said something about they could have closed the gate. He told me that only reason there was a gate there was because somebody had cut the wire to go in and cut a tree for Christmas a few years before. He had made the "gate" in rain and sleet and was going to fix it right when the weather was better. 
Anyway
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To Quilt, or Not To Quilt

   That is the question... Whether tis nobler to create a fabric work of art (or at least functionality). Or something like that, I memorized Shakespeare's soliloquys just enough to get the grade.
   I know me. Too well. I know how I am. My wife knows how I am. She makes fun of me because I will try to get the patterns to match when I wrap Christmas presents.
   If I can get the pattern to match where the paper meets, I'm ecstatic.
   If i took up patchwork quilting, I'd probably use way to too much material. Making the patterns match.

   The way the patterns match up on the left and right are very pleasing to me. But the top and bottom, drive me nuts. At least when I'm looking at it from an artistic viewpoint. The ones on the left are slightly off, but that's okay. 

   Whether or not the patterns match exactly, it still accomplishes its goal. It makes a comfortable cover at night. 

   I have no idea how old this quilt is, I'm not even sure whether or not it's one my mother made or somebody else made it and I just wound up with it. 

  I do know one thing, if I took up quilting in a serious way. I'd have to get a sewing machine. At least for piecing the tops together. 

Decisions

Decisions

   I asked the other day if y'all found me uninteresting now. I know I don't post as much, and it's probably not as interesting as it was before.  But this is why I asked:

   I guess it's not as interesting, or maybe I just lost peoples interest. But I've dropped from 140 views per post down to 37. But I appreciate all the people that are still reading.

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Did You Feel That?

   So, there's been a little shaky stuff going on. There always is. It's New Madrid's fault. Around here, it's always New Madrid's fault. The top left picture shows earthquake activity around here.  The Yellow Dots are earthquakes in the past 6 months. The Orange Dots are earthquakes in the past week. Three Red Dots are earthquakes in the last 24 hours. It has to be at least a .5 to register as a dot, I think.

   Then I'm zooming in towards the 2 dots in the middle of the river in the bottom right picture. The Orange Dot is a 3.0 that happened last night (Wednesday at 7:55 PM). The Red Dot is a 2.6 that happened this afternoon (Thursday at 2:54 PM Thanksgiving Day)

   If you're not familiar with local history, Reelfoot Lake was formed by a series of large earthquakes in the winter of 1811-1812. It's estimated that those quakes were 7.0-8.1. If you're curious, a 7.0 is 10000 times bigger that a 3.0. And it's 1000000 times stronger (energy released). 

   I just want to note, I didn't feel the quake last night or the one this afternoon. I'm not in danger of winding up at the bottom of a lake in the near future. That is unless I forget to turn the light on when I go to bed or I leave the toilet seat up in the middle of the night😕.

   That orange dot close to where it says my home, that was a 2.3 quake about 2.2 miles away Sunday afternoon. I wasn't at home and didn't feel it.

   The dogs feel them. They go nuts. They'll be standing in the yard barking and looking in the direction of where the earthquake was centered. When the dogs are barking and all looking in one direction and there's no visible reason, I can usually check CERI

And look at the seismograms. You can see the squiggles. 
    What do the squiggles look like you may ask? If so, I'll be glad to show you:

   The picture on the left is the 3.0, the picture on the right is the 2.6. The blue squiggles on the right, are activity that's not significant enough to be considered an occurrence (below .5). It may be earth movement, it may be a freight train, it may be a semi-truck. I don't know exactly where the sensors are located. 

Anyways.

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❤

Oh, I Forgot

   I mentioned that I had gotten flower bulbs. Lowe's had them on clearance. I love Lowe's clearance. I got this

   36 Hyacinths 158 Tulips🌷 173 Daffodils

362 bulbs. That's how many I planted the first time in the yard. Then I planted 200 more around the sign at Cool Springs Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Then I planted another 284 at the house.  I went back and counted. I planted some things I've never planted before. Allium. Ranunculus. Frittilaria. Paperwhites. Dutch Iris. 

   I still have 50 more Ranunculus to plant here in front of the house. Hopefully, I'll get it done. Sooner or later.

   When they bloom, it's going to be an explosion of color. Not all was one time, hopefully more like a chain reaction of color. 

   Crocus should be first. If I remember correctly there should be 80 of them at the house. 

   I really feel like I'm doing great. But I'm curious about something. When I was posting updates every day, I would have 120 views a day. But now, I get 60 to 70. Have I become less interesting? 

   And another thing. When we moved in here there was a camper shell that the previous tenant had had. It was laying in the back yard. I decided to turn it into a dog house. It took me a couple of days and a lot of sore muscles.

Anyway.....

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Happy Thanksgiving!

🦃

🍗

23 Months

  In the time between my last posts I've gotten some new stuff. Shoes and socks and flower bulbs.
   I needed some socks because the socks I had before cancer treatment don't fit well. My foot didn't change sizes but my calves are smaller so my socks don't fit right. I was in Gimme a $5 and in one of their bins was a package with 4 pairs of bamboo socks. Some people have posted about how soft and comfortable bamboo socks are and since there were 4 pairs in the package I figured that I couldn't go wrong. If they were as great as I'd been told, I was getting 4 pairs of bamboo socks for $5? If they weren't that good, I've only wasted $5.
   Turns out, they are that good. But I missed out on one detail, they have toes. I've never had a pair of socks that had toes before, is not that bad. Just takes a little longer to put my socks on.

   
    But back to the title, 23 months.That's how long it's been since I got a new pair of shoes. But the pair I've been wearing when I worked outside were falling apart. 
   I was looking at the website that carries the size I wear. Just to see if I could find something affordable. Note I said WEBSITE. Not websites. It's hard to find anybody that carries Size 9 5E. 
   When I was young, Thomas Pate said I was the hardest kid to fit he had ever seen.
Getting to be an adult didn't make it any better.  But the website had a clearance section. But they didn't have my size. 
   So I decided to check Amazon. WHOA. They had a style close to what I had looked at priced $32-$109. So I put my size in and voila, they had MY size for $33. From one company. I guess they are discontinuing carrying that brand. Then I search some more and they have another style in my size priced $19-$99. Can I get lucky again? Almost. $23. SCORE!

   To help explain how hard it is to find my size. Basically, there are only 3 companies that  I'm aware of that make shoes in 5E width. The solution that shoe salesmen suggest is to get a bigger size. That usually means getting a size 10½ or 11. 
   That's kind of like telling a woman that since they don't have a bra size 36D that she should just get a 40B. The cup size is the same, but it's not going to fit right.
   But anyhow, I got new shoes. And saved money.
  On the health side of things, I still don't make much saliva. So I have to drink a lot when I'm eating. And spicy foods burn my tongue. Other than that, I think I'm doing great.

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THABSLAPWAQL

   Tilting Head A Bit Sideways Like A Puppy With A Quizzical Look.
   The video is what the Doctor used on me. He sprayed some stuff to numb my throat. Then he put some gel on that scope to slide it up my nostrils to get a look inside my throat. The Doctor said my throat looked great. He said my neck looked great. My weight is holding steady. 
   Personally, I think it would have been better if he had sprayed the numbing stuff up my nose, too. Or at least put some of the numbing lubricant up my nose before he stuck that in.  Maybe put on some soft music, lit some candles, gotten me drunk beforehand. Something.
   Now we just have to wait about 5 more weeks until I have my PET scan. December 26. The day after Christmas. Then December 27 I go back to get my results. 
  If anybody wanted to get me a Christmas Present I would love to have a job. Or a car. Or This. Or This. The second one has a lot more features and would be really great if I decide to keep on with what I've been doing. I'd really be happy with any sewing machine that works. 
   While I've been getting treatment and waiting to get a clearance that in cancer free I've been working on a quilt. I've discovered I don't have the sewing skills my mother had. I knew I didn't, but I've been reminded several times. I've also stuck myself with a needle. A LOT.
   I've been working off and on to finish a baby quilt. It was the last one my mother was working on before she got sick and wound up in the hospital and nursing home before she died. I've gotten it about ¾ done but I have sewn in one of the labels she had

 She had done about ¼ of the quilting and I've done a lot. I'm not real consistent with the size of my stitches. But I do my best. I'll get it finished sooner or later.
   I've had a request from Zeke to make him a quilt for graduation. Mama made one for the older children. 
   She made a lot of quilts in her life. Quilts for some of my cousins when they got married. Quilts for people when they wee having babies. Lots of baby quilts
   I'll never have the skill Mom had, but I do want to try some. And like her, I haven't finished this one, but I've already started on another one. 
   Anyway. 
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❤
   

   

Thirty-Five, I think

   Okay, I'm running behind. I don't spend as much time hooked up to machinery getting fluids. I don't have as much time waiting to have radiation or to see the doctor or to have chemotherapy. 

BUT

   If you look at the little picture up there of my lovely face, you might notice some things. One side of my beard, well, sideburns is longer than the other. One side of my mustache is longer than the other. Heck, even half of my Lawrence is pretty much gone.

   I haven't shaved anything off, I haven't trimmed anything back, other than cutting off my braid a couple months ago. 

  I don't know if it's going to be like this the rest of my life or if it will start growing back at some point. I may trim it up a little bit to kinda even things up. 

   My next door neighbor, the one married to the guy who put up a Confederate Battle Flag that had:

 It Ain't Comin Down

 Printed on it saw me yesterday and commented that I looked different.  I said well, I've lost 50 pounds and most of my beard. Chemo and Radiation will do that to you. She didn't know I had cancer. 

   Maybe I should make more of an effort to talk to my neighbors. But see the comment about the Confederate Battle Flag. Yeah, No.

   I did get one bit of disappointing news last week. Besides not winning the lottery. But I guess you have to buy tickets to win.

   I was asked by the Dr. when I was having my PET scan. (The scan they will do to decide whether I am cancer free or not.) I told them I didn't know but I was pretty sure it was going to be before December 11 since that was the day they had scheduled for me to get my results. The nurse says are you sure? 

Well that's what the paper with my appointment printed on it said.

  The nurse goes to look........... and disappointment. I get my results

December 27. So 2 weeks after when I thought I was getting them.

And I go for my PET scan in December 26.

   So I'm planning on having a GREAT Christmas present 2 days late.

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The Lottery

   Today, I'm going to go back to the Random Thoughts that I originally named this blog after.
   Since the biggest topic in the country right now seems to be the Lottery. The Mega Millions to be precise. 1.6 billion. That's 1,600 millions. Or 904.9 million of if ychose the cash value option. The Powerball is 620 with a cash value of 354.3 million. You'd have 212.5 million after taxes. 
    I'm going to cover some things you might not know. If a married person filing jointly wins and they live in a state with no income tax on lottery winnings I'm going to assume they have income so I'm going to assume they already owe some taxes but this is what a one ticket winner choosing the cash value option would owe. 

Social Security 15921.60 ( on the first $128400)
Income tax 161379 (on the first $600000)
Medicare 2624210.00 (2.9% on the whole amount)
Income tax 334591000 (37% of the amount over $600000)
337392510.60 in taxes due

So you'd take home 687724000 and still be looking at having to pay about 120 million more in taxes.
   Now for the random thought part of it. Once when the PowerBall was around 500 million, I was in line at a convenience store and I was getting a drink and somebody said something about the PowerBall and winning the 500 million. I said I'd rather get the cash value option and take home 180 million. They said that's all? If that's all you get, I'm not buying a ticket. And they didn't get one then.
WHAT?
   I personally would be happy with breaking even. I would prefer to win more than I spend, winning more than I spend is better. I wouldn't have to win the jackpot, getting the 5 numbers right without the bonus ball is worth a million dollars. That would be cool. I don't know about you, but 180 million is 180 million I didn't have. And if spending $2 would get it, then I'd buy the ticket. 
    I don't know why people won't buy tickets right after the jackpot resets. Your odds of winning are the same whether it's 40 million or 400 million. 
   When I had a job and some money, I'd buy tickets for every drawing. Always the same numbers, but when the jackpots hit 500 million, I'd buy an extra $10 ticket, 5 sets of numbers. 
    Just thought I'd share that. Buy a ticket, or don't. Good luck either way. 

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19 - 25

   It's been a week. Wow. 7 days. 
   What's been going on. Well, I've been eating. I'm doing better. Really, I am. I'm not sure how much I have to eat a day to start gaining weight. I'm not sure I want to start gaining weight. Holding steady would probably be good enough. In fact it'd probably be great. I've been overweight for years. 
   As a a matter of fact, at my lowest adult weight, the doctor said I was still 15 pounds overweight. I'm still alive, he's been dead for years.

      I finished this keychain in the past week and I finished those hamburgers yesterday. Well sliders, mini- hamburgers. But good stuff.
   I worked on the ramp in front of the house. I put strips of shingles so we don't slip when it's wet. 
   Last night, I saved $209,237,689.50 in taxes by not winning the Mega Millions. So, wow, I guess that's great. Since I didn't win, I guess I'll have to go to my doctors appointment Monday. No, I'd still be going to my doctors appointment on Monday even if I did win. But I guess first you have to buy a ticket. 
  
Anyway, 
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Day 19, I think?

   I'm doing better every day, I think.
   I had a doctor's appointment Wednesday. He doesn't want to see me back for a month. Then another month after that I go get the results of my scan. So December 11 hopefully I'll find out I'm cancer free. That's what I want you Praying for, so get on that, thanks!
   I've discovered one problem, I think. I believe I have a volume control problem. The almost non-existent amounts of food/fluid/nutrition I took in during the week before and 2 weeks after my last chemo treatment evidently my stomach shrank. I can only swallow small amounts at a time. 

   That's just over the amount of food I can swallow at one time. I managed to eat about half of what I had dished up for that meal. Wednesday night I ate a Wendy's cheeseburger. Not the bun, just the burger and it was good. Then I was eating some ice cream. And that was too much. Well the ice cream came back. It didn't hurt, it didn't burn, it just came back. 

   It could have been worse, it could have all come up.

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Why Don't They Leave?

 I saw it on Facebook and Twitter during  and after Florence. Heck, basically after every hurricane since I've had Facebook and Twitter.
   You want to know why they don't leave?
   I can give you a few reasons:
They live paycheck to paycheck and can't afford to go anywhere. If they do leave, they can't afford to go back.
   Their car won't get them out of town, and if it does, it might not make it back.
   They're not worried about the hurricane. Really, the first time I had to deal with an oncoming tropical thing, I looked around. Nobody else seemed worried, the neighbours weren't boarding everything up. The news was talking about the system falling apart before it hit land. I got up and went to work in the morning, we went out and started and about an hour and a half into our day, they called us in. 
   The wind was picking up, and instead of falling apart, Claudette was picking up strength and headed for us. They held us hostage for 2 hours before they sent us home with instructions that we were going to get called back in after the storm went through.
   I get home to find a child having an allergy attack, so now I have to go to the store in ever increasing winds to get some Benadryl. I did get to see a shopping cart that hadn't been corralled go speeding across the HEB parking lot, hit the concrete at the edge of the parking lot, flip into the air and land in the middle of the street. Then I made it home, and we prayed. After the worst of the storm passed, I went outside and got to look up and see the most beautiful blue sky, surrounded by clouds in every direction.
   After Katrina devastated New Orleans 2 years later, another hurricane was brewing and they had projected it to come towards us. How serious were the projections? We got paid early, they said non essential personnel could leave town. 
   We were lucky. We had someone in Arlington, Texas that said, we've got room.
   We packed up the essentials, and headed out. 6 hour drive took us about 8 hours. Traffic was horrendous. (Katrina HAD made some believers)
   We didn't get hit, but it still took us a month to recover from the damage it did to our money. A friend of mine had started north, and made it 30 miles before his car broke down. That's after spending $200+ on a hotel room in San Antonio that he now couldn't get to. 
   Why don't they leave?
   Sometimes, they just can't.

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Twelve, Thirteen

    That was Saturday. Yeah, not much. But a lot more than I've eaten in the past few days (weeks). Macaroni and cheese. Relatively soft, relatively mild. But I managed to get it down and keep it down.
     I tried this for lunch Sunday. I messed up trying to eat the pork chop first. It was a little too spicy and kinds burned my throat.

   I did manage to eat most of the corn and the potatoes. I ate a piece of bacon at church Sunday morning.

   It's little things. But they add up.

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Eleven

   Day Eleven:
It took me about an hour. And  LOT of TINY bites. 
But.
Well. 
A Picture is worth A Thousand Words!

Also, I ate this. 

   Today was the first day of the Reelfoot Arts & Crafts Festival. It's also the first night of Bootfest in Victoria, Texas.

   Yesterday, The DCHS Volleyball team wn their District Tournament!

   

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