Still snowing

It continues to snow. We have about six inches of snow on
top of ice. The first snow was really wet, but the
temperature has dropped so the new snow is quite light and
fluffy.

Jeanne called this morning and we had a long chat on the
phone. I always enjoying hearing from my kids!

In the New York Times this morning there was an article
about the problems of pollution from dirty diesel trucks in
China. A woman shopkeeper was saying that by the end of the
day, from being in her open-air shop, her face is black from
soot. This took me back.

In 1948 I worked in Rochester, N. Y. at Bausch and Lomb optical
company. I was a clerk in the Engineering Department. One
of my tasks was to type mimeograph templates and then run
off multiple copies of various reports and sometimes of
drawings. I had quite a number of these to do each day
and the mimeograph machine was in a corner of the very
large room in which I and a dozen engineers worked.
The building was not air conditioned so I was happy to have
the window open by the machine. I soon discovered,
however, that after a session of running the copies
off on the machine one side of my face was black from
the soot coming in the window.

Although, I think our air is cleaner now, it isn't as clean
as it should be even here in pristine Boulder. I work one
day a week at the Carnegie Historic Library. I noticed when
I first started working that the flag in front of the building
was gray and ragged. Sometime later it was replaced, but now
the new one is not ragged, but the white stripes are gray,
not white.

E-mail from Julie late yesterday confirmed that she, too,
has breast cancer. I feel really sad for her; it has been
a difficult year already. Her dad is in the terminal stages
of cancer and has been released home, but he is not doing
well.

Pearl Harbor, Chemotherapy and Snow

Remember Pearl Harbor? I do. I was ten-years-old. My
brother and I had been invited by our neighbors, the
Woodmans to go with them to the Museum of Natural History.
We had just arrived at the Museum, the radio was on and
suddenly the sports cast was interrupted by the announcement
that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor and destroyed most
of the Navy that had been stationed there. We listened
until the announcement was over; Woody turned off the radio
and we all sat there in stunned silence. Of course the war
in Europe had been going on for some time; Lend lease was
working; young men had entered the military voluntarily and
also through the Draft. But this was different. We had
been attacked. I don't remember the rest of the day. I
assume we turned around and went home. None of felt like
going to the Museum.

Back to the present. Yesterday I spent the day with Susan at
Dr. Caskey's office. This was her first chemotherapy session.
I picked her up at 9 AM at the hospital where she had been
taken by her friend, Connie Witt. The procedure at the
hospital had gone well and the line had been inserted,
in her chest above the offending breast. This line will
be used for all further chemical therapies. The three
of us went for breakfast at the Sunrise Cafe,near
Dr. Caskey's office.

After breakfast Connie went home and Susan and I went to the
doctor's office and to the therapy room. The doctor was
leaving at noon to go to a Conference in Atlanta so the
office was very quiet. One woman was already there getting
therapy, but only one. Susan and I staked out our places, I
next to her. The chairs are very comfortable, fortunately.
Susan would be in hers for the next 5 hours! Initially, we
had quite a lecture from Jenny, one of the nurses, about the
therapy and about what Susan should be doing to take care of
herself over the next year while she was undergoing all
these therapies.

Finally, at about 4:30 PM the last dose dribbled out. We
were both tired. I took Susan home where she was met by
Kirsten, her daughter. I stayed only long enough to give
them each a hug and headed home.

Susan is phenomenal. Her attitude is very positive and
she never whines. She manages to find something good
about each situation. Very impressive lady.
The traffic was terrible, but I arrived home safely around
7 PM. I had called Robert a couple times during the day to
let him know what was going on. Our road in Salina had been
glare ice in the morning, but it had melted during the day.
The roads in town were clear.

At last we have had snow, wet snow and in sufficient
quantities to help with our water problems. The
attached pictures are evidence of the snow. It is still
snowing. We expect to get several more inches today and
more is promised for the weekend.


The fish pond taken this morning.









The path from fish pond to barn








The bird feeder in the front yard; the bird got away.






All of the above pictures are actually colored pictures,
not black and white...it is a dark and stormy day.

Windy today

Today is very windy and warm, in the 60s. The creek is
finally running enough for a steady stream to come into the
pool. It's not a very heavy stream, but it is more than a
trickle. The water level has dropped about a foot since
water has stopped coming in. Between evaporation and leaks
we have lost a lot. The ice would form on the water and
then the water level would drop and with a loud crack the
ice would crack and some of it drop to a lower level. I can
see the fish through the opening in the ice. They seem to
be doing OK. Probably think it's spring now that the ice is
melting.

This morning I took Julie Luckey to Community Hospital at
Arapahoe and Foothills Highway. She was to have biopsies of
both breasts. Fortunately, it turned out that she only had
a cyst filled with fluid on one side, so that is good.
She'll hear tomorrow the results of the biopsy. I got her
home about 11:45 AM and helped her into the house. She was
going to lie down and watch TV and/or read and nap. She'll
call if she needs anything.

Susan called and I'm to pick her up on Thursday at the
Lutheran Hospital in Wheat Ridge at 9 AM. We then will pick
up some breakfast for her and go on to Dr. Caskey's office
where she is to undergo 5 hours of chemo. YUK! I'm there
because they won't know how well she tolerates the drugs
this first time. I hope she does OK! Her HER2+ cancer is
supposedly really aggressive which is why she is getting so
much medication. They've told her to get a "Hard as Nails"
to use on her nails because they may split, crack or lift.
She also has to take steroids twice a day the day before, of
and after the chemo. She also must rinse her mouth after
each meal with salt water to try to prevent mouth sores.
And on top of that she'll lose all her body hair.

I talk to Jack Wenrich today. He has a terrible cold, but
other than that sounded OK. Katy has had a bad cold so he
probably got it from her. He doesn't need that.

Betty had her cataract surgery yesterday. I called her and
talked with Jack. She was in town with daughter, Janice.

A quiet Sunday

We had a little snow overnight, not enough to be significant
with respect to our water problems though. Yesterday a
little water was coming into the pool from the creek pipe,
but it has not continued today. The pool is frozen over
except for a very small whole over the aerator. The high
today was 40 degrees; the low last night about 25.

Today I used Google to get the names of the 35 people whose
phone numbers I have received from the Polis campaign. I'm
to use them to call and encourage folks to go to the
Democratic Caucus in February. I'm waiting on word from the
precinct captain as to the location of the Caucus.

I had a good talk with Jeanne yesterday. She was making
steamed brown bread. Later e-mail informed me that it came
out beautifully so she's sending me the recipe. I have never
made it although I have bought and steamed it. She was also
making baked beans. Sounded great!

Robert and I are really frustrated with our DISH TV recording
device. The TIVO folks sued the Dish people and won so that
Dish had to rewrite their software. It appears to have
multiple bugs. It erases things; it sets the time for
starting and finishing a a minute before it starts and
three minutes after it finishes. This then causes the
same software to skip some of our settings because
they overlap! It is maddening.