10-30-2022, 04:52 AM
(10-11-2022, 01:56 AM)Vandiablo Wrote: So my "me" experiences will just be during vacations and weekends. I may ponder those in a later post.
Checking in ... I don't want to make hundreds of posts, so I'm just lumping everything together.
Bolty -- damn you! Those links are horrible, horrible! I didn't go through all of it (yet?) but there are only a very small number of tiny good things buried and sparse lost in a huge crock-crypt of ... words fail me here.
eppie - Thanks for the post! I do love pepper. I have to watch out for jalapeno-laden stuff though -- if I have too much, my digestive system expands to double size while it burns and expels tens times my body weight. And it hurts. Oddly enough I have very little issue with red pepper. I've read that there's not really much chemical difference between them, yet here I am being easy with the J but can guzzle the R. And pizza, yes no better food. There is wide variety and most is wonderful: NY style -- great crust is essential because it has to fold and it's the first thing on your tongue; Chicago style -- here you are savoring the interplay of the filling (not just a layer of topping); frozen -- yes, frozen! -- oh this one takes too long to explain, but I will say I mean certain ones, most frozen pizza is just passable; and then there's the local Italian-over pizza kitchen which has great stuff that scoffs at NY and Chicago. (Not really a fan of Detroit yet.) I've been tempted to become a pizza-making wizard, but why take the time when there's so much good stuff out there? Now, it's moot, pizza should only be a treat (except possibly cauliflower crust margherita) because of lifestyle changes necessary to prolong my existence.
Everyone - I must apologize to everyone who has had or had a loved one that had chemical or radiation treatment. I am spared all that. The only possible medical treatment for me is an organ transplant, which I'm thinking will never happen. My fight can only be to stop progression (DAMMIT VAN SAY WHAT IT IS) by treating my diabetes better. Diabetes interacts with another condition I have to cause a fatal condition, but it takes some time. My doctor says if I treat my diabetes very strictly I can slow, or maybe even stop the progression. So my treatment is eat better and exercise. Not bad, eh? The downside is that I can never undo the progression that's here, I can only get worse. The cancer treatments, they have the possibility of putting you back to 0%. But I would not want that tradeoff, not at this point anyway. The apology to those that had such a horrible fight is because my fight is so easy in comparison.
I had a slightly younger cousin who had breast cancer, had chemo, and beat it back. I don't know how long she was in remission, but eventually it came back. She elected this time to just let it kill her rather than go through treatment again. (She was mid-50s, had one daughter.) She died earlier this year. It was a shock to me, because I'd never heard about her first round. She was always smiling and friendly, I wish I had known her better; we had always lived in different states. So cancer treatment is hell; I am fortunate that I don't have to choose whether to have it. Another aspect of her death is that it shows me that, yes, it is real, my generation of the family is starting to die.
Back to happy things... Bucket List, Travel Edition! - ideas that involve travel. (Order is unimportant.)
#1: Bigass Plants - I want to go see the redwoods, or at least one big one. For this, I don't mind being a dumb tourist in a group, I don't need to commune with nature, I just need to stand at the bottom and say "Damn that's big." Then walk back a bit and say it again. Then walk back some more and say it once more. Then I can go home. The other BAP is the Corpse Flower. I'd like not only to see the bloom but experience the stench. I'd like to go to the D.C. Arboretum when the corpse flower there blooms, but it's not predictable, it's a kinda It's Happening Now Go Now type of thing.
#2: Europe - not for me, but I'd like to accompany my kids, two of whom have never been there. Which parts of Europe would be up to them. If up to me, I'd just sit at a pub with a garden, and go get fish-n-chips for meals.
#3: A few nights in a southwestern desert, for the night sky. Then again, my vision has degraded and maybe a dark quiet place in nearby Appalachia would be as good... though it could rain, then I'm just camping.
-V