If You Have to be a Grandma, Be a Cool One...

Joshua's soccer team is called "Fire." He thinks that is very cool.

We were able to see him play today. It is my completely unbiased opinion that he is one of the best players in his age bracket. At least he understands which goal they're aiming for which is a big leap ahead of a number of the kids out there.

Kevin's long ago coaching days come out in flashbacks during the games. I have to remind him a lot that he is GRANDPA at these soccer games, NOT "Coach."

I scored major grandma points by making a t-shirt design for Josh with the team name and some photos I took at his game.

It doesn't get much better than having a 6 year old think you're amazing.

Well Dressed Driving

Left home early this morning so we could make Josh's soccer match on our way to Kev's board meeting and conference in Milwaukee.

SPE board meetings are a sort of mental milestone for Kevin in his treatment and recovery. Something to aim for in his bid to have a "normal" existence through as much of this as possible. Last fall his goal was to make the Chicago meeting. Once that was done, he set his sights on May.
Traveling with cancer adds to our baggage. There is a bag packed with single serving size drinks since Kevin can't tolerate the cold drinks we could buy on the road. Along with the drinks, there is an assortment of single serving sized foods--to hold off the nausea he has to eat small amounts more frequently and we have to be careful about "public" food with his blood counts being low. There's another bag full of his medicines and diet supplements. That's kind of mind boggling for a guy who used to consider it a big deal if he had to take 2 Tylenol to shake a headache.

The best news about him being able to make this trip is that it means we get to push off his next chemotherapy treatment by a week. So he has extra time to recover before the next kick is delivered. Maybe some of that cold induced neuropathy will ease up in his hands and feet.

I realized what a good thing that extra recovery time may be for him when I noticed his driving attire this morning. No fancy leather driving gloves for him; the smartly attired cancer patient dons soft warm knit gloves before grabbing that cold steering wheel.

Early To Bed...

Thought I would check in before heading off to bed. It's early, just after 7 PM, and I'm beat. So is Kevin and we still have packing to do before heading off this weekend for his conference in Milwaukee.

Kevin is glad to have the extra week off chemotherapy. He's very tired, physically and emotionally. The whole effort takes a toll. He's tired of the nasty taste, the pain, the headaches and the nausea. He's just tired.

I'm not sure why I'm so tired. Everything seems to take twice as much energy as I have and I fall asleep everytime I sit down. I've been telling Kevin it's my way of being sympathetic to his very real fatigue. Sort of like the guy who gains 15 pounds while his wife is pregnant.

I think it's just been a long, long winter around here.

So I'm off to bed while the sun is still out and I'll worry about everything else tomorrow.

Stories, Books and Life

April 2008--Kevin has a conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, next month so there are travel brochures on top of the chemotherapy research and the lab reports. I plan to explore the area a little while he is in meetings. My favorite book on perennials is pulled out on the bookshelf. Normally there would be a stack of gardening books out by this time in the spring and a list of what I wanted to plant and divide in the gardens. We downsized the collection of gardening books along with the gardening when I moved over in January.

The BoogeyMan

We had a strange phone call today. From the BoogeyMan.

He said he is coming to make a mess in our peanuts (and here I've been blaming the raccoons for the mess) and eat all our candy. Apparently the BoogeyMan is on a boogey crime spree--he called up Tante Kelly to say he was going to her house to eat her candy and her kitties. AND he left a message (the BoogeyMan apparently has good phone manners) for Aunt Gina saying he was going to eat her puppies.

I tried to scare the BoogeyMan. "I have a grandson named J-Dogg who will beat you up if you mess up our peanuts." The BoogeyMan was not impressed. He said he had already been to J-Dogg's house.

However, Joshua (aka J-Dogg) called soon after. He tells me that the BoogeyMan can be captured and subdued with M&Ms.

I was amazed that Joshua knows so much about catching Boogey Men.

The Best of Both Worlds

Quiet day. Kevin napped intermittedly and caught up on some paperwork in between. His headache lingers, his fingers are refusing to cooperate as much as he would like and he has a general flu-like ache and nausea. Hello, Chemotherapy.

By evening he was ready for a change of scenery but not up to a walk or even much of a ride. We headed for his favorite sunset spot out on Cowan Lake, just minutes away.

Ohio state parks are abundant, free and underused in this area. Cowan Lake is quiet and peaceful much of the time. I take a few shots of tiny wildflowers peeking up in the woods. We watch herons land lakeside and listen to ducks calling across the water.

Sunday evening is our typical catch up time for phone calls. We call his mother, careful in what we say for she still has no knowledge of his cancer. We talk to Paige and Kelly. We call my sister and hear about chicks being hatched, lightening strikes on the farm house, the escape and capture of an errant bull.

This is the best of both worlds for Kevin. He's sitting at a peaceful lakeside watching the sun set while chatting to friends and family via cell phone. Technology and nature combined. I know he's thinking it doesn't get any better than this.

Fluttering Moments

Kevin is pretty tired and achy today but he wanted to get out for a little while. We drove into Eden Park to visit Krohn Conservatory. The butterfly show is in progress there. It was fun to watch hundreds of butterflies flitting about and more fun to watch the people reacting to them. We got a kick out of one little girl who walked around nearly an hour with one butterfly perched on the front of her dress.

Didn't take long for the butterflies to wear Kevin out so we headed home.

Drove through the hills and valleys around Fort Ancient on our way and got a couple of pictures. Notice the road way below in the valley and the road sign indicating the switchback curve ahead of us.

The other shot is a little roadside antique place. Kevin doesn't have much patience with antiques and old things--he calls this the "junk shop" and thinks it's a bit of an eyesore. On spring and fall weekends it is crowded with a steady trickle of Cincinnati suburbanites crawling out to the countryside and shelling out their hard earned dollars for a bit of authentic country junk.

I think the junk shop owner is a genius.