Week Thirty-One

(The header is four crazy Marysville-Yuba City guys about 50 years ago on a fishing trip somewhere around Downieville, I think.)

 

Greetings folks,

Week Thirty-One, eh….well this just seems to drag on interminably, but there are a few good things (and just one bad thing) to report for this week.

First, the week started off with a day trip to San Francisco to see an ACT play called The Birthday Party, by Harold Pinter.  He’s an English playwright and actor, and he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2005.  He died in 2008.  He writes some strange plays, but if you can suspend your notion of reality and accept the world of his plays, they are very entertaining.  Dialogue is great, story-telling a bit bizarre, but give it a go.  We highly recommend The Birthday Party.

After the play we had dinner in Oakland at a relatively new Mexican restaurant, Agave, with Carol’s brother and sister-in-law, and her cousin from Washington.  The meal was quite tasty, and the mole excellent.

On Monday I had an appointment with my physical therapist.  I was feeling a bit dizzy in the morning and wasn’t sure I should go to therapy.  Carol said she would drive me and wait there, so I thought okay I’ll go.  After a couple of exercises I felt quite dizzy and said maybe we should check my blood pressure.  It was 74 over 43, and we mutually decided not to continue with therapy that morning.  I called my doctor, and he said drink a lot of water, as well as fluids with electrolites, and add salt to my food (yes!), and if the dizziness continued I should go see him.  The dizziness went away and by Wednesday my blood pressure was about 100 over 60.

Also on Wednesday I had lunch in Sacramento at June’s Cafe with a couple of old work buddies.  The cafe is a great little restaurant on V Street, and June personally cooks each and every meal.  It was on our luncheon restaurant circuit way back in my working days.  Anyway, I ordered my standard June’s meal, Buttered Beef.  And, wow, was it still good.  Thin slices of beef cooked, I presume, in butter, with grilled onions, and served over a very healthy portion of rice, with hot mustard and soy sauce for dipping each bite.  A huge serving (I only could eat half of it….I can’t believe I used to be able to eat the whole thing!!) We had a very nice visit while savoring June’s cooking, talking about travel plans, movies, old work mates, and our next golf outing.  I took a ‘to go’ box for the rest of my buttered beef and finished it off that afternoon.

But, a very exciting thing about the meal was that the next day when I weighed myself, my weight was 124.0…..the highest weight since December 3, 2017! So, speaking of weight, here you go:  weight last Friday 121.6 lbs; weight today 123.7 lbs (it did drop 0.3 from the buttered beef high, but I had Pedro league last night and that always presents some eating challenges).  Up two pounds for the week.  Maybe, just maybe, we have reached a turning point….we’ll see.  I’ll keep pounding down the calories.  My daily average calories last week was 1898 a day, and 89 grams of protein a day.  I’m working my way toward 2000 calories a day.

Saw my chemo doctor this morning.  She’s pleased with how everything is going.  She’s going to schedule a PET scan for sometime in March, which will be about six months after my surgery.  The PET scan will show whether there are any cancer hot spots lingering around in my bod.  That will be a big test.  Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

I think that’s it for now.  I’m going play some golf this afternoon.

Here’s a goofy little story to finish up with:

        Awkward Issue

I had an awkward issue that once I had to face

The question bubbled up over dinner at some place.

 

We were on vacation at a spa in Mexico

And dining with old friends when I put the question so:

 

“When you go for a massage do you wear your underwear?”

That was what I pondered: to be clothed or to be bare.

 

“Oh, we don’t wear a thing,” most everyone agreed

Clothing on a masseuse’s table is nothing that you need.

 

“Well,” I said, “I usually do when I see the one at home.

But now to change, will take some thought. How should I make it known?”

 

I can’t just hop upon the cot without a word to let her know

How below the sheet I am completely nude from head to toe.

 

Somehow I must alert her, I think, really, that is all

“There’s a surprise I have for you.”  Albeit, one that’s small.