Fw:

 

OBSERVATIONS....

 

I will attempt to complete this article with Marilynn's help.  I don't know what "truncated" means, but that is what happened to my earlier attempt.

 

I got good news that the IMRT radiation treatments I had last summer (25 sessions) along with a long day of HDR (High Density Radiation) appears to have done the job in my case.  Hopefully my name will be added officially to the Prostate Cancer Survivor's list when I visit my medical team in Eugene on March 1.

 

I bring this up for two reasons:  First, to express my complete trust in modern medicine and the dedicated people who are working to make our lives better.  There is an enormous amount of information available on the internet for almost any malady and my advice is to be pro-active with your health by doing your homework.  Not ignoring "danger" signals from one's body is a wise choice to make along with keeping your medical team up to date on all of your concerns.   Second, I bring this up to say (as a life-long Republican, but you already knew that):  "God Bless The Democrats".  It was the Democrats, by a substantial majority who voted MediCare into being.  Without MediCare I might be in a pickle.  The tab for my treatment as best as I can determine approached $75,000 of which I paid nada, zip, zilch, zero.....in other words my MediCare supplement (Mutual of Omaha) along with MediCare took care of the entire bill.  Let's hear it for President Johnson!

 

Now I can get back to worrying about a comet falling on me; President Hillary; how does the government know each year which flu shot to prepare for me; is someone going to invent a cure for arthritis of the knees; why is there only one place in Brigham City, Utah where a person can get a drink of Pendleton whiskey; is Windows Vista going to be too complicated for me to understand; and can the Bears win the Super Bowl this year?

 

I will also begin enjoying the cool weather here in Utah (2 degrees last night), now that the furnace man said my furnace is good to go for at least another five years.  It has snowed a total of eight inches so far, but it is almost gone now.  A neighbor bought a Massey Furgason tractor and a box scraper last summer.  He is the unofficial snow plow for our block.  I heard him out there after our last snow fall and visited with him.  He is an engineer with Thiakall (the people that make booster engine parts, etc. for the space program) and is so senior at his job he has nothing to do.  With all of that time on his hands he needed something to occupy his time so he bought an old tractor and fixed it up to function as a snow plow.  He said that when there is a prediction of snow he gets so excited that he can't sleep in eager anticipation of his plowing duties.

 

Twenty people signed up after seeing my two inch ad in the local paper regarding stained glass classes.  I went from having enough time in my life to spend an hour daily with Assistant Manager Dave solving the world's problems while in Newport to not knowing how I was going to make it through the six week class sessions.  Student Betty who is 82, and Student Dorothy who is 86 are keeping me focused.  When they tell me they are NOT comfortable doing things my way, all I can say is "yes maam" and try to find a way to get my point across they will accept.  Imagine that, SOME people get set in their ways as they get older.......who would have thought?

 

I have a coffee appointment with Dave in the Club House on March 3.  Hope to see you there.    Jim McCrea

 

P.S. If this gets published correctly I will shortly share with you the story of my new bar-b-que.