I'm O.K. Quite unhappy because I should be at the museum instead of sitting around the house. Not supposed to be where a lot of people are, was told to stay out of stores, don't go to church stay away from babies and rest homes as long as I have a compromised immune system. There are two jobs not done in my shop that I told people I'd have by May, now I'm wondering May what year. I'm not going to turn on a table saw while my balance isn't too good, that would really be dumb. Leone is working now at the museum and it will hurt to have her tell me about the people she met. Funny how a volunteer job can grab you as much as a paying one. Have a 7 hour chemo set up for next Wednesday hope it is the last long one for a while. Scan says we are making good progress whatever that means. No, I'm not depressed just kind of blue.

As a 9 year old kid in Elk City, OK in 1950, I met Tim Holt, Fuzzy Knight & Randolph Scott who were some of my favorite cowboy movie stars that made personal appearances at a local movie theatre. And, during our town's 50th. anniversary in 1951 I met & shook hands with Jess Willard who had been the Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World, 1915-1919. He lived in my hometown during the early days & helped lay the bricks that paved Broadway St. and are still there and "in use" now in 2006! Moving ahead several years and after I had moved to PA...my wife & I saw Richard M. Nixon as he arrived by helicopter and dined at the then-famous Bookbinder's Restaurant in Philadelphia one evening while we were eating dinner there also. Then later, during the mid-1970's, we saw "The Duke" John Wayne in New York City getting out of his limousine and greeting the gathering crowd at Rockefeller Center. Guess that's about it... LarryD

Thank you, Funnygirl, Red_lover, Outsideplaying, Daisychain, Annie and Peony for the kind words. Mom went into the hospital last night because she couldn’t breath. I think she was having another anxiety attack as she mentioned that they gave her a shot to calm her down, but I’m not sure because I couldn’t understand her well over the phone. Speaking of bottling up emotions…I’m very worried about my younger sister. She said that mom is just playing up her symptoms for attention. I don’t get that at forty nine she hasn’t let go of any of our shared early family life baggage. She has made it all so much a part of her everyday existence. While I do not agree with opening every single box of past doom to “heal” I think it’s manageable if you realize that you are not at all unique in struggling with past emotions. Past emotions are like little appendages that are always going to be with you. I think of mine as being in one toe (my little toe). That toe will get stubbed occasionally but you must keep moving on. Or, one could look at it like having the antibodies to measles. You will always have those antibodies just like millions of others. Some more than others will need to take steps in not walking around like one has an active case of measles and do what one needs to do to keep a good head. I know this is easier said than done though. My sister keeps everything bottled.

I'm not a dog whisperer, but that is very interesting. Did the dog act like this around your Dad before he was diagnosed? Has she always acted like this around him? If the answer to either of those questions is no, my guess is that she knows there is something going on with him. Dogs seem to know things that we humans don't. I've seen TV specials where they've shown dogs (and cats) that assist people with special type needs. I saw one about a pet that could predict epileptic seizures a few minutes before they hit the owner. The owner knew that when the pet acted a certain way, she needed to call for help, of if no one was available, position herself where she was unlikely to hurt herself during a seizure. It could be that the dog knows your Dad is ill, but that doesn't mean that she knows something you don't know and it doesn't mean that she knows your Dad is dying, if that's what you mean by knowing something that you don't know. Maybe she just knows something is wrong and does want to take care of him.