Bud Baker

Good morning, everyone! It was 42 degrees as I rode to work this morning. Forecast high is 79. Becky, I think that blog makes some good points. Breast cancer treatment may have improved a lot, but some of the chemo drugs used are still just awful. It's certainly not yet time to claim that the job is done. And it all too often seems that organizations that manage to turn themselves into fund raising juggernauts no longer do such a great job of using their funds. I was less than thrilled to read that the Deputy CEO of ACS makes $1,027,306 a year. What a bad tornado spring this has turned into, in spite of there not being many storms before April. I hope this is the last rash of really bad storms. Best wishes for great results from your scan, MI Judy. Have a great day, all!

Good points, y'all. I had planned on being one of those who moves on and never thinks about cancer again, but it's harder to do after you sit with other cancer patients in waiting rooms and chemo rooms, lose online friends to this disease, and realize how much more lung cancer survivor advocates are needed.

Congrats, MJB, great attitude and great information in your post! You are so right about keeping track of what has been done. The lack of communication between medical institutions and medical professionals is one of the biggest flaws in our health care system, I think. I learned it all too well during my wife's breast cancer treatment. My lung cancer treatment came from the VA, and that isn't a problem with them. Every single medical visit, right down to notes from the medical professional it was with, are kept on their computer system, and every medical professional you visit has instant access to it. I remember a CT scan I was having in June, 2008. I had had a preliminary hospitalization in November, 2007, lobectomy in December, and chemo from February to April, including a stay in the emergency room after a bad reaction to Taxotere. As I walked down the hall toward the scan room with the CT tech, he turned and said to me, "You've been through a LOT these last few months!" It occurred to me that it's a good thing when the medical professional you're seeing knows that, as well as knowing what all of it was for.

Good morning, everyone! It was 59 degrees as I rode to work this morning. Forecast high is 73. There were tornado warnings all over the place again yesterday evening, but it was all south and east of here, nothing close. It's sunny and cooler now, so maybe the storms are over for a bit. Yes, KW Judy and Bruce, my hand isn't keeping me from riding. It is keeping me from doing my twice a week core muscle exercises and my dumbbell work, though. I hope I can resume those before long. One of the nicest things about cycling is that it's low impact enough that you can still do it through lots of maladies. Becky, I'm glad to hear the mri results were good. KW Judy, I hope you feel better today. Have a great day, all!

Good morning, everyone! It was 57 degrees as I rode to work this morning. Forecast high is 83. Yesterday's ride home looked a little iffy when they started issuing tornado warnings for Glen Rose, which is 35 miles southwest of Crowley, about an hour before quitting time. But the storm passed just south of Crowley as I was riding toward Crowley from the north, and I never even felt a drop of rain. I'm still hopelessly behind here at work. I better get back after it. Have a great day, all!

Good morning, everyone! It was 71 degrees as I rode to work this morning. Back to the grind. Forecast high is 88. The last of last night's storms had just moved through when I left home this morning. The streets were still pretty wet. They're calling for storms again this evening. Hopefully, I'll make it home before they hit. My employer had always gotten pretty lucky when I was on vacation in the past, with not many machines breaking down while I was gone, but their luck ran out this time. The factory service people they brought in for three machines still haven't managed to get any of them running, and our own maintenance people scattered a machine that really didn't need to be scattered to be fixed. It's a preview of coming attractions for the company, a reminder of what will happen when I retire. Meanwhile, I better get back to work. Have a great day, all!

Good morning, everyone! It's 68 degrees here right now. Forecast high is 86. We got 60 mph winds during last night's storm, and have a chance for more storms today. I made another short fishing trip to Benbrook yesterday. The wind was blowing so hard that I figured I'd just stay close to home. I caught 7 keeping size crappie, but I've already kept enough crappie this week that I just released them. I managed to injure my left hand when I jammed it on the counter top yesterday. It's swollen to the point that a couple of knuckles have disappeared. I was going to do a club ride this morning, but just decided to stay home and rest today. Glad you're starting to feel better, KW Judy. Happy Easter, everyone!

Welcome, Sara, but sorry you need to be here. Annette is right; there are lots of great people here, with a wide range of experiences. I'll look forward to hearing more from you.

Good afternoon, everyone! It was 69 degrees when I got up this morning. It's 90 degrees now, still a full two months away from the first day of summer......LOL. Rose and I caught a nice mess of crappie at Cedar Creek Wednesday. When I found out the wind wouldn't be bad yesterday, I made a close to home fishing trip to Lake Benbrook. I brought home 5 nice crappie from there. This morning, I got up, hopped on my bike, and rode. I just finished up my ride, ending up with 92 miles. I've done so few longer rides lately that I'm feeling pretty wiped out from today's ride. Of course, the 30 mph wind didn't make the ride any easier. I hope you're feeling better by now, KW Judy. I think I'm going to take a shower, then vegetate in front of the TV for a while. Have a great day, all!

Thanks for the update, Marisa, so very nice to hear from you.

Condolences, Lisa. I'm very sorry to read this.

Nice story, Becky. I'll bet he's still smiling.

What a cutie!

Very interesting. Thanks for posting, Ronnie.

Great photos, Eric!

Welcome, Jaques, great story! Congrats on remaining cancer free.

Good morning, everyone! It's 73 degrees here this morning, with the wind howling like it has been every day lately. Forecast high is 96. We've hit 100 degrees before in April, and won't be far from it today. I went to Lake Fork yesterday. I caught a few bass, but bed fishing wasn't great because it was so dark and windy, not what was forecast at all. Yes, we missed the last storms, they passed just north of us. But it was the cold front behind them that blew down my fence on Friday. They're saying there were over 260 tornadoes across the country from that system. That's more than the entire country usually gets in April. And the next system is headed our way tonight. We have a chance of storms, but it sounds like the worst will be north and east of us again. I may just stay home and rest today. Rose and I are supposed to go crappie fishing at Cedar Creek Lake tomorrow, then have dinner with friends in that area. I hope your chemo effects wear off soon, KW Judy. Hang in there, Annette. Have a great day, all!

Congrats on NED, Kasey!

Good afternoon, everyone! It was 51 degrees as I rode to........................oh wait, I didn't ride anywhere this morning. It's 84 degrees now with a south wind gusting to 30 mph. This has been some kind of windy spring. Here are my "having a great time, wish you were here" vacation photos. Here I am in front of the fence I built. I put the fence posts up yesterday and attached the fence sections this morning. Here's the composter I assembled and installed yesterday. And here's the garden Rose and I put in this morning. I'm thinking I need to go back to work to get some rest.

Good morning, everyone! It's 37 degrees outside this morning. Forecast high is 77. Glad you're feeling better, KW Judy. I hope the Taxotere doesn't get you down too much. And glad to hear your cold is gone, MI Judy. Yesterday was supposed to be windy here, but not as windy as it got. It was gusting to 50 mph as I rode home from work, to surpass Katie's "little windy" day and become the windiest day I've bike commuted on. Fortunately, it was blowing from the west northwest, a quartering tailwind that let me keep the bike upright, although there were interesting moments here and there. The worst part was the blowing dust. I haven't seen it get that dusty here in a long time. My lung leftovers really don't like that kind of dust in the air, especially while I'm huffing and puffing on a bike. And the wind changed my vacation plans. Instead of spending today on Lake Fork, casting lures to bedding bass, I get to spend the day rebuilding my fence that the wind blew down. It's a six foot wooden privacy fence, and I'll be replacing the broken wood fence posts with steel ones, so it shouldn't come down again. Have a great day, all!

Wow, KW Judy, over 8 pounds of fluid! I hope getting it drained makes you feel a whole lot better, and I'm thinking it will. That's exactly right. We're going to do the Square Foot Gardening thing, and it calls for 1/3 vermiculite in the raised box. And vermiculite is getting harder to find because of its connection to, of all things, lung cancer. Does anyone remember the Libby vermiculite mine fiasco? The vermiculite from that mine had asbestos in it. I don't think vermiculite from anywhere else has had asbestos, but it scared all the big chain stores like Lowe's and Home Depot, and they don't carry it any more. But the feed store right here in Crowley had it, so I didn't have to go far to get some. We're still deciding what we'll plant, MI Judy.

Great photos, Ronnie! Thanks for posting them.

Welcome, Robert. Great story! I hope we'll be hearing lots more from you.

Good morning, everyone! It was 66 degrees as I rode to work this morning. Forecast high is 86. We're supposed to be in for storms this evening, just ahead of a cold front. This week is dragging for me. A sure way to make a work week drag is to have vacation days off scheduled for the following week. My scavenger hunt assignment for today after work is to find some vermiculite. What would I be doing with that? I hope things are going fine at the hospital, KW Judy. Give us an update when you can. Have a great day, all!

Good morning, everyone! It was 53 degrees as I rode to work this morning. Forecast high is 83. I had sat down at my desk a little before break time this morning, got started reading about raised gardening, and break time was gone before it dawned on me that I hadn't made it here yet. So, I'm posting on my lunch break today. KW Judy, I always reduce any photos I post here, so they'll be small enough to fit on anyone's screen, no matter what resolution they're using, and take up less space on photobucket, but in this case it was just too good a photo of you two; I couldn't bring myself to reduce it. I sounds like Wendy is doing a great job of looking out for you. Just don't make us wait too long for an update. When I had my surgery, the VA hospital where I stayed had a locker that I was able to put my laptop in while I was unable to look out for it. Rose hung onto the locker key until I was recovered enough to want the laptop in front of me again. Best wishes for a short and successful hospital stay, KW Judy! Have a great day, all!