gerbil runner

Bess, wow, you need some dry weather and sunshine! Prayers going out for you and your husband.

What a wondeful photo - no wonder you love him so!

Dean - you enrich so many of our lives with your writings. Never feel you aren't "contributing" or "doing" anything with your life. I, for one, (and I bet others including your daughter) would LOVE to see a collection of stuff you've written. Some of your posts make beautiful essays. About the scooter thing - I've noticed the ads on TV for "The Scooter Store" feature very healthy, happy looking people. Slim, strong, rosy-cheeked. No other medical supplies in sight. Somehow I think stuff like that puts the idea in some minds that the scooter is more of a luxury item than a necessity.

NEW WORDS FOR 2004 - Essential additions for the workplace >> >>Vocabulary: >> >>BLAMESTORMING: Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was >>missed or a project failed, and who was responsible. >> >>SEAGULL MANAGER: A manager, who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on >>everything, and then leaves. >> >>ASSMOSIS: The process by which some people seem to absorb success and >>advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard. >> >>SALMON DAY: The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream >only >>to get screwed and die in the end. >> >>CUBE FARM: An office filled with cubicles. >> >>PRAIRIE DOGGING: When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube >>farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on. >> >>MOUSE POTATO: The on-line, wired generation's answer to the couch potato. >> >>SITCOMS: Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What yuppies >turn >>into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home >with >>the kids. >> >>STRESS PUPPY: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and >>whiney. >> >>SWIPEOUT: An ATM or credit card that has been rendered useless because the >>magnetic strip is worn away from extensive use. >> >>XEROX SUBSIDY: Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from one's >>workplace. >> >>IRRITAINMENT: Entertainment and media spectacles that are annoying but you >>find yourself unable to stop watching them. The O.J. trials and Michael >>Jackson's affairs are examples. >> >>PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE: The fine art of whacking the crap out of an >>electronic device to get it to work again. >> >>ADMINISPHERE: The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the >>rank and file Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often >>profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed >to >>solve. >> >>404: Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error message "404 >Not >>Found," meaning that the requested document could not be located. >> >>GENERICA: Features of the American landscape that are exactly the same no >>matter where one is, such as fast food joints, strip malls, etc. >> >>OHNOSECOND: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize you've >just >>made a BIG mistake. >> >>WOOFYS: Well Off Older Folks. >> >>CROP DUSTING: Surreptitiously passing gas while passing thru a cube farm, >>then enjoying the sounds of dismay and disgust. >>

Oh, Peg, sorry the news is not good. Prayers going out for you and Bill.

This must be so scary and stressful for you. Good thing Jack got to the hospital. Heart disease is very treatable. Hopefully Jack will be fine.

Becky, Becky, Becky.... OK, I did laugh!

Glad to hear you're doing better! Enjoy!

Glad Guido is doing well. I'm a big pet fan myself, so I understand the concern!

Glad Guido is doing well. I'm a big pet fan myself, so I understand the concern!

Denise - wishing your mom great scans for her birthday!

Andrea - just wanted you to know I'm praying you're mom is doing well.

My mom still gets short of breath climbing the stairs, even though her tumor is "gone", and the procrit is keeping her counts reasonable. Try not to worry too much about it. Hope all goes well.

Sounds like a good time for a break. Here's to a great scan!

I have no idea how I'm doing, since JJ has turned my scale onto KG settings and I can't figure out how to get it back. Can't be good, though. Took 3 weeks off from running - 2 weeks for a cold, one for laziness. Ate everthing that wasn't nailed down. Remember the days of reckless youth, getting badly hung over, how whatever caused it would make you retch just to smell it afterwards? I can fully attest it won't work for chocolate.

Shelly, I'll be praying for you and your dad. Hang in there.

Ick. Gives new meaning to "There's always room for one more". Hope the chemo evicts ALL the unwanted guests!

Mo - prayers for vaporized c-cells and for you to feel great.

Kate: Tell your dad that my mom was in ICU on a ventilator for 4 days due to bleeding from a bronchoscopy. That was back in November. As you can imagine, she was very weak at first - she'd been hospitalized for over a week before this happened. You'd be amazed how fast it is possible to regain strength - if you eat. And work at it. Mom had another setback at Christmas - staph infection and chemo reaction. But Sunday, she attended my 12-year-old's Jr. Allstate band concert, and today will visit to celebrate my 4-year-old's birthday. She's not 100%, even though the disease is under control. Tired. But she's proven a lot tougher than some of the doctors thought. Unless the dr. has a crystal ball we don't know about, he can't predict how your dad will fare with more/different chemo. Determination, I believe, has a lot to do with how well a person recovers from a setback. Keep fighting.

39% Yankee. Some of my pronunciation comes from my dad's Midwestern influence

Forgiveness? Boy oh boy, that IS tough. I left my first husband - father of my oldest son - 12 years ago. I think I've finally managed to forgive him for the things that happened during our mariage and divorce. But I seem to have a lot of trouble being tolerant of his current shortcomings. Seems I get lots of practice on the forgiveness thing with him. Not getting any easier. Part of forgiveness is accepting the limitations of the person you need to forgive. In many cases, that person is doing their best. “We pardon to the extent that we love” - Francois, Duc de la Rochefoucauld Don - thanks for the book recommendation. Must get that one.

Thinking of you while you go through that special he11 called "waiting".

Glad you're back and doing well. Hope those nasty little c-cells are doing all the suffering .

Dan, I'm so glad you have felt you could share your private thoughts here. How beautifully written. I hope you won't take offense in my thoughts on this. I believe whatever truth is contained in sacred writings concerning Heaven, Hell, and the creation of earth and humanity have to be non-specific. Can you picture giving primitive man a discourse on physics? I also believe that if our "scientific" knowledge continues to advance, we may someday "find" God in a way science will accept. Just because we currently lack the science to explain God and Heaven doesn't preclude its existence, any more than x-rays failed to exist before the Curies. There are many forces, abilities, and creatures we have only recently come to understand in the course of human history. They existed before we understood them. I must admit, this concept seems very simple and basic to me in part because I had several precognitive dreams as a child (please don't laugh). None of them were about anything really important - the best example was dreaming about a house with red-and-black shag carpet. Some time later, we were helping my aunt move into her new house. While sitting on a packing box, I noticed red-and-black shag carpeting on the stairs. For a moment, I wondered where I'd seen it before. Then I suddenly said "I've been here before". The family looked at me like I was nuts (I was about 8 at the time). They explained I had never seen the house before. I told them I had dreamed about it, and then told them the layout of the entire house from where I sat, including details such as the colors in the bathroom, which bedroom would be given to each child, and where the washer and dryer were going in the basement. Creepy, in a way. And not at all useful. And I have no idea how or why it happened. But it did. And because I have personally experienced something science claims does not exist, I have no problems with faith in God despite lack of "evidence". I consider myself Christian, but am probably more liberal about my faith than most. Dan, I hope you do not despair. You have good company here, and I hope you write more, and often.

I love these!