Skip to main content
After I dragged my bloated body into work, I realized that I haven't written in over ten days (that, and the gentle prodding of my old friend, Steve). Sorry. I know everyone has been waiting with baited breath for the next chapter of the Malchus saga to begin.

Julie's folks arrived in town on Wednesday night and we had a very low key Thanksgiving this year. It was a pleasant change of coarse from our usual holiday celebrations. As custom, we wind up at Budd and Karyn's with Karyn's family and 2000 other people in one house. I love having so many people around. Still, it was very peaceful to just hang with our small family. I know that Julie was excited to cook the Turkey and command the kitchen with her mom. We have never had Thanksgiving at our home, so I was excited, too.

I did something potentially stupid by purchasing a ticket for the April Springsteen show in Ananheim. We can't afford it, but it's Springsteen. I figure, if I don't go to Starbucks for the next 100 days, I will have saved the $100 it cost to buy the ticket. That's my logic and I'm sticking with it.

Jake's been having a real hard time with his breathers lately. He's really struggling with having to take the time to do them. He fights having to sit down and do them and calls them boring. In addition, he tries to end his vest treatment before the 14 minutes is up. Julie and I have reamined strong. It's hard, though. He gets so upset and sometime breaks into tears. You can see it in his expression that he just wants to be like other kids who get to sleep in to a reasonable hour and just eat, get dressed and go to school. God, how I wish his life could be that way, too.

Then I think of the thousands of other kids with CF who do not have the good health that Jake has. And I think about this 12 year old girl that Julie has been reading about who was so healthy one day then caught some nast virus and is waiting for new lungs. Last week, a new study published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that lung transplantation in children with cystic fibrosis does not increase survival for the majority of the children studied. You read something like that and your heart just stops.

How do you fight a monster that is able to sneak around your defenses and weaken you when you least expect it. I don't know. I only know that we have to keep up the treatments and we have to be dilegent. We have to do our job and parents to make sure that Jake is healthy no matter what.

One day at a time, you know? It's like, I don't see the light at the end of the tunnel anymore. I only see my feet being illuminated. That light is there, but I'm too busy to worry about if were going to make it because I can only do this one day at a time.

Sometimes I wish I were more spiritual. Sometimes I wish I could turn my heart over to God so freely like the millions of people you read about each day. What's stopping me? I don't know. Instead of relying on my faith, I sit around and worry, pulling my eyebrows out one hair at a time.

I'm so tired of this bullshit. It's not fair.

It's just not fair.

Aloha

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

MARATHON FOOTNOTES (for those who didn't think I would really footnote a stream of consciousness thought): Footnote #1 Academy Award Winning Best Picture Films from 1969 to the Present: Midnight Cowboy, Patton, The French Connection, The Godfather, The Sting, The Godfather II, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Rocky, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, Kramer Vs. Kramer, Ordinary People, Chariots of Fire, Gandhi, Terms of Endearment, Amadeus, Out of Africa, Platoon, The Last Emperor, Rain Man, Driving Miss Daisy, Dances With Wolves, The Silence of the Lambs, Unforgiven, Schindler’s List, Forrest Gump, Braveheart, The English Patient, Titanic, Shakespeare in Love, American Beauty, Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, Chicago, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Footnote #2 Members of the band YES, from 1969 to the present: In 1969, Yes is formed with Jon Anderson on vocals Peter Banks on guitar, Bill Bruford on drums, Tony Kaye on keyboards and Chris Squire playing bass. This group records...

100 and Counting: Introducing The Epic Playlist

It started as all playlists do, an occasion that justified music for entertainment. In this case, it was a couples weekend getaway back in February. Super Dave proposed that he and I provide the tunes and we started a Spotify playlist: three songs at a time, no song repeats, no artist repeats. Dave would add his three, then text me that it was my turn. I would then add my three text him back. This cycle repeated until three hundred songs were compiled, and we drove off to Mammoth with our wives. A funny thing happened, though, it turned out we both enjoyed the challenge of trying to surprise or outdo the other so much that we continued building the playlist. We made a new rule of just three songs each a day and still no artist repeats. Soon, we came up with amendments to allow duets (The Emmylou Exception), multiple songs by the same band if said band had multiple lead singers (The Beatles Exception), or if there was a lead singer replacement that changed the artistic direction of ...

A Trip Through the "My 90's Tapes" Collection Pt. 6: Joan Jett and The Blackhearts "Up Your Alley"

Column 1, Row 6: Joan Jett and The Blackhearts, Up Your Alley In 1988, hair metal was on the rise and straight forward rock and roll was losing radio airplay. If the music wasn't a little slick and the mix didn't sound like the record was recorded in a sports arena, there was little chance of getting heard. There were exceptions, of course (Tracy Chapman comes to mind), but for the most part, loud and echoey was the sound of the day. At that time, Joan Jett and her latest version of the Blackhearts had been together for a few years and were clicking. The band members were Ricky Byrd on lead guitar and vocals, Kasim Sulton on bass and vocals, and Thommy Price on drums. Jett was coming off of co-starring with Michael J. Fox in Paul Schrader's film, Light of Day . Although the film wasn't a hit, it was high profile enough to bring the rock legend back into the public eye after years working the road and trying to rebuild the success of her early 80s albums, including the s...