Above It All

Mike on the roof

Mike fixed the gutters, trimmed back the tree, etc. etc.

John's Chair

Lizzie Loves Mary

I shot this of Mary 40 years ago!

Me and my new best friend at Kaiser. Note the sign: "high profile vehicles only"

The boys (and one girl) have been here and gone. It was hectic but wonderful

First re Hugh: He asked the RO (radiation oncologist) for methadone.

Well, he kinda demanded it. So marijuana IS a gateway drug just like Mirandi said!

Seriously, he's a typical head and neck radiation victim:
Hurts to swallow ANYTHING.
Zero saliva.
No sense of taste.
He'd lost 17 pounds, and he's never been fat, and he didn't want to get a feeding tube. I put peaches and cream in the blender. Didn't work. (Also put spinach and mashed potatoes and sour cream in the blender after Hugh couldn't manage it whole: It's one of the things Hugh loved, that his mom used to make, though NOT with a blender). He couldn't eat any of it. But now, with the drug, he's managing 7 Ensures a day and drinking almost enough water. Fiji Water actually tastes okay to him. None of the others do. He's gaining weight. And he's able to drink Dr. Han's tea again, which I hope will help with all the awful after-effects of treatment I've been reading about.

A side effect of the drug is that I do all the driving now, and because the driveway was filled with tools while Hugh and Mike repaired the roof, I've been driving Hugh's van, which was accessible -- parked, as it was, on the street.

This Chevy Astro van is just HUGE, the tallest thing on the street, and I LOVE it. There's no rear view, because it's a closed van, filled with tools, but Hugh's got a tv screen in the rearview mirror which shows you a wide-angle view of what's behind you (when you're in reverse), day or night, and it beeps in a pattern to tell you how close you're getting to anything. The side mirrors are bigger than my head. The windshield, and the driver and passenger windows are gigantic. I drove way out to pick up asphalt roofing shingles one morning, with the windows rolled down, and it was heavenly: I was like a tourist in L.A. There's so much to see from up there! Crenshaw!

I realize something about my personality with this vehicle: Being short, small, and female, how I act is based a lot on a perception that everything will be gone by the time I get there (if you know what I mean). So I'm pushy and impatient & tend to force my way through crowds. Now, noblesse oblige, man. I'm the most gracious driver on the road. I look down benignly on all the little people and wish them well. I wave other drivers past me a lot.

As for the roof: Mike (the genius carpenter) had a stroke a while back and is blind in one eye, and he's kinda creaky. Hugh's creaky, likewise, and his vision isn't great and neither is his hearing. And he says Mike is a "low talker" (see "Seinfeld"). But with Mike on the roof and Hugh on the ground or on the ladder, they did a spectacular job and even put a skylight in the foyer.  Hugh and Mike made a couple of window frames for John to take back to Petaluma.  John produced and directed the whole production.  (Sheri, John's wife and an old friend, sent slippers and a soft blue blankie which Hugh wraps himself in when he sleeps and naps, and she called daily.  I think I've said that Sheri is a hospice nurse. She advised Hugh about nausea.  She was the one who told Hugh to how to ask for the Methadone).

Then, one night, Mary Manley (whom we all know from the olden days at Synanon) came over. Her father was the house dentist back then; he brought his kids in. Mary bonded with Lizzie the ferret. I've never seen Lizzie so impressed by anyone. And we gossiped about times and people long past. And it was incredibly sweet.

Only a few more weeks of treatment left. I've just started working on the next release from my label, a concert in Stuttgart (sample). The music is just beautiful. It makes me happy all day long. I've organized the tracks. Now I've gotta write the liner note and find some good photos.