Medical Update,Black Friday doings and other stuff

Its 12:43 pm

    The big news? I didn't win the Powerball lottery....I did however pick ONE number and that is reason enough to celebrate as I normally don't even get one right!
Its been a while since I wrote and when I checked my other writers,lo and behold Aaron Childs aka Scorpion,has resumed writing. He hadn't dropped anything new in 8-9 months and quite honestly I thought he had quit writing or had a massive case of writer's block. Just very happy he is back and I'm going to relist his blog on my front page. If you like a good all around interactive read,then Aaron is the blogger you want to check out!

  3rd week of chemo is this week...first we'll be doing labs on Monday,then our regularly scheduled visit with Dr. Johnston...in which she'll schedule a MRI or CT scan for Lori's fistula. Hopefully this will happen before the first of the year before our deductible will kick back in on 1 Jan 2013. Be nice to have this covered but it really doesn't matter does it,it has to get done,one way or another. One can't live a quality life with a chronic condition like that.
 Lori has lost about 95% of her hair...still looks sexy as hell however..I hold her very close at night and pray very hard for the both of us. We're half-way home and we're hoping Dr. J will see a clear sign of the current tumor being destroyed by the chemo. She said it would happen by the 3rd treatment and so here we are at the 3rd treatment.
  Thanksgiving was pretty mellow...we cooked a small Butterball turkey breast and had all the sides. As I was cleaning up the dishes and putting away the leftovers,I went outside to dump the trash,it was cold and started to rain a bit,a perfect ending to a nice quiet day.



 So needless to say I was surprised when I came back in and was told we were picking up Marlene our neighbor and making a mad Black Friday dash to flippin Walmart of all places!! Really?? Walmart? On Black Friday??



Oh my stars and garters...against my better judgement I saddled up and we headed down to a local store about 3 miles from us. The doorbusters were at 8 pm,10 pm and midnight. Marlene wanted a TV for her son's basement and I decided to get Lori a iPad 2 for Christmas.


Quite honestly,while I'm sure Suze Orman may not have approved my choice,its been years since I have been able to get my  wife a "wow" gift for Christmas. I really wanted to do that this year and I had in fact decided to give her a iPad 2 but didn't expect to braving the Black Friday crowds to get one.
  The parking lot was packed but we got a good parking spot and headed in....there were no lines and while the checkout lines were full,it was quiet. We saw long lines curled around balloons with different door busters being offered. The TVs were being handed out in the produce section






Lori and Marlene headed over there while I went to sporting goods to stand in the iPad line....except there was no line! They gave us a card and said we could be rung up at 10 pm. We then were to register at the Walmart website for the iPad 2 by Sunday in order to get it by Christmas. Made perfect sense to me and I took my card and wheeled to my right and headed to produce.




Now where as my line was no line,the TV line was huge! It snaked around at least 5 food lanes when we landed and it was still growing. I kept a sharp eye on Lori and at the first sign of distress,we're gone. But she was a real trooper and seemed to really enjoy herself. Can't say I blame her because this Walmart was doing everything right....opened doors early,staggered the deals and had plenty of product. The crowd was very peaceful and in the 3 hours we were there...one hour to wait,2 hours to check-out...we didn't see a single nasty incident.
  The three of us had a blast...we loaded our stuff on a cart and when the young couple behind had trouble carrying their stuff,we loaded it on our cart as well. The check-out line was the real test,it snaked almost throughout the entire store!
  Lori sent me to look at the door buster deals in the DVD section...I tried but it was so trashed,I had no idea what on sale or not. As I made my way back through,I noticed a senior man who was trying to hang there as he made his way through the line. He even brought in his own chair but you could see he was running out of steam.
  He was about 25 spots behind us..we started looking for help,I asked a young worker if he had a radio and if he could call a manager...he tried but with no radio,he was pretty handcuffed. He did manage to bring the man a bottled water but with at least a hour plus wait to go....a single bottle of water wasn't going to cut it.





Marlene found a manager with a radio and sent him down the line...I explained the situation and while the senior said he didn't want to hassle anyone (which we assured him wasn't the case) he was having a hard time. The manager was sort of frozen when a store manager came over and in 10 seconds had the the senior gentleman being escorted to the FRONT of the line!!! It was fucking outstanding to say the least...but when the woman behind the man said "really?" to the fact he was being helped,the crowd around her said "yeah,really". It was just one of those feel good to "pass it forward" moments that we all should try and strive for more often...
  The iPad 2 was a great deal...399.00 plus taxes pushed it to 422.00. Quite a bit over the 150.00 limit we had for each other but we also got a 75.00 gift card from Walmart which was the big hook that made it so great to get.
  It was my first Black Friday as a shopper and based on what we went through,it was pretty worth it. The employees were all very kind and helpful and seemed very happy to be there...I didn't hear anyone bitch about anything.

So the San Jose State Spartans finished up 10-2 this year! After watching the BYU game being so exciting,ESPN picked up the La. Tech game as well for the following Saturday. And once again,there I was at 10:30 pm at night watching the Spartans battle the nation's highest scoring team in college football.



The game was being pushed as a high scoring affair and while it was indeed that...San Jose State proved why they were a much better team because they have a DEFENSE! And while the score 52-43 for SJSU,the defense showed up at several critical moments including Bene Benwikere's 3 INTs that stopped Tech dead in their tracks.




^ Bene Benwikere

With the win,SJS finished 2nd in the WAC at 5-1 and 10-2 overall including wins over Navy,San Diego State and La. Tech. They are 25th in BCS standings and have indeed landed a berth in the Military Bowl where college football guru Phil Steele had seen them that....but as this entry,we still don't who we're beating.
 

 I finished reading my Clive Cussler novel called "The Wrecker" which I found rather good. Seeing an established "name" who teams up with another good writer to co-write a novel seems to be the "in"thing these days,see James Patterson for what I'm talking about.
 I think its a good idea but you better get it right the first time otherwise fans will get jaded and put off as their favorite writer's names are just being used to push bad books.
In this case,Cussler struck gold with his latest character,Issac Bell,and his co-writer,Justin Scott.



Alright,that is all I got....many thanks to those who keep on reading this blog....from the bottom of my heart,I thank you.