Weekend post

Well, it is the weekend and I am going to chill a bunch. I have been suffering the last 2-3 days with "shingles". This causes lots of blisters on one side of your body, lots of itching / burning / pain. It is caused by left over virus from chickenpox from YEARS ago that has been sitting dormant in an area of your spine. It becomes active from any number of medical problems ... i.e. - flu, etc. Mine was caused by a bite from a Black Widow spider. I have been hit by Black Widows several times in my life, electricians are always running across them in the desert. I have 'somewhat' of a tolerance for their venom after many treatments for their bites. Didn't kill me or anything, but it did activate the dormant virus from chickenpox from decades ago. I am really bothered by this more than other odd occurances that have come my way because there is basically nothing that can alliviate the pain, itching, et al. But my problems are minor.

My mom has been diagnosed with cancer again ... this time in her lung (she has had two masectomies ..[sp]). She is going in for the biopsy next Wednesday. She says that she is uncertain that she will accept chemo-therapy again. There are so many health risks from it at her age that she is fairly certain that she would rather die of cancer than pneumonia or some other complication from chemo.

Now that the depressing news is out of the way ... my brother Steve in Danville is fairly certain of getting a great job (that will send him to Poland for a few months). It pays really well, (for Danville), and he and his lady have both been laid off for some time due to the closure of Dan River Mills. I wish him tons of luck.

We here in the desert southwest are enjoying daily temperatures in the high 90's but have stayed away from triple digits for several days.

Hilda and I watched "Happy Feet" last evening. It was a cute movie. I took her home about 2000... I didn't want her sleeping with me as she has never had Chickenpox, and I can give it to people right now. I am really burning and itching right now but I hope it gets better during the day.

I am perusing the TV magazine (comes with the Sunday paper) for something interesting on the tube today, I don't feel like going anywhere. I had a fitful night of sleep last night because of the itching/pain. I got up and felt like writing poetry for the first time in a long time. I actually filled up a couple of sheets of legal paper with various words, phrases, poems etc. So, perhaps something good will come of my malady.

Our weather here is typical Tucson .... lows in the hi 60s low 70s and highs in the mid to high 90s. I wish that I felt like going out and enjoying it more. But ... it'll be warm until November or so.

I hope that everyone out there is having fun in their life and getting and giving love.
PEACE

Monday 5-14

Well, it's the day after Mother's Day and I hope all the mothers had a great day.

We, here in the desert of Tucson, had temperatures of 101 on Saturday and 103 but it has cooled down to 97-98 today. Practically frigid.

Work has kept me pretty busy the last week or so, trying to invent a data retrieval system to take care of all the info on our varied machines, bill acceptors, coin mechinisms, fluorescent tubes, et al. that Perry (the owner) has been carrying around in his head ... (and sometimes forgets or changes).

I had a "down" day on Sunday (sort of). Hilda spent the day with her daughter and mother. I had to work a little .... on one of the company trucks that we are readying for use. I talked to my mom on the phone a couple of times and will try to get down to see her in a week. Other than that, I watched the tube, shampooed the carpet, did some work on the computer and over ate and over drank ... enjoyed every bit of it.

I answered an interesting e-mail from India about my choices for the best 10 "voices" in rock and roll over the last 30-40 years. It is purely my choice, and the other party had their choices and we discussed our choices. We did have a lot of the same people on our mutual lists. My choices (in no particular order) were:
Ray Charles
David Clayton Thomas
Michael McDonald
Neil Diamond
Laura Nyro
Don Henley
Glenn Frey
Linda Ronstadt
Juice Newton
Jay Black (nee David Blatt)

There were many things that I thought about when I made my list, but the "voices" had to be the factor. It was very hard narrowing it to only 10. We had more discussions about best writers, best groups, favorite groups and or singers. It was a great series of chats.

Well, gotta' go and shower and eat.

have a great day/week.

LFTD

Ah-h-h, the desert

Well, my friends, Spring is here to Tucson. Now the snowbirds will disappear and only us desert rats will be around. Love it!

1st weekend of May

For the second weekend in a row, we've been able to chill at a picnic on Sunday. This weekend, it was the American Legion Post 36 picnic at Freedom Park. Very good day for it, although the wind was a bit chilly at times. Hilda and I both needed the "crash" time. Drank some beer, ate some chow, talked with some folks and people watched. Yesterday Tucson was in overdrive. The HOG Rally (Harley Owners Group) downtown with thousands of bikers present. Also the annual Tucson Folk Festival, with music on 5 stages, at Presido Park. A great (and large ... over 400 cars) classic and hot rod car show on 4th Avenue. A car show at AVA Amphitheater (Casino del Sol ). A Cinco de Mayo Festival at Kennedy Park. I am still tired and my knees are spent. So much for relaxing on the weekends I guess.
I am downloading pictures tonight and trying to make some CDs for the Legion and also one for the Legion Riders. I will post pictures of the car show and the picnic tomorrow on this little BLOG.
I hope everyone had a great weekend and has a better week this week. Ms Hilda sends her love to you all.
PEACE