Please excuse my absence last week. I got some very good news and couldn't handle it.
I'm kidding, sort of. I celebrated the good news with friends. Salsa and margaritas were enjoyed. Deadlines were missed.
But I have to admit, the news did catch me off guard. It hadn't been a good week.
I don't expect bad news generally. But I've had a lot of it in the last year and my reflex now is to roll in anticipation. Easier to roll with it when you're leaning the right way.
Last week I had my four month PET scan. It was my seventh trip into the tube after my seventh radiation injection with isolation in a dark room. It's not the most pleasant experience. Unfortunately, it's the only way to really know what and where cancer is.
So Wednesday when the results looked much better than the previous two scan results I nearly fell on my face. I didn't think it'd be bad, but didn't think it'd be so good, either.
I caught my balance and gave thanks instead.
Thanks for the good news. For a sign the poison that took the eyelashes and the rest of my hair is doing something right. For reassurance my hands and feet aren't numb for nothing.
Thanks for the pockets of light, the people and things, who have sustained me and offered refuge. Small blessings go a long way in a storm.
Thanks for the professionals who continue fighting with me and for me.
There's plenty more for me to give thanks for. I promise I have. But while I have your attention, I'd like to suggest each of you stop reading right now and give thanks for something.
Your eyelashes.
One does not realize how many things go straight to the eyeball if they don't have Brazilian waxed eyelids. If it's in the air, it's in your eyes without eyelashes. We wouldn't have vision without eyelashes because we'd be constantly rubbing our eyes.
Try as I might, I've never been able to see with fingers in my eyes.
While you're thankful for those eyelashes, might want to pray a few more get the fingers out of their eyes before democracy in this country disappears. The oval office fraud is doing his best to rig the midterms. If that happens, it really will be over for this country.
Who'd have thought an American president would so openly and brazenly work to disrupt elections and stifle democracy with the full endorsement and support of his party. What do you do with so many elected officials who have sworn to uphold the constitution but refuse to?
Gas in Pikeville this evening was $4.20 a gallon. Before Commander Bonespurs and the Secretary of Warpaint started a war with Iran without a plan, gas was under $3.00 a gallon. Everything is more expensive and a trade war with Canada for reasons only an insane person could understand will make everything even more expensive.
If it wasn't for last week's good news, I'd be feeling pretty bad about the looks of things.