Friday, March 28, 2008

off to California....




Yesterday, hail, sleet, rain, snow, lightening and thunder; today 50 degrees F. and sunny. Aspects of spring, robins, maples and the poplar sprouting buds, it seems the shift is on...as the world turns.

I'm doing a quick trip to see my kids and grandkids in California. With work-buddy Julie, we fly out of Moline April 7, via Denver, to Oakland, and return on April 14...a quickie. A northern California trip, no time or money to see Rachel and the family in Santa Paula, maybe another trip in the works--longer--in October. So this one is about family, San Francisco, the beach (Julie has never flown in an airplane or seen an ocean), good food, with an eye ~maybe~ to looking for potentials places I might alight in some future life. I've never been much of a fan of northern California, spoiled by the Santa Barbara tenure. All of California an expensive proposition, that's for sure! "Famous Artist" might pay the bill, but not working at Lowe's. So, the trip is on my mind.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

l-o-n-g winter (and still smoking!)



oh please come soon springtime!




Lauren finally got the results of her thyroid biopsy--initially, from her doctor, it was "inclusive"; so the specimen was sent out to Stanford Medical Center, and two weeks later came back as "negative", good news!

I'm still smoking! Still taking Chantix; one day it may click, come together, with some effort from me.

A cold, long winter, most of it twenty degrees below normal, lots of snow(!), the Rock River--under ice--swelling over it's banks; the I-280, the commuter freeway I take to and from work everyday, has been closed twice due to flooding. I ordered a couple of bareroot roses from Jung Seed online--a white, fragrant rugosa called "Blanc Double De Courbet", one of them, and another, a super hardy Buck's shrub rose called "Prairie Sunrise". Simple plans for a better garden this year, a new strip for perennials, annuals, tomatoes, baby watermelons, etc., sunnier than the garden beside the garage. There's an abiding inner-conflict about planting things here, mostly despised by Jim, and my sense of needing to move on, elsewhere, back to California, maybe to New Mexico, or Arkansas. An orchard-fruit and nut trees, elsewhere perhaps, someday; somethings, walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, fecund beyond my lifetime...it causes some thought! Like--if pecans takes 10-20 years to make nuts, do I want to plant them, and maybe I should have done that ten years ago?

Phobic longtime distant buddy Jesse Gayer, Wilmington, California, emailed yesterday to "go to hell," over my having sent him an email to support Hillary Clinton's campaign. He supports Obama. This is not so much about political differences as it is about Jesse's sense of control, an almost meglamanical aspect to his personality--it isolates him from all but his family and a sort of one-mindess to them. I put Jesse on the "spam" list to thwart more emails and guess that's enough of him. He was never a good friend in any sense, exclusive, conditional, gay and in a very odd and protracted denial. But...like the deaths of old, people I know disappear, Walt vanished into unfathomable nothingness, Sal parts company, Ron, long gone, Roy dead, and more...I find myself more isolated, incommunicado, narrow and alone (especially living with Jim) and lonely. No major regrets with parting company with Jesse, but I do so little to cultivate friendships and new champions are not on the horizon. Work-busy helps, maybe painting or hiking would, too, but I tend to stay in, not wander, or connect with women not men. 65 at my next birthday, a daunting task to make friends.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

....and STILL smoking...



Big, nasty snow most of the week with 9 inches on the ground...


I don't even make an effort to stop smoking; up early in the morning, I light a cigarette within two or three minutes of getting out of bed. Some news-blog wrote to me today and wants to use my "smoking" photo at Flickr to illustrate an article on a February 1, 2008 warning from the FDA that taking Chantix may increase the risk of suicide, and, for some, causes depression. For me, the problem is nausea; I continue to take Chantix but my hope is to only take it long enough to quit smoking, then dump the Rx.

Lauren went through thyroid surgery without complications; she's home, recovering. Doctors at the surgery said the mass they removed looked benign but apparently biopsies will come back later...she has an appointment with her doctor on Monday. I talked with her tonight and she sounded pretty good...

To work tomorrow at 1pm.

Friday, February 1, 2008

STILL SMOKING while I take the no-smoke Rx


The first day of February! I'm still smoking--regrettingly. Gernerally calmer the last few days or a week or more, but today, off from work, smoking all day, I'm antsy, ready to climb the walls. There's some strong relationship to the angst and smoking; the more I smoke the more anxious I become.

Lauren will go in for thyroid surgery February 5th., a small lump on one side of her thyroid--doctors have been watching it--and the opinion now is they will remove one side of her thyroid. My hope is it's not cancerous. I worry.

A trip half-assed planned to visit Matt and Lauren in California in early March has been re-scheduled for early April, a week or so.

I planted some hyacinth bulbs today in pot (3) and one in the glass jar. Expectations of spring fragrance before long.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

STILL smoking! "Fa freddo oggi!"



Handsome fucker freezing to death


Some vacation time has come my way, five days, "use 'em or loose 'em," Lowe's said. Now, about me, time on my hands, sublime deep-freeze, minus temperatures over night, into the morning hours, highs for the day in the teens, that's cold; one of my "voices" yelling to me, "fa freddo oggi, stupido!" as I trudged, bundled up, outdoors, cracking through snow banks to escape the "cabin" lock-up.

Smoking less, but not stopped: cessation is coming, I feel it in my bones. How about making a painting or two with all that free time?

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

OH, STUPID...JUST STOP SMOKING!


I'm taking Chantix, an Rx to quit smoking. I hate smoking! It's essentially about addiction and habit, conditioning. I spend more each day to smoke than I do to eat (usually); to continue is an inevitible invitation to stroke, heart diesease, cancer, or early death; people I have known have died from smoking with heart diesease and lung cancer; no one I know and like smokes any more...I'm like the last one lighting up; my life is "quiet despearation" whether I smoke or not~smoking does nothing for me, it doesn't calm me down, it doesn't bring pleasure or make me "cool"; I smell like an ashtray! I must stop! I know some really stupid people who don't smoke and I'm very smart! What I spend each year on cigarettes could pay for round trip air fair and four weeks in Europe each year!

For a while, I'll monitor my path to quitting cigarettes here...

Monday, January 7, 2008

the NEW YEAR begins...



the sky this evening about 4pm


A week into 2008. I've decided to stop smoking again, Chantix, again. Chantix makes me feel mildly ill. This week, loyal to Chantix, I think I've had a bout with flu, too, fever, chills, nausea, headache, today diarrhea, I've missed some work, parts of days. Today should have been my last day of smoking...it wasn't! Tomorrow, or tomorrow after that, or a tribute to my deceased friend Roy Spoon, his birthday, Janaury 9th, maybe a good day to stop smoking forever.