300 posts so time to start a fresh one.

Post your highs and lows, let us be happy for you for the good things and to support you when life isn't so good.

Well today, Dad is going for a CAT scan and a biopsy, to find out where the cancer is coming from, to determain which treatment is going to be used. Not exactly either a lowlight or highlight.

Hopefully they can then start meaningful treatment.

Not sure if mine is a high or low either, I woke at 3am with an acute pain in an unmentionable area. Without going into detail, a few hours later I passed a kidney stone! High would be that I didn't suffer anywhere near as much as I have in the past when passing the wretched things, the low would be that there is some action in that area when I have had comparitive peace since December. For the record, it was 5mm x 3mm x 2mm.

Roll on my treatment.

Ouch!, Sue . I must say I've never had the "pleasure" of passing anything of that stature. Yep, it's time to get you fixed up.

And, Jane, good luck to you! Find out where it is, zap it (or whatever) and your Dad will have a better shot at full recovery. Fingers crossed.

I actually DO have a high point this morning [imagine that? ]. I couldn't go to my friend's funeral and was waiting to hear how it all went. I didn't want to push it since I figured they needed to regroup, ease back into things, etc. so I waited and got some details. I loved hearing that the pastor spoke of Mike's completely off-the-wall taste in humor AND his eclectic, if not altogether bizarre, preferences in music. I also liked that SBC (that's a US phone company where Michael worked for half his life) closed the place down that morning - let's hope not too many had telephone glitches in those several hours 'cause they were out of luck if they did - and that whole fleet of trucks preceded the hearse with their red flashers going full force. Sounds perfect, if that's the right word, to me. And for him.

No low points in Ohio.

Dave, Sounds like your friend was truly loved. It's good they closed down shop so all could attend. At my local library they did this for a long time librarian who died. When I arrived and it was closed for this purpose, I said, bless them. It's hard enough to lose someone close but it'd be even harder not to be able to attend because of work.

Sue and Jane (and your dad), I hope and pray the treatments go well. I'm thinking of all of you.

My high point is getting 6 hours of sleep last night! I think I've shared about my sleeplessness. I have a tendency to sleep well one night and not the next. Well, this is day two of getting more than 5 hours of sleep! (I got 7 the night before. I know that sounds crazy to celebrate that but I feel so much better than on days I'd skimp on sleep. Now the goal is to do well tonight!

My low point actually turned into a high. I had a letter of reference from a professor here at school. As I walked out of the building I was holding it in my hand. I told myself, I'd better put it in my back pack. But I didn't. (does this prove even I don't listen to myself???)

Later, eating lunch, I wondered where it was? To make a long story short, I'd put it in my car when I'd dropped off some stuff. I hadn't dropped it like I first assumed. Thannnnnk gooodnesss!

Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it! (do you know that country song?)
Joy

"Oh, man!" Part XVII.

I just had my high point of today. I tell you, folks, just when you've given up on 'switches' (or anything else) another one goes off. Don't ask me about that too much because I'm so much a literalist that these switches almost scare me since I have no control over them now. I laid down for a few hours this morning and was dreaming just right [for a change] and woke up and there it was on the TV. Can you really go to the dump and pick up discarded wire cages, etc. and turn them into treasures? I think it can be done! I'm limited, and I know that, but I can use tools to do almost anything. Such a simple idea, really, but it might form some sort of business. No overhead much, straight profit. "Junk Into Jewels"! Or something like that. And it's further perfect that I could enlist my recently widowed friend Mari to help get us going - she'd love it and it would get her involved in the world a bit. She's a crafty (and I mean "crafts") sort. She can sew just about anything and can turn a floor that was heretofore just a scuffed up mess into a blithering masterpiece! I can go to stores and retrieve old cases that held Heineken beer, re-inforce them, and whip them into rather amazing pieces of furniture. Never really thought of it as a job, but I think it could become one. I'm the "idea guy", she's the "make it work" lady. She could also be my legs when it comes down to certain things. Will she buy it? No weekly paycheck but an interesting notion? Probably not, but I'll ask anyway. We both have nothing to lose now. Fanciful ideas. I'm an artist by design, though. Yesterday I felt I had nothing left (and I'm sure she feels almost worse). Today a switch goes off in me. Somehow, the pieces have to get picked up. They just have to. And, I know for a fact, one idea leads to another. Sorry to ramble but that's my high point for now. Probably nothing - but a pipe dream is better than no dream at all. Think I could get Katie involved? What a trio from all over the USA that would be. Mari: "That's a mess but I think I can fix it". Me: "Can't really fix a mess, my friend, but you can make it important to somebody." Katie: "Give it to me and I'll yank the beauty out of it." I may be nuts but I think such ideas really could meld. Maybe I just wish they could. So be it. I'd rather wish on something than rely on darkness. There's my high point, I guess.

Sounds exciting Gats! I'm a big fan of creativity!

Sounds like a plan to me, Dave! When do we start hauling junk in the front door? I'll go fire the torch up!

Sounds lovely Dave. I love helping my Mum making handmade cards (already made the majority of the christmas ones for this year!) and it is good fun!

Oh, bad morning! Mean ugly fanged thing it was . Do you ever wake up with that gut feeling that maybe you should just stay in bed? I did - but I was walking better and out of cigarettes (here in Gatsby-land that is a 'no-can-do'; sorry, but it's one of those things I refuse to give up the destructive pleasure of indulging in). I was also out of cash and needed to buy gas. Anyway, so I manage to get to the car, which wouldn't start [after bagging some change so as to get to the gas station and then to an ATM]. Charged up the battery and drifted on fumes to the nearest pump. We all know how long it takes to get $6 worth of gas these days ---> 30 seconds tops. But I had to turn the car off to get that little dribble. Guess what? It wouldn't start again! The attendant was quick to give me a jump since the traffic down there is much at a turtle's pace these days. But, yikes, he didn't know how to do it! The poor guy couldn't even open his hood (I guess you don't need to know much about cars to pump fuel ) so I had to do the unthinkable and get out of my car and remedy this little problem. Me, hobbling about in a public place! I swear, it was like a "Lucy" episode! But the car got started and I go to the bank. Tried to get a mere 20 bucks out of "Mr. Roboto". Out spits this piece of paper saying that my 'request exceeds my account balance'. I sat there in a total panic for minutes thinking I was penniless at last, which seemed impossible. So I muster up the boldness to go to my drive-thru place where they sell cigarettes and stuff and got over 20 dollars worth of stuff plus. Warily offered my bank card and it was authorized in two seconds flat. I literally flew home then. Which became my high point of the AM. I got here safely. Maybe it wasn't so bad, you know? I have a little gas, smokes, and I know the bank balance is screwed up somewhere. I guess the worst of it was having to get out of that car and function knowing that, any second, I might tumble and break my neck in clear view of all in vicinity. Silly to say, but I felt like Hercules after such miniscule events. Jeesh! I knew how to jump a battery at 11. One good thing. That guy down there promised he'd never ask me to turn my ignition off again .

You must have incredible self determination. My admiration knows no bounds.

Low- I heard a crash from the kitchen and assumed it was the cat knocking something off the worktop, and found the cutlery drawer had disintegrated dropping a few hundred knives forks and spoons on the floor and luckily no cat in sight. As well as washing them all I now have nowhere to put them and no sign of a builder prepared to fit new units which are all going to follow that one (and the previous) one by one unless replaced.

The high was a long awaited check up at the doctors which produced nothing new and lets me carry on now with a lot less to worry about.

My high is that I think I've finally got my acid reflux understood and under control. Found out I have the 'rare' type (of course) which means stomach acid gets not only into the esophagus, but all the way into the back of the throat, which is of course not protected at all. As well as a solid burning lump in the throat, this then leads to sinus-like problems (the good old post-nasal drip) and explains why whenever the pain is so bad my doctor sends me for x-rays they show no sign of infection...Have found one of the most effective things to do is not eat in bed. Now I know this sounds like it's not too tough to give up and is something that clean-living folks don't indulge in anyway. But it's difficult when you're a hypoglycemic insomniac prone to bouts of crippling sciatica...

But as I say, this is a high because I think I now know my enemy!

ing I have that type of acid reflux too, where the acid get all the way up my throat at times. Not eating past a certain time of night helps, but another thing I found that made a huge difference was to stop drinking tap water. I don't know about in Oz, but here the water is chlorinated, and I find that if I eschew that in favour of bottled or filtered water, I cut back on my reflux incidents by over 75%.

That's interesting skunkee...as far as I know we have fluorine in our water, but not usually chlorine (I say not usually, because my husband and I have a theory that the pipes get flushed out with it everynow and then after storms). The other thing which has really helped me is an Indonesian/Thai drink which is just ginger and honey, dried and granulated. And it's yummy too!

My high point of today is simple, yet nicely restive. I got to greet a new friend who found their way onto my "buddy list" today and greeted him this way. I thought, though, I should greet you all similiarly, even though I don't know anyone's addresses to speak of. Ever "Catch A Falling Star", you rascals? You're about to...

Oh, and a short few of you have seen this before but to the rest, let's go out and play!


www.angeleyes2.com/platinum6/q3.html

Aw, I want to join you and be eight again. Next time round I will do things differently, benefit of hindsight etc.

I don't know! Being 8 again sounds divine, but you couldn't pay me to have to go throguh the teenage years again! Watching my two struggle with these years only cements that feeling!

Ah, but you can never be thirty and thoroughly sensible without being fourteen (or whatever age ) and fighting through it.

Awwwwwww.....thats lovely! Quite happy as a adult at the moment(but going to save that page on my favourites to remind me!)

Hi all.

I just wanted to share that I've been having better and better days. Feeling more intune with what I'm doing here at school and more confident. :-)

Well, Joy, I don't know you but it sounds like you might be like me - coming back after a bit of a 'crash' - so I offer you my support and pleasure that you are, indeed, coming back!

And perhaps I am just a cynic, but I would have to go back further than when I was 8 to believe in most of the stuff on Gatsby's card. However, I do still paint with watercolours, and I do still take delight in the little things in life. I know things can't be all bad when I still giggle inanely, as I did this morning, when regarding my ever-expanding underpants. Now by this I don't mean I'm putting on weight (actually the opposite since I gave up chocolate, but don't get me started on that!) No, this is one specific pair of ancient bright red knickers which were once highly sensible, two-way stretch sports lycra jobbies. However, the years have taken their toll and they have lost all their stretch, so they are now just enormous. But I refuse to get rid of them, if for no other reason than the shear amusement value. Of course I don't wear them out of the house, as they rather give the appearance of a nappy under one's jeans, but under trackies for mooching about they are just fab. And I am pleased to report that the high of my morning was finally getting the waist-band of said knickers all the way up to my armpits! Sigh, I used to think I would not be fulfilled until I had published my first novel, but I'm beginning to wonder if anything could feel better than this?

Don't read that card of mine too literally ! It was just a thought and a hopeful affirmation that being 8 is not so much more strange than being 50. Mostly I think that nobody would want to go back to anything (nice thought, though) but it would be real nice to drop into the 8-year old version of life sometimes. That said, no problem as it goes. I still say: "Here's my wallet." It didn't matter much back then and it doesn't matter now.

High: The wedding album I ordered from the photographer who covered my daughter's wedding has just arrived, it is lovely.

No lows yet but it is early in the day.

I'll bet it is beautiful, Sue. Well, low point of the week was the sudden passing of my father-in-law. My husband's mother will be living with us indefinitely, and life has certainly quickly changed.
High point is the wonderful time we have had with all my husband's siblings and their families, and my son and his family. Even though the occasion that brought us together was terrible, we have been able to spend more time together visiting than we have for years.