Happy birthday to me..

The Arteest at Work
The above was taken two days before my 43 birthday. Since the 13th was my birthday that wasn't so long ago. I have to admit liking this photo alot. Not being photogenic in the least, I hide from cameras most of the time, so being kitted out as Iam for work or battle with the forces of The Empire(That's Darth Vader's evil empire, not our current administration as some of you may be thinking) is fine by me if it saves my lungs.
Since Pa has been diagnosed with lung cancer I decided it might be good idea to take my own lung health more seriously. I have never smoked, but welding off gases some evil stuff, and grinding metal makes for metal dust. I figured it was best to spend the money and get a decent filter mask, why tempt fate?
If I can cut down on some of the crap in my lungs that's a good thing.

Cold Concrete

What with the financial crisis, the impending Election, the high cost of everything, and our present lack of cash flow, it is easy to forget the good things in life we do have.
Things are grim out there, but Iam determined to not forget that things could be much worse, and that my life isn't nearly as bad as it seems sometimes. Sure Iam not rich and powerful, but Iam well off in so many other ways. Not being ethnically cleansed, and living in a Red Cross tent come to mind as major things to be grateful about.
Iam grateful for my wonderful Hubbinator, My Family, the fertile land, the blue sky above. Good friends.

This years birthday came and went. Too much work to finish in the shop so we stayed home. No Hood River trip.
Some good friends came by for drinks and dinner the day before. Wonderful well wishing from some amazing freinds far and near. I ate chocolate cupcakes , had a cheese burger the size of a dinner plate...sweet potatoe fries..plenty of good German bier. Mmmm...so good.
It was a good day all in all. Mellow and gentle...more later but now I have to get to work.

Well it's cancer then..

After a few invasive and gruesome sounding tests( needle biopsy=big needle, through the chest, snip out a piece of lung tissue....)
the results have come back=
My Dad indeed has lung cancer. It's in his upper left lung.
The test that tells us if it's spread to any other part of his body won't come back for a few days..until then he has to heal up from the pneumonia that could have killed him. The illness that sent him to the hospital in the 1st place, and which, in a weird twist of providence, led to the discovery of the tumor.
On top of all that there is his collapsed lung from a post biopsy coughing fit. So until he gets better...we wait and see what's next..What the test says about any other cancer will determine the battle plan as it were.

My mother is being the strong and awesome woman she is about all this. I of course hung up the phone and cried like a , well like a woman who has just found out her father has cancer.

He is home tonight, sleeping in his own bed.
My Mom is tired, the concerned phone calls, the family members dropping by to see him. The whole drama of going to the hospital every day, wondering if he had cancer or not.
Being a nurse for 42 years she knows the drill. She cared for her father when he had lung cancer.

I know that Dad is not at death's door ..well, not now that the pneumonia is under control. Yet I know there is so much more to come, diagnosis wise, treatment wise, all of it.
I'll be strong and positive for my Pa, but tonight I'm a daughter who needs to take it all in..
Okay everyone , go tell your loved ones you love them.
Oh, and quit smoking.
Right now. Iam not kidding.

Please.