Thanksgiving

Family and friends are everything. Thank you all for everything you are, everything you do, and everything you will be in the future.

Cheers.

stevo

Cancer Redux

Well, folks. I now officially can say that I have someone in my family who is living with cancer. My stepfather was diagnosed yesterday with prostate cancer. It's a very different feeling than what I've always gone through with friends and friends' parents when they were diagnosed, or died of the disease. It really, truly does hit to the core. The positive, if there is one, is that it seems (at least on biopsy) to be moderate stage, and not advanced. The prospects for a long-term survival are pretty good, but we won't know for sure until further testing and staging is done. I want to use all of my medical knowledge and tell myself that all the studies and papers say that if you are going to get a cancer, this is a good one to have because it's generally a slow progressing disease, etc. But there is no "good" cancer. Every case is different. And Mike has a strong family history, with his father dying this year of the disease. So while I am very optimistic that it's not going to be a catastophic thing, at least short-term, I still have in the back of my head the 10-25 percent that don't fare so well, regardless of the staging. It truly chills me to the bone to think that five years from now....well, you know.....

Adding some irony to the situation is how I was so haunted by the new U2 song "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own", which is about a son losing his father to cancer. Now it makes the song even closer to my heart.

Ramblings

WOW, where has the time gone! It's been almost a month between blogs.....

Several random ramblings.....

1. I've secured my vacation spot in Key West for April! All is well in Stevo's mental land with a little KW on the horizon. It's marking my 5th anniversary, also, which brings us back to "WOW, where has the time gone!"

2. Life really does seem a bit emptier without NHL hockey this year. It's nice having an ECHL team to watch every now and again, but it's not the same. I've even seen my playing interest wane without having pro games to watch. One thing that I have noticed is that I still don't like basketball....

3. Parenting is both exciting and frustrating. I knew this for a while, but it becomes even more pronounced as your child gets older. The highs are much higher, and the challenges of a two year old become much greater. Of course I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

4. We are the people our parents warned us about. More accurately, we are all becoming our parents. Or at least our elders. I find it amazing how many things have changed in my life in the mere 11 years since I graduated from Millersville U. I noticed the other day that I'm actually listening to more adult contemp. stuff and less current stuff. I still have my ear to the airwaves, but I'm actually more content to listen to mellower things these days. It has nothing to do with intensity or quality of the music - I think I'm just so much more stressed and pulled in different directions these days, that I need more mellow things in my life to balance it out. Of course Buffett still leads the way. I'm listening to him now as I type this. It's also scary to realize that my priorities are so much different, and more responsible these days. Late nights are now midnight instead of 5AM. A night of "heavy drinking" is anything over 3 beers. Three beers used to be for breakfast....

5. U2 can still rock. We all knew about the power of "Vertigo", but I was just able to hear the album in its entirety last night. All I can say is WOW. I think it's for sure their best album since Joshua Tree. It has a sound that harks back to the early 80's days, but is much more refined, mature, and polished. I haven't gotten to get into all the lyrics yet, but knowing Bono, I'm sure they are deeply layered at times. I'm really excited. I hate seeing all of my favorite bands of youth getting older, but when they still put out top notch music, it is very exciting to see.

6. The 2005 Philly marathon is exactly one year from this coming Sunday. Or in other words, the 2004 marathon is this Sunday. But I'm not in 04, so I'm worrying more about 05. It's going to be a long haul from training. I've actually backed off for the past 2 weeks, partially b/c of a small injury. The break has helped mentally, and I'm wondering if that's a good strategy for the upcoming year. I know the highest intensity training won't start until late Spring/early Summer, but I need to keep a good base going. At any rate, I feel like celebrating Sat. night, as it marks T minus one year from an attempt to reach a very important goal for me.

Back to Buffett and dreams of beaches, bars, bimbos and bling-bling.

s42