Posts in the “personal” category

Her, romantically: I can feel you tremble when we touch.

Me: Oh, sorry, that’s just the mast cell disease.

(A conversation somewhat inspired by the Survivor song, I Can’t Hold Back.)

Just saw that Guns n’ Roses will be playing at the Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky this fall.

I get to be radioactive again in a couple of weeks. I heard them say “gamma,” so I’m hoping this has to do with a childhood Christmas wish regarding The Incredible Hulk.

Lyrics from the Genesis song Undertow, which just came across my random playlist:

Better think awhile
Or I may never think again.
If this were the last day of your life, my friend,
Tell me, what do you think you would do then?

Stand up to the blow that fate has struck upon you,
Make the most of all you still have coming to you,
Lay down on the ground and let the tears run from you,
Crying to the grass and trees and heaven finally on your knees.

Let me live again, let life come find me wanting.
Spring must strike again, against the shield of winter.
Let me feel once more the arms of love surround me,
Telling me the dangers past, I need not fear the icy blast again.

One of my nieces got marries recently, and I created this “cartoonized” image from a wedding photo using Gimp. It probably took about ten steps in this case, but I had to significantly reduce the light coming in the large window behind them; pump up the color a lot; apply several “artistic” filters to it (Van Gogh and Oilify, several times each); and then kept applying different levels of the “cartoon” effect. I didn’t really want a cartoon image, but I couldn’t get the Oilify image to look the way I wanted in the time allotted, so I applied the Cartoon filter, and I was happier with it.

This is a note that I originally posted here in 2014:

I learned yesterday that my endocrinologist wants me to take a dose of radioactive iodine in about two weeks as a followup treatment for the total thyroidectomy surgery I had two weeks ago. I did some research before and after my meeting with her, and was surprised/amazed to read things like this.

“The limits of what we know, that’s something you can get lost in.”

~ from the tv series Limitless

Today’s song of the day is When You’re Gone, by the Cranberries.

bbc.com has an interesting story about How meal timings affect your waistline.

Last year Friend #1 died, so I ended up staying at Friend #2’s house. When I woke up she was already out of the house, so I started to walk to the coffee maker to make some coffee. At that moment Friend #3 called. I looked at the coffee maker for a moment, then thought, “It will wait a few moments,” so I turned around, picked up the phone, and found a quiet spot to sit down.

At one point I started talking about something and #3 said, “I’m sorry, I can’t hear you.” I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I just woke up, so I kinda cleared my throat and started talking louder. We had a good, honest conversation, the kind you only have when it’s late at night and people are tired and maybe have a little liquid courage and speak from the heart, or in this case that raw time right after someone has died.

When I was watching a show just now with two dead guys talking to each other I remembered that conversation, and also remembered that I never did get that cup of coffee.

I recently had my blood drawn by a man with a lot of tattoos and piercings, and while we were talking he asked what my favorite band was. I answered Guns n' Roses, and then asked what his was, and he said, Tool.

I totally forgot about that band. I think back in the day (the 1990s), Schism was my favorite song from them, but I’m still trying to recall them all. I had never seen that video before, but parts of it reminded me of Justin Kamerer and AngryBlue.com.

It’s funny, I never expected that I’d ever write about the tv series, The Greatest American Hero, but I watched an episode last night that was pretty good, especially when you consider it was made in 1981.

Season 1, Episode 6 of The Greatest American Hero is titled, “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys,” and for me it’s the most touching episode yet. Bill (the FBI agent) learns that his personal hero is involved in something illegal, and it’s a real blow to him. He’s hurt, and then down in the dumps.

Meanwhile, Ralph, The Greatest American Hero, has two incidents where innocent bystanders are almost hurt while he’s attempting to go after the bad guys. One group is a busload of tourists, and the second one is an elderly woman. This affects him to the point that he doesn’t want to put the suit on any more, because he’s afraid he’ll hurt innocent people.

The Native American woman I met last week had an aneurysm and brain surgery last year. (She showed me the scar, and she’s fine now.) Before the aneurysm was discovered, she went to a shaman who’s well-known among Natives here. He lit something, made some smoke, did whatever else he does, then looked at her, put his finger on her forehead and said, “You are blocked here.”

Unfortunately she assumed he was referring to a mental blockage, and thought, “No, I’m an open person, he’s wrong.” Shortly after this, doctors discovered the aneurysm right where he pointed.

This is the story she told me.

(A Facebook entry from March 25, 2014)

March 24, 2014: Woo-hoo, I got my cool see-thru Japanese highlighter today. It's like Christmas for a highlighter nerd.

When I was in New Mexico a few years ago I met a woman who suggested that I needed to quit fighting a particular feeling I have been experiencing. She said that it was my heart chakra attempting to open, but each time it started to open, my Little Ego wouldn’t surrender, it held on to things as they are for dear life. She said that if I would just let go, I’d be on the path to loving all humans unconditionally.

On the drive home I was rudely cut off by a woman in a Mercedes, who was quite literally driving in my lane. As I moved out of her way and we passed each other, she glared at me like I was doing something ridiculously wrong by driving in my own lane. “Humans are a hard species to love,” I thought.

After that experience I decided to start counting all of the people I love or have loved, and if you include Neil Diamond – I threw him in there because my mom liked him so much – I got up to 49.

Somehow I have to find a way to get from 49 to several billion, including the glaring woman in the Mercedes. I think I’m going to have to work on my technique, or perhaps on my definition of “love.”

“The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.”

~ Vince Lombardi

Sorry I haven’t written much this week, I’ve been working on designs for the cover of a new book. But I can share one thing, my favorite song of the week, We Said Hello, Goodbye (Don’t Look Back), by Phil Collins. Some of the lyrics:

Well it really don’t matter much where you are
’cause home is in your heart
It’s a feeling that you wake with one day
Some people keep running all of their life
And still find they haven’t gone too far
They don’t see it's the feeling inside
The feeling inside.

A funny thing about mast cell disease is when a 60+ year old doctor who is considered one of the best in his profession says to you, “I’ve only seen that once before in my life.” With MCAS, you get used to statements like that.

(This happened in 2016, but I was reminded of it again today.)

“They don’t wash off easily, do they?”

“What’s that?”

“The sins of the father.”

~ from The Good Cop

Lesley Stahl, a 60 Minutes news correspondent, once had this interaction with Donald Trump:

“I said, you know that it’s getting tired, why are you doing this (discrediting the media) — you’re doing it over and over and it’s boring,” Stahl said. “He said you know why I do it? I do it to discredit you all and demean you all, so when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you.”

I read that in this Washington Post story, and it’s also available from many other news sources.