Well, it's not going to kill you

Can you EVEN believe he had the gall to show his face?

Bush to make 13th post-Katrina visit to New Orleans Wednesday

by Jan Moller, The Times-Picayune

Tuesday August 19, 2008, 8:48 PM

BATON ROUGE -- President Bush plans to mark the upcoming three-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina with a speech at Jackson Barracks Wednesday that will extol the progress made since he promised the federal government would stay "as long as it takes" to rebuild the Gulf Coast

THREE FUCKING YEARS AND HE'S PROUD OF HIMSELF????????

Yes I realize I'm shouting.  Have you been to New Orleans?   Have you talked to the people who came back.  They talk about "where we where in the flood" the way we talk about where we were during the '89 earthquake 

Although the Bush administration's initial response to the storm was widely criticized and contributed to the president's plummeting public approval ratings, Bush plans to focus on the money and resources that the federal government has contributed to the recovery.  Um, has the clueless bastard taken a tour of the CBD?  We were there for 10 ten days in December.  The Quarter is slowly recovering but the CBD makes you want to weep.  The beautiful Kimpton Hotel Monaco, gone because this nation chain of upscale hotels could not get an acceptable settle from their insurance.  Smith and Wollensky Steak house  flooded out, same reason  insurance.  At least Delmonico's finally reopened.  We're all lucky that Emeril has money.

The outskirts of NO, Kenner, etc. gaping, empty houses and businesses. Deadness everywhere you look.  You drive along the freeway and it appears you're coming up to a thriving community.  It's only as you drive past that you realize that all the buildings are empty.  Roofs and the sides of buildings are blown off.  You know that everything there has been condemned.  What happened to the families that lived there?  What happened to their hopes and dreams?  What happened to the money they were carefully stashing away for their children's education?

Shrub should bow his head and scuttle out of town ASAP.  If he thinks that New Orleans will be a good representation of his legacy he's more ignorant than I give him credit for.

Because I forgot earlier a Max update

Max went to visit Dr. Marty today.  He's deemed doing well except his tail and foot are healing a bit slower than she expected.  She thinks the chemo is slowing the healing process down.  Poor guy has now developed diarrhea, in the house tonight no less.  But hey, I know EXACTLY how he's feeling.

Still he would eat the entire house if we let him, unlike when I had chemo, oh those glory days!

It turns out he will be on a maintenance dose of chemo drugs ($310 for 50 tablets) and steriods the rest of his life.  There will be step downs from what he's taking now but a constant flow into his body so in case there is a flair up we can amp up the drugs.

I am SO glad I don't have to do that!

Oh, the bandages today are bright UC blue!  It's funny now that his foot is not so swollen it looks like nothing so much as a golf club.

I'm tired of being told how brave I was

I just realized that today, it's amazing what happens when you turn over a rock.  Thank you Dr. Sanity.

I was not brave I just did what I had to do.  Without looking, without thinking, mostly following orders relying totally on the answers my docs gave me to the questions I had. 

I was not brave.  I was scared shitless.  There is a certain feeling of relief in saying that.  I was not brave, I was scared the entire fricking time and I sometimes still am.  And you know what, scared shitless is fine because I had cancer.  I had no idea what my future would be, or even if I would have one, it was OK to be scared shitless.  I just wish I hadn't held it inside quite so long.

Well I am certainly bummed

It appears in that last few weeks that I have lost many of my readers.  I suppose there is nothing I can do about that fact as I decided a long time ago that this blog was going to be "stream of conscious, real life blog" because that's what I needed.

I'm sorry I've scared off the people who are afraid of depression and/or don't get that I need a very warped humor to get through depression.

I'm hoping that blogs that I read frequently like amazingtrips, dooce, luckyjet,  Confessions of a CF husband, Eliza, Julia, electricboogaloo, punditmom will regenerate some traffic.  And then of course there are the "other" sites that are so important to me.  Hey lady what you reading , librarything, bookcrossing, and bookmooch

I am not dumb, I must admit to being a way different person.  As in rules as mostly made to be broken.   I'm trying to be a recovered cancer survivor.  I don't know how to do it so that's why I'm relying on my friends, Dr. Therapy and the kindness of strangers.  ( Ok, stolen from a Street Car Name Desire but it sounds good)

So if I get your attention and you swing on by, tell your friends, it could do a girl some good.  : )

Shocked, Shocked I tell you.

Big Foot was a hoax!  I simply cannot believe it.  BUT people did, real, actual, live, people.

This is exactly why the bumper sticker on my car reads

"I like Obama but is American ready for a president with brains?"

I get lots of comments on my bumper sticker.  We here in Northern California have some serious concerns about you filler* state people.

*a filler state is one that is that keeps the East and West Coasts apart.  The Southern Gulf states we try to ignore because they simply scare the shit out of us.  Especially Texas, especially Texas.  Did you know Shrub came from there?

Not ready for prime time!

Yes have I managed to remain positively cheerful for 2 1/2 days running.

We went to the lovely concert in the Plaza tonight, a Tuesday night tradition in Healdsburg.  Food, wine, kids, wine, food and the all important music. I had to bolt less than 45 min into the concert.  I had been fine for the other concerts because I was so disconnected from my environment.  That is no more.  But tonight only 1 of the regulars was there, so no buffer.  New people joined us, the crowd was raucous and the music was bad.

I was getting more and more uncomfortable and all of a sudden I told Larry I have to go.

....6555tuy  (thank you Sophie) NOW.  Lucky for me we had come in 2 cars so I could literally bolt.

I got home and called Dr. Sanity.  Any with the luck, she was still at work-------------*(again thank you Sophie) and picked up the phone.  She said "Cathy?" I said "not ready for prime time!"  She assured me that I was not regressing - Thank the Gods above!, we chatted - um, she talked me down - a few minutes and we ended our call.102222222222222222222222222222222222(yes Sophie again)

Now I'm trying to figure out how to put her number in my cell phone.  I rarely use it but want to make sure the number is there so Larry can call her and say "my wife is going insane"

'

Into every life a little rain must fall

Seems like such a trite statement for the circumstances.  Everyone troop over to Jen's blog to give Jen, Charlie and the gang some physic love.  Read the last 2 posts about losing their beloved dog Molly.  I had tears pouring down my cheeks at the post about her death.  Then great gulping sobs at Jen explaining to the trips where Molly went.

I was everyone had that kind of love and respect for animals.

And while I'm chattering I might as well keep going.

As everyone knows the economy sucks.  Also my insurance doesn't cover Doctor Sanity (who I originally named Therapy Queen then forgot that I had so Doctor Sanity she has become.  I like it better anyway) so we're paying for her visits out of pocket.  As she says "you won't be seeing me twice a week forever".  No just long enough to have to rethink our priorities.  

That means most of the wine clubs are going, Bella, Seghesio (sob, sob, sob my oh so favorite Zins) Geyser Peak and a couple of others.  It's like telling a family member you don't love them anymore. 

 But when you weigh my sanity against a lovely bottle of wine, no matter how lovely sanity has the trump card.  Oh and there are those vet bills for Max that are piling up by the day.

So here is another reason that McCain must NOT be elected, we'd have to drop all our wine clubs forever.  

That's just about as close to a tragedy you can get.  OK, joking people there are far bigger tragedies out there.  This would just be our little tragedy personal tragedy.

Let's hear it for "old" age!

Let's give it up for Dara Torres!  At the "ripe old age" of 41, she's just won 3 silver medals in the 2008 Olympics.  Missing gold by 1, 100's of a second - she was quoted as saying she shouldn't have filed her nails that morning.

You can see the energy radiating from every part of her body - remember 41!

Here she is celebrating with her 2 year old daughter.  Yes she had a baby 2 years ago and this year won 3 Olympic medals.  

"Torres won three silver medals at the Beijing Olympics, including medals in the 50 free and another in the 4x100 medley relay within an hour of each other on the final day of racing. Of course, Torres did a lot of incredible things that summer, beginning with making the U.S. team after breaking the American record at the trials when most swimmers her age were retired from competition and not looking at all good in their Speedos." ESPN

By the way Dara has competed in 5, yes baby 5, Olympics and racked up an impressive 12 medals- 4 of each color.

Congrats Dara and don't hang up your suit yet!

Who knew?

That you can actually wake up cheerful and looking forward to the day!!!!  It's been so fricking long since it happened it took me a few hours to figure out what the heck was going on.

I'll hazard a guess here and say the drugs are finally working.  It's very nice.