Blog

The morning starts a bit better with me not rushing and getting going about 8ish. Sleep is helping, but I feel still weak and unsteady at times. This is normal as I am about 1/2 through chemo, but it makes the day harder.

I have coffee and some cream cheese mixed bread from Wholefoods and read and write. I am not in a hurry and write an extensive blog. Sunday was a busy day, and I can feel the I-Over-Did-It feeling this Monday while writing the blog.

I have to throw on some clothing as Corwin does not have a ride to work and drive him. He still bills me for his rides, so I save $15 but just drive him. When he uses a ride, I ask him to pay me back the cost by buying groceries, which has worked as there is always milk and eggs at the house now. Stupid way to solve the obvious, but what the heck it works.

I cannot stop coughing and sneezing on Monday morning, and I look outside; yes, it is sunny and cold. Pollen everywhere! So I take some allergy over-the-counter, and the reactions to the nice weather in the Greater Portland area soon stop. Rain saves us from this.

Aside: I use the antihistamine cetirizine hydrochloride 10mg, once called Zyrtec; I use the cheap knock-off version from RiteAid.

I get dressed and make lunch. I miss Susie as I grill my sandwich in butter and then add water to the pan when the sandwich bread is nicely brown on both sides. I then cover the pan for a brief time. The hot steam will heat the sandwich, melt the cheese, and make the beef hot inside. The trick is to have enough heat without burning the butter in the pan and then add water, just enough to steam the sandwich. This is Susie’s favorite sandwich, and I used to cut it into quarters to make it easier to eat. It is better than you will get anywhere, and even as just a grilled cheese, it works! I miss her living here while eating my sandwich and watching Bloomberg news.

The news is grim. The markets are unstable and chaotic as investors dive into haven positions. Others are making shopping lists of good stocks in the EU that will weather the war and the chaos. These good EU stocks are now cheaper as indexes are sold, including these good stocks as investors dive to havens. Thus the indexes sales are driving good EU-based equities to new lows, until now inconceivable. Some are even buying now EU indexes, all pushed low, that contain large-caps as they believe these equities will recover first. Short positions are starting to leak into the market, showing that the dive to havens was not a bad idea. It is a mad, mad world.

After lunch and watching the chaos on Bloomberg, I take Air Volvo to Forest Grove Rehab and Care Center at 3900 Pacific Highway, Room 44A, to see Susie. The driving is strange as construction suddenly closes lanes, and drivers are willing to use extra-lane driving to avoid the construction. There were no issues, but attention is always required on the trip to Forest Grove from the Volvo Cave that resides in the unincorporated and mostly forgotten Reedville.

I thought I had taken a photo, but the pic was not in the iPhone when I went to find it for the blog, sorry.

Susie was sleeping in her bed when I was there. She looks tired but happy to see me. Today I brought flowers and put them in a vase. I moved to her room last month for flowers. This brightened her room.

It was a short stay as she was sleepy and forcing herself to stay awake. Susie used my iPhone to access FaceTime to talk to her mother, Leta. They had a long chat while I slipped out to see the RN. Susie’s vitals are in her normal range. I check them every day. Next, we called Susie’s Aunt Joyce in North Carolina for a chat.

After that, Susie was like, “I am not tired,” with her eyes almost closed. So I kissed her goodbye, through a mask and always with gloves. I am sure she slept after that.

I stop by Jim’s Ice Cream in Hillsboro on the way back to the Volvo Cave. I am no longer suffering issues from cold items, and with my date for starting chemo again approaching, this might be one of the few times I will get ice cream. Unfortunately, I forgot my wallet on the counter after paying for the Rock-Road in a waffle cone, but the gal who made the cone brought it to me while enjoying the cone in Air Volvo. The ice cream must have frozen my brain!

I stop by the house and then head out to Safeway and get items for various dinners upcoming. I get the missing items to make Jambalaya from a box. Corwin at the house is already started on cooking some sausage and defrosting some shrimp. So Corwin makes dinner while I rest a bit. This is how he is helping out.

Another aside: My checker is Aws at Safeway. He is about my age and now lives here after leaving Iraq as a refuge. He makes a living working for Safeway. He and I have chatted about life when he checks. He asks about Susie and how I am doing. We are friends after I wished him well during Ramadan a few years ago; he was looking a bit worn as he was fasting. We agreed to pray for each other.

I am still reading The Words That Made Us: America’s Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840, and I am happy with it. It is the legal history of creating the words that make up the US Constituion from a Yale professor. I was worried it would use justifying false narrative of US history, but it seems to be focused on words, and I find that a fascinating way to tell the US history. The text also uses what I would say is old-school words that make me stop and amaze at such usage. Most editors demanded more clarity and easier words, but the author–Akhil Reed Amar, has eschewed such ideas. I like it.

Dinner is good, and the shrimp may be too many, but shrimp is often like caviar–there is never enough. I watch the news via PBS, including the BBC and a bit of the News Hour, and turn off the information before I am impacted. The grim reaper is in Ukraine, and the harvest of the innocent has begun. “How long,” is called out, and I remember my Bible as I think about the scenes, Rev 6:10.

I spend the rest of the night catching up, paying medical bills, most small amounts from various co-pays, and starting my taxes by downloading all the documents now available. Ugh, tedious and expensive.

I make blueberry muffins as a reward for getting the paperwork started. But then, I watch a bit more Bloomberg on the start of the EU markets, it is chaotic, and commodities are best described as a rocket-powered roller coaster, exciting and unsafe.

I am tired and a bit unsteady by 10ish and return to reading the giant heavy book by Professor Amar and soon sleeping. I never heard Corwin come in.

 

Going backward just as a way to make the story more interesting, I slept early Sunday night as I was cold and just wanted a warm bed. I was in bed around 10PM listening to Kink.FM Lights Out that has returned, but just for Sunday night. Lights Out started with the Alan Parsons Project Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Edgar Allan Poe) “The Raven.” I had not heard this for years as my college roommate had a copy of the album. I was thus happy to listen to Lights Out. Kink.FM picked unusual music and made me think of adding these to my collection and reminding me, like the Alan Parsons Project, of music I had forgotten.

While listening to Kink.FM, I was reading the new physical copy of a book. The smaller print is hard on my aging eyesight, and I may have to get some cheaters to read this. I am enjoying The Words That Made Us: America’s Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840, so far. Words matter to me as a would-be writer, so I thought I would try this 800+ book (it is hard to hold up while reading) on words. Still, I am worried as I have found the so-called constitutional scholars often to be so far on the right that they use the false narrative of exact meanings to justify strange political positions.

I have managed to get through the introduction and the first hundred pages of the text and, while not a Space Opera page-turner, the writing style and the content have been fascinating. There are also footnotes, plenty, and long quotes from John Adams. I bought the hardcopy to have easy access to the footnotes (nearly impossible on a Kindle to access footnotes and read a text without getting lost). So far, the writing style and word usage are rather old-school (i.e., using sextupled instead of six times), and I like that so far. Something new.

Before this, I took my 10ish pills a little early as I no longer needed to perfectly space out the chemotherapy and had the other half of a calzone that I got for lunch a few days ago as my second dinner with pills. I also read some news and watched more Nerd of the Rings videos on YouTube. Nerd of the Rings channel had a new video on what would happen if the Tolkein bad-guy Sauron acquired the One Ring instead of the ring being thrown in the Cracks of Doom and destroyed. The show covers what J.R.R. Tolkien wrote about that and the likely outcomes. So if you, like me, like to nerd out on LOTR material, this is the channel for you.

I spent the early evening before getting home playing Dungeons and Dragons at Cory’s house with Matt DM-ing the Witchlight new material. I had a 2nd level monk whose focus was brewing more than being a good monk. I had imagined this character more of a role-playing character than a combat-focused creation. I got to enjoy a bit of the fantastic fair that is included in the storyline. Matt bought all the extras from the Beadle and Grimms, making the game a visual feast. Matt has multiple groups playing the same material, and he may reuse the material later.

Without giving anything away, we then fought a battle outside of the fair. The first battle we handled without much trouble. Matt had the figures for the creatures that were fantastic. Unfortunately, the subsequent encounter killed one of our characters. We were effectively surprised by the powerful creatures, which usually means bad news for 2nd level characters. We also split between the monsters and thus split our attacks, a terrible strategy hoisted on us by being surprised. Soon the close-up fighters, including my beer-brewing monk, spent five rounds of combat just rolling death saves. Our ranger and bard moved back at the start of combat to be range fighters and managed to finally put a creature to sleep. I ended up playing a giant snail, having to look up the specs for the beast online on my phone; we had acquired the beast earlier and learned that the snail had twice the hit points and did more damage than any of the 2nd level characters! It was attacked and fought and brought down the last monster with the ranged characters still firing from a distance.

Karen’s rogue failed the last death save and could not be recovered. A sad loss for us.

Moving to the start of the game, everyone was happy to see me as this was my first appearance in the new campaign and the first evening that I was feeling up to a game. I even drove myself. We all wore masks as protection for me. The next game is about day 12 in my chemotherapy cycle 3, and I may not be able to play as I am usually still weak at that point.

Before leaving to play Dungeons and Dragons, I made a ham and cheese sandwich for dinner. Corwin was cooking some pork chops for his dinner. He then added them to some ramen.

Before the sandwich and being home, I was with Susie at Forest Grove Rehab and Care Center at 3900 Pacific Highway, Room 44A. Susie was back in bed, and I was there about 1ish. Air Volvo did have one set of alarms on the trip in, but I managed to avoid the issue, and the polite but insistent alarms stopped.

We connected at 1:30 with the church group meeting hosted by Joan on Zoom. I moved Susie’s head up and got the mic near Susie (I use the earbud mic for the laptop, but its speakers by setting this in the preferences for my Apple). The church folks were happy to see us, and Susie did try to be included in some of the discussion of Dr.Rev. Wayne Weld-Martins’s sermon that Sunday. Susie was pleased to be included.

Before this, we managed a short FaceTime with Susie’s mother, Leta, on my iPhone. We had to shorten that call to be on time for the church meeting.

Before this and before driving into Forest Grove, I had stopped by the house and had a roast beef and cheddar sandwich for lunch. I warmed the beef and cheese in the microwave on a plate and then added bread. The sandwich is as good as you get anywhere as I bought excellent thinly sliced meat at Whole Foods.

Previously, I went to church, and due to sleeping to 8ish and a broken traffic light on the TV highway, I was the first person late to church after the reopening. A dubious distinction that I still adopted. I sat in George’s pew. George has been gone for some time now, but we all remember him sitting there for years. George gave more than a million dollars to a local hospital and the organ replacement for our church.

It was communion Sunday, the first Sunday of a month for typical United Methodist churches, and thus an elder is required to give communion. This means that Dr.Rev. Wayne Weld-Martin was officiating today and did a sermon on the question he was asked once, “Did Jesus Have to Die.” It was a good subject for lent, and the music matched some of the somberness of lent.

It was nice to show for church, but I did have to remind nearly everyone to keep their distance. I cannot afford a cold, flu, or Covid-19. So I will be masked into May and keep my distance. I did chat with folks at a distance. It was good to be a bit safely distanced and social.

I set the alarm to wake at 7:30 but resisted this until 8ish making me rush the whole morning and regret the size of the blog. It is about 90 minutes or more to write the blog, often breaching two hours. That is a lot of time to commit every day in the morning, but I think it is good to record the day and my thoughts.

I miss playing Richard and the PDX folks, but I am still weak, and I will likely be feeling better until Tuesday and Wednesday as I am nearly a week out from chemo. Not days we usually play, so gaming with my almost impossible to beat friends in Portland will have to wait. I do miss them.

Thank you for reading, and I hope the typos and some of the wooden writing that I cannot blame on Apple or Grammarly are not too troubling.

Another night with sleep, and I did roll-over and went back to sleep when I woke at 5:30ish with the sunrise. My working hours time to get started is 5:30 in the summer. I like to get up in time to chat with folks working for Nike in India who are having a late dinner, usually at that time. But now I am on leave, so I stick to getting more sleep when it comes and trying to focus on staying well enough to keep going through chemotherapy.

Today I am proud to say today was a bit boring and typical. I started the day reading emails and seeing some war news. I keep with the self-care and limit my exposure to the war; darkness is not what I need to survive, even when it is accurate and important.

In my writing, I am noticing more autocorrections to the wrong words. I must carefully check that this overly helpful feature does not hash up my sentences. It appears that Apple or Grammarly have made some updates that are aggressively replacing words.

I was dressed and ready about 12:15 with the blog published about an hour after I finished it as I forgot to post it on FaceBook and sent an email.

I was feeling a bit off, so I drove the wrong way to get to Forest Grove and had lunch at Old Chicago Pizza (OC). They have a very tall ceiling at OC, so the air movement seems OK, and folks wear masks when they come in and leave. The staff is carefully masked.

The menu has been reduced, and my strombolis are not on the menu, so I ordered a calzone instead with a side salad and a box for 1/2 of the calzone. It is too big for lunch unless you want a calzone coma later. The calzone is nothing to be excited about; it is a standard pizza joint style, with the pepperoni being perfectly cut and thin and industrial. But the peppers and onions are fresh, and the olives, while from a can, are plentiful. The salad is a work of art with almond slices, freshly made, almost too cold to eat, and the blue cheese dressing familiar but good. OC salad is what brings me back. I love pizza-styled food with a great cold salad. I donated $2 to Special Olympics on my bill and get a free dessert next time.

The drive to the Forest Grove Rehab and Care Center at 3900 Pacific Highway, Room 44A, was longer from the OC and used Cornell Road. This is a more urban street with lots of traffic and nights. Air Volvo was unhappy when a car in front of us suddenly slowed down for another vehicle that selected to abruptly brake and make a right turn. The trolley bells and even a blinking red image of a car rear-end on the dashboard pointed out that I needed to brake. I did, and the other vehicle also sped up, and Air Volvo calmed down.

After reaching the facility and getting checked in, I found Susie asleep in her bed. Her roommate let me know that Susie had just laid down and had been in the wheelchair all morning since 7AM. So I was later than usual, 2:30ish, and shift change was already completed at the nursing home.

As is our usual practice, I called Susan’s mother, Leta, on FaceTime, and they chatted for longer today. I checked with the nurse what was Susie’s vitals while they talked. They are the same as the last. Susie’s blood pressure is always low but stable at about 100/60. She is not having any more discomfort from stomach issues.

Susie had trouble with some words today. We then repeated all the words, and she was able to get them after a second try. “Hummingbird” was perfect on the third try. We then started on “Moses supposes his toes are roses” saying as practice. I then found the Singing in the Rain video, and Susie and I sang along: Moses Song.

After that, I found the other videos of the song and dance routines from Singing in the Rain. We did sing along with Good Morning as it is hard to resist not singing along with that routine. Of course, I have no idea how many times I have seen this movie (we have the DVD). If the war or just life is getting to you, I strongly recommend getting a copy of this movie and watching it often.

We did some rock videos after this for Susie to sing along to. She was tired, and we did not finish Stair Way to Heaven, the extended version (not sure anyone finishes it). I left her with a few kisses on my mask. I always have a mask and gloves so that she can hold my hands for a long time (chemo can leak from my hands if held for a longer time).

From there, I drove Whole Foods, again on Cornell Road, and went grocery shopping. I have not done this in six months. I usually order online, but today I wanted to get the exercise of doing this and pick out my own stuff. I managed to fill the cart and enjoyed over $280 bill when I was done. I buy meat at Whole Foods as it seems better and not much more expensive than the other chain grocery store, and this always gives me a higher bill. I did regret that the cheap butter was sold out. I use unsalted and apparently do many of my fellow Oregonians, leaving me to enjoy higher-priced and supposedly higher quality butter.

I brought the bounty back to the Volvo Cave. Corwin made dinner with some of the new purchases, and he used North African red sauce lemony olive that did not go with the cheese stuffed pasta. Corwin baked, on my suggestion, the mild Italian sausages from Whole Foods. That really worked. So a nice dinner and some lessons for Corwin on cooking: Don’t mix strong flavors.

I spent most of the night creating a new character for our Dungeons and Dragons Sunday game. It took a few hours as I was out of practice, and the 5E Monk class was new to me. I also had to find the rules for Drunken Master. My new character, Vlad, is overly fascinated with brewing, and his secret desire is to return to the Brewer Guild with the perfect brew, but there are rivals everywhere seeking to stop me. So, effectively, I am a Belgium Brewing monk.

I finished the next book in the Old Man’s War series. It was another page-turner. I was reading as fast as I could while my Kindle kept warning that it needed to be charged. I managed to finish the book before the Kindle shutdown. Although I thought the first book was good, the second book was fantastic: The Ghost Brigades.

I ordered a physical book, yes I did, The Words That Made Us: America’s Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840, as part of my continued exploration of the history of the USA. It is time to learn the history from folks no longer trying to force a narrative that justifies the past. I just want to know the truth.

I slept after that and woke with the sunrise.

 

The day started a bit early as I woke from a full night’s sleep with sunrise. However, I did roll over and went back to sleep until about 8:30. I felt a bit better as there was no chemo now for 24 hours.

I started my day, like most days, making coffee and writing. I checked CNN and BBC News and learned that the war continues its slow grind. Markets are still randomly reacting to the war, and various organizations are going beyond government sanctions and are banning or refusing Russian goods and services.

I start back on my balloon model today and do some basic painting in the morning.

I have peanut butter toast with my coffee and take my meds early as they no longer need to be on a 10 and 10 schedule. I get dressed and all that before lunch. I stop by Taco Bell and have their Chicken Quesadilla meal with a taco and a cold drink. Interestingly, Taco Bell has dropped almost all chicken options. The taco was the terrible taco they have produced for twenty years.

The travel to Forest Grove Rehab and Care Center at 3900 Pacific Highway in Air Volvo was without any creative driving on the part of my fellow drivers. On the way, I pass Dairy Creek, which is now a much larger lake as all the water from the rains from the last few days is filling our rivers and creeks and spilling over into low areas. I am distracted by our skies full of sun breaks and huge cotton candy-like clouds; some are dark and pour water on us. This makes the beautiful rainbows, and sometimes the clouds pour down with the rain looking like flying waterfalls.

There was a huge rainbow over Beaverton on my drive back. The mixed clouds are one of the wonders of the Pacific Northwest, as is the rain coming down while it is sunny. Never forget a hat and various other raingear when outside if there is a cloud in the sky!

I arrived at the facility and passed the entrance questions on Covid-19. Susie was back in bed after being up in her wheelchair in the morning and early afternoon for breakfast and lunch. She was more alert today and did not have any tummy issues on Friday that she had on Thursday. We called her mother and Susie, and she chatted with Leta on FaceTime. Zoraida has health issues in her family and cannot visit Susie, so we called her too. Susie was thrilled to talk to Zoraida. Next, we called Dan and Janice Gray, and they were happy to hear Susie’s voice.

I left a bit early as Susie looked tired, and I felt a nap coming in too. Once at home, I managed to get started again at 5PM and went through the freezer, now that the extreme cold issue has faded, and made Chicken Cordon Blue, mashed potatoes, and corn for dinner. All was frozen and from Schwann’s. The freezer is stuffed full of items, so I thought it reasonable to clear out a bit of food. Cooking this is mostly more of arranging and applying heat.

While I was making dinner, I also returned to the balloon model and spent a few hours trying to finish up the balloon part of the balloon. I also looked at some rigging plans for sailing ships to figure out how I wanted to rig the balloon. I decided to connect the ropes to a circular rope at the top with hooks I took from a spare set of chainplates I had for wooden ship models. I will then connect the ropes to another circle above the basket I have yet to build. The basket will be about 4″ square. Again, it is oversized, but this is a fantasy model, so we will wink at physics and gravity as often suggested by Douglas Adams.

I do watch some news on PBS and then return to the model and keep painting and building and trying to get a rigging plan in my mind.

I will rig six lines on Saturday and then sew in some stay between the main lines. I will then splice those to another circle rope to draw all the cords together, and then that will attach to the main basket, yet to be built. I have created a small platform, and I will suspend that on the main lines and plan to borrow some blocks from my HMS Victory kit to make a banner line to fly a flag controlled from the basket–I have not found the time to start the 1/100 scale model that needs a 16-month build. This also means creating a rope ladder to provide a means to reach the platform from the basket. I have an anchor that I want to have on the basket, but I am not sure I have room for a windlass in the basket. It is nice to work with one’s hands again after so much freezing.

I went to bed a bit early and read and finally slept. I had nightmares for the start of the night but did sleep finally.

This morning I took the catch-up dose of chemotherapy, and now I am done with Cycle 2. I will spend about seven days trying to get my health a bit more stable to start Cycle 3 on 10March2022. I managed to sleep another night without staying up to 2AM for the chemo. I get started about 8:30ish and read my email and some news. I did not do too much news as self-care. Can’t do too much war.

At 10, I take my last dose of chemotherapy for Cycle 2 and throw out the now empty bottle. I then open the packaging for Cycle 3 and put the new bottle in the bag of bottles for chemo. Ready for the next cycle.

The pain in my hands is gone, and the cold sensitivity is fading, finally. I can now hold a cold drink and drink cold water. My toes are not numb either. So I have survived Cycle 2 without disablement.

I manage the morning tasks. I have a yogurt for lunch and peanut butter on wheat toast for breakfast. But, of course, I always make a pot of coffee too.

Air Volvo travels to Forest Grove Rehab and Care Center at 3900 Pacific Highway, Room 44A, with a stop at McDonald’s for a chocolate shake and an order of fries. During the trip, none of the warnings are tripped on Air Volvo, and the extra-legal driving of my fellow Oregonians is kept to minor issues such as not using blinkers.

Yes, a tidepool fountain at the fast-food joint.

Susie is in bed as I am after lunchtime for her. Susie lets me know that she is not having a good day. Her tummy hurt earlier in the day, now it is OK, but Susie could not eat much. I ask her about various symptoms–including Covid-19, and she does not have any other problems now.

I made calls for her; she wanted to chat with people today. So, first, her mother, Leta, is on FaceTime. Then, “Call Barbara,” and I called Susie’s sister, and we talked while Barb was walking their newish dog, Sophia. Next, I connected with the Kopers, and we had a brief chat.

I then stepped out and found a chair and table in the rec room. The more permanent residents were doing Bingo in the hall. The facility is no longer in a Covid lockdown as there are no active cases, and so, while remaining apart at different tables, the residents can meet for games again. Thus, I got to hear them calling out Bingo numbers while I made a call.

I called Dawn, the hospice nurse at Bristol, for Susie and let her know that Susie was uncomfortable this morning. Dawn would look into it and call the nurses at the facility to monitor Susie and see if they need to take some action. The whole point of hospice is to be comfortable. It is not likely that Susie complained to the nurses and nurse aide, so they would miss this. You have to ask every day, “how are you?”.

Mariah sent me a few texts, and we met after I kissed, through a mask and with gloves on, Susie goodbye. It is always hard to leave, but I try to be there every day. I see most residents have few if any, visitors. I see a few visitors that, like me, come almost every day. So there is always traffic. Church groups and other folks could not come with the pandemic. I hope that they will be able to return when it is safer. Folks are a bit lonely.

Mariah and I have an early dinner. I have a terrible pulled pork over mashed that is the special for the day. The pork is good but drowned in an overly sweet sauce. I also have a Cuba Libre that is not very good. A total-fail for the Black Dog in Forest Grove. Mariah had wings, and a beer, which looked a better option. Stick to the Buffalo sauce was the only comment after two sweet sauced wings were not consumed.

I returned home after chatting with Mariah for an hour or so. Air Volvo did correct my lane handling once (yes, it has some limited self-driving capability). TV Highway has a few giggles that are not important, but Air Volvo always corrects if I don’t.

I took a nap and awoke to a second dinner; Corwin cooked a Blue Apron dinner. It was good and not huge, so I did manage it. Then, I watched the first news of the day on Bloomberg of the day.

I imagine Putin with a checklist for being a super villain. Yes, arrested children for protesting. Yes, shut down freedom of the press. Yes, invaded a local county. And now the new option is “shell the world’s largest nuclear power plant.”  I can see him looking up in my mind at his long desk, “check.”

Bloomberg is watching a total financial meltdown as the world is expecting now a major nuclear disaster. Money is moving into the US dollar and crashing yields to unimagined lows. The beginning of the world’s end is shown as just a crash in yields. I can’t save my 401K or anything at this point. Cash will be king.

President Biden and the French president make some calls. The shelling of the nuclear plant stops. The fires and damage are outlying buildings. We are not going to see the end of the world after all. The markets dive into safety halts. Cash is more like bishop now.

I turn off the news as my blood pressure needs no more testing today.

I read for a bit and then head back to my other chair at the table. Now that my hands seem to work again, I start working on my model of a fantasy balloon. First, I sew stitches around the edges of small pieces of felt. I then glue the pieces onto the balloon to look like patches to create more drama on the surface.

The paper I have torn into pieces and then glued to the craft ball does sort of look like a patchwork of leather, but it still looks more like paper than the surface of a balloon. I paint the surface with gray primer, and the felt too. I want the paint to stick and not just absorb the paper. I do this with a 1/2 inch brush I rarely get to use. I can see as the primer is absorbed and that some of the more paper-like features look more like a texture. Better. I paint 3/4 of the surface and will let it dry. I will finish the primer tomorrow.

The sewing made my hands hurt a bit. I have to be careful as I am more brittle now and can bruise easily. The pain and stiffness fade. I am just so happy to use my hands and have them work.

I read in bed after that and fell asleep without the chemo keeping me up; I am now on my break from chemo, my first night without it burning in my body. I sleep until a car warranty call on my cell wakes me in the morning.