April 17, 2024
First, a big thank you to the anonymous person(s) who sent a package of stress balls and a pound of Atomic Fireballs from Amazon. I like the variety of stress balls and have put them to good use, and I’ve had to limit myself to 2 fireballs each time, so I don’t just empty the bag in a few days. 🙂 April is (has been) basically my month off from treatments, scans, appointments, etc., and it’s going pretty well. After a little over a week, I noticed that I’m having less pain so it looks like most of the discomfort I was feeling was from the radiation treatments. DeeGee and I noticed some browning around my waist from the treatment but it hasn’t seemed to cause me any problems. Since noticing less pain, I’ve learned that it’s not exactly best practice to just stop pain pills because my brain says, “Why not, you don’t need them any more.” My body followed up with quite a few things that pretty much made me feel sick and put me on the couch for a day before I realized what was happening. So, I’ve learned that tapering off of them works best for me and now the worst of it I believe is just some watery eyes occasionally but I guess that could be the pollen, too. It’s nice not to have pain a part of my daily life and only some occasional discomfort. I’m hoping the radiation keeps working through the month off like my doctors have said and that my main rectal tumor has been at least damaged and shrunk by the treatments. More scans will start up in May and we’ll decide where we go next from there.
For now though, I’m really just trying to enjoy a month of not really thinking about it often and enjoying time doing things. Right after Easter, I got a few garden plants in the ground (early for me). That was nice because I didn’t have anything last year because I was behind and not feeling good and then everything just kinda landed on me and a garden wasn’t in my list of priorities. I’ve had a garden of some type ever since we’ve been married. It started out with a good size layout, and long story short, there was custom irrigation and custom made tomato cages that I built when they got about 6-8 feet tall. Turns out you can also pinch them off, I learned that in later years. It has moved around over time and now I’d call it an old flower bed garden that’s close enough to tend without really having to put a lot of effort into it. It is close enough to remind me it is there, so I don’t forget. Plus, it makes me happy to see. I held back and just bought enough to have correct spacing this year. Three tomato plants of different varieties and hot versions of banana and cajun bell peppers (I’ve never tried the hot bells before) along with what is supposed to be some type of giant sized jalapeño that I thought might be interesting. I’ve never liked a lot of chemicals and sprays on my plants, so I try to keep them organic and to a minimum, but this year I did add some organic fertilizer as well. I’ve never been a soil sample taking kinda guy, but I have occasionally mixed some of my own kitchen scrap compost into this area over the years. I’m more of a try to keep an eye on it and take what you’re given kinda gardener. Although, I do battle the horn worms every year without fail. That kinda feels like a natural thing though. I’ve even been after them at night with a flashlight before. I also find pleasure in the mixture of some of my own tomato cages I’ve kept for years and some that are actually 3 generations old as well. I like what my garden produces and occasionally eating stuff right off the vine, brings back really good old memories (now you also know why I try to resist chemicals, too). I really should grow a few spring onions to eat out of the ground because pulling and peeling those and eating them sometimes with a little salt is literally my first gardening memory and they instantly take me back to that anytime I eat a few from the store like that.
We also got our annual porch ferns which I like to take care of every year and see how long and how big I can get them (not that it’s a competition with myself only in that it kinda really is). This year they’re getting a little fertilizer, too, and we’ll see what difference it makes. A little while after all that I planted some of the catnip I rooted to fill out a second big pot and start on a third for the cats. That seems to be going well. At some point, I think I’ll create a bed of it for them to enjoy, too. I started a handful more cuttings to keep it going as well. I started a few rose cuttings, too. But those are kinda hit and miss. Mostly because I miss thinking about taking care of them at some point and they die. However, I have grown 3 successful bushes from rooting cuttings and that I get new cuttings from so at least I know I’m capable of doing it as long as I can remember they exist through the whole process. 🙂
Feeling better has let me help with a few projects around the house and put the work clothes to good use again (gardening did that, too) so that’s felt nice as well. Sarah-Lauren and Adam brought me some comics from the Georgia Comic Con in Columbus when they went and that was a nice throwback to my old comic book days. A couple with holographic covers, a Batman, and an Iron Man that’s a little older than I am (with all the great old ads in it like Grit). I haven’t read them yet but I have felt and appreciated all the different types of paper, print, coatings, etc. that they have along with the lettering and artwork. There’s really nothing like actually holding printed things someone made a few years or a few decades ago that are still around. I’ve read on-line comics but they will never have that feel for sure. So all in all, April has been a pretty good month so far, and I’m hoping to finish it up at least as good as it’s been if not a little bit better.
Current Interests: Mysteries of the Abandoned Seasons 1-5+. I’ve discovered most of these abandoned places will fall into a couple categories: war (especially WW2) and mining. I enjoyed the Shukov Tower episode. How It’s Made(still) I enjoy the ones with automation and that show a good bit of some manufacturing process especially any with conveyor systems. Seasons 1-3+. Ghost pepper and regular peppered beef jerky. Easter candy. LEGO Boba Fett’s Starship Microfighter. Big Bang Theory Season 10.
P.S.: The Amazon Fallout series. 😀 My second favorite game of all time (first: Tetris) I’ve been fascinated especially by the lore and canon of it since the first game in the 90s through Fallout 4 which I logged hundreds of hours in to Fallout 76 which I’ll say is still ok at best. But the series has been great with what we’ve (DeeGee is watching it with me) seen so far. Has a great feel to it and stays reasonably authentic while hopefully being able to interest people who have no idea about its history, too.
