Allegiance

Rooting through some of the historical papers of my family, I came across a couple of Declarations of Intentions of one of my great-grandfathers and his brother to become a US citizen 'renouncing forever all allegiance and fidelity to all foreign princes particularly Wilhelm, first Emperor of Germany', dated March, 1880. I assume my other German great-grandfather, although he had a Polish name, coming from Bergfriede Prussia, signed a similar one somewhat later though before fathering a Wilhelminia (my grandmother).Way to show your renunciation of allegiance, Great- Grandpa! but by then Wilhelm the second was in power. I know he came after his first son was born in Germany (1890). He had a second son in the US in 1891.By 1910 ( I have the census record for his street), he had 8 living children  ages 20 down to 4. My grandmother, baby number 4, was 13.

Allegiance, such a strange word. For my first couple of years in school in NY state, we dutifully pledged allegiance to the flag every morning. When I was in first grade, initially there was no flag, a fact my teacher brought up several times, as the new flag was still in production showing all 50 stars as opposed to the one showing just 48  stars we used the year before. If you asked me exactly what I was pledging, I would have to tell you that I had absolutely no idea. Once I moved to Michigan, I don't remember pledging every morning though maybe I just forgot.

But this will be no more for Michigan school children. A bill was already passed in one of the houses of the Michigan legislature making the pledge mandatory for all children, every morning, even for high schoolers. There will be inspections to make sure there is a flag displayed in every classroom. It will be up to the student to opt out for religious  reasons or if they are citizens from another country (very common in Ann Arbor with all the foreign grad students). So while Rome burns, a special committee is formed to make sure the fire hoses match the fireman's uniform? Way to focus on what is important, Michigan House!

A nun on the run

Sometimes I wish I would take my camera on my runs. My longest run since I had cancer took me within a mile of a convent of an order (Dominican) that still dresses in habits, rare these days. A nun dressed in full white dress with a black top piece, wearing long white underwear under the dress with black boots and a black coat or cape RAN by me. I saw her face just for a second. It appeared that she had gray hair. I thought, just great, an elderly nun can outrun me though she was taller than me and definitely thinner. I ran behind her for a long time on the 'scenic beauty' road. As it was Sunday morning, I think I saw only one car the entire time I was out there. She had some difficulty with the hills and would walk up them but still I couldn't catch up. She finally turned around and faced me smiling. Her hair wasn't gray but blonde (and she is definitely younger than I) and it looked like she was wearing a brown bonnet under the black shawl. Maybe she isn't a nun at all but Amish? Amish somehow make their way to our Farmer's Market so they must live near by.. I wouldn't think that running on a Sunday morning would be something they would approve of. When I got back, I looked up the Dominican habit, looked just like what I saw. And the Amish, they favor black or brown, never white. But such a strange sight!

Doing my exercise routine after such a long break made me very sore this morning. Fortunately after a few minutes of running, the endorphins kick in and I don't feel it.

We had lunch with Josh at our favorite sushi place, always nice.

A lazy day otherwise.

LiveStrong

Today at the Y they were having a spinathon to raise money for the LiveStrong classes.  These classes are for cancer survivors to help regain their strength after cancer treatment with the help of exercise counselors who work with the survivor individually and in groups. Also you work out with people who have gone through similar treatment as yourself so there is a sense of camaraderie.  I started my class along with my neighbor who had the same diagnosis as I and had gone through the same chemo, while I was doing radiation. Aside from the fatigue probably due to my low red blood cell count, I had lost muscle mass, endurance and what I didn't realize, my sense of balance.  Although I was the strongest survivor (in the amount of weight I could lift), I could not balance on one foot for more than a few seconds. Alumni were asked to come to share their stories to motivate the spinners. I told them I would be happy to come there at 9 am but somehow this was changed to before 8. Too early for me and besides, my car was covered with a thick coat of frost.
But I am glad I went even though it is a tad condescending to a cheer a person for just surviving. The spinners were quite earnest and good for them! Last year they raised enough money to have the program for a year. One of my fellow speakers looked very familiar. Turns out she had been in a support group in the beginning with me and said how helpful I had been to her as I was able to tell her things that her doctors chose not to share with her. She had a much more dire prognosis than I but I see she has survived. There was a wall with names that the people were spinning for. I saw the name of a woman who was on a running relay team with me; my last race. I had no idea she had had cancer. While I was doing chemo, Naomi's basketball team had a fundraiser for this program at the Y. My friends came out to see Naomi play in the fundraising game though I think I had to buy all their tickets, but no matter, they came out.

And now I have a bright yellow T-shirt and mug along with a water bottle and gym bag. Cancer Bling!

It is a pretty fall day. Normally I would be out there running but I spent some time lifting weights instead.

11-11-11

We had our first snow yesterday. Very large flakes slowly floating to the ground where there was just a dusting this morning. Part of the past 3 days has been spent with Maya. Because of her delays, she will receive speech therapy twice a month and can go to an enrichment class weekly. Unfortunately the classes more appropriate for her were closed so we took the only one left, a class for ages birth to 5 with most of the participants between two and three. As Naomi had other things to do, I took Maya to the first class held in a kid's dreamland: lots of indoor play equipment, a train center, a kitchen center full of kid sized pretend appliances, every toy one could imagine. Every week there is an art project but Maya was a bit young for that. She zipped from activity to activity excitedly. There was a whole assortment of pretend food which Maya promptly mouthed. All mouthed toys have to be disinfected so that kept me busy. She especially enjoyed snack time. There is a circle time in which they sing songs that the kids can participate in. She can clap and raise her arms when asked to in the songs but that's about it. She enjoyed watching the others. There is only  one child younger than her though Maya is taller than some of the two year olds (she is tall and thin for her age).She did enjoy herself and the moms there seemed very friendly even to this old grandma.

So how do you make a one year old speak when they won't or can't? I sat in on her therapy session. Lots of repetition and association of certain movements with words and signals. I am not sure that this will speed up her development but we will see.

This morning when I was watching her, she amused herself transferring little candy packets from one box to a bucket one by one for 30 minutes straight back and forth. During testing, she was downgraded for refusing to put items in a bucket.

Her idea of a joke: she will offer up an object to you but soon as you look like you are going to take it, she whips the hand back and laughs.

As soon as I found another person to do my hair and finally get it colored and cut, my old hairdresser offers her services at her house. The new one who looks like just a slightly older Naomi, examined my hair and said that there was absolutely no curl left to it, only a bit of a wave in part of it. So I didn't even get to keep the one gift from cancer, curly hair, very long. I went back to the page boy I had before cancer. As for my hair, I am trying to get used to it. I do like the color. It looks exactly like my wig did.

We have had a string of minor victories here: the new baby is definitely a girl (as opposed to probably a girl) and added bonus, it has a spine, not visualized on the first ultrasound. We had received an annoying notice that we were being fined by being non-compliant with the condo association but that was taken care of and no fine needs to be paid. One of our chief sources of cash had taken a severe nose dive the month before but has almost recovered. Josh's medical problem is not as serious as first surmised (though still worrisome to me). Naomi has found a holiday job though it will be long hours and she will need a car. I was asked to edit a book, which I did hopefully to everyone's satisfaction. And tomorrow, I will give a talk on how LiveStrong helped my recovery.

Pushing back the foreskins of science

Over the years, we had various company logos and slogans that we routinely made fun of. These slogans usually were just empty fluff:

PEOPLE WHO CARE (not!)

THE PATIENT IS WAITING (but the stockholder waits for nothing)

We proposed alternate slogans. My contribution is the title above.

Recent pushbacks:

Injecting a substance that blocks the gene that is responsible for blood flow to the fat cell. Without the blood flow, the fat cell dies. This worked in monkeys. Human trials will begin soon.

On the Triple Negative Breast Cancer front: a variant of the herpes virus selectively kills only TNBC cells in vitro (petri dishes) and in mouse xenografts (human cancer cells grafted onto mice).


Busy day here. Some Maya duties and later I will deal with my hair.

Dreamland

Stuff of nightmares: roof of Notre Dame Paris April 2002

Le Lapin Agile et la dame non agile: Monmartre

Villandry: Loire Valley: On my 49th birthday

More gardens and the town of Villandry

As said before, I hate the night. Either I am worrying about this and that, I am reading to concentrate on something else or I am having nightmares. Last night, I dreamt I was on a soccer team but the coach would not let me play though promises were thrown my way. I couldn't even see the game as it progressed as it was in some cellar that only players could enter. At half time, I said that I should be able to start, shouldn't I? the second half. Well the game was close, so no. But if it were not close, I could maybe play defense. (when I was coach, I would let the weakest player play offense). I woke up thinking how unfair this was. when I was coach, my teams usually won and then I remembered: I never have played soccer in my life and if I did, my coaching notwithstanding, I would suck. But usually in my dreams, I am travelling. And usually I am running, 60 miles at a time. and I go down the same paths which have no basis in reality. I visit places that don't exist but I still go back to the same ones. They all seem so familiar.

But morning comes, my favorite time, and I am up and happy to have my coffee prepared for me while I do my one allotted puzzle and troll the internet. My new BFF, the cable guy, was here for almost 2 hours replacing almost everything. Of the 6 visits we've had in the past 3 or 4 months, this one has been here 3 times. I don't need to show him where anything is: he knows the house now. Let's hope that 6 times the charm. My running was delayed until the afternoon. I dressed for the 40s and felt uncomfortable most of the run. Turns out that it was almost 70 degrees out.

Today is Maya's first speech therapy. At the same time, my son will hopefully be getting some answers to a medical concern.

You Will Be Fit!!!!!

I understand the extra costs to health care that smokers and overweight people incur and that companies that help their employees with insurance premiums have an incentive to help rid these people of bad habits but Josh's company seems to have gone too far. In order to receive a sizeable discount, they don't just take your word that you and your family members are non-smokers, a blood test needs to be taken screening for smoking residue. Overweight people can enroll in WeightWatchers or be fitted with a  computer chipped pedometer that reads into a central database making sure there is enough movement daily. Josh is not overweight but he took one of the pedometers for fun and now sees how many steps he takes. Ms. Maya was running in circles around his house so he fitted her with it: lots of little steps but  her fascination with buttons annulled his steps for the day.
Our insurance so far is not so invasive. In return for filling out a questionnaire with our weight and cholesterol results, we get a minor discount.

Again I am waiting for the cable guy. For the sixth time! We went an entire two weeks without any outages but for the past 3 days, we have had several. Yesterday, the computer and phone were out for 3 hours.

I am an election day widow again. Steve left well before 6 am and might not return until midnight to be an election official. Burning issue here: whether the city should pay for the maintenance for the sidewalks rather than the homeowner whose property they cross. The city came through our neighborhood spray painting bad blocks at $150 a piece just a few years ago. A neighbor and I followed them looking at how arbitrary these markings were. Totally crumbled blocks ignored but minor chips marked. Number one reason for sidewalk damage? City trees but you are not allowed to kill them, just pay for the damage they do. So it would probably be fair for the city to pay for all of this but annoying as we just paid for the damage caused by Ms. Norway Maple. As the bond issue is tied to a bridge repair request (why not separate bonds?)it might not get passed.

Also there is a growing sentiment to cast out all city council members responsible for writing this absurd crosswalk law. If anyone is seen to approach, not just enter a crosswalk, cars have to stop even if the speed limit is 40 and the road is a 5 lane state trunk line. As could be predicted, numerous accidents have occurred because of this on the big road near our house as drivers did not interpret correctly what 'approaching' means and out of city drivers had no idea exactly what our bizarre laws entail. No one has died yet but pedestrians who thought that everyone is going to stop for them have been narrowly missed. Also these crosswalks are not all lit at night. Lots of rear enders. What they need to do if they insist on the law is having the flashing overhead lights so it is clear to all that they need to stop. These are expensive but the lawsuit just waiting to happen will be expensive for the city too.

I did have nice weather yesterday to take Ms. Maya to the park. I am trying to encourage speaking with no success. She is getting good at copying my hand signals however. Her first therapy session is tomorrow. We will see what 'experts' can do.

Steve with Naomi at the same age Maya is now. Maya's hair finally looks like it is beginning to grow but her mom had more hair at 3 months