A Rude Intrusion :: Day 9

This is my blog for day 9 of cancer treatment, Tuesday, 18 Jul 2017.

Slept well last night, but I am not hungry at all. Yet I have to get in about 800 calories this morning. Rats. Okay, at least a little. Had cereal, milk and a slice of banana bread mid-morning. Think I'll lean on the meat at lunchtime - Reuben sandwich anyone?

For today's YouTube segment, here, I thought I'd add a little Groucho . . . Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx, that is. Noted in Wikipedia as an "American writer, comedian, stage, film and television star. He was known as a master of quick wit and is widely considered one of the best comedians of the modern era. His rapid-fire, often impromptu delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers and imitators." This clip is damned funny, but definitely is not "politically correct". Note that his "three on a midget" remark comes from the bad luck of lighting three cigarettes on the same match (see here). With most of us no longer deciding to smoke, I'd say this has pretty well gone out of common knowledge and common usage. Or is it simply that I am now a product of older times?

Have to add one more, as well: John Philip Sousa's Stars And Stripes Forever, here, as performed by the United States Marine Band, the band he once led. Ran across this today, and I just could not pass up posting it for you. One of the finest bands, playing one of the finest songs!

Food came in at just over 2400 calories today, making me "good" for the day. It may have helped that we had Nancy's Pizza tonight . . . and it, too, was good! Excellent, in fact! (For those of you who don't know Nancy's Pizza, it's a Chicago-area franchise. It's not my wife Nancy's pizza.)

Went to a radiation treatment and a visit with the oncologist. Both went well. My blood work seems to have come back in the proper ranges, except for platelets, which are slightly below where they should be (142 in a range of from 150-450). They'll probably adjust the amount of chemo I get if my hearing continues to wane. But it (the hearing) also may come back next week. Only time will tell.

Funny thing - when I go for my next chemo treatment (Tue, 1 Aug 2017) it will be after my 17th radiation treatment - I'll be halfway done! I really don't want my days to fly by, I want to live them all, fully, but 1 Aug will be a red-letter day (though I realize the most difficult days may follow).

And here, at the end of the night, you get a poem, too! It's my Song Of An Aging Poet . . . written what is now a long, long time ago.

The Song Of An Aging Poet

The aging poet sadly sat there at this, his
Make-shift desk-table in the dining room
Centered in his comfortable suburban house
In an atmosphere of despair and gloom.

He despaired of writing, and writing this, his
First return to verse in too many years
Fearing the result of his work may lead him
To discover hidden feelings; feel, perhaps, tears.

Emotion, both friend and fiend, was hidden
Down inside, somewhere below his soul
Waiting to be freed from it’s weighty chains
To return in triumph and make him whole.

“Fool”, said he to he himself, the world
You view, a world of fact, you observe
Is missing many important things, but
Can you say that? Do you have the nerve?

Do you dare to dig up special events from
Your long childhood? Do you even dare
Write about things that, to you, are important?
Do you think any other stranger will care?

Gloom rejoiced as he sat with the blank
Page and pencil, simple tools of his art
Staring back at him, lining his tired eyes
Teasing him, daring him that he start.

Rhyme, oh hell, rhyme would you, you . . .
Just continue to taunt, insult and tease!
Wouldn’t it be a lot easier on us all to
Be Carl Sandburg and rhyme when we please?

But wait just a minute; hold that thought
Look what I’ve got written on the page!
Can it be that I’ve actually accomplished
The first one? Passed the first stage?

“Well, for the love of Mike”, he said.
“Look! It can be done! I’m through!”
The second, the third, the ninth, to follow
The Seventeenth, Two-Hundred Seventh, too!

Maybe I’ll write a ton and paste them
Together in a fancy-covered book
Fly from town-to-town for readings
With people just dying for a look!


I don’t think so. . . .

© 2000 Mark R. Dopita

For convenience sake, here a running list of all of the links I've posted to YouTube in the past few days:

According to Plan, Carolyn Arends - Link

Because We've Ended As Lovers, Larry Carlton & Steve Lukather - Link
Groucho Movie Clips - Link
Lookin' At The World Through A Windshield, Bill Kirchen - Link

My Funny Valentine, Kristin Chenoweth - Link

My Funny Valentine, Miles Davis - Link
Route 66, Asleep at The Wheel - Link
Shim, Sham, Shimmy (dance) to Tain't What You Do, Jimmy Lunceford - Link
St Louis Blues, Stephanie Trick & Paolo Alderighi - Link
Starts and Stripes Forever, United States Marine Band - Link
That's Jazz, Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong & The All Stars - Link
Time to Blow, From That Thing You Do - Link