Saturday, August 12, 2017

A Rude Intrusion :: Day 34

This is my blog for day 34 of cancer treatment, Saturday, 12 Aug 2017.

Free day again today! Tim is coming over as Nancy has a wedding shower for our friend's daughter (and our friend), Lindsay Kelderhouse.

I awoke early today, let the dog out, fed the dog and the cat, and then fed myself. Tube feedings aren't as strange as they once were (though I still feel somewhat dehumanized with a tube sticking straight out of my gut), and I'm doing them three times a day. It's not nearly enough to maintain my weight, but it'll have to do. I can still drink water, and apple juice still tastes okay (and has a few calories), but I haven't tried drinking milk for a few days. Naturally, I had a small portion of a Culver's shake in that time (it would never have lasted as long as it did before I got sick), so milk should still go down alright. Perhaps I'll try a little bit as a mid-morning snack.

Am watching the PGA again, now at the end of the day. I cannot believe what is happening to Jason Day. Quadruple bogey! He just took himself right out of the tournament, and made me feel really good about the way I used to play. Badly. (Just kidding, of course.) But the way they've set this course up, I would shoot 230.

There was a short (and easy) nine-hole course in Mount Prospect years ago at Old Orchard Country Club I used to play with they guys. It was called "The Sporty Nine". We'd go out in groups of four or more, sometimes a full seven or eight, and work at playing the game. I used my dad's old golf clubs, most likely purchased in the late 40's, and not in really good shape. But I'd give things a try.

The woods were labelled "niblick", "mashie", "spoon" and "brassie", I guess in the manner that the Scots first named them. I could never really hit the driver - it always ballooned out to the right in a dramatic slice - but I could hit a 3-wood fairly straight. I wasn't good with the long irons, but could generally chip and put fairly well. But the game wasn't the part I enjoyed the most. It was the atmosphere.

John Feinstein wrote a book called A Good Walk Spoiled: My Days and Nights on the PGA Tour. That describes the way I felt about it. To get out on the course was to be in nature. And I was with friends, so there was a level of camaraderie about the day that was unmatched. We set things up so that nobody ever shot more than a ten on any given hole (get the idea about our skill level?), and the high score bought the first pitcher of beer once we were through. We always ended up in the bar, though none of us drank to excess; it was simply a good way to talk about the few good shots we'd made that day.

And that was what kept me coming back: that one great drive, the putt that went in from a long ways away, the chip that got to within two feet. Or perhaps the really ridiculous thing one of the other guys did. But it was enough to keep us coming back, week after week, for a couple of years, until enough of us were either married or really involved with our girlfriends/fiancés. (How do you make a breve "e" in Blogger without copying it from somewhere?) I guess those were my salad days, with regard to golf.

Tim came over and gave me a hand in the basement today. We're moving things around, cleaning up some of the spaces and generally trying to get better organized. I'm the biggest offender, I'd suppose. But I am going to look through all of the boxes of "stuff" that we have, giving it to the kids (should they want it), sending some things to resale shops, selling a handful on eBay and tossing a bit. There are boxes that came over with my dad in 2003-04 that have never been opened. I cannot imagine that there's anything in them that we need, though there are some things we may want. I think that's the point at which we separate ourselves from them.

Somebody once said, Happiness is not having the things you want, it's wanting the things you have. I'm going to try to practice that.

Today's YouTube video has to be (what else?), I'm Alright, by Kenny Loggins, from the movie Caddyshack - Link.

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
And I Love Her - Link
Apollo 11 launch - Link
Back In You Own Back Yard, Al Jolson - Link
Because We've Ended As Lovers, Larry Carlton & Steve Lukather - Link
Blessings, Laura Story - Link
Comfortably Numb, Pink Floyd - Link
Cross Road Blues, Robert Johnson Link
Crossroads, Eric Clapton and Cream Link
Cry Me A River, Joe Cocker - Link
Cry Me A River, Diana Krall - Link
Gentle On My Mind, Glen Campbell - Link
Groucho Movie Clips - Link
I'm Alright, Kenny Loggins - Link
I Love Being Here With You, Diana Krall - Link
In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening, Bing Crosby and Jane Wyman - Link
In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening, Bing Crosby and Jane Wyman, from the movie Here Comes the Groom  - Link
Karn Evil 9, 1st Impression, Part 1, An International Collaboration - Link
Limbo Jazz, Coleman Hawkins and Duke Ellington - Link
Living in the Past, Jethro Tull - Link
Lookin' At The World Through A Windshield, Bill Kirchen - Link
Montana/We Are Not Alone, Univ. of Montana Percussion Ensemble - Link
My Funny Valentine, Kristin Chenoweth - Link
My Funny Valentine, Miles Davis - Link
On The Street Where You Live, Dean Martin - Link
Powdermilk Biscuit Break, Garrison Keillor, et al - Link
Questions 67 and 68, Chicago - Link
Route 66, Asleep at The Wheel - Link
She Used To Be Mine, Sara Bareilles - Link
Shim, Sham, Shimmy (dance) to Tain't What You Do, Jimmy Lunceford - Link
Sisters, Bette Midler and Linda Ronstadt - Link
Sisters, from White Christmas - Link
Sixteen Tons, Tennessee Ernie Ford - Link
St Louis Blues, Stephanie Trick & Paolo Alderighi - Link
Standing at the Crossroads, Elmore James - Link
Starts and Stripes Forever, United States Marine Band - Link
Sweet Georgia Brown, Wynton Marsalis/Mark O'Connor - Link
That's Jazz, Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong & The All Stars - Link
Time, Pink Floyd - Link
Time to Blow, From That Thing You Do - Link
Truck Drivin' Man, Buck Owens - Link
Truck Drivin' Man, the Don Kelley Band - Link
Truck Drivin' Man, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen - Link
War, Edwin Starr - Link
Your Love Is My Saving GraceKristin Chenoweth Link
Zappa Medly, George Duke - Link

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