I like to be alone in the car these days. Tonight it was snowing, the ground lightly covered. It looked like a nice place to be. And I wanted to slip into that good place and be good myself . . . and clean and soft. Almost to the point of tears- the tears that things are good and I am vibrant and capable and, for the short drive, better than I really am. I don’t think that makes sense. Perhaps it is that I am distanced from the person who interacts with the people of my life.

This is a distressing article for me – it’s right HERE – my father had prostate cancer and had hormonal therapy. He died of hepatocellular carcinoma, a rare cancer in the United States.

Here are some paragraphs from the article:

As a prostate cancer hormone therapy, estrogen is no longer used as much because of the risk of cardiovascular side effects. Many researchers believe that medical and surgical castration is safer and more effective than use of estrogen.

Estrogen causes increased blood clotting. Patients who opt for estrogen as their prostate cancer hormone therapy run the risk of blood clots in the legs, heart attacks, strokes, and other vascular accidents. Estrogen, however, is sometimes used to augment prostate cancer hormone therapy. The side effects of hormone therapy include cognitive disturbances which can result in poor memory, slower memory, depression, or confusion.

Patients who want to consider hormone therapy as their prostate cancer treatment should alert their doctor about other medical problems, such as: blood vessel disease, blood clotting disorders, high blood pressure, diabetes, high levels of calcium in the blood, and liver disease. Before starting hormone therapy, patients should always alert their doctors to whether or not they are taking any other type of medication that may interact with the prostate cancer treatment.

OH, AND THEN THERE IS THIS:

An article linking hormone therapy for prostate cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma is HERE. It is interesting and leads to a few “what ifs”.

I was impressed when I saw in a recent issue of U.S. News & World Report that the top 18 medical facilities in the country have programs that are investigating alternative medicine. Why did this get my attention and interest? Well, because it seems (to me) that sometimes physicians and administrators are fairly certain that it is their way or the highway – and their way is the conventional way, the bandwagon way.

They may be right; but they are not right to intimidate questioners from asking their questions. I am pleased to see that Johns Hopkins and Mayo’s are themselves now exploring and conducting studies on treatments that are outside western medicine’s traditional approach. Just yesterday came news of research into the claim that acupuncture may increase success rates in getting a fertilized embryo to attach to the uterine wall.

I write about this not because I want to go out and drink weird substances or rub things on my body or . . . well, do things that sound nutty. I write because I am a fan of the “it’s so crazy it might just work” openness of thought.  You know, it was a doctor in England who learned of a patient’s crazy tale that a Gypsy potion had helped his heart condition, looked into the situation and discovered digitalis – found in the foxglove plant.

This is a picture of a dog who had CP on him and needed a bath. His face has been deleted to protect his humiliation factor.

This is a picture of, oh, just some dog who has just had a nurse bath.

Sydney got cat urine on him last night. I don’t know much more than that because I don’t know much about cats, my mother’s 8 year foray into cat friendship notwithstanding. My daughter-in-law said, “Oh, my God, was he skunked?” But no, more sniffs indicated the sign of the dreaded cat liquid, which I shall call here “CP”. Actually, those would have been sniffs followed by the exclamation of “ew” and then running away.

I called my mother; she thought it was ha ha funny. Well, we will think about our revenge.

Last night I got caught up in a sudoku that I totally goofed up and then Dante’s Peak came on about midnight and suddenly I had an urge to watch it – apparently, I was suffering “fried brain sudoku stupid misplacement of a number” syndrome. So I watch a little and then decided I really should go to sleep, but I watched some more; then I took the plunge and pushed the remote button that would turn the TV off. It didn’t work, so I watched a little more and then turned the volume all the way down – that button did work. I pulled the blanket over my head and realized I really should go to the bathroom at that point rather than hoping the urge would abate until morning. Finally, I get up and go and when I come back, I turn off the TV which all along was only three steps (at most) from where I had been stretched out.

I stayed up too late and woke up all tired and eye-aching anyway. I guess once you are past the point of no return, you should just keep going. I botched my sleep and I botched my Mystery Science Theater 3000 movie experience. Rats!

No, rice is not being held in captivity; we do not have to liberate it. It is a program that combines one a usual Miss American concern (world hunger) with educational fun. My granddaughter and I have been playing off and on for a few weeks now. Sometimes we play individually; sometimes we play in concert. Anyway, if you click on the bowl above, you can see what I’m talking about.

I don’t know how high the levels go; John Sununu would probably top out, but we have made it to 47 or 48 before consistently goofing.

 I saw an advertisement for The Assassination of Jesse James and notice a scene where he appeared to have a rattlesnake around his wrist. For some reason, I Googled Jesse James and rattlesnake and one of the sites that came up was this newspaper article and clicked on it. Reading it was a little unnerving, but I did go to this website and that did not make me feel better. At the top on each of the special snake pages, you are offered a “free souvenir”; no, thank you.

It is the “Rocky” one – Hank, Dalmatian and Budweiser. Watch it again here.

There are times when I am listening to someone speak and they will interject a parenthetical “pardon the pun” and go on. For my part, sometimes I mentally smack my forehead when I realize I had not caught it. Ever now and then, I will be reading and there will be a real parenthetical “pardon the pun” and I will usually go on because there is no reason to stop reading. However, sometimes the phrase surprises me because I am not aware of a pun. I will go back and it I still don’t get it, I will have to force myself to not linger forever trying to identify that pun.

Here’s one in a recent blog post: Digital downloads cost $8.99 on Amazon (free from Limewire or a friend), CDs average $10.50, but vinyl LPs sell for a whopping $14.00 a pop (pardon the pun).

So, where is the pun? I don’t get it. Is my mind a plodding one, wandering in a blogging world?

UPDATE: Okay, I’ve got it.  After someone remarked that he could not see a pun either,  I thought some more about it and considered perhaps the pop referred to pop music – or maybe a paternal parent was forking over the cash. I went back to the post from which this came and in the paragraph above was a reference to a 15-year-old’s remark that music  “sound(s) better on vinyl, even with the crackles and pops and hisses.”

On the pun scale, I give it a “hiss”.

“the dog”  . . . .”the dog”?  For crying out loud; he’s not “the dog”, he is Sydney and he gets fed every morning and evening. Today it was rice and browned ground beef and chopped up chicken and dog food for ‘sensitive stomachs’ all mixed up and microwaved. Now he is outside and I am waiting for him to come in, settle down and sleep. We have been through this out and in process several times this morning. Now he is in – again – and staring at the opposite end of the sofa. We have walking around on some afghans . . . circling . . . and down in a curled up position, although his head is still up, not yet resting on paws. YES! Houston, we have head on paws. We are a go for nap . . . we think.

Are you wondering about the punctuation in the first part of this post? Well, I am. I am fairly certain that we were taught to put punctuation outside of quotation marks in circumstances where the quoted section was not actually the complete sentence. I am confusing myself; I am going to research this. Not that doing this will get the house cleaning or get any food cooked, but I think it’s important.