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A new topic...Mark has been facing a new challenge.

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Just for the eyes of our family: the challenge of prostate cancer. Since the beginning of May, last spring, Mark has earned so much respect from me. He has bravely faced his diagnosis of prostate cancer. He had surgery in July, and now in August, he is recovering from that. I am so proud of how he is dealing with the whole thing. He (thankfully) seems to have caught it early, thanks to his regular yearly physical. His PSA was slightly elevated and his biopsy came back showing cancer in four of twelve cores in his prostate. He had the option of radiation or surgery, and he opted for surgery. We are now post-surgery by exactly one month, so I can report good progress at this point. We have a follow-up appointment coming up soon, and are hopeful that the reports are good. Since I have not discussed it since the diagnosis and surgery, I felt that I should start the dialog here. He is being so proactive and is working hard to do everything he can to get past it all. His diet has flip
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Outline for my book. A start.

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Getting coffee and getting started. So today is the day that I will be making a rough outline for what I would like to cover in my book. I genuinely like the way that George Carlin makes his life an interesting set of personal vignettes. I think I may try to do something similar with my life. I have so many little chapters that need my insight to kind of flesh them out. I remember my work like a crazy quilt of happenings. It's nothing in particular, but all together it is a pretty cool life lived in a patchwork of history that will never be repeated. I came to this life during the Eisenhower years, and lived during the 60's and 70's as a child and a youth. Wow, I feel lucky to have been here for all of that! I started using technology around the same time that Bill Gates and Steve Jobs came on the scene as young geniuses. I hope that some of that history rubbed off on me since I was their contemporary. I have a lot of personal stories that I can intertwine with all of t
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I have made a really big decision as of today. Thanks to the late George Carlin.

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So I have decided to write a story. The story will be about the life I have led. I guess if I were famous, I might call it a "memoir", but that seems a bit presumptuous for someone who is just a lady who has led what most would call a normal life. I will figure out what the title is later, and I will figure out another word for this than "memoir" too. I promise. But the first thing that I need (I remember this from my own seat time in my high school and college English classes - thanks teachers!) is an outline. So, first things first. And off I go. Before I go, let me just tell you why I am thanking George Carlin. I was reading the forward to his autobiography (unfinished before his death, and a friend had to take the project over.) I read a startling sentence. He started it at age 50. It took him a very long time to get partway done. I feel a bit of urgency now that I am over 60 years old. So...it's a project long overdue. I don't know if it will be i
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Weekend reflections.

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It has been a very peaceful Sunday overall, but I don't think that Mark and I are particularly fast learners sometimes. We have noticed since we have been retired how much more pleasant it is to get out in our community on weekdays as opposed to weekends. Yet today, instead of just staying around home, we went roamin' around town. Along with everyone else. The coolest thing about being retired is having the ability to go out during the day on weekdays to shop. Grocery stores are (if not empty) at least tolerably less busy. Traffic is a zillion times better during the weekdays. Also, we don't have to exercise with everyone else in the city at the rec center on weekdays, only the health conscious Moms and Senior Citizens. There are relatively few others in there. Today we found a much different crowd, and it looked like a lot of guys who were maybe deprived of  any sports to watch on TV and were out to find a pickup basketball game in the gym or were perhaps involved
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Uh oh, time for more words to come out now!

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Well, a few more things have been happening, so I guess I need to get busy writing. First of all, and most important - it is Pi Day today! Does that mean I ate pie? Well, yes it does. The diner up the street. I had eaten a lot of veggies today, and so I gave myself permission to eat a piece of fruit pie for dinner. I rarely ever eat pie (to my eternal sadness) because I have diabetes. I did eat it and thoroughly enjoyed it and I feel that I should give credit for it...I just drove down to good ol' Mama's Daughter's Diner up on Hebron to pick up a slice. Apple Crumb pie and a good cup of coffee at home for dinner. Many years, I would make a pilgrimage on Pi Day: sometimes to Emporium pies, or to Buttermilk Sky, or to Judy's in Grapevine. This year I wanted to stay closer to home and so I just did the easiest thing possible. I have to say, they did not disappoint! Apple Crumb pie! Other than pie, another thing that brought me some real happiness today w
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What a beautiful week.

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I know that a lot of the Metroplex as well as a lot of the entire country is STILL under the influence of the massive flu epidemic. It's the worst by far that we have seen in many years, and it is part of the reason that I always dread the months of January and February. The fact of the matter is that we are now into MARCH and to me that always signals the worst of the flu season coming to an end, mercifully. It also signals the beginning of the spring season...even if we aren't officially there. I see flowers in my front yard, and the grass is green. It's been very rainy, but even if the days have been drippy and overcast, we are starting to see the sun more frequently. For those folks who have a bit of seasonal affective disorder like I think I do (although nobody has really diagnosed that!) we may be in for a whole spring and summer season full of sunshine now. So get ready for a beautiful Texas sunny season, and let it spark a new energy and new ambition. I will be
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An underappreciated quality of youth.....stamina!

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Getting ready for retirement, last May. As I rapidly approach my 60th birthday and my mother has recently celebrated her 80th, I realize that I am losing a quality that I really didn't appreciate as much as I should when I had it at 100%, and that is stamina. During my working years right after college, I seemed to be able to do it all. I could work full-time, drive from Denton to Fort Worth for my job, help out with my husband's job as a high school marching band director (teaching the color guard), have three children and raise them with energy to spare, go to the grocery store, etc., etc. I had boundless exuberance for all kinds of things. Three generations of our ladies. Do you ever feel like you have lost a step or two? It's probably very common - my Mom said that she notices it more about every 10 years of her life. Just a bit less ability, or feeling a bit slower. She is doing very well at 80, but I think she is unusually perky for her age. (I know sever
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