On file

This weekend Jeff and I had a few quiet days together for the first time in a long while. We puttered around, companionably doing housework, watched a couple of movies, walked to the library. We've begun going through our household filing cabinet, set up twenty-five years ago with a great sense of control over our lives. Like all systems, it required (but never got) regular maintenance and grew less useful over the years. Tackling it is a good warm-up for hitting my writing files, which are gargantuan by comparison. The nice thing about this chore is it serves as a panorama of our lives together. The first batch of files contained School-Nathan, School-Jesse, School-Valarie, Plumbing & Wiring, Entertainment, Getaways-Washington, Getaways-Not Washington, Projects. We reduced them by a good 12 inches. Some of what got saved: the diagrams for how to dance the tango and the rhumba--someday we may dance again; the sketch of the rose arbor we built for our house in Port Townsend, the sketch of the reading couch and matching cabinet built for our Ballard house in Seattle; the sketch of the sweet little patio refuge we made with cedar, pebbles and a curving brick planter for our house near Children's Hospital. We realized in looking through them how much energy we had then, what an adventure it was to imagine and create, how important home has always been to us. The most intriguing thing we tossed out was a government pamphlet on How to Slaughter Beef. I promise you I have never had the slightest intention of slaughtering a beef, and now, without that pamphlet I can plead ignorance of having the slightest idea how to do it in the future. Amazing what a person can free themselves of with a little judicious sorting.

Today I'm seeing the smoothie naturopath to see what ideas he may have for dealing with my night time stomach aches. The lining of the stomach and intestines, as fast growing cells, take a hit with chemo just like the cancer. This past week I was given a $6800 shot to stimulate my bone marrow to make more white blood cells--a standard treatment after chemo sessions. Probably you're wondering like we do--what do people without insurance do??!!

May you have a nice Thanksgiving with someone dear to you. The Hamms are heading to Seattle for dinner with Jeff's brother and his family and all our children. I'll be packing along my healing quilt, a heating pad and a good book so I can slip away from the party when my head starts to droop. I can hardly wait for a piece of pumpkin pie.

Diane