Six hours without power... BORING!!!

We're having some high winds today. These are causing some trees to snap, taking power lines with them. I don't know how extensive it's been, but heard on the radio before I lost power that there were multiple outages in Hilo & Puna Districts. I live in Puna. My power went out about 12:20, coming back on at 6:30 PM. Before it went out, I was watching my battery back-up blink at me & beep when there would be a power surge. There was a brief outage as well, late morning, followed by a 'whomp' from a few blocks away. The definitive sound of a tree smacking the ground!

I left a tad early to pick up my son from school so I could cruise a few neighboring streets to see if I could find any downed trees. Nothing much along the roadways other than small twigs & branches. I never did find the tree that I heard go down. Probably didn't go far enough or down the right cross street. Mostly, I didn't want to venture too close to the known dangerous trees. I don't need one going down on me!

On the way to my son's school, it was more of the same... leaves, twigs & small branches. A few weeks back, a neighbor outside of my subdivision lost a eucalyptus robusta, also called 'swamp mahogany' because of it's beautiful mahogany-colored wood. This is the type of eucalyptus that provides us with eucalyptus oil from its leaves... menthol! The way his tree fell, its top blocked his neighbor's driveway. I think this one fell because of the heavy rains we were having at the time. When one other along his 'windbreak' along the road fell, I stopped by later to see if I could get some of the pieces of wood. When I introduced myself, I learned that this man used to work for my dad at my father's lumber mill & hardwood furniture & lathed bowls business in the 1960's! Cool! He now operates heavy equipment in his own business, hauling & spreading landfill materials.

Now, he has more heavy wood to get rid of! The main trunk still lies parallel with his fence. I wish I had access to a band-saw.

When in Pahoa town, I learned that the school had lost power during the last recess... at the end of the day. I figured it'd be awhile before we got power back, considering that they'd be working first on those who lost power earlier in the day, depending on how many crews they were running. No cooking, I thought. So we went on into town, found power at the local grocery store, but he wanted Chinese. I drop him off for that & drive back to the grocery store, park, get out, only to find that they just had lost power & weren't letting anyone in! I drive back to the 7-11, where my son was going to pick up his drink to find out they locked everyone out too, just as my son got there! I opted for another restaurant for my food... Black Rock Cafe, hoping they cooked with gas. I got a mushroom Swiss gravy burger to go. Yummm!!

On our way back through town, I noticed that they were letting people in to the grocery store again. We stopped to get some beverages. My son said they had power to their register, but that's all. I'm guessing they had battery back-ups on them. They only let people in as they could escort them, afraid of shoplifting. Sad.

At home, my son goofed around on his skateboard out front for awhile. When he came in, we played cards for the first time together in years. We played 'Go Fish' until he got bored with that, saying it wasn't aggressive enough. Then we played checkers. At first, I was stomping him (except for kinging). Suddenly, he saw a move I missed noticing & slammed me, taking out 4 of my men (including kings)! I had one checker left, which was cornered. He won! We then played Chinese Checkers, which he also beat me at. Then it was back to the cards... but poker this time. Penny-ante. He wasn't thrilled with his luck on 5-card draw, so we switched to black-jack. At first, I was slamming him on that, playing Vegas Rules, switching the dealer only when the dealer threw a black-jack to the opponent. I stayed dealer most of the time. But as time wore on, he suddenly started winning. We had started out with 30 pennies each, which ended up all in my pot at one point, causing him to drag out more. He bet heavier than I did & suddenly the cards went in his favor, so he won it all back.

Now, we're back to our separate corners, doing our own things, with the power restored. TVs & computers focused on our particular preferences. It was nice.

Ok... so I now have DSL... sorta (I ordered it a month ago!). In the midst of setting up my account, Verizon's site went offline for maintenance. I already had an issue with the installation CD not running through the final step. Had to call tech help & reset the LAN settings to auto find the IP. It was set for a router, according to the tech, who initially thought that they hadn't turned on my DSL, even though we got a call about 3:30 PM saying it was on. (It was after 7 PM when I called.)

I got my initial account name set up & was setting up one for my son (basically email addys). I still don't have MSN8 set up (although I'll probably just reestablish my MSN8 account I used to have when I got this newer computer as a free 6 months (of which I actually only got 5, since they go by the computer's build date, when the software was installed... how dumb is that?).

Next project with the DSL was to install the wireless router so my son can access the DSL. Hmmm... it looks like someone may have forgotten to tell us something with that. Along with buying the router, for $99, we probably needed to buy a wireless network interface card for my son's computer (another $90!)? Why don't the salespeople tell you stuff like that, when it's obvious the customer has never had this stuff before by their quasi-intelligent questions?

Another thing with this only halfway set up... I don't know how to disconnect the DSL connection. The normal method would be through the little computers in the systray, which don't show up while connected on DSL. The other method that's supposed to be there through the software that connects up on DSL isn't yet installed. Gack! Ok, I think I found it.

My son, grabbing my keyboard, decided to run some tests to check out the speed of my connection. He hunted for skateboading videos to download, but they ended up queued. So next, he looks for a mega-sized game to download, ending up at Microsoft & started the download of 'Age of Mythology,' at 374 meg. Within 3 seconds, we had 1 meg of the program! It indicated that we would have the entire program within an hour! Cool! after grabbing about 11 meg, we cancelled... my son already has the program on CD. I'm going to love having DSL!

With the constant issues with my catchment, culminating in its total rupture, I've had to invest in a new one. Fortunately, some of the money from my aunt's estate, in the form of stocks & mutuals came through last month. They weren't much, especially considering that the stocks' report showed that company's stocks showed a considerable loss over the past 3 years (AMEX). They were probably worth less when I cashed them than when my aunt bought them in our joint names.

So I bought a new galvanized 3300 gallon tank, liner & cover, at a cost of $805. It wasn't what I wanted, but considering the delivery & set-up charges for what I did want, for a smaller capacity one, the former was what I could afford reasonably. The other, a fiberglass one, at 2500 gallons, would have cost me over $2000! The galvanized one was delivered at no charge, except the guy brought the wrong liner & forgot the overflow pipe, which I will pick up today, when I take my son for another knee surgery follow-up.

Of course, the old one was still in the way, so I had a 'friend' come to help tear it apart. I made sure that he'd bring his torch in case some of the bolts wouldn't undo. For 2 hours' work, at $25/hour, he did a half-assed job, while slugging a 6-pack of beer. Those bolts he couldn't undo with the wrench, he left in place, shoving the ring sections into the semi-wild forest on my property, folded, crushing some of the plants that were near the catchment, including an anthurium. A mess.

I have yet to call him to come back to assemble the new tank. I'm not thrilled with the half-assed work he did. While he was taking it apart, I had to run to the hardware store for some fittings to be able to use a 100 gallon plastic tank I had acquired a few years back. This is what we've been using since tearing the old one down. It's worked wonderfully! I had filled it with water left in the old tank & it was also still raining & quickly filled. But for the last 3 days, it's been sunny, so I've had to supplement it's supply with a few jugs from the community center.

Another friend has a couple friends hungry for work she says helped her friend from Oahu get her stuff from the docks in Hilo to her new home here for $10/hour. They amazingly did the job in 1 ¹/2 hours. The woman paid them more than they set, especially since on the other end, the work took an exhorbitant amount of time at a higher rate.

Sometimes, people price themselves out of work. They just don't get it. Isn't it better to get a nominal amount of money for one's time, doing a good job, ensuring references & further work than pricing a job so high few will hire them, severely limiting the number of jobs they get & hindering any sort of reliable income? In these days of high unemployment (forget the stats, they're way off, knowing how many give up trying, so fall out of the statistic's sources), wouldn't they just be grateful for the work & reasonable income, to help pay their bills?

As it is, I have the catchment tank to put up, hoping it rains to fill up, or buy another tanker of water. I also have a new pressure tank, bought at Sears for about $135, about $55 less than at the catchment place, manufactured by the same company, with the same 5-year waranty. THAT is going to be fun!  

It was recommended that I leave the old tank in place (the pump is mounted on top of it), cut the lines to/from the old tank & reroute them to the new tank. Ok... dyslexia takes over, trying to visualize how to run the pipes & what all fittings I'll need. I need to draw a diagram as I currently have the system run & then one with the modifications I need to make to accomodate the new tank.

Get this... I installed all of the plumbing from the pump into my bathtub, with connections available for the kitchen & bathroom sinks ready for hook-up BY MYSELF! The only thing I didn't do was install my on-demand Paloma® propane water heater. That was done by my drunk friend, since he was a welder in the Navy & it needed soldered copper fittings. The rest of my plumbing is PVC & CPVC, & looks professional & doesn't leak!

As my email signature states, 'The more one confronts, the more one learns.' It's my motto, since I've often been stuck having to do almost everything myself, including working on my cars. I'm just tired of having to, because of my health issues with the fibromyalgia & the cost & sometimes inadequate work by others (I'm a perfectionist... Virgo!). Bah! I've also been confronted with the issue that if I don't do it, it doesn't get done. *SIGH*

Grrr...!!! There are a few things I like about the new xTools, but a few that I don't, which are aggravating. For example, even though the xTools page has been loaded into the cache, if your browser isn't on that page when you go offline & even if you set the browser to work offline, you can't load that page. I even put it in my bookmarks, synchronized to work offline, & yet it still won't load. The error message pops up saying the page is not available offline. Shit!

I also don't like that it loads into the current browser, rather than as an adjustable popup.  With the popup, I could stretch the sides & make the typing box larger than it ends up as this way. I also don't like all the white space around the typing box. White hurts my eyes. My typing box is a caramel tan. Much easier to read than against a white background. I haven't tried the xTools browser button yet to see if that's more to my liking, since it's supposedly the popup.

Another problem is the Paragraph styling. In the past, I've chosen the 'Address' format, which didn't stick in the blank lines between paragraphs when you hit the 'Enter' key (hard returns). It doesn't work anymore. I don't really find any differences between the Paragraph styles. What good are they?

To be fair, what I do like about the new xTools is that they did put in more smilies. I also like the fonts choices. But with that latter, it's like Cheryl said, the fonts only show up for others if they have them installed on their computer. For example, I've been using Cataneo BT for months. Cheryl sees Comic Sans, my default font, because she doesn't have Cataneo BT. I like it because it has a nice italic styling. It's much prettier than Lucida. I'll send it to her once I can remember how to get to it on my computer where it'll let me zip a copy of it to send.

Which brings up a good reason for not liking the fact that the xTools loads into the current browser... Unless you have 2 browsers open on your blog, you can't copy/paste another Xangan's username &/or link into your current writing from your SIR list. Also... is anyone else having script error messages with the smilie & symbol popups?

I believe I've figured out why my pump keeps ending up drawing air, even though I've had the siphon line properly charged with water. One of my momma cats has been hanging around the pump area with her 3 kittens (now wild, even though I've handled them while they were still in the box). It seems that between them, the filter canister is a favorite path. They keep stepping on or bumping the purge button on the top of the canister, which relieves the vacuum to the line & allowing air in.

I've tried to stick something over the purge button, but they manage to knock that down. I need to find some way to block them from getting on top of that at all. I can't afford the pump to go out too because of running dry. It's an impeller Jaccussi 5 hp pump. Even as old as it is (it was here over 6 years ago, when we moved in), it still works well. A new one doesn't come cheap. It's also drawing alot of electricity when it ends up running like that until I can run down & get the siphon line recharged. I picked up the momma kitty, showing her the top of the canister & swatted her. Since I've never swatted her before (only sprayed water at her in the house when she gets up where she doesn't belong), I hope that will make an impression on her, but I doubt it.

I've had to unplug the pump for the night because the last time this happened, it refused to draw water at all when I opened the faucet next to the pump. I didn't feel like trying to pour water into my siphon line in the dark, holding a flashlight. It's bad enough holding a 2 liter bottle, pouring the water into that tee I installed & try to screw the plug in before the line starts to draw air again.

By the way, I went to Hilo on Wednesday. I first attended a meeting of our DAV chapter's Executives & Phone Committee (I'm a memember of the latter) in Keaau, on the way to Hilo. The chapter commander wanted us there because of some difficulties we've had. He wanted us to get a few things straightened out. The main issue didn't get resolved that I could tell. Grudges... they don't do anyone, especially the one holding the grudge, any good! Imagine 2 years holding a grudge against someone for a perceived intentional oversight? Even if that were the case, it's doing no good anymore to shirk duties & avoid meetings that could prove very informational.

That seems to be what's happening not just with the Phone Committee, but with a large number of the members. Personally, I've had the same 'treatment,' but am not going to allow that to control me. I go to the meetings for what I can get out of them, no matter how anyone else might feel about me being there or not. That's THEIR problem, not mine. When the chance comes up with our guest speakers, I do voice some good questions that many others have but don't speak up about.

My plans for Wednesday got a bit amended though. I was working on my bills when I got a call from the nurse at my son's school. What the heck? I thought I took a well kid to school only an hour & a half before?! She tells me he got hit in the chest with a rock thrown by another student! So I quickly finish up the one I was working on right then & go get him & take him to the clinic to be checked out. The doc wanted x-Rays 'just in case,' which had to be done in Hilo.

What my son told me is that the rock came from a group of 'mokes' (locals). He didn't see who had thrown it, nor does he know any of them. I asked him if anyone was walking with him or around him & he said no. It seems he was the target... because he's blonde. When I take him to school tomorrow, I'm going to have to go speak to the Vice Principal about this incident. I can't convince my son to switch to the charter school ('They don't do anything there,' he says)... it's filled with kids who have been kicked out of the public school & other misfits that parents can't handle. It doesn't matter to him that they only go to school 4 days a week. Or that they often go on excursions. He doesn't like the type of kids who go there.

But violence against my son is intolerable! I'm concidering removing him from the school system entirely & home-school him. This system isn't doing anything for him. He totally lacks any motivation to do good in his classes. He's capable of straight A's, but barely gets one! He's disinterested in any extra-caricular activity as well. All he really wants to do is skateboard & play computer games (currently especially online first person shooter games... not good).

Fortunately, the x-Rays were ok. The doc gave him a note allowing him to stay out of school for the rest of the week & I've granted him that. The next day, I got a letter from the school about his excessive absences. Figures. But I do need to do something about his school issue soon, or I'll be standing before a judge. Shit!

I hate their system. Half of the teachers can't spell worth a shit... how're they supposed to teach the kids? All they really care about are the numbers. They really don't care about helping kids learn.

I've been a substitute teacher in Texas, so I'm quite familiar with school politics... it's not WHAT you know, but WHO you know that gets you anywhere in the teacher system. I watched kids there, labeled as 'learning disabled,' who were VERY smart, go downhill because of poor teachers. For many, their home lives didn't help much either. Dyslexics DON'T get a proper education, because the teachers are 'stuck' with lesson plans that are geared toward the 'average student.' They're also designed around 'rote learning,' meaning sight recognition, memorization & repetition. That DOESN'T work for dyslexics or ANY other learning disability!!!

Fifty percent of the kids fall through the cracks... those on either end of the learning scale, because teachers can't or WON'T take the time to work with them with the personal attention they need. I took one such 2nd grader aside & taught him to read in 15 minutes! All because I made him sound out the words! The poor kid couldn't read one word when I sat down with him, but 15 minutes later, was reading entire sentences! I hope that time I spent with him gave him enough to no longer be one of those falling through the cracks.

Another thing accomplished Wednesday was a stop at the radio station to pick up my prizes. Seems there was one, a pair of passes, that was only good that night, for a special Halloween party at a local hotspot. No great loss... I probably wouldn't have gone anyway. I'm not big on social events. I didn't even go to the VFW's Halloween party.

But what I do like is that I got $50 worth of Wallace Theater 'money.' My son will probably use most of that!  I also got 4 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' T-shirts & the book 'Madam Pele' edited collection by Rick Carroll, the same person who collected the stories in 'Chicken Skin' that I mentioned in a recent blog. Not to be excluded is a copy of a special edition DVD of 'The Night Marchers,' a movie about a group of men documenting their experiences when tracking the legends of ancient ghostly Hawaiians here on the Big Island.

I think I did okay with these prizes.  Maybe, if they're still running the same give-away as they are right now, I might be able to try for a resort weekend vacation on the other side of the island when the 30 days is up that I have to wait to qualify for prizes again.

Well, it's getting light out, even with the rain we're now getting. I've been up since 3 AM, waking up for no good reason other than to pee & decided to catch up here. The chickens are roaming the yard & kitties are piling on or around me, expecting breakfast since they know I'm awake. After feeding them, I'm curling up & going back to sleep!

It just has to be this time of year...

From the middle of August through the end of the year, anything that can go wrong, DOES!

Remember the fiasco I had with my catchment liner? Well, yesterday, I found a split in the lower galvanized ring of the tank, about a foot long.

There had been rust there, where water dripped over between the rings because of the previous liner that had shrunk & slipped away from the rim, allowing water to collect between the liner & the ring. When I replaced the liner, I thought it was still okay enough to hold water. I was wrong.

I cut out a section of a cracked plastic garbage can to slip between the NEW liner & ring after finding the problem, since the new liner was bulging through the crack. I didn't get it shoved into place, waiting for my son to help me.

This morning, I wake up to a flashing alarm clock, my TV & computer (which I had left on) off. The rain was pouring down hard, apparently the initial cause of the power-outage. When I used water, I noticed the pressure drop & thought that my pump might have quit from overwork with the past problems. When I went outside, I heard it running & saw the filter canister only partially full of water. Ohoh. I figured then that my siphon from the tank might have floated up & started to suck air.

I unplugged my pump, then thought about the rupture in my catchment tank. As I walked up to it, I saw the cover dipping toward the opposite side. My worst fears were founded... It had completely given-way, dumping over 3k gallons of water, draining into the lava tube or crevasses beneath the ground. $250 & lots of hard work down the tubes! I'm without running water... AGAIN! *SIGH* With no money to buy what I need!

I was cooking supper & got up to check on it. On my way back, in the dim light, I accidentally started to step on one of my cats who's insisted on laying right in the pathway. This cat has a litter of kittens (3) she also insists upon leaving under a piece of furniture that's on the other side of the pathway from the end of my loveseat.

When then stepping over the momma kitty, I started to lose my balance as I then stepped on one of her kittens. Picking it up, I found blood dripping from its mouth & nose. I had crushed it's fragile skull.

I took it into the bathroom & tried to clear away the blood, hoping it wasn't as bad of an injury as I feared. He died in my hands a few minutes later. This had been the healthiest of the litter & very active, coming out often to find his mom & saying 'hi' to us. He was only 2 weeks old, born on the 15th of October.

I think I'm going to get drunk... after I make a trip into town for some food & swing by the longhouse for water. This isn't a good time for me. I'm tired of 'dealing' with crap. I should be paying my monthly bills.

There are many local legends here, about encounters with Madam Pele, the Volcano Goddess. A few are even about her dog, which appears either black or white, size & fur like a Samoyed. Seeing the black version is bad mana (spirit/luck). The white version is supposed to bring good mana.

My brother once told me, very long ago, about a time he was hiking up in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. He was in his late teens. He was alone, walking along the Chain of Craters Road.

Suddenly, in front of him, he noticed a white, fluffy dog, much like the Samoyed my mom once had. He had no idea where this dog came from.

It turned its head once to look back at my brother, then trotted on ahead of him. My brother followed, never really getting close to him. Just as the dog had suddenly appeared in front of him, it vanished, fading out of view.

Years later, after my brother was drafted into the Army, he got stationed at Pohakuloa Military Camp. One thing that he told me about the camp was a visitor they frequently had... a white dog.

The soldiers would put out food for this dog every day. As long as anyone hung close to the bowl, the dog wouldn't come for the food. As soon as they'd back away far enough, the dog would materialize near the food & come to the bowl to eat.

Were those sightings of the dog, supposedly Pele's, good luck for my brother? You tell me...

My brother was shipped out to Vietnam, where he served from 1960-1961. He was a member of the 24th Infantry Division out of Schofield Barracks in Wahiawa, Hawaii. He was a paratrooper & member of the elite Special Forces. He holds not one, but three Purple Hearts! Two of them from gunshots... one in the leg, the other in his back just missing his vital organs. He hasn't told me how he got the third Purple Heart... he doesn't talk about Vietnam.

Frankly, I hadn't known he went there until I was stationed in Wahiawa at the nearby Naval Station. It was then that he told me about serving there, asking me to find the patches he had worn at the time & the two gunshots injuries he had received.

Our other brother, a 'Conscientious Objector', didn't know that he had been there until a phone conversation we had within the last two months. He always thought his letters were going State-side. When I asked if he was sending them to an APO, he confirmed that. Having never served in the military himself, he didn't realize that APOs were overseas redirecting, as are FPOs for the Navy & Marine Corps as well as shipboard stationing. Strange, isn't it, that a brother only 4 years younger was never told where his older brother was?

Anyway, despite the injuries resulting in 3 Purple Hearts, my oldest brother survived the conflict, sort of intact. Luck? Blessings from the local cultural icon? Your guess is as good as mine.

PS-- I sent the blog from yesterday as an email entry (last night... last minute!) into the local classic rock radio station, B-97 (97.1 FM KNWB, Hilo). They were sponsoring an 'Obake Stories' contest. I WON!!!!

My list of prizes includes 4 passes to Wallace Theaters ('Texas Chainsaw Massacre' [remake]is the promotional movie showing, but I can use them anytime!) I also receive 2 books relating to Pele (I can't recall their titles right now... too excited!). There are a few other things as well. I'll fill you all in on the specifics after I pick up my prizes.

When I was a kid, I used to listen to the AM radio station KPUA that was located just a mile above where I lived, up at Boiling Pots* (now a lovely park!). I would call in & win prizes once a month (prize rules were you had to wait 30 days before you could win again). I kept our family stocked with sodas from Hilo Soda Works, won numerous record albums & 45s (us 'older folks' sure remember those!), & concert tickets. I got to hear Mark Lindsey & the Raiders at their LAST concert as a group & Burton Cummings with The Guess Who, right there in Hilo, at the Civic Auditorium! The disk jockeys knew me well!

* Photo linked © David Thoresen. It was the best that I could find right now. I guess I need to go back there, WITH my camera (forgotten the last 2 times! ) & get some really GOOD photos of the 'pots', Pe'e'pe'e Falls & the surrounding park!

**Please note that the paintings of Pele shown above are not my work. (Nor are the graphics, although I did tinker with them to improve them a tad.) The first is by D. Howard Hitchcock, ca 1927. The second was an entrant in a competition for a new painting to exhibit at the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park Visitors' Center, which didn't win but I especially liked. I can't remember the artist's name & cannot find the link to the contest entrants at this time. The Park's site has been undergoing changes & some of the links no longer work (but their webmaster's working on it).

Last night, I watched a special on our local CBS channel, KGMB. It is called "Chicken Skin," based upon the book Chicken Skin Tales, collected & narated by Glen Grant. One of the stories they told was one I've heard from a personal friend of the 2 young men involved, about picking up an old Hawaiian woman on Oahu. Their friend told it to me a little better than the narator did in the show.

For my own addition to their 'chicken skin' stories, I'll pass on here one involving close friends of my parent's, set sometime in the late 50s or early 60s:

A husband & wife were driving back from Volcano-side toward Hilo. When they reached Kurtistown, they saw a young, blonde woman at the side of the road, with her thumb extended in request of a ride. The husband stopped, allowing the young woman, dressed in a red muu-muu, to enter the car. He asked where she wanted to be let off.

"I'll let you know," she replied.

So the husband drove on, chatting with his wife, forgetting the woman in the back seat, who sat quietly, smiling. After a time, they remembered the woman & turned to ask again where she wanted to be let out.

"Just go on. I'll let you know," she answered again.

So they drove on, again forgetting the woman in the back seat, chatting away. Just as they were aproaching the Hilo Airport, they again remembered the woman. They turned to ask her again if she was ready to be let off, only to find an empty back seat! But the essence of her white ginger perfume still filled the car.

They never stopped the car during the ride down the mountain to Hilo after picking up the woman. The speed-limit at the time was 45 mph, on a then two lane road. How did this lovely woman get out of their car, without making a sound... without opening the car door?

Many profess to legends of Pele, the Volcano Goddess, appearing as an old Hawaiian woman, hitching a ride or sitting on the side of the road. A few will also attest to her appearing as a young blonde woman. My parents' friends never believed in the legends of Pele before. After their encounter, they began to understand & accept them. I certainly do, understanding that there is more to this universe than anyone will ever fully understand. After all... remember my last birthday's events?

Next blog... my oldest brother's chicken skin encounter.   

Sad news this evening (Monday)...
http://kgmb.subportal.com/cgi-bin/news/topstory.cgi?m=2&art=43068253&cat=AP_Top_Headlines 

Rod Roddy, the vivacious announcer on CBS' "The Price is Right" for many years, died today. I knew he had suffered from cancer, but not exactly which type. Upon reading the news on the above linked page, I was surprised to learn that not only did he have colon cancer, which was what I thought I remembered, but he had BREAST CANCER as well!

As I mentioned in my posting just over a week ago, MEN can get breast cancer too! Please, PLEASE, get checked out! Don't wait until a lump in your breast is so large as to be easily noticable. By then, survival rates decrease tremendously!

It's still Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Please, before the month ends, call to schedule a mammogram if you are 40 or older!