pain

Yesterday I had a episode of severe pain, associated with a case of gastric distress. It's like I need to have a BM with diarrhea but it's blocked by something. So the bowl contracts to expel but can't so it hurts. This goes on for about 2o minutes, then things move and everything is OK again, except that my internals are really sore for a while and I'm really tired and cold. It's really painful while happening, but it only lasts a few minutes. This happens every 3 or 4 weeks. I'll discuss this with my doctor next time I go in. I think I did once before, and got the usual "hmmm" response from Dr W. I'll demand an answer this time.

Obviously I didn't get to paddle yesterday. Today the forecast is for 79 so that should be warm enough, if nothing else happens. Right now it's 50 and foggy. Boat is still on top of the car, so it's ready. The question, as usual, is am I ready. The weak link is me.

This episode has me thinking about the wisdom of a trip to the Florida Keys. Really though, the whole thing only took a few hours, including the nap afterwords, and I could do that anywhere. We'll think about it some more. We obviously need to discuss it with the doctor too before any decision can be made, since the trip will take about 4 weeks which implies missing a chemo treatment. The object of the exercise is to not be in the EF for deer season, the week after Thanksgiving. A shorter trip would work too. When we were in Oneonta, I noticed the next town is Cooperstown; might be fun to spend some tiime at the baseball Hall of Fame. And we could spend some time on the Northern Front, which should contain all three offspring by then. Oneonta and Cooperstown are about half way to the Northern Front.

Cubs won yesterday and so got in the playoffs on their own win. The Brewers lost, so the Cubs would have gotten in anyway, but it's better to do it on their own win at home in front of their fans against the Cards, the traditional rival. How sweet it is! This is the first time the Cubs have won their division two years in a row since 1907-1908, and they last won the Series in 1908. Does this mean they will win the Series? No, not really, they need to win the games this year. What happened in 1908 has no effect, except maybe psychologically, on what happens in 2008. Fun though!

Am I the only one who thinks the hype about closing Yankee Stadium is considerably overdone? My understanding is the reason for building a new stadium, as opposed to refurbishing the old one, is to increase the capacity for high-roller sky boxes. In other words, for money. Not that I have any objection to them making money- that's what it's all about. But spare us the sentimental clap-trap to justify a financial decision. There's a Miller High Life commercial about the Miller delivery guy going into a sky box at a ball game- nobody is watching the game and they can't even hear what is happening. The guy takes their High Life out.