the sewer

I have a cold..I sound like Marlene Dietrich underwater. Somehow Sunday night at about 3:00am it took hold of me and it hasn't let go. I left work early and came home to die on the sofa. To Paul's enjoyment, I lost my voice and now sound like a horse (also underwater). I watched Top Gear (don't ask, I get a kick out of the program)and proceeded to pass out till 8:00am today.

To summarize the only thing that doesn't hurt are my toes. How can a cold be so vicious so quickly?

Scotland and kilts

This week-end we went up to see men in kilts..oh no wait, we went to see the Highland Games. Considering that mother nature gave us a perfect New England day and that the leaves are starting to change, we couldn't have ask for a better day. We spent the entire day running around the grounds of the event. First, we saw part of the games, caber throwing, walking the stones (500lbs combined) it is the WWE of hunky bulky men in kilts.

The event is held at Loon Mountain which is about 20 minutes from the house. Mighty convenient I say...After we watched the games and we had a typical Scottish lunch, I had something called a bridie and Paul had shepperd's pie. As a special treat, I asked casually to Paul if he would consider going up on the chairlift to the top of the mountain, he agreed and within seconds I had the tickets on hand. We took a regular chairlift up one mountain and then we took the gondola to the highest peak at Loon.

Just a perfect day!

Orchids in captivity

Paul has been trying to grow orchids for a long time. Somehow, they never flowered in the house in Ashland nor did they bloom in Jamaica Plain. However, for some reason, the apartment in Marina Bay has given him the perfect conditions to work in. Here are some pictures... Lesley... how are your orchids doing?

Trim the hedges, do laundry...

Today being Friday, we all know that I am doing laundry... very zeen for me. I can't get used to this system of laundry in two locations, but i am sure I will figure it out. Besides that the week has been very busy. Tuesday I had dinner with friends from high school and college, as a matter of fact he was my room mate in college and currently my dentist. They are very funny in a straight suburban old fashioned latin kind of way, but that is what makes it fun.

Today we have a wedding to attend to and I desperately needed to get a haircut, or trim the hedges as I call it. We all know there is not much hair on my head, but I hate when the edges are a mess, so of we go to my favorite barber, clippers and a straight edge razor do the trick. In less than 10 minutes, he has performed his magic and once again I look neat and clean. I don't know about the other men reading he blog, but there is nothing like the feel of that razor shaving your neck.

Wise saying

I positively hate my sister...there I said it. A we say in spanish...punto y se acabo. The reason is that she was suggesting a fabulous cruise in February and I said, it is too soon, why don't we wait a little (always being so fucking practical) and she responded within nanoseconds "Never say to soon. Too soon was yesterday."

Oh please someone tell me that is somebody else' line otherwise I am going to have to double hate her for being so fucking wise if she came up with it!!

hugs and kisses E..

me
.

here it is ....

Where have I been… well let’s see… last week we were busy every day. We had guests staying at the Pine Street Annex for a couple of days, granted low intensity guests, but dinner out every day was the norm. On Thursday, I had to leave early from work because I had to go “cleanse” and not in a Mary Kate or Ashley kind of way. Since my sigmoidal colon had been acting up, I was due for a shot or 2 bottles of Mag.Citrate as they call it in the business. In other words.. human Drano. Friday I had a colonoscopy to make sure that I had no other issues on my GI tract.

I drank the potion and the desired effect although not immediate did occur. For once I had no interest in being an overachiever and drinking the 4 million gallons. Moving right along to the hospital…think of the colonoscopy as the bread and butter of hospital income… 10 people at a time, every ½ an hour from 7:30AM to 6:00pm… Very very lucrative. Best part is that they give you great drugs. I don’t remember a thing that happened, although I do remember being kicked out when I wanted to keep taking my siesta. The room was reserved for the next batch of victims.

They give you these disgusting looking pictures to show you your insides (squeaky clean) and send you home. YIKES

Alaska Day 8

It is always very sad when you have to disembark. We have 2 days in Anchorage, but the food, drinks and environment of the ship will be missed. HOWEVER, we had one more treat. A scenic train ride from the town of Seward up to Anchorage. I was very impressed with the train; immaculately clean, nice big windows and great service. The staff doing the narration was also very good.


As you can see, even from the mayhem of the parking lot as you look up at the mountains it is beautiful.







We had to wake up mighty early but as you can see, we are ready for breakfast on the train. It is a 5 hour ride on the train, vs a 3 hour ride on a bus. We got to see some absolutely spectacular sites.


Once we arrived in Anchorage, we had a quick bite and went to bed mighty early. We had one more day in Anchorage which I used to sleep and then we had a red-eye back to Boston. Lessons from he trip? Skip Anchorage and spend time in Vancouver. Do anything possible not to do a red-eye, we are all to old for that nonsense. This having been the third trip to Alaska, it will probably signals that is time to explore other places. Perhaps the Chilean Fjords and the glaciers in South America!

Alaksa Day 7

Today is one of my favorites in Alaska. We get to go to Hubbard Glacier, a big ass 300 ft tall and up to 3 mile wide hunk of blue ice that runs up for miles and miles up the mountains. I saw it for the first time about 10 years ago and it was awesome, I was not going to be disappointed today either. As you enter into Glacier Bay at 7:00am we were all bundled up and ready. The first thing you see is the smaller icebergs about the size of a school bus floating out of the bay.


As you approach the glacier, you have no concept of how large it is. This pic was taken about 5 miles away.



The ship is then very slowly positioned sideways as closed as possible to the glacier wall and lingers there for about 1 hour. At this point everyone on the ship is on deck, and those who aren't are looking at it from inside spaces within the ship. What they will miss is the ice calving and what is known as white thunder. Chunks of the glacier crack and are pushed off, once this happens, everyone is scanning for it, big ass chunk of ice falls to the sea and then you hear a glorious "BOOM". To me, it is one of the most incredible sights and sounds.




This is one of my faborite places on earth. Only a few ships a day can enter the bay, and only by permit. If you are choosing an Alaskan cruise, make sure that Hubbard Glacier is on the itinerary!

Alaska Day 6 Click on the pics to enlarge!

This is a new port for us, Icy Strait Point. It is a tiny island about 3 hour sailing time from Juneau. This will be the only port were we will tender vs dock. Since we had no excursions, we took a leisurely breakfast and headed down to be transported over to land.


This first pic, is the towns new welcome area, very snazzy...the day started incredibly foggy, but it cleared by mid day.



This is a very interesting town. It appears that cruise lines came in and dumped a ton of money to spruce up the place. They have a terrific nature walk, a terrific waterfront walk, great excursions and the mother of all zip-lines. If Adam was with us, I would have had a partner to toss myself down that mountain, but alas, my traveling companions simply said... ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR %#@!* MIND?? Oh well.. we walked around, and went into the village center to have coffee. The bus driver was the husband to the ex-mayor and the father of the current mayor...weird?? not there, population 773.

Paul went comparison shopping at the local supermarket and was horrified at the prices. Roughly 2x what we pay at home.

Alaska Day 5

Skagway is the little town that has it all. Fishing, trains, helicopters, glaciers, hiking, cycling, shopping...you name it it is there. I had picked the train up the mountain, cycling down the mountain combo. Two of my cyclists were a touch concerned about the incline of the hills, the brakes on the bikes and the precipices next to the road.

The train ride is very interesting since it follows the White Pass into the Yukon territory. The development of Skagway revolves around gold prospecting with such notables as Mr. Nordstrom (as in the retail giant). The area is also called the Klondike. The Travel Channel has an episode about the area which is excellent...but I digress...


As the train goes up the mountain we see the precipices right next to the train. Some of my fellow travelers promptly moved seats to the other side of the train car. As we cross the border into Canada and reach an altitude of about 3400 ft, we have reached our destination.



















I had to put this picture in so that you could see the wooden bridge at about 2500 ft.


We are transported by van to our starting location. Once we get out of the van we clearly see that we can't see a bloody thing. The fog/clouds/mist was so dense that you felt wet immediately. Instructions are given and we test our mountain bikes. Now or never...down we go. It is a 15 mile ride from 3400 ft. In the process, we go through US Customs (on the bikes) and pass a handful of incredible waterfalls. Yes I know we look like we have ostrich eggs on our heads. Since it was about 48 at the top of the mountain and raining we had ski hats, ear muffs...etc.


Once we got into town we had to eat something and do a little shopping before heading back to the ship.

Surgeon - "oops! I did it again"

I forgot to tell you this on one of the recent entries... As you all know I adore my surgeon; if he said jump, without a doubt I would say how high. He tends to brush over certain parts of the collateral damage of the surgeries (since he did this before) and this time when we were talking about range of motion of my left arm he said something to the effect of... we did cut a few nerves that were in the way so that is why you are feeling some numbness (I knew this one before it happened) and the range of motion issue might have to do with the fact that we had to cut the pec minor. He had mentioned the possibility but now he confirmed it. I realize that some of my conversations with the man are under serious sedation, but I need to pay more attention! By the way, does this mean that if I go swimming I can only go in circles?

Alaska Day 4

We woke up very very early since our excursion pick up time was 7:30 and we had to have breakfast. After all, we don't want the little white bag in the helicopter to go empty if we need to... do we! As you can tell, once we put all our cold and wet weather gear we were ready to start, but (and my comrades in flight were not thrilled) we also had to wear a life vest since we would be flying over water.


We flew over the glacier for about 20 minutes and it was just spectacular, on our flight we also had a grandmother and son team, the woman was 70 and had more energy than all of us put together...she was doing dog mushing with us, whale watching later and finally fishing. As we arrive at the dog camp, we realize the size of the landing site, about 3 miles wide and about 900 feet deep(of ice).


This is the intrepid team next to the helicopter, don't we look good!!









and so we mushed





Finally back to base camp. An incredible adventure and one that although expensive, I would recommend to anyone.

Alaska Day 3

This is a typical coffee clutch date with Eileen, we sit there with our lattes, watch the world go by and read our books. Notice the not a care in the world looks we have, this is why I think a world cruise would be a great adventure.



Back to the action...Ketchikan is our port for day 3. Tiny little village that used to be big in the salmon canning business. An interesting thing that I had never considered was that once all those dumb salmons go upstream to die, the smell in the town as reported by a local is disgusting...How come they never say that in the Discovery Channel? We walked around town and did nothing much since it was pouring rain and we didn't have an excursion today. Juneau will be an early day and for two members of our crew, there is a helicopter to deal with...



and so we cruise up the inside passage some more

Today's visit

The brief description of today can be figured out by the diagnosis the doctor gave us NEOD. We were completely puzzled by what he was saying but you know that in today's world everything is done by the first letters. Here is an exam for you with the possible choices that went through my mind

a) No erotica on display
b) No evidence of disease
c) New England Ophthalmologic drugs
d) Never ever on diapers

The correct answer is b). YEAH… we are clean for the next three months when we repeat the process. Cancer 2.0 is over and done with…HALLELUJAH. Now for the realist in me, I am very aware that the real answer is, as far as the detection ability of the cat scan is concerned you are disease free. Having said that, I will take that NEOD answer!

My dearest nephew asked me what I was going to do to celebrate and when my respond was go to work he said... your are condemned either way!, but he also had "I will survive" playing in the background...very funny Rene!

No Sleep..Obsessed..and nothing happened

That is the summary of the scan today. I obsess all night about it, particularly about how was my arm going to behave when I stretched it over my head, fell asleep at about 12:30, and that is NOT good for my beauty sleep! Of course, I woke up early and left to go to the hospital. Needless to say the OCD - twin sister (mentally not biologically) arrived also early within seconds of my arrival.

I went early because every time I had to do a pelvic and abdomen scan, I had to drink the barium potion. Then you wait an hour and they scan you. My appointment was for 8:00 and as eight approached I am thinking to myself... potion and late..fuck fuck fuck. At precisely 8:00, the nurse comes over and asks me to go in..hmmmm no potion... strange?#!... She asked me to drop my pants, and to lay on the table... MIRACOLO!! she got the needle in on the first try...love that woman. Suddenly I realize that it is a brand new CT Scanner, the hole is bigger than normal by about 4 inches. Even though the arm did not behave and extend back as much as possible, it was enough to make it without hitting the damn machine.

For all of you who have done it, you know the voice...hold your breath 9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 breath... HATE THAT!

Alaska day 2 Inside Passage

Slept all night and part of the morning, that damn jet-lag always gets me. The inside passage is a very cool geographical formation. There are very large mountains right next to the ocean on both sides, just a phenomenal sight. Lucky for us, our balcony was right under a cantilever extension from the floor above because it was raining like a mofo. The temperature had also dropped from 80 in Boston to 70 in Vancouver to 57 in the inside passage. The ship has an indoor salt water heated (98 degrees) pool that is just marvelous for relaxing all those aching muscles and reminding my arm that warm is good...cold is bad.

Life on board is an easy routine, breakfast, book, look out, latte, lunch, book, pool, latte, look out, shower, dinner, sleep, repeat. At least those are the sea days. This was a 3 book trip, all of them good I might add.

happy happy joy joy

After all the joy and laughter and great food and all that good stuff...reality bites back. No it is not work, that is still there and fun as usual, it is not a crappy wine or a poorly mixed martini. Tomorrow is BARIUM TIME...yes folks it is time for a lovely 500 ml drink of cold chemically enhanced berry flavored barium. As usual, I will have the fight with the nurse regarding the amount I have to drink. By now, I know that 1 bottle is plenty to have good results, then there is the nurse that will try to put the needle in my arm for the contrast dye... not on the left arm please...and then there is the "put both arms over your head to fit in the tube...that will be very interesting since my left arm as measured by the psycho therapist can only go to 145 degrees instead of 180. Results on Thursday

not in order I know...

Today as I crossed the toll plaza of the Tobin Bridge, I thought to myself... I bet there is no traffic in Anchorage right now...on the other hand it does rain a lot in Alaska and the permafrost is only 10 feet deep. When I woke up from daydreaming the mini-van in front of me was actually letting me merge in front of them...it must be from out of state, as I looked in the rear view mirror..the car's license plate was from Alaska...what are the odds!

Alaska Day 1

Yes, we are back and had a great time, however...I wanted to tell about the expedition. Pictures will be loaded tomorrow or the day after once we have gotten used to the time change and the red eye flight from Seattle. Back to the beginning.. we had to wake up at 3:30am to get to the airport for our 6:10am flight. Needless to say I needed coffee in the worst way. We had a change of planes in Toronto and 1 hour to eat a quick breakfast...I was looking for the Canadian equivalent of Dunkin Donuts...Tim Hortons, but they did not have an outlet in the gate area where we were. We ended up having crappy breakfast food and rushing to the gate.

The flights were completely uneventful and luckily went by fast. Arriving at Vancouver I was reminded what a great city it is. This time around however we were destined to board the ship relatively quickly since we were all trying to get a nap before the ship departed. I have to admit that I love the idea of a cruise, the fact that a ship floats being top heavy is amazing to me and as soon as the ties are losened I completely relax. As a weird point of pride, I did not check emails or phone messages all week...