Faster than a Butterfly

 2/26 – Sunday

This week flew by faster than a butterfly. Michelle looked at me on Friday and said, “where did the week go?”. We started off with temperatures in the 80’s this week. The high was 89 on Wednesday. Too hot in the sun. Michelle did a lot of walking outside. She likes to walk up to the big garage. The slight incline gives her a good workout. Our low this week was 46 on Saturday. We ended up with winds from the north towards the end of the week which really cooled us down. 

We had a home health nurse come by last week that was horrible. She spent 7 minutes with Michelle. She read from a script, took her vitals then left. She had cynophobia. She chose the wrong profession for sure. I would think she would have better success in the emergency room or working in a clinic somewhere, rather than making house calls. Poor Titan looks intimidating but  he wouldn’t hurt a butterfly. Izzie just thinks you are there to visit her! I called Capitol home health and complained. Getting a 7-minute visit is hardly worth the effort of interrupting our day. This week they sent a nurse we’ve seen before, one I requested. She spent over 30 minutes with us. She gave Michelle tips on nutrition, exercise and mental health. They shared stories and it really seemed like she cared. This is the type of visit I would expect from a professional outfit. 

Our 5-year-old, bottle fed cow Tilly, had a baby this week. We think it is a heifer. Michelle and I took the gator out to the pasture on Monday to get our second look at her. She was born around 9pm Sunday night, so it was dark when we first saw her. She looks great. We think our other cow and heifer are also bred so we may have a pasture full again soon. Springtime is so fun, watching the babies run and play. I need to keep the mama’s fed and happy so I got 7 bales of hay this week. Luckily the guy is close. It took me 3 trips and an empty bank account to get the hay.

Tilly's baby ended up being a bull calf not a heifer. She always breeds a nice looking bull, so we are excited to watch him grow.

The GMC didn’t start at Home Depot this week. I think it’s the battery. I recently replaced the alternator. I cleaned the terminals yesterday, hoping this will give me a few more months of life on it.

TV Daytime:  “13 Reasons Why” (Netflix), “Mash” (HULU) 

TV Nighttime: “Tulsa King” (Paramount +), “1932” (Paramount +), “Yellowstone” (Paramount +)

“The Last of Us” (HBO) This is a 12-hour video game that was made into a TV series. It is about a global pandemic that destroys civilization. The story is about an immune character trying to get to a science lab so they can create an antidote. 

“Shrinking” (Apple +).  We watched episode 1 and really liked it. It is a comedy starring Harrison Ford and Jason Segel. Shrinking, means psychology – or shrinks. 

Food:

Fried Fish and French Fries

Chalupas

Pork and Rice Bowl

Pizza

Salisbury steak

Mac and Cheese, Creamy and Delicious. 

Love, Brian

https://whosyourdaddy.icu2.edu

I Wanna fly away

2/19 – Sunday

This week has been a very busy and productive week. We had 2 major appointments. The first was Monday, with the nutritional counselor. We are seeing a nutritional analyst as it relates to Oncology, Sports Nutrition, Aging, and Developmental Disorders. He does not accept insurance. This prevents the FDA from regulating the types of medications he prescribes. With regulation comes politics and money. In most cases this is a great thing, in our case it is not. We are excited to take advantage of already proven cancer tests and studies from the UK, not FDA approved (US). I am astounded at the attitude change in Michelle and myself. The morbid sense of waiting for the cancer to take her seems to be lifted for the time being. Michelle is smiling more, waking up earlier and trying to exercise as much as she can to get her strength back. This 1-hour appointment if nothing else has given us both hope.

Michelle agreed to get MRIs done. She still does not want to see the results There are 4 areas they will be imaging. Cervical, Thoracic, Lumbar, and Sacrum. Each MRI will take approximately 30 minutes. The plan will be to take the Cervical and Thoracic on 1 visit then return for the Lumbar and Sacrum soon afterwards. 

We ventured out to the feed store this week. It has been cold and windy, but it was nice to get Michelle out of the house for a while. We also did a curbside pickup this week at the grocery store. This was my first experience with curbside. What a great way to stay on budget and away from impulse buying. I loved it. Pull up, open the hatch and say, “thank you”! No tip, just a 10-minute wait.

TV daytime: Mash, Great British Bake Off

TV nighttime: Yellowstone (Paramount), 1932 (Paramount +), Perry Mason (HBO) 

Food:

Ranch Beef Skillet

Chalupas

Spaghetti

Italian Sausage

Hawaiian Chicken

Chicken sliders

Fried Fish and Chips

Love, Brian

www.ooopsIforgotTheURLthisWeek

Nutritionists and Nail Salons Save the Day

 2/12 – Sunday 

We ventured out a few times this week. A trip to a closed nail salon was a failed attempt to make Chele feel special. We went to JoAnn Fabrics instead. Chipotle for lunch reminded me why we are so chubby in America, holy cow that was a lot of food! Michelle finally got her nails done on Friday. They look great and it really made her feel beautiful.

It was a rough week for me mentally. There were no appointments, but I spoke to the oncologist on the phone. She was very vague. She was really pushing chemotherapy. She got cold when I told her Michelle was not interested in chemo, but she was interested in Immunotherapy. I text her General Practitioner to get a second opinion. She suggested a different integrated delivery network (IDN) otherwise known as a hospital system.

Here’s a story. Back in May of 2022, Michelle was on a diet. She lost more than 40 pounds. Her doctor suggested at the time to meet with a world-renowned nutritionist specializing in a holistic approach to food and diet. His first opening was February 8th, 2023 (9 month waiting list). Well, we both forgot, and it was not a top priority. After missing the appointment, I called the office to explain our apathetic attitude toward missing the appointment. The receptionist explained that this doctor specializes in Naturopathic Cancer care and presented as if he did his dissertation on it. We waited on hold for 5 minutes and she magically returned with an appointment time two days later at 3 PM. We are looking forward to seeing what that brings. 

TV Daytime: Cash Cab, Mash, Beat Bobby Flay, BattleBots and Family Feud

TV Nighttime: The Last of Us (HBO)

Perry Mason (HBO) Set in 1932 Los Angeles, this edgy, noirish update puts a new spin on the iconic character with Mason as a low-rent private investigator who digs into a controversial and politically loaded case.

The Bear (Hulu) A young chef from the fine dining world comes home to Chicago to run his family sandwich shop after a heartbreaking death in his family. Closest culinary representation according to Alanmichael. Great show, highly recommended.

FOOD

Taco Bake

Hawaiian Chicken

Phyllo Chicken

Pork Roast

Italian Sausage

Fish and Chips 

pulled spicy chicken.

Love, Brian

www.whereonthespectrumareyou.com

Hoar Frost is Beautiful

2/4 – Saturday 

The General practitioner was very positive about using immunotherapy. She encouraged Michelle to consider this treatment. She spoke of palliative vs curative cancer treatments. Immunotherapy is more of a palliative therapy as it may help a person feel more comfortable, but it does not treat or cure the disease. 

Michelle has a Cat Scan this week and is NOT interested in hearing the results. I will sit with the neurologist and discuss the results and a plan of action if needed.

Texas had its yearly ice storm this week. There are several branches down on Luck ranch. Hoar frost looks beautiful on the trees and fences, but it sure does a number on power lines. The sheer weight was enough to uproot a 30-foot tree in my front yard and strategically place it on the road out front. A perfect speed trap, er um obstacle! I heard a neighbor say “help- it’s fallen, and I can’t get out.” To the bat cave I go and grab the bobcat. This should be easy enough, just push it out of the way. 

Not as easy as I think. I get the bobcat stuck with 25 neighbors staring at me. I twist and turn it just right and break free. Whew! Just in time to answer a work call. I leave the Bobcat running and go in the house to answer my call. I explain my situation to my colleagues but I receive zero sympathy from my team. The call goes on mute, I put my Bluetooth headsets on and head back outside. 

Some stranger is in my bobcat, 2 others are working chainsaws and there are 15 grown men watching – all speaking in Spanish. I grab my electric chain saw from my neighbor who has very little experience using cheap equipment. I made short work of the 13-inch trunk. I slowly and methodically tear through the tree with help from another neighbor using the much more capable Stihl gas operated chainsaw. Slow and sure, the tree and all the debris were free from the road.  Gracias muchacho could be heard as they sped down the road as if nothing hindered them. 

I get the cat put back in the bat cave and sit down at my desk and hear “great call guys, there is a lot of technical work for you all to get done, but we know you guys can do it” being I was the only technical guy from Dell on the call, I knew I got the action items – oh joy! When it rains it hoars! See what I did there?

Michelle’s appointments for the week were all canceled. Michelle reminded me of "Snowpocolypst 2021", where we lost electricity and water. She suggested I fill the bathtub with water, that way if we lose water, we will have a tub filled with water! Great idea. I started the bath water then went to my desk to catch up on the missed work from the fallen tree incident earlier. I brought Michelle some mandarin oranges and sat with her for a few minutes. She startled me by screaming “BABE – BABE – BABE!” W A T E R !!! That’s right, I forgot to shut the dag gum bathtub water off. 

I jumped up and sloshed down the hallway, careful not to slip on the stained concrete floor, and turned off the water to the bathtub. Luck river flows slowly into the Living Room as I try to stop it with towels and a shop vac. Chele felt miserable that she could not help me clean up the mess. I tried to make light of a messy and wet situation. I smiled and told her that it was great news, I intended on mopping anyway, this just forced me to do it sooner than I planned. 

No sooner had I dried up Luck River than flash boom bang off goes our electricity. Up again and back to the bat cave. I grab my generator and a few power cords. With fresh pork, a whole cow and 50 meat hens in my freezers, I had to keep them up and running. 5 gallons of gas, TV, space heaters, the stove, the fireplace and the refrigerator, we are set. The internet was down because of the storm and the cell towers were spotty. We end up watching Netflix using spotty coverage on a hotspot from my phone. I probably left out at least 5 stories, but I likely lost most of you at yearly ice storm!

TV: The Last of Us (HBO) Apocalyptic show based on a video game. Tearjerker episode this week. Nick Offerman stars as doomsday survivalist. Turned into a great watch.

The Great British Bake Off (Netflix) Very fun watch.

Cash Cab (Hulu) Mindless 

Food this week: 

Spaghetti and Meatballs 

Poor Man's Stroganoff 

Meatloaf

King Ranch Chicken

Beef Tacos

Brats 

Hamburgers

Love, Brian

www.BigBsPizza.com