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I think that God is constantly trying talk to us.  I think that He wants to guide us.  The tough part is finding time alone where life is quiet enough to hear him.  One of the more successful ways for me to do that is to go fly a kite. I really enjoy flying kites.  The kites I fly are “stunt kites” which basically means that they have two lines instead of one.  That means that you can make them do loop-de-loops, dives, and all kinds of fun maneuvers.  The bottom line is that you have a lot more control over the kite. And — I’ll admit it — I have control issues.    Today, I had the day to myself and nobody to remind me of all my responsibilities and grown-up issues.  So I took the time to go fly my kite.  And I think God used that time to talk to me…

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Well, I can honestly say that I never saw this one coming.   I’m on facebook now.  I have always avoided the social networking sites because I thought that they were a waste of time (and…well… they are).   I do have a MySpace page but I pretty much ignore it.  I only wanted it because, if MySpace ever became cool, I wanted to snag the page name “myspace.com/dickdonohue” (yea, it’s an ego thing).    There are a lot of really ugly MySpace pages and that didn’t help the coolness factor.  But now, with 90,000 sex offenders getting kicked off, it doesn’t appear that most people will be viewing MySpace  as a cool place any time soon. Just to be clear:  I’m saying that hanging out where sex offenders hang out is not cool.  I’m not saying that now that all the sex offenders have left, the place has no appeal! 

But facebook has really surprised me.  It started when a friend created a facebook group for the band I’m in (Great Buncha Guys).  Then one of the other guys in the band invited me to join facebook.   So I figured I would create an account and it would be just another social networking site to ignore.   For the next 2-3 days my email was flooded!  I’ve hooked up with old high school and college friends, friends from church and all over.  I admit that it has been fun to go back and reconnect with some folks.

For me, facebook has proven to be an interesting adventure in social science.  And it has me fascinated.  I’ve been spending a lot of time on facebook lately.  (I’m sure that it is an unhealthy amount of time.)  Here are some observations that I have found particularly interesting: continue reading…

Woo hoo!!! I got the results of my CAT Scan today and there is “no evidence” of any cancer in me! That makes four years that I’ve been in remission!! Thank you, God! And many thanks to those of you who have been praying for me.  

So for the next year,  I might see the oncologist in 6 months, and I’ll get another CT scan next January.   That’s pretty darn easy.   I still have my  portacath in me.  I asked the oncologist if I should get it removed.  He suggested that I keep it in “to ward off evil spirits”.  Ok, it’s not great theology, but I’m keeping it in.  So I still get to drop by the oncologist office once a month to get that flushed.    (Q: What’s the difference between me and a toilet?   A: A toilet doesn’t tell you bad jokes when you flush it).

So today is a great day to be alive.

At 9:30 Monday morning (1/26/2009) I will be inside a great big white donut feeling like I’ve peed my pants.  I’m getting my annual “let’s-see-if-Dick’s-cancer-has-come-back”
CT scan (a.k.a CAT scan).   Whenever I get a  CAT Scan, I have to fast the night before and then take some stuff they call “contrast”.  It tastes horrible.  It has this metallic taste and it makes me think I’m drinking puree’d aluminum. Then, when I get there, they make me take all my harmonicas out of my pockets.  I usually wear sweat pants to the CT Scan; that way I can keep my pants on.  Otherwise, I’d have to wear the famous hospital gowns with a view.

Anyway,  when I get there,  they give me even more contrast.  Then they hook me up with an IV of this stuff and when they inject it, I can feel it.  It doesn’t hurt or anything, but I get this sensation.  I can feel it moving around in my veins.  It’s a weird feeling.  Then the worst:  the contrast makes it to the …ah.. the groin area… and it causes a sensation just like I’m peeing my pants… warm and wet.  Now, of course, I’m not really wet.  And I haven’t really wet myself.  But try telling that to my brain.

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Ok, I know I’m a Johnny-come-lately to this game, but I just got an iPod.  My birthday was last week and my wife surprised me with an 80 GB iPod Classic.  I have to admit that I’m a little surprised by the effect it has had on me.  First, I’ve got a ton of CDs that I have ripped & burned so that I can play them in the car… or at least I thought it was a ton.   But the iPod has got me going through my whole music library. Turns out that I had maybe one quarter of my music on my computer.  Now (and I’m not done yet, I still have about 15 more CDs to go), I have over 2,400 songs on my computer (and on my new iPod).   And that has not even made a dent into the available space on that 80GB iPod.    I sorta obsessed on iTunes all weekend ripping my CDs for hours at a time.  But what really caught me off-guard with the new iPod was continue reading…