Halloween 2010

This weekend is Halloween. Our house is not in competition with the neighbor who has orange and white lights around the front door. And this is mild compared to others in the community that have yards with plastic ghosts and skeletons. We usually have a pumpkin and enough candy for maybe 30 kids. We never get that many kids but I would feel bad if we run out. And the candy that is left over always seems to disappear. In reflecting on some of my favorite Halloween costumes, my grand kids of course would be prize winners. From previous years, costumes have included Curious George, Darth Vader, Tinker Bell, a Penguin, a Race Car Driver, and a Gypsy. At my office staff would dress up and perform skits. One year a man came dressed as Snow White. He was not a bad looking guy, but in a dress, you were glad Halloween came only once a year. And then Elvis, who serenaded some of the office gals. He was a big hit. When I was a kid, it was simple, a hobo that had a smudged beard and old cloths, a cowboy or a ghost with a large sheet over the head and eye holes to look out of. After you got to high school you were too sophisticated to “dress up.” Somehow that is not the case any more. Everyone has tossed their sophistication to the wind and has a good time. A few years ago, I inadvertently cut Elvira the witch off in traffic. As she pulled up next to me in traffic, I could read her lips as she looked at me and said, “Thanks you dork.” About 15 minutes later she was standing next to me in the grocery line with her two kids in tow. I approached her and introduced myself to apologize. “Hi. I’m the dork that cut you off in traffic. I'm sorry. I did not realize you wanted to get into that traffic lane.” She got a little embarrassed and thanked me for the apology.”

This year’s pumpkin has a Rastafarian theme. Rose enjoys the music of Bob Marley. For a while her phone ring tone was “Jammin.” Our pumpkin did not live the easy laid back life of a Rastafarian though. It is already shriveling and looking old before Halloween even gets here.

I have just gone through two weeks on an oral chemotherapy that I take just before I go to sleep. At the end of the two weeks my blood count levels seemed fine. The doctors have increased the dose slightly for the next two weeks of treatment. On a fourteen day treatment I get the chemo each evening and on days one and eight, I get a hand full of steroids. The combination of the two has synergy to make the impact to the bad cell more effective. The only effect that I can point to is that I get a little more light headed and on the two days I get the steroids, I have a hard time falling to sleep. I have this week off from any of these two drugs. Then back at it for two weeks of treatment.