The rocks, he tells me, come from Quebec and New Zealand. The Snow Serpent was built near Blowing Rock, North Carolina.
Blowing Rock is a famous cancer place. It was while training there, that Lance Armstrong had his big breakthrough following his cancer battle. I still wear the Livestrong bracelet Ash gave me more than18 months ago.
He packed up the rocks (You really have to meet this guy) and moved them to Asheville where he built the second serpent down by the Swannanoa River in east Asheville.
The three humped serpent is facing you in this photo. The three humps are representative of the Graser family - The big hump, obviously, is me.
Click on these photos to enlarge them for full effect.
I didn't sleep too well last night. I ended up on the floor in the living room with the TV blaring -- the blather of the chowderheads on comedy central seems to quiet my brain and allows some sleep.
I have a hunch today is going to be a tough day - I have tons of work to do and I have to start planning for my leave. I am not sure how we are going to pull that off.
On the first hand, work doesn't seem that important right now. On the second hand I have a perverse sense of duty that will not allow me to feel like I feel on the first hand. On the third and most practical (therefore rarest and most atrophied) hand, it is work that is going to make it possible for us to pay for all the crap we are going to go through and come out on the other side with a future for Lucy.
So, I gotta start working on getting things arranged.
If you are asking the question: How does a relatively healthy male get three seperate and distinct cancers by the age of 47, when no one else in his family seems to be affected? Please get to the back of the line.
It kind of rules out genetics and environment at the same time. It is a total baffler that we will have to deal with when we get what is happening right now under control.
I know it means that Lucy faces a lifetime of pretty constant testing - if we are smart about it.
Other than that, just questions upon questions.
A fellow at work thinks I should blame it on Canadian beer. Maybe I will take a chapter out of the classic comedy "Strange Brew" and see if I can parlay this into a lifetime supply of Molson Canadian and back bacon.
I'll keep you posted.
4 comments:
Would that be a good Frank Thomaseasque nickname for you -- "The Big Hump"?
I'll move to the back of the line, because I have been wondering why and how in the world shit like this happens to one of the goodest of the good guys and Karl Rove has not been hit by a Greyhound Bus yet.
dave
yes, work will set you free, won't it?
seriously, get things arranged so you can take the time to get yourself healthy again. and stop using that "o, i have cancer" excuse. git 'er done.
speaking of cancer, i just happened to meet with an oncologist today who wanted to tell me about how is practice is doing something unique in Ashvegas - moving the chemo and radiation therapy treatments all under one roof, for a sort of "one stop shopping" for cancer vics. (can i just start calling you "vic"? i kid. let me stop.) that seemed to make sense to me - i'm just surprised nobody has figured that out before now, but apparently this is a first for Ashvegas.
anyway, he was also telling me about some cutting edge treatments, like developing drugs that attach the molecular mechanisms that seem to make cancers grow. another new therapy, for use when tiny cancers are caught, allows a doc to tunnel right to the spot where the cancer was and drop radioactive material just on that one spot to treat the area - rather than bombard a wide area from the outside.
neither of these treatments will probably impact you, but i thought i'd use what little i learned today to talk cancer with you.
let me get back to cheering on the Lady Tar Heels...
And Tom, if you guys need to come to Asheville for anything, you can have this apartment in our house. You've been down here before, but it didn't have Internet access then.
dave
The Cramps show was a watershed event in my life.
I knew for sure that I was going to be a cool old guy.
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