PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic good-bye friends

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Great news!

"rumors of my death have been slightly exaggerated!" -- mark twain
well dear friends, im back with a vengeance. finally got internet hookup yesterday. had a week of internet withdrawal. nice to be back on here among friends. im in a fab place with a wonderful staff of gorgeous nurses. great food and plenty of it. im very underweight due to my swallowing difficulty so im on a 'weight gain' diet. there's no demand for prime corn-fed irishmen that i should know about, is there? feels like im being fattened for market. i get 3 milk shakes per day and all the ice cream i want. have about 40 lbs to gain so im loving it.
i have one last favo(u)r to ask dear friends...please send me a greeting card from your part of the world. it seems to improve the quality of care when the staff knows people are concerned about you. my address:
REBOLD MANOR
(GRACE LIVING CENTERS)
ROOM 217B
1701 E 6TH
OKMULGEE OK 74447
918-807-0402
attention don gaynor, patient
i will love you forever.
the va is getting me a power wheelchair with wireless internet and a uk-made communication device called a dynavox so il be speaking with a brit accent now blokes and blokesses. aye wot!? i will be a wheelchair cowboy again, eeeyahoo!
been showing biab to the staff and they are interested in buying it. mine is v2008.5 but il ask peter to upgrade me to the everything pak before i demo it in ernest. peter?
the nutritionist is a great country singer and we are working on a collab with biab. will post it when its ready for prime time. also working on a song: "A Northwesterner's View of Of Oklahoma" which is a spoof about these wonderful people down here. im gathering anecdotal trivia from the locals to be set to music. can this much fun be legal?
im also getting otr (old time radio) set up through the activities director so we old folks can enjoy reminiscing to old radio shows. ive never been busier nor enjoyed myself more so it must be illegal. opinion mr conley?
i take this opportunity to sincerely thank everyone for your kind words of encouragement. with friends like you i will survive this difficult transition. first time wife and i have been separated in 50 years.
i love you
don

First major smile of the day, Don.
Whoo-hoo!

Have a shake, have a shake, have a shake on me . . .

Cheers Don - Ian

So good to hear from you , Don. I'm sure you'll like your new digs. I do a Saturday thing at an assisted living facility here in Las Vegas. It looks to me like the folks are pampered, but they all gripe about the food. I've eaten there a couple of times and it tasted good to me.

God Bless,

The Other Don

Good on you.

Any good Irishman would ask for a dram a day too. Helps with the appetite, wards of colds. Here the docs prescribe it if you are in a home. The nurses keep the bottle of Black Bushmillls, remember it's not booze it's an appetite and mood enhancer.

I was working on a song for you but I've got some dang thing grew in my neck. 3 weeks ago a pea, now an inch and a half around, pushing my windpipe, jugular and carotid artery. Sounds like Wednesdays concert with the brass band is out, time will tell.
I had an ultrasound.
2 days later a chest xray.
2 days later a CT scan and another with glow in the dark dye.
The surgeon is back on Monday, I think he went golfing in SC, but there's another on standby and they gave me all my medical records and powers of attorney.

Not to be pessimistic, but at 20 years lymphoma is a legislated disease for firefighters, meaning I get a lump sum, a pension increase, and croaking payments. I just hope the radiation won't mess with my beautiful off key bass baritone.

I said about an irish friend of mine in the nursing home about him being senile. Nurse says, he's not senile as much as sneaky smart about getting his hand up yer dress. HA....

Bonne chance or Good Luck.

folks, nudge peter about upgrading me to the 'everything pak' i can't afford to upgrade any more.

Don,

Great news, glad you are settled in. I just wish I was close enough to put you guys on my schedule.

Keep on keeping on my friend!

Don I went whole hog and got the ww1 soldiers on your card.

Grandfather fought in France in WW1. Wounded twice. In typical Canuck understatement you could get shot in the head (like him) and end up with the I went there medal.

Heck even know you get a single one for 12 years if you are a good boy and never get 'arrested' or put on report. Nothing more or less.

I made 10 years so I have squat. You visit the US and some guy who never went anywhere near a bullet has 40 ribbons. It seems you get one for going to McDonalds in Bermuda. I was there once when a battle group came in and every woman on the island went into hiding. I asked about that the the taxi driver said .."so she says some guy in a white suit bell bottomed suit and round cap and 12 of his buddies did what??" There's 20 thousand on shore...

Good thing I brought my own....

The line up for McDonald's was at least 12 blocks long....

Crazy man...

BTW, If I gamble I use 25 bucks..when it's gone the next gamble is to ask the wife if..never mind.

john, you are one crazy canuck. i will treasure your card and i look forward to hearing your tune. i always chuckle reading your posts.

Wow John, what you're going through sounds oh so familiar. In 1990 I was at the station, getting ready for my evening workout when I felt a tiny knot under my jaw, like a pea. Like yours, in weeks in was the size of a ping pong ball. Got a CT and a biopsy. The node was positive for cancer, a squamous sell carcinoma originating at the back of my tongue. Surgeries (plural) and radiation wiped it out, but it took a year. My voice wasn't that good to begin with, lol, but it was crap afterwards. Went back to full duty at the station, studied and made Captain a couple years later, and remained a Captain of one of the busiest engine companies in the 12th largest Fire Department in the United States for 13 years before I retired after 28 years of service. Nowadays it golf and guitar, whichever is in reach. There is life after cancer, plenty of it. Best wishes to you, hope to hear from you when it's all over.

Thanks.

I was always wacko. Now I've got drugs to prove it. One I'm taking makes me say what I think. The wife cringes. We went to the doc the other day and she has very bad laryngitis, can only whisper. I asked my Doc what he thought a mute woman was worth. He says a lot, asks the wife what she things. Whisper whisper. I say, I bet she's worth a bundle on Ebay! Whack.. I never had trouble saying what I think but we are walking down the street yesteday and I look at some woman and go, wow those shoes are HOT. Whoops. It just came out.

HE Don, change the goodbye to hello in your post. Things are looking up!

Yup sounds like same stuff different day. I was Chief Training Officer, went to Univ. of Cinici for the Fire Engineering Course. Couldn't handle the BS from the front office. Geez if one guy who was 1/2 asleep hooked up the hydrant without the gate valve on the other side, I had to document that everyone one was retrained, and the order came the next freaking day. Drop the regular program and do this. 3 weeks later they want to know why the regular training isn't done, and I'm going ok so 4 platoons, 28 vehicles, travel time, vacation days, sick days, and I'm running 3 things at once. Plus officer training every week Mon to Fri 8 to 5. With a staff of 4. Wow. Then there's pre-budget meetings, budget meetings, big canary meetings, meetings to fight over compartments on the 3 year down the road Heavy Rescue, in the mean time I need to be showing some dolt how to hook up a gate valve?

There WAS a pension surplus. Take the average of your best 5 years, figure out 2 percent of that, and multiply that by years of service. I had 25 at 53. Plus 3 years for full time 'volunteer' service where I was driving the ambulance all the time. So 28 plus 53 gave me the number to go early, and only 3 chiefs made more money than me ..out the door.

Now lymphomas and stuff like you had, even after retirement, they put you back on pay at your current rate and rank, and book you off sick. No taxes on the pay. It's only 128k now. Send me the cheques.

Right now I can't sleep, stupid mass is pushing my carotid, jugular, windpipe, and now the trimenigal nerve (sp? long time since Anatomy Class), and hurting my ear. I suspect they are going to see me in emerg this week. The burning feet are the worst ..

I've got the airmiles to go around the world. I need to try compression stockings, the last time I flew my feet got huge. And I'm not that old...

My restriction is the 3 months ban on travel outside the province after surgery. I'm going to sip wine on in a Paris Cafe yet. And a single malt standing on the farm my GG grandparents left on Islay. Maybe a watery beer while jumping up and down on Don's bed doing rehab to hokey pokey with the sound system cranked up. And a couple of nurses. Can you get a pizza milkshake!?

I swear it was the car fires. Did you have the year of the Torino and the other one same make, 8 cyl with the stupid 4 inch rubber gas line gizmo, went from steel to rubber into the carb. We had at least one fire per shift for a while. Some other car had the rubber power steering hose right beside the manifold and one day while turning it spit the fluid on the manifold, which made a big white smoke before the big black smoke on the horizon.

Back in the day the masks were hidden under stuff in boxes. If you wore one you were a sucky-girl. We wore huge woolen mittens in the winter, carried one in your pocket soaked it with water and stuck it between your teeth.

After a car fire your pulse raced for hours, all pumped up like Arnie would say..suck the plastic smoke, it's GOOD for you.

Here the cancer you had (if you were 15 years on the force) is covered as 'presumptive'. Means of course it's work related. 80k payout the day of the diagnosis, it's a work injury, too many stats say so. In my case they are saying it's lymphatic and I have the 20 years to cover that. Last week week it was for sure lung cancer, until the CT scan came back clean. That was going to be a fight, if you smoked they push back and did for 6 years, other than the odd Cuban.

john, my nurse asks: "Are we ready for OUR bath, mr gaynor?" scared me half to death. i have had both hs biology and anatomy but only last friday, at age 69, did i learn where my 'pericare' is located.

one nice thing about being in here...i get to recycle all my jokes.

"Are we ready for OUR bath, mr gaynor?"


'SCuse me mame, but i think you missed a spot!

Don,
When the nurse asks you that, do you ask her if she plans on joining you in the tub? And if so, is she going to be wearing the same thing you are?

Gary

[virtual hugs] So dang happy for you, Don! Welcome back!

And, John, good luck with your stuff. A friend of mine is going through radiation after a lumpectomy -- all signs are very very good, but she's really tired right now in mid-radiation.

Thanks, made it thru the week-end without going to emerg.

The company I work for part part time's owner insisted I take the suite at this Hilton Hotel in Niagara on the lake and chill. I got to his fancy Brazilian steak house and had lots of good food. (Lots for me is not so much), but they bring skewers with 16 types of rotisserie meat and slice it off at your table. Pretty cool. Hung out at the Welland Canal for a half a day watching the ships go thru the locks.

If I can find a first class seat on the Toronto train I'm going up tonight and visiting my son, stay in a hotel, and meet the same owner at his other steak house in Toronto. I did employee manuals for both those places, but never got to the one in Toronto.

Thanks for the kind works...

other don, got your card and cracked up laughing. i want to scan it and use it for wallpaper. its me for certain. hilarious. thanks so much.
the other don, aka the irish cowboy in room 217