Sunday's thoughts...

Just lying under my covers trying to stay warm on a freezing Sunday night. I've been trying to find and seal off all of the drafts in this place but since it was built in 1926 and it's on a crawl space, there's no way to make it cozy in here without blasting the furnace.

With that, I'm excited to say that I'll be moving into a new place in about a month or so! I'd been watching this house 8 doors down on the other (park) side of the street. It was up for short sale which seemed like forever and after calling the agent, felt I might be able to offer a super low price as nobody had even been over there to see it because of picky and difficult renters. Since I lived right down the street and not working, I was able to arrange a look as soon as the tenants were good and ready. The bank and I traded offeres back and forth before we decided to close. The place needs work but not a ton and there's some nice character to it. Most importantly, it has a basement and as a bonus, an upstairs (the two bedrooms and bath are up there). The original oak floors are intact (but need sanding and refinishing) and it needs some remodeling but it's no big deal to me as I've remodeled a couple of houses already.

It's unbelievable to me that I was able to get the house for less than the average price of a new car! I decided to cash in one of my 401K accounts thinking that the money wasn't doing me a whole lot of good sitting there and knowing I couldn't take it with me if something were to happen.

I'm so excited to get started on it! It's great because during the nice months, I can take chili out to the yard then open my gate at the back of the yard then let her go run around in this huge park which the house backs up to. There's always soccer matches, there's a basketball and hockey court as well as picnic tables and BBQ's. I've always wanted to have a big softball game / party and think I might try and make it happen this summer. Who knows, maybe I can even figure out a way to make it into a Hodgkins research fundraiser...

So, obviously I'm excited about this development! I'm also excited to say that I'm leaving this cold again and headed down to Soflo. Part of me wants to stay here so I can get started on all my projects but my rational side kicks in and tells me that the Vitamin D from the sun and the beach will continue to aid in my healing and the house will be there when I get back!

As I promised a few weeks ago (now that I know this has a happy ending), I wanted to tell the story of my narrowly averted tragedy about two and a half weeks ago. I briefly mentioned in a previous blog about me not being able to take a trip without something crazy happening. Well, this time it wasn't me but Jackie's dog Gomez who would wind up in the precarious situation.

It was super early in the morning, something like 5 a.m. It was my last day of watching little G Money and just had to get to the airport. What I didn't realize is that I left around 6-7 of my Dronabinol pills on my comforter as I was packing for my trip. I was going to give these couple of pills to a friend of mine as they help her sleep. They're prescribed to me to help combat nausea and to help stimulate my appetite (both side effects from the trial I'm on). The only thing is they make you feel pretty loopy for the first hour or so after you take one. This makes sense since Dronabinol is actually synthetic THC without all of the different chemicals that are found in Marijuana (i.e. canabinoids). Well, because I was so drowsy, I forgot that I had them laying on my bed and went to sleep without putting them in a bag to leave on my counter. Of course, as per ritual, G jumped up on the bed and crashed with me. Little did I know that he was going to take the trip of a lifetime right after that! That's right, little G Dog decided to eat 6 of the 7 pills. I'm not certain he ate six, it's just that I could only find one on the floor. So of course, with it being 5 a.m and realizing what just happened, I completely freaked out. I mean, the dog only weighs 14 pounds! If you do the math, it's like me taking around 350 of those pills, oy vey! I couldn't even begin to imagine what might have been going on in the poor little guys mind. So, of course, it was time to go to the animal hospital where they gave him charcoal in his blood and gave him stuff to make him empty his bowels... With that, there was no guarantee he was going to make it as the vet told me he took a "highly toxic dose". I debated canceling my trip but Jackie was very understanding and told me to go anyway and we'd just keep in contact over the phone. I was a nervous wreck getting on that plane...

When I got the report that he was mostly out of the woods it felt like a thousand pounds had been lifted off of my shoulders! The G Man had to walk around with a lampshade for around 24 hours and was probably out of it for a few days after but thankfully made it out ok! The joke about Gomez now is that he's not a dog but a cat with 9 lives. More like a Dat I guess you could say. After this episode, he's pretty much on his 4th life after almost dying from a pneumonia when he was first adopted then the whole getting hit by a car story while I was watching him previously. That's right, I've almost killed the most luvable cutest dog ever, twice, yikes! To think, I don't know of too many people that love animals like I do plus he wasn't my dog which I think maybe makes it even worse. I had just gotten over all the chili trauma where she got her paw slammed in a trunk but it was still pretty fresh in my mind.

All's I have to say is that if only that dog could talk, the stories he'd be able to share, ahh.... I can say that he is one tough little hombre both physically and now obviously mentally. I tried to put myself in Gomez's spot thinking of how I would feel after eating 350 of those pills and lets just say it's a place that I never want to visit!


"Where in the %$#&*&@ am I"? "Why all of the sudden do I crave Doritos and have the urge to listen to reggae" (thinks Gomez). Poor little guy...

On to a bit of bad news (for real) unfortunately... I found out last night from my buddy Dan that his friend (and a friend of mine, although I didn't know him as well) died of a heart attack. His name is Ivan and I wrote about him last year. He was a great guitar player / singer / songwriter. He was also a great guy, ugh... I wrote about how Ivan had serious heart problems back then. We used to talk about how each of our lives were tenuous because of our health issues and shared a zest for enjoying every moment. Fittingly, Ivan died doing something he really loved and that is disc golf. In fact, he had started his own disc golf merchandising company and from what I knew, was doing fairly well with it. I'm bummed that I'll never be able to see or talk to the guy again, this sucks...


Talk about being full of life... We would sit outside at Danny's quad and Ivan would just belt out tunes of his own or covers like the Gypsy Kings or other cool stuff... He was way too young, very sad...

Cheers to Ivan and Gomez! I hope you rest in Peace Ivan, God bless ya brother...

Your buddy Chris