Holy Hall

Feel bad for not having blogged here lately. This spotty internet access is driving me crazy, and even now with a new wireless router across the hall, getting on-line is touch and go at best. I'm guessing it must be the amount of steel and concrete between the two of us that keeps the signal from being stronger. But I'm getting a little ahead of myself. My neighbor across the hall is also an ordained minister, with credentials in both the United Methodist Church and the United Church of Christ. She's 80 years old, so one of the "pioneers" in that regard, and she's arrived here feeling a little overwhelmed by all the tasks of getting settled in. And so I've tried to help her out a little, and we've gotten to be friends -- and she's even taken to calling our little segment of the floor "Holy Hall" (we're looking now for a retired Rabbi to rent the third apartment across from hers and next-door to mine). In any event, she's signed-up for the Cable/Telephone/Internet combination service from Time Warner, and agreed to let me plug a wireless router into her cable modem so that I can piggyback off of her signal. But the PROBLEM is that even though she's just across the hall... well, that's where I started, right?

At least now I can go out into the hall itself and get a perfectly good signal...which saves me the bother of dragging my laptop all the way across to the other building, where I rarely go anymore except to check my mail. But the other complication is that the battery in my six year old iBook is now completely shot, which means I also need to drag the power cord with me...another stupid hassle, easily fixed though by the purchase of a new one. A battery, not a computer. Although maybe it's time for a new computer too....

Anyway, how I'm rambling now. Gave away the last of Parker's dog food today, as well as what were left of her treats, and didn't even shed a tear...although now that I write it in black and white I can hardly see the screen. 'effin narcotics. So much this stupid disease has taken from me, but I just keep choking back the tears and plodding along. What else am I going to do? Finished my last round of chemo (for this protocol in any event) the Monday before last, and next Monday is my next CT scan, just before I head off for a three day minister's retreat in Crawford's Notch New Hampshire (near Breton Wood). My Dad arrives the Wednesday I get back; my next appointment with my oncologist is the Monday after that (the day after MFW's birthday and the kick-off of this year's stewardship campaign). I'm not too anxious (yet) about what the results of the tests will show; I'm optimistic that the will continue the trend indicated by the mid-protocol CT, that the tumors are dormant or slightly smaller, and that there are no additional metastases anywhere else in my body.

If that's NOT what they show, then a lot of my plans could be changing in a hurry. But for now I'm looking forward to an emotional Spring of saying good bye to my many friends here in New England (including and especially the members of this congregation, who have done so much for me in my brief two years here, and to whom I will NEVER be able to adequately express my devotion, gratitude, and love), and hopefully my former parishioners in Carlisle and on Nantucket as well, along with my many, many collegial friends (who are still thick as thieves in the Neighborhood of Boston). Then back to the West Coast before Bastille Day, to be with my daughter (and former wife) for the arrival of grandchild numero uno. A little beach time on Camano Island with Brother Kurt and his family at the end of the summer, and finally down to sunny California for the winter, and a chance to read and write outdoors in my shirtsleeves in January.

But until then it's Holy Hall. Two hot meals and a hospital bed, plus free transportation to my medical appointments, and weekly housekeeping. It's a place that's served me very well since I moved here last June after being released from the hospital and rehab. I will certainly miss the people here as well.