CUBA LIBRE REDUX

Okay, okay, I owe all of you a “yuuge” apology (sorry Donald) for abandoning the CUBA LIBRE series of blog posts so abruptly but I fully intend to resume the series in the next week or two.  This, in spite of being a tad outdated now that US airlines are beginning daily service from the US and Starwood Hotels has signed a deal with the Cuban government to bring several Havana hotels up to American tourist standards.   Many of you have asked “Where is that  ASS^*%* especially since he has force-fed us his teasers about the Cuba travel blog and then just stopped posting without any warming?”  Fair enough.   Explanation follows.  The picture below delineates where I have been every single day for the past three months.  In a lead-lined room in the basement of a hospital flat on my back while many rads of invisible rays penetrated my nether regions, hopefully killing a plethora of persistent cancer cells.

 

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Although it has been difficult for me to concentrate on my writing since my diagnosis, three good things have evolved from this ordeal.  First, it re-iterated to me that tomorrow is NOT guaranteed.  I shall never forget this maxim.  Second, it made me eternally thankful for access to excellent health care through my Medicare. My diagnosis was the same one that killed Kristine’s brother-in-law at age 47 many years ago before there was a life-saving treatment for it. Thirdly, the one most important in my eyes is the fact that I am the luckiest guy alive to have so many true friends who selflessly offered to help in any way possible.  And of course, to Kristine who was a saint, driving me to and from the hospital every day, putting up with my moody silences and rapidly disintegrating energy levels but forcing me to look forward regardless of my circumstances at the moment,  I can only say thank you and I will try desperately to make it worth your while!   

Graduation Ceremony

Monday the 15^th of August 2016 was a day of good news for me…  Graduation Day!  My last day of radiation and hormone treatments capped off with my hospital’s ritual ceremony where all of my caregivers gather to congratulate me and share a hug while I ring the ceremonial bell before I leave this place hopefully forever, never again to shuffle along those antiseptic corridors disappearing into those cavernous lead-lined rooms.  My oncologist has informed me that I will have many future years in which to write more bad books and harass any and all who disagree with my personal world view. ( I guess he knows me well). I fully accept that this news will have mixed reviews amongst y’all.  

In the immediate aftermath of my diagnosis, Kristine suggested we set a goal to look forward to after my long period of treatments ended and so we booked a three week trip to China as a little reward to ourselves.  I have already warned my son there will be no inheritance, to which he replied that it was not news to him!  I will now concentrate on regaining some strength and stamina before leaving for China later in September and try to catch up on my moribund correspondence files.  Let me take this opportunity to say thank you to all of you who have wished me well and once again apologize for my less than adult behavior in shutting out the world while I attempted to get my head around the fact that I am merely mortal.  I continue to grapple with the “humility” component of that concept as I am sure, many of you can well imagine, given my personality.  But… today IS the beginning of the rest of my life.  I intend to LIVE it… every single day!   Okay, I’m done whining now.   Let's go to Cuba!