Edumacation. . . .

Shirlee, long and checkered educational career, lol! University of Utah, 1959 - 1962.  Moved to Maryland, worked a year, got married, University of Maryland, full time 63/64, undergrad; babies, 64 and 66; 68/70 also full time undergrad; BA, 1970.  University of Maryland 71 -- part time grad school; 72/73 full time, MA 73.  English w/ creative writing specialty (MD didn't offer a MFA 'cause they said no one could get a job with that degree, but they allowed the writers to take half of their classes in writing, and offer either a book of poetry or a novel as a Master's Thesis).  I did a novel, though as I was paying my typist 75 cents a page, 270 pages, I saw I should have gone for poetry at 40 pages or so, lol! Heck, I likely could have typed the poetry myself -- no MLA guidelines for poetry: the poet gets to decide, grin.

You'll note that's six full time years as an undergrad: I graduated with 180 "semester" hours.  Two causes -- transferring from a quarter system to a semester system.  I lost a lot of hours in the translation: if you had five quarter hours, the translation equaled 3.3 semester hours, and they accepted the hours, but tossed the extra third.  If you had 3 quarter hours, that equaled 2 semester hours, but was an hour short, so they made you re-take the class at three S hours to make up the missing hour.  Ditto for 2 Q hours (=1.33 S hours). Utah had  five hour classes and threes and twos. (Health 101 at Utah was a two hour class; at Maryland, also a two hour -- Q-hours > S-hours = 1.33.  Took the whole class over for the 2.3 hour. . . .)  Maryland virtually only three hour classes.  That coupled with Utah was rarely forward looking, and offered a multitude of course to fill each broad area: at Utah, I took anthropology to fill the psych/sosh requirement -- Maryland credited the hours, but *required* ONLY psych 101 and sosh 101. . . . etc. At Utah, I'd taken Genetics, Maryland *required* Biology 101 from everyone.  I took it. If I'd *entered* as a Freshman, I could have tested out of the BR (basic requirements), but as a transfer student, you couldn't transfer in into Honors.  Utah accepted a lot of high school classes -- American History/World History not for hours, but as filling those slots and let you take more advanced classes to fill the Field requirements.  Maryland didn't.

The other difference between the schools which struck me as exceeding odd was: at Utah, it was clear that the faculty was there FOR the students; at Maryland, the reverse was true -- the students were there FOR the faculty (to provide jobs).  Two examples: at Utah, often the head of the department would teach the freshman classes (my physics class, and Philosophy 101 were both taught by the department heads); at Maryland, *nevah*.  At Utah's registration, the advisors from each department would be given a classroom at the Union building: getting advised at Utah meant you never had to leave the building, and registration was in the ballroom.  At Maryland, advisors stayed in their own offices, and the students ran all over campus getting classes okayed.  I could register at Utah in a couple of hours.  Maryland often took two or three full days to do the same.

It struck me as full strange even then that the conservative state had the amazingly liberal university  and it was famously excellent and forward looking -- had degrees in fields where they were the ONLY one in the country that offered that degree.  Dance comes to mind -- other schools offered it as a specialty in PE, lol!  Their theatre department was stunning!  Maryland, the librul state offered a football U. . . . with very anal retentive requirements. . .

So why did I transfer at all, lol!?  At three years in at Utah, I had an equal numbers of hours in Philosophy, Theatre and English. I knew I could graduate in a year by concentrating on one of those fields.  But I loved them each, and couldn't make up ma mind, lol!  Had a best friend whose father had moved the family to MD so he could work for JFK's new HEW Department.  She'd dropped out of college and was working.  I had this wild hair that if I worked for a year, I could save enough for my senior year, AND decide which major I wanted to be, lol!  Mryna and Alec (the guy she was seeing) introduced me to the father of my future children the third week I was there, and Utah ended up not being an option.  I ended up majoring in English. You'll note that NONE of my potential majors were in fields with any kind of clear career path. . . .

TMI?

This is what I saved of the last month of the blog . . . . (and I kinda like the typos, so won't be changing them)

Shaking the dust from my feet. . . .

Saturday at 11:59 p.m.

Sunday at 12:00 a.m.

 

 So, they got neither the day of the week, nor the day of the month correct.  And this after multiple inquiries on their Facebook page, and a telephone call to HQ from a local blogger.

This I had typed on their facebook page.  But didn't hit send.  Decided not to throw more pearls before swine. . . .   The archives, BTW, are now permanently gone.  Book burning of the first water.  Swine doesn't begin to cover it.

When Jim inherited Howard's blog , DFA had close to a million names.  I joined Kos the same month, my number was 8743.  Kos is now at 341,310.  You have  39,919 likes on facebook.  You just killed the blog. Took you eight years, a ton of neglect, and some breathtaking incompetency to do it.  Congratulations.

Time to say goodbye to yesterday

Time to say goodbye to yesterday
This is where the cowboy rides away

Danube

And as the credits roll, the sad song starts to play
This is where the cowboy rides away

On the occasion of the possible last thread. . . .

Mars Sunset

This could be


This is the end
My only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I'll never look into your eyes...again
Can you picture what will be
So limitless and free
Desperately in need...of some...stranger's hand
In a...desperate land

Rendered by publius on April 26, 2012

[Its certainly not mine

By publius on Apr 26, 2012 8:44 PM EDT

just lifting lyrics and music of the Doors from Youtube and the some of the high cost filming of Coppola's Apocalypse
Documentary on them stated all credits on all recordings went to the Doors and not any of them individually including Morrison]

There's a new Pew Poll out

which rePublicans have taken as their own, as proving their superiority.  Since they hate so much Democrats doing it, I kinda wondered. . .   But then I remembered: IOKIYAR. . . .

And what they're puffing themselves up about?  They did better on a 13 question phone poll.  (I took it, got a hundred percent, but it didn't make me feel especially terrific.  First grade questions, lol!)  What the poll revealed, to me, was how badly we need some actual edumacation in this country.

This is the poll if you want to take it: 

Take the Quiz!

The other thing that puzzled me was *that* coupled with *this* --

http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/22/science-say-gop-voters-better-informed-open-minded/#ixzz1stzk1ZVV

Excerpt: On eight of 13 questions about politics, Republicans outscored Democrats by an average of 18 percentage points, according to a new Pew survey titled “Partisan Differences in Knowledge.” The Pew survey adds to a wave of surveys and studies showing that GOP-sympathizers are better informed, more intellectually consistent, more open-minded, more empathetic and more receptive to criticism than their fellow Americans who support the Democratic Party. [my empahsis]

 There doesn't appear to be any back up for this claim, and I *did* look.  Just repeats of the original post claiming same. 

So what we have is: 13 questions, and maybe five minutes time (Is that stretching it?  I dunno.) versus this: an in depth, twenty plus year study. . . . 

Study: Whiny Kids Become Republicans

From the Toronto Star:

Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative.
At least, he did if he was one of 95 kids from the Berkeley area that social scientists have been tracking for the last 20 years. The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals.
The study from the Journal of Research Into Personality isn’t going to make the UC Berkeley professor who published it any friends on the right. Similar conclusions a few years ago from another academic saw him excoriated on right-wing blogs, and even led to a Congressional investigation into his research funding.
But the new results are worth a look. In the 1960s Jack Block and his wife and fellow professor Jeanne Block (now deceased) began tracking more than 100 nursery school kids as part of a general study of personality. The kids’ personalities were rated at the time by teachers and assistants who had known them for months. There’s no reason to think political bias skewed the ratings — the investigators were not looking at political orientation back then. Even if they had been, it’s unlikely that 3- and 4-year-olds would have had much idea about their political leanings.
A few decades later, Block followed up with more surveys, looking again at personality, and this time at politics, too. The whiny kids tended to grow up conservative, and turned into rigid young adults who hewed closely to traditional gender roles and were uncomfortable with ambiguity.
The confident kids turned out liberal and were still hanging loose, turning into bright, non-conforming adults with wide interests. The girls were still outgoing, but the young men tended to turn a little introspective. [emphasis mine]

The original story from the Star is no longer available -- I picked this source because she has the most complete quote. 

Don't know when/where this was taken, but I love it! The ultimate survivors. . . .

POETS AT PLAY IN THE FIELDS OF THE DEAN

Ontime

"Hurry up," the poet said,
"It's time," time
time in that sort of
"runic rhyme" another said,
and there isn't much left
as if it were the store
the Prophet Elijah left of
flour and wine, never
diminished each day, but
time doesn't work that way.
We do.

To finish, I remember
how much I loved
hearing my Samoan
students, my eighth
grade bandits as we
called them, shout,
"Finish" when a tedious
assignment ended.  "Finish"
and for me too, I've
always wanted, "Finish" to
see how the ending went
a surprise or a prediction,
and then I'd know, understand
and the next time I'd be
prepared except, time doesn't
work that way.  It doesn't
work at all.  We do.

As if it's some marathon
we find ourselves in
for our lifetime, and we
don't know how far or long
we'll run, and we know we won't
be winners now.  We feel our joints
our lack of energy.

But, we have to finish
our projects, I say, and then
the poetry, the music,
the photographs, who
will really care, and who will
even look at what we've
done, just another
generation in its own
marathon, running towards
a finish they will never know,
but wanting to after years,
to shout as my students
did, "Finish!" and oh,
the joy of it.



 ~~ Pat Maslowski  April 23, 2012

Time Juggling

There is a Christian tradition
of a common bond
"the communion of saints"
stretching backward and forward
through time and beyond.

Sinners like you and me
and humanity writ large
travel on the parade route
hoping god loves clowns
and jugglers.

We juggle time-temptations
hoping someone finds it amusing
(most likely children if not he who shall not be named)
and paint our faces to hide our fears
knowing parades end.



By Phil Specht on April 23, 2012



 

The Page You Are Looking For Does Not Exist.

(Your comment was successfully added.)


and the blog started by Howard Dean
disappears into the e-ther
like a Presidential campaign
activism successfully added.

not to worry

Homeland Security archives all
and e-historians may note
what magic keeps one conversation
going year after year after year

something about
"You have the power"
"What I want to know"
on a page that does not need
to exist.


By Phil Specht  April 23, 2012

One month past spring and two thirds away from summer. . . .

***The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Watch for the counties of Highland, Pendleton, Grant and Hardy from late tonight through Monday evening. There is potential for 2" to 4" of wet snow in these areas creating hazardous travel conditions, and caution is urged.***

So for Earth Day, we have Global Climate Instability on the plate. . . .

Yo Mama. . . .

*Still in Love with Howard Dean*

Amy Swagman

Passing Them On

Nothing in culture

finds memory not useful.

Double negative in all lessons

ascribed to higher powers

but born in umbilical blood

and first cry.

Ideas might die

they will be re-born

every seed a resurrection

an insurrection

an arab spring.

Try and put it down

people power, freedom

you will not.

The next baby born

 is Mandela.  

By Phil Specht on April 21, 2012

 

Vincent – A One Man Show



It's those spiraling lights
suns on a roller coaster ride.
You are outside with him
a candle in your hand
watching his brush swirl
the paint and you're not
sure which is brighter,
stars that you now see
as he sees or as he places
them on the canvas fused
with sky, blossoming.



His hand makes its own
story of creation expanding
into nights heating and pumping
beyond body into trees, village,
hills, and you are here as witness.



Too much resonance to be
contained in hand, skin, bones
the villagers in Arles mocked
him, chased him and pelted
him with stones. Despite his
agony he painted, left as surety
for unpaid rent his visions by
hand, heart, and soul that
he taught us to see and feel
a nature we would not discover
on our own. “ I cannot live
without being loved,” he said,
better to sleep, to become stone.
“You take a train to get to
the city, but it takes death
to get to a star.” Was this
his longing all along, to return
to Creation's burning source?



“Theo, I could die like this.” 

 

~~ Pat Maslowski  

 

 

Leonard Nimoy wrote and acted in 

Vincent, a one man show, published    

by Rumbleseat Productions, 2006

Chatsworth, CA.

 

 

Wardrobe note: wear suspenders

The clothes make the man.

if he is comfortable in his own skin

only at first impression.

A costume.

But a gaze

then nearer still a touch

and it all disappears.

Confused

a moth in daylight

cannot smell

at night drawn to flame

And crossing mid stage

and exit to the left

an approach for pause

mid line

turning, leading lady,

to catch your eye.

To meet in eternity.

By Phil Specht on April 17, 2012

When a mind is great enough to ignore common prejudice. . . .

As a young rake. . . .

Many years ago, Herman Wolf was entertaining a guest at his parents' rural home near Bremen, Germany, when, in general conversation, Wolf's mother mentioned that a huge pond in their garden was "leaking".

The guest said he might be able to help and immediately fashioned a forked dowsing rod.

Taking the rod, he walked out to the pond and in a short time pinpointed the exact location of the underground flow that was draining the pond. The Wolfs were delighted and even more so when heir guest proceeded to teach them the fine points of the art of
dowsing.

Herman Wolf was actually more amazed than delighted because his friend and guest was none other that the celebrated scientist Albert Einstein.

-- George Cunningham-Tee
Toronto Sun Syndicate

Dousing

leading photons on trails of gravity

like harriers following lift south

the spin changed when our night twin

flew to the moon

but water still flows downhill

so divining rod in hand

let me witch you a well

pure and sweet as a sacrament

eternal

By Phil Specht on April 15, 2012

Over at the Achalasia board this morning I was thinking how much every place I blog (with the *notable* exception of here) comes with the same cast of characters. . . . The YES-BUT, the Catastrophiser, the Negative-Nelly, the Scorpion, the Do-Bees (gladly, they are more than the others), the Helper Bees, the Helpless, the Hopeless. True for both of my dating sites, the BBB, the A-group. Not so true of facebook, because you have more choice? Also, facebook heuristics seem to change who you see on your feed page, over time: those you respond to most often, show more often, those you read and pass on show less often. I was surprised to go checking on my peeps I hadn't seen for a while to note they had been posting all along, just not showing in my feed. So the essence of facebook is that you get more of what you like, less of what you don't -- which is more like what we do in real life, and much less like your average blog. . . .

Friday, April 13, 2012 6:47 PM, EDT

Clear Scans!!!

We also spent time talking with Ally's Oncologist today. As many of you know we are now done with the 3f8 treatment at MSKCC. We (Mommy and Daddy) are/were very nervous to completely stop treatment, as Neuroblastoma is very aggressive and tends to come back, usually with a vengeance. After talking with the doctor it is clear that any treatment (chemo, MIGB therapy, different antibodies, etc.) would just cause side effects, and is not proven to prevent the cancer from coming back. Not only would further treatment have a whole host of side effects, it would make whatever treatment we were doing less effective, should the tumor return. So...our plan is to completely stop treatment. Ally will continue to be scanned (MIBG only) every 3 months. This will expose her to less radiation (as the CT scan is relatively high radiation) and save her the pain of bone marrows. We are all hopeful that the chemo, radiation, surgeries, and 3f8 did what they were supposed to do, and that Ally will remain NED.

We also spoke with the nutritionist at our NH Medical Center today. Ally has plateaued in her weight gain. She is stuck at 27.5 pounds (and today she was 38 inches tall). An average 3 year old girl weighs a little more than 27 pounds, and an average 5 year old girl should weigh around 40 pounds. A 3 and a half year old girl is around 38 inches, and a 5 year old girl should be closer to 43 inches. We are going to try a few changes to her diet to see if it will help with her 3-4 daily #2 bathroom trips (her food just goes right through her), and see if that helps her keep the weight on. It is also a possibility that she is just using all of her calories; because she is so active. Hopefully we will be able to get more weight on her, and hopefully, since her 2nd tooth came out tonight she will eat better as well!

That's all for now! (Except that we are looking into starting her immunizations up again, as she has none at this point and we are trusting in the Concord community to immunize their kids, so Ally won't get polio as well!) We will scan again in July. We all have vacation in a couple of weeks, and we are excited about the upcoming warm weather. Have a fantastic weekend. Hopefully I will not have to update for a while!!!

This just in (it isn’t even up on her message board yet!)

Clear Scans for Ally!!!

Yesterday, my friends who gave me The Goobey

had a baby hummingbird fly in the window. She thought it was a bumble bee, lol! Found some emergency hummer food (doesn't normally use the red stuff), fed him and he flew away.

DOZD 2012 Sanandaj Iran

Monday, April 9, 2012 12:37 PM, EDT

This Friday is going to be a lucky Friday the 13th. That is the day Ally will have her MIBG scan. Since she is off treatment and has been in remission for 2 years we are down to just one scan!

We will also have a sit down with the oncologist to discuss what our next steps will be.

Please keep Ally in your prayers for continued clear scans!

hattip to the Llama song

ceocrocker

Todd Gipstein

Indy

Today I picked up a rock that looked like an arrowhead

(out of habit I'm always looking)

but it was just a piece of stone

that if worked had been rejected.

When my son was young (but past the age of needing

the occasional lift on the shoulders) we would hike the hills

in search of artifacts and poke around the "Indian caves."

He became "Indy, boy archeologist;" and

I earned the title "bogus archeologist;"

because by then he had studied enough to know woodland tribes

never lived in rock shelters, even as I estimated 3 feet of time-soil

lay over the ashes of a campfire built as the glaciers passed to the west

and remained sure the spring too handy and the cave too protected

not to invite habitation to wanderers in a strange land.

So now that his spirit inhabits the same space

time continuum as the first nation people's ancestors

I would like to ask him to settle the argument.

Was I right to feel their presence under the bluff?

Or now his with the red tail's cry?

I do know a young "Indiana Jones" is with me

every time I bend to hold the past in my hand.

By Phil Specht on Mar 28, 2012

Bluesmaster

DFA is killing the blog at the end of April. Suggesting we join them on facebook or tweeter. . . .

practice tweets they were, I saved them to pester a tweeety bird poet friend, lol
By Phil Specht on Mar 23, 2012



- the intolerable half load of 140

By Phil Specht on Mar 23, 2012


burdened beast of speech betrayed

truncated,voided

for no two ideas

essential for debate to be held half hitch

join

but half hitched

topple



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

corner gps found

blackberry bound

could be friends almost meet

had eyes left gaze of tiny screen

thumbs quiet

index finger salute to Jobs

goodbye

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



trees the right height



thrush throat

morn to be born

territory but no mate

no nest, first melody



melody tableau

warbler tree high

lark meadow low

Friday, March 23, 2012 2:46 PM, EDT

Okay...now that I have calmed down the situation is not as bad as I thought.

By the time I knew Ally's button had fallen out, it was too late to put another one in.

In reality we have not used her button very much in the last couple of months. If she does a good enough job eating, we have been letting her sleep without her night time feeds. We keep track of her blood sugar every once in a while, and they are always good, even when she has not had her feeds.

Daddy and I discussed having the button taken out at her next set of scans (which are in just a few weeks). It looks like Ally made the decision for us. I was mostly freaked out because I had not mentally prepared myself or Ally for the button to actually be out...it has been our blood sugar safety net, and we will still need to talk to the endocrinologist about low blood sugars. The emotional upheaval (on my part...Ally is completely fine with the situation) has passed, and we are looking forward to this new, unbuttoned Ally.

The doctor was fine with letting it close up, and just told us to put a band-aid over the hole. By the next morning the hole was completely closed up on her stomach. We will be cautious with it for the next week or so.

Ally has promised to step up her eating...our goal is for her to be 30 pounds by the end of the school year (she is hovering around 27 right now). Of course, as soon as she hits 30 pounds we will up the goal to 35, but she doesn't need to know that right now!

So, it looks like everything will be ok...on the up side, she no longer has to do the CT scan, so she won't have to drink the yucky liquid (we have always put it through her tubie, to avoid the yucky taste). There is always a silver lining....plus, Ally is REALLY happy her button is gone; she is starting to realize no one else has one, and there is something "different" about her...not sure how I feel about that.

Okay...that's all for now. Nothing exciting coming up. I will post if we have any new information; our next thing on the horizon is an MIBG scan sometime in April.

Happy Spring!

Today ~~

Bloodroot
The first Redbud
Pears, plums, cherries, almonds, forsythia, yellow and white

The second day of spring, and 80 degrees

Wednesday, March 21, 2012 8:25 PM, EDT

So....this evening Ally and I went to my school for Kindergarten Math Night. We spent a wonderful hour with the K kids, then helped to clean up. We finished it off with a 45 minute drive home. We spend about 20 minutes having a bedtime snack and coloring....at which point Ally heads to the bathroom to use the potty before bed. This is the time (at least an hour too late) that she tells me her mic-key button fell out at my school!!!!!!!

WHAT?!?!?!

Yup....her feeding tube button fell out and she didn't tell me! By the time I knew about it the hole was closed up...so no more button for Ally!

I am at a loss for words.

On the last day of Winter, the Universe gave to me:

One tigertail butterfly
Two blue skippers
The song of one Carolina Wren
A handful of Coltsfoot
And one happy peeper

Ally hamming it up!

Vernal Equinox ~~ Tuesday, March 20, 1:14 a.m. EDT

Spring Season begins in Northern Hemisphere of Earth

Monday, March 19, 2012 8:29 PM, EDT

I chatted briefly with Ally's NH oncologist today. She has been in contact with Ally's NYC oncologist. He feels stopping all treatment at this point would be acceptable. We are a bit nervous about that, and our NH oncologist understands our feelings. There is a delicate balance we need to perform to keep the neuroblastoma away, but not have horrible side effects or long term issues. So.....Ally is due for scans (now just the MIBG) in April. At that point we will sit down with the NH oncologist and see what our options are.

This week Ally and I are on our own; Daddy is in Texas for training. He will be back on Saturday. We have plans for almost every night this week...yeah!

That's it for now!

Again. Exactly. (Yay!)

Saturday, March 19, 2011

FIRST PEEPERS OF THE YEAR!! TONIGHT. RIGHT THIS MINUTE!! oh joy

Not a good day. Starting with the paint.

The bathroom floor, and the kitchen floor are now paint free. Not so the cat, several rugs, many towels, and the floor in the future studio. At least it's all dry now, so there won't be further tracking. Feel worst about the blue bottom cat. But I swear I couldn't think of anything else to do. (He got wiped. Several times. But a bath is out of the question.)

And no. Beau played NO part in any of this. All courtesy of the cat. And maybe my son. But who knew that stacking paint cans on stools could be so dangerous?

The gist is Stevie had one of his fits overnight, knocked down something that knocked over the stool and the paint cans which came open on hitting the ground, and then. . . . then began one helluva day.

Ronchamp

News on the Mountain


We have wolves!
Pete talked about
seeing one, tawny,
yellow eyes, instead
of a brindle back,
tan, beautiful.
He saw him standing
on a ridge.

We have wolves!
According to Dee
who works in wildlife
they have come down
from Yellowstone.
There is a path
through public lands
straight from there
to here.

We have wolves!
Now in this mountain
community where
mining, logging,
even bison roamed,
though that didn't
work out too well.
Thunder spooked
the herd who ran
pell-mell down the mountain
all the way to Johnstown
tearing up fences
from here to there.

Old Hyatt the rancher
had to pay
for their repair, and
he subsequently decided
maybe bison weren't
the way to get rich.

We have Wolves!
We sit at the dinner table
grinning,
all of us, as if
to say, something
has been put right,
brought back where
it belonged, and
we had shared in the guilt
for its being gone.

Not that we would
mingle or feel
altogether amicable
with wolves
for they are predators
(like us)
but knowing they
are here is comforting
is right and just.

We so seek
to make the world
in the image we imagine
of ourselves
of brightness
and niceness
tamed and controlled.

While the world
is better with
a wholeness
with the beauty
and fierceness
and brilliance
of wolves.

And we howl inside ourselves
grateful, awed
with the knowledge
there is a beautiful wolf
(Pete said he'd go out
to see it in his underwear)
somewhere here
on Storm Mountain.



~~ Pat Maslowski

I WANT THESE!

Coltsfoot day!! (Had to go back six years to get a spring this early!)

Monday, March 13, 2006

Ah, Spring, the first girl. . . .

Today, I saw my first Coltsfoot.






Later, it will look like this.

Monsters of War

gunpowder and dynamite

trigger finger itch

dead child dead

dead child crying

to ears that no longer hear

any but voices that never leave the head

By Phil Specht on Mar 11, 2012

NASA



Moonlit Aurora Borealis



amniotic sky

reflections of a lost twin

ever circling

tide or maternal heartbeat

as the seas rise and fall

to your memory

when you too, alive

shared water ...

water to put out the prairie fire

in the northern sky



By Phil Specht on Mar 11, 2012

Saturday, March 10, 2012 5:28 PM, EST

Still no word on next steps.

But...Ally lost her first tooth today!

Daylight Saving Time begins Sunday, March 11, 2012 at 2:00am

Ric Ergenbright

girlnomad Ukraine

Thursday, March 1, 2012 1:17 PM, EST

Ally is HAMA positive. This is a bit disappointing, as we are pretty sure this was her last chance for a final dose of 3f8. There is a little confusion about the actual end date of the protocol, so we have a call/e-mail in to the NYC doctors. Hopefully we will know by tomorrow.
Regardless, we are not sure what our next steps will be. At some point NYC wants us to come back so they can do their post 3f8 workup on her. This would involve a set of scans, blood tests and various other procedures, to see how her body is functioning, after 4 years of cancer treatment....a bit daunting to think about!

Other than that, we have already been out in the snow once today, with plans to play/shovel again. It is nice to finally have snow on the ground!

Everyone is healthy again. The antibiotics have really helped Ally's hearing! This is great, I was getting tired of talking loudly and repeating myself.

As soon as I know what our next steps are I will let you know!

Ralfo

from auntie listener. . . .

Just had to tell you that Ally is feeling good again!

And so are her Mom & Dad. :-D

Tsunami and the Genealogy of Morality



Listen.



Grass in the place now devoid of God.

Leaves of rustling grass voices of lesser deaths

millions strong leaves of grass.



The Old Order too, shaman, priest

summon sun, rain, son, reign

lesser deaths, sacrifice, wafer, grain.



Why insist on hearing noise as Voice?

wind chimes tinkle and the waves lap, lap, lap, lap

Lion's tongue waiting for the gazelle to thirst too.



More than voices the gods in our heads, visions too

infant mind, fertility goddess turned clay object toy

bountiful crop prayer to mother earth.



Men offered forbidden fruit leaving garden

Bellow of legions charging the front.

Voices in the head bicameral myths.



Ocean on land.



Discourse lost to the wind, the waves, to predator lurking.

Old wisdom lost with God.

Had we heard the leaves rustle, the lapping, would we turn

to plant the spear, to run when the ocean recedes?



By Phil Specht on Feb 27, 2012

Sunday, February 26, 2012 12:08 PM, EST

So....I brought Ally to the doctor this morning...double ear infection; we took the antibiotics this time. While we were there a student nurse was working, the doctor asked if we would mind if the student really looked Ally over, as she is a very special patient. We did not mind at all...it was nice to provide a learning opportunity. Ally was a very good patient. She hates the antibiotics...just like I did when I was little.

Daddy is 100% better.

Today is the first day where I can really eat real food!

Thanks for thinking of us. I'll let you know about HAMA later in the week.

Friday, February 24, 2012 7:10 PM, EST

On Wednesday we drew Ally's last HAMA sample. We will find out next Wednesday what the results are. We are hoping to get one more 3f8 treatment in before Ally's protocol runs out.

Ally has been fighting an ear infection for a couple of weeks. She will have a few really good days, then slide back. Her hearing is being effected, and she is down to 26 and a half pounds. Grrrr.

On Tuesday I was diagnosed with a sinus infection, and then on Thursday I am pretty sure I had the norovirus...good news, I think the norovirus wiped out the sinus infection!

Right now daddy is sleeping off a fever.

Our biggest fear at the moment is that Ally will get one of these and then we will have to go to the hospital. I could

afford to lose the 8 pounds of water weight on Thursday, but Ally can't.

I'll keep you updated about the current health situation, and about HAMA results. Please keep Ally in your prayers to keep these "everyday" sicknesses at bay.

T S Eliot. . . . Ash Wednesday As a Word Cloud

Laissez les bons temps rouler!!

shadow1096

Earth Physics and Valentines

in this space and time

molten rock turning inside out

once again

surface blue and white and brown

and green

turning, turning

alive

and circling above our twin

light of the night in the black space

while distant solids and liquids and gases

obey too this space and time

here alive, there in the cold void not

yet in the void that is now

futures are finished and the past is yet to be born

possibilities appear

anything is possible

anything

and you join me

heat for the cold void

life

light converted to heat

by your touch

Phil Specht on Feb 20, 2012

♥

♥

Bluesmaster

airship29

TEAM VERMONT BRINGS HOME NUMBER ONE!

INNER PEACE

Ralfo

Not only a heart, but a whistlepig!

HAPPY WHISTLEPIG DAY!!

Welcome to the Month With a Heart in the Middle!

♥

In *my* book, Spring has arrived. . . .