Month: August 2009

Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines. And Coast Guard. I guess I didn’t realize that the Coast Guard was formally included with this group, but they are. In fact, on their web page (http://www.uscg.mil/), they keep repeating over and over that they ARE, indeed, the fifth branch of the armed forces. While we’re at “peace” they act on their own, but while we’re at “war”, they function as a specialized service for the Navy. I never knew that.

The Coast Guard (affectionately known as “Coasties”) set up shop in 1790 and was the only floating safety net we had as a young nation. I think the world was still flat back then. However, their duty to protect was overshadowed when that crazy Navy came along just eight years later. The Coast Guard has had to deal with this Navy bully for the past 200+ years, but they’ve yet to back down. Coasties protect us at all times: halting the flow of illegal drugs, aliens, and contraband into the United States through maritime routes; (b) preventing illegal fishing; and (c) suppressing violations of federal law in the maritime arena. I just had this crazy vision of Osama bin Laden doing some illegal fishing… I hope the Coast Guard catches him. This coup would catapult the Coast Guard into the superstardom of Homeland Security and maybe, just maybe, finally earn them the respect they deserve.

I could never be in the Armed Forces. There are several reasons: a) I’m too old; b) I have a legitimate medical issue; c) I don’t LOVE guns (but am an excellent shot); d) I hate sand; and e) I could NEVER keep a secret. Oh, I can keep little secrets, but those that are classified as supersize top secret, forget it. I’d be bursting to tell someone. A dear friend of mine was a big deal in the Navy a while back. He took me aboard a ship and showed me around. I was dying to receive some classified information, but, of course, he denied me. Mostly because he knows me and realizes I have no capacity to keep a secret, but also because he was just doing his job. He wasn’t supposed to tell so he didn’t. Silly rule follower. Secrets are to be divulged. And I’m not going to tell anyone. Well, maybe that creepy hairy guy that I’m out doing some illegal fishing with. Just kidding.

Also, while I was poking around on the Coast Guard’s web site, I found that one can actually BUY a lighthouse! The US Coast Guard and the US Lighthouse Service merged in 1939 (the year that The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind were released). There are even some lighthouses for sale! My Ohio friends will be glad to know that one is available in their fine state. Click here for details: https://extportal.pbs.gsa.gov:443/ResourceCenter/PRHomePage/loadProperty.do?propId=6978

And did you know that the Statue of Liberty is considered to be a lighthouse? I didn’t know this, either. I’m finding that I’m pretty dumb when it comes to basic knowledge of my country. That’s a true blue shame. But I do know that Ohio has 88 counties (thank you, Mr. Smith – eighth grade Ohio History teacher). And it is clear that my knowledge of Ohio having 88 counties serves some purpose. It’s yet to be determined but I know it will come in handy someday. Maybe it’ll be the million dollar question on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”? If I win, I’m buying that lighthouse.

If you know a “Coastie”, call ’em up and thank them for their service. And tell them that Osama is out looking for Chilean Seabass.

More tomorrow. 🙂

Sorry for the delay, friends. I’ve been a little, well, preoccupied. Last week was full of emotional moments for me: watching my son have poison pumped into him, celebrating when it didn’t make him sick, wondering if it was working since it didn’t make him sick, and trying to keep my mind from completely stopping all together. It wants to. I just can’t let it.

I wanted to leave this “world” behind. I really did. I thought we were in the clear. As Ben would say, we beat that level of the game. It’s not that I was ignoring the fact that lots of kids are still getting cancer – and dying from cancer – but I thought we were done. It was my understanding that our main issue would be that Ben hasn’t been growing – and we were working on that with an endocrinologist. But here we are again. Chemo. Shots. Needles. Pain. And then all the stuff that’s yet to come: hair loss, fevers, the tangibles that lets the whole world know that this kid is really sick. Ridiculous. Heart Breaking. My world has stopped in its tracks.

I just can’t care about anything else out there right now. The Gap is running a promotion to stop AIDS in Africa. And that’s great. But who runs a promotion to stop kids right here under their noses dying of cancer? That’s relegated to late night TV when St. Jude’s runs their ads of little bald kiddos – all the while most of America is asleep. I care about AIDS. I really do. My brother his HIV positive and I certainly want for him to have continued health. However, I am furious that as far as the NIH is concerned, AIDS is on the top of their totem pole. Don’t get me wrong, cancer gets a lot of attention, too, but pediatric cancer is at the very bottom of where the research dollars are distributed. And seeing that neuroblastoma is one of the trickier cancers in the world of pediatric cancer, well, where does that leave my son? It makes me furious that he is technically “not important enough” to find a cure for. What we as families keep hearing when we ask our politicians for help is that it’s going to take someone “famous” getting neuroblastoma to finally bring awareness. Really? My son is not important enough? That sucks. What these people are willing to “let go” is a beautiful, sensitive, sweet little boy who loves his family, Legos, all things Nintendo, and a sweet little girl named Skyler. It’s not acceptable that I have to live with the fact that my son now only has a 10% chance of survival. Not acceptable.

I’m angry today. I don’t want to go back to this world where my son has cancer. I don’t want to live here again. I don’t understand a God that would allow this to happen. I know, I know. God won’t give me more than I can handle, right? I hear you. I just don’t believe it right now.

It’s time to wake my son. He gets to go to school today. His first day of third grade. He’s so very excited and that’s what I’m living for right at this moment. He is brave enough to still want to be an eight-year-old. Even with all that he’s up against, he still just wants to be an eight-year-old. You gotta admire that.

As for watermelons, well, they’re pretty good about now. August is National Picnic Month, so maybe you should get some watermelon and take your loved ones on a picnic. Sorry I couldn’t focus on today’s National holiday but I had other stuff on my mind.

More tomorrow. 🙂