When you buy one, look into the Hitachi model. It is a great unit. BTW, do you own a lathe? Drill press? Radial arm saw? Channelocks?

Todd,
Sorry about your episode yesterday...glad you are back home and feeling a bit better. Be optimistic with the XRT...if they say it is too soon to judge then try to be patient...I can't imagine what you are going through...hopefully sarcastic diversions by loose cannons like myself occupy your time that would otherwise be wasted worrying. What type of XRT did you have? Have you already had I 125 implants? I know you said this course was the last for you but I didn't remember what type.

I am praying for you and thinking that I need some superman secrets to get me through the day...any tips for a blabbermouth?

Now....Pio.....

Do you already have a project in mind? ....or, you will buy the tools...and then....the projects will miraculously let themselves be known?

Hi Todd,



...let me guess....at one time or another...you have personally owned these tools? (...and will I be sorry that I asked!)

Hi 2much,

Yes, anything to occupy my time is good.

The therapy I had is called franctionated or hyperfractionated doses. Instead of one large dose, usually around 20 Gy, approximately 2.0 Gy are given in two to three doses daily, M-F, for four to six weeks. The ultimate goal is to deliver around 50 Gy in total.

Yes, I had implants and received many compliments but after the FDA silicone warning, my surgeon removed them.

Oh, wait, you mean the radioactive pellets or similar stuff? No, because of the tumor location, surgery and even a biopsy was not possible nor were the implants. There may be an opportunity for chemo if I agree to it, but apparently chemo is not well-suited for brain tumors. I forgot the reason although there are ways around it. There are also "experimental" therapies like gene therapy and some new medicines. And, there is always Mexico.

Tips for getting thru the day? I try to remember that all suffering, all wrongs and injustices are relative. When I grew up, and I have probably told this story numerous times but here goes again, the barber shop I went to had a shoe shine stand. Above the stand was a sign that read:

I felt sorry for myself
Because I had no shoes
Until I met a man
With no feet.

Now, as pedestrian as that saying is, it teaches a great lesson. Also, when I attended my first and last local tumor support group meeting, there was a young man - I would guess to be 19 - 20 who had a Stage 4 glioblastoma multiforme. Make no mistake about it: that kid was going to be dead in less than six months or so. Still, his demeanor and attitude were so unburdened and so positve that he unknowingly belittled me. Again, a lesson of relativity. Moreover, one of my oldest son's best friends was diagnosed with a Stage 4 glioblastoma a few years ago. An Emory surgeon removed the tumor and described it as the size of a grapefruit. Yet, his friend never faltered in his attitude.

Here were two kids, robbed of early life, with attitudes of gold. When I start to wallow in self-pity and ask "why me?" I think of those two young men.

Finally, a friend told me several years ago a neat way to take your mind off your problems: wear a pair of shoes two sizes too small. I am here to say that it works.

Now, Luna, why would you be sorry you asked?

The only above tool I currently own are channelocks. Let me be clear: a man is not a man if he doesn't own channelocks. My Daddy taught me that one! I formerly owned a drill press but somebody sold it in a garage sale. I have always coveted a lathe but honestly, I am, or used to be, a hand tools woodworker. Razor saw, four-in-one shoe rasp, surfoam, chisels, plane and of course - clamps. You cannot own too many clamps in my book. Years ago, I bought the necessary wood to build an acoustic steel string guitar. Mahogany neck, sides and back and Sitka spruce soundboard. I chiseled and sanded the neck to perfect shape and dimension. Then I cut the spruce soundboard to shape and was ready to glue the internal braces that cause the soundboard to withstand the 200 lbs. of pressure exerted by six steel strings and I could not find the quarter-sawn spruce blank from which to cut and shape the braces.

I went to the most likely source of the spruce disappearence: my youngest son who was about six or seven at the time. He said, oh yeah that wood, my friend and I used it to make an airplane out of my bike so it would fly. I clenched my teeth, held my breath and calmly asked where was the wood now? He said come on, I'll show it to you. He did. It had been cut into a million pieces with a ten penny nail driven thru each piece and most pieces had major dents. I never worked on the guitar another day after that and in fact, gave up woodworking altogether. I did think to ask him if his airplane in fact flew. He said yes, we drove the bicycle up and over a ramp and flew for one hundred feet. Well, at least he got to fly.

Jen,

Now that I have had some rest, I want to explain my "cognitive deficits". I know my IQ. It was routinely measured in elementary and junior high school. I decided to take one of the online IQ tests just to see how much degradation I had suffered. I could not get past the third question. And this was the math portion which, trust me, math has always come easy to me. So, I decided to try the analogies section. You know those questions where you have to match an odd looking figure and if turned inside out and rotated 90 degrees, select the one on the right that it would be? I think that is called spatial reasoning. I have always aced those tests. I could not do the simple ones. My verbal skills have slipped less but then they had less room to slip. Or maybe as Pio asserted, I have always had such deficits. I really cannot remember too well. Maybe Pio is right. Has he ever been right before?

Here's another clue I believe. You know the acheivement tests they give in school? I scored in the upper 1% on every test in every year they were administered. Except one: reading comprehension. I scored in the upper 13% on that test. Not bad but, again, relatively, it was bad. So, the counselor grabbed me: why can't you comprehend what you read? She gave me a sample passage to read and then answer the quesitons. She manually scored it and proceeded to tell me which ones I answered incorrectly. They asked me to explain why I answered as I did. After I explained, she shifted uncomfotably in her seat, as if she acknowledged that my answer, although wrong, had technical merit. I thought it was a right answer. I truly believe my reading comprehension results from two deficincies: my mind wonders and I tend to think about things different than convention. Not bragging because it is not a good thinng, just different. Anyway, mercifully to the point, my reading comphrehension has fallen off the map. Sometimes when I read a post here on MB, I have to read it several times to understand it. There have been a couple of posts recently that I still don't understand. And it is I, not the author. So, anyway, since you are an English professor, if you can offer me any hints or help with reading comprehension, I would appreciate it.

Todd, did you check out my friends site?

google Sandi Gold, you'll see Sandi Gold pet potraits. The info. about her brain tumor ordeal is in the Temple of the Soul section.

I'm still not caught up on this thread & I have a date (first, not usually too fun) so I'll have to wait 'til later.

P.S. If my WS said to me over & over & over that I hadn't tended my crops I'd have to haul off & punch him in the face. You're a good man Todd.

Nams,

Yes, I did go to Sandi Gold's website. The only link within the tumor section takes you to Mass General's radiation therapy website. She only mentions that she had an inoperable tumor. Do you know what type?

What's interesting about tending to the crops comment is....hmmm how can I say this? My SF drive has remained constant since I was a teenager whereas WW hit menopause and almost shut down SF completely. I surmise that by then she was already involved with OM hence the fantasy was hatched.

Todd, I think trying online IQ tests when you're still suffering the side effects of the MRI is probably a bit premature. I don't think your native intelligence has dropped one point.

As for reading comprehension. I think my brain is just wired like that. I started reading before I started school and I've read and read ever since. Anyway, I don't think there's anything wrong with your comprehension at all. I failed math so many times it's not funny.

Sheesh, we all struggle with some posts. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I find that a poster named Pio really makes me struggle with comprehension. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> j/k

I agree with Jen Todd. You are smart as a whip. Whatever the numbers say.

LMAO Jen.

Isn't Pio the one who keeps posting off topic? The nerve of some people!

Thanks, but I afraid my native intelligence has suffered mightily. But anyway, I pledged to myself to return to being positive today so that is the charge.

ToddAC,

I do not own a lathe. I really have never had that much need that I needed one 24/7 in my house. I have used them and we have several available here in the wood shop. I do have everuthing else EXCEPT the planer/jointer. Sorry it is a little blurry but here is en example of something I built here for the DDs

"tree" house

I admit I didn't really need a jointer to do that but could have used the planer. The wood here is just horrible and impossible to use for finish work.

I would like to get back into cabinetry and make some doll house projects and other things with the DDs. Just need the tool. DD1 is already excited that we are going to make a bird house together when the shipment comes. I bought enough "good" wood for a few projects but not enough for a doll house and certainly not enough for cabinets. Besides, what am I going to do with all these biscuits?

Did I mention that the house has remote control AC?

Todd - exactly what qualifies as off topic on this thread?

I mean - whadda ya mean off topic - you mean there's a topic?

OK, no date.

I go to the restaurant. We're to meet at six I'm 3 to 5 minutes late. I go inside, no date. I sit & wait for 15 minutes. No date. I get in my car & drive to see my friend. Date calls to ask where I am. I say I was at the restaurant, waited 15 minutes, left & am now with a friend.

Date says a last minute thing came up he got there as soon as he could. Hadn't apologized, didn't phone though he had my number. He asks me to come to restaurant I say no , I'd be irritated let's make it another day.

He apologizes says he should have called. Says "come to the restaurant, after all I apologized.". Still I say no, another time. Back & forth one last time I say perhaps another day he says no let's not.

This was a first date. We've only been in contact (in contact via dating site) for a couple of weeks, email, phone calls.

Opinions?

My feeling is ona first date one usually tries to make a good impression. I felt he tried to guilt me into going to restaurant. My feeling is as a gentleman he should have 1, called to say he would be late 2, apologized right away, 3. should have understood he screwed up & been gracious about waiting for another time.

Todd - when you get to Sandi's site click on the icon for Temple of the Soul. Once there go to the bottom of the page where you'll see a video to play. That's the 20/20 piece about her brain tumor.

She had an "arterial venus malformation or brain lesion or angio blastoma depending on who you talk to".

Apparently infidelity is OT (according to KiwiJ)

nams,

makes a bad first impression. Yes he could have called you or the restaurant. The part about "after all, I apologized" bothers me for some reason. It is very disrespectful.

I can already extend that. "Hey, I'm sorry I cheated on you but, after all, I DID apologize".

So does that make you an anion or a cation? I never can remember. Stalagtite - stalagmite. Okay, stalagtites hang down. I remember that one.

Funny Pio, that's exactly what my friend said.

No big deal really. I refuse to "emotionally invest" when meeting someone on line. There have been people I've chatted with, felt great rapport, meet them...zilch, nada, no atraction at all. And I'm not one that insists on instant chemistry. Besides I've got another one up my sleeve.

Hi Luna :-) Hi Kiwi :-)

OK, caught up on the thread. Sheesh, you engineers. Just can't keep yourself from tools & mechanical stuff.

Here's a story about an engineer:

A pregnant woman & her H were expecting their first child. The woman's water broke they rush to the hospital. The woman tries to push the baby out but the child won't come. After twenty four hours in labour without success a C-section needs to be performed.

Rush to the operating room. As the woman is being preped the H, an engineer, remarks about the equipment, says how interesting it is to him as an engineer. Ignoring scared W to talk about electronic equipment...I should have seen the red flag.

Yes, drop him like a hot potato. A man should be a gentleman first and foremost. To keep you waiting and later concede, I should have called you is a bad sign.

Okay, now that you have breached the discussion of dating sites, I will confess that I have visited a couple of them. I won't date until I am divorced but still....curiouslity got the better of me.

So, you are a woman, please explain something to me.

Every, or almost every woman, on these sites say or do the same three things:

1. They love to dance and are looking for a man who "likes to dance like nobody is looking". Male input: No self-respecting man likes to dance.

2. You must love my three Rottwilers, my Doberman and my Pit Bull. Okay, I like dogs as much as the next guy, but four killers? And they put pictures of all their dogs in their profile.

3. They almost all include one or more pics of them with another man. Please help me understand this one. Are they saying: see, I can get a man! Or are they saying, hey fool, you had better be better looking that this dude! Womens are very confusing these days.

Of course, I haven't dated since I was twenty, so what do I know?

Followon question: What is it about dancing that womens like so much?

Could you please ask this question in English?