Sights I'll miss until I am about out and about again, No. 4 - no biopsy results yet, not expected until later this week

Steps inside bus front doors, almost completely gone in my experience over the past eight plus years. And, even without undergoing a laproscopic hysterectomy last Friday, this is a sight I do not want to see when the bus door opens. In fact, if I'm not in a hurry and notice these steps through the bus door windows, I sometimes take a chance and wait for the next bus, especially at stops where I have several bus line options.

While the kneeling bus helps in getting from the sidewalk to that first step, the rest of the steps are higher than normal and not easy to maneuver.

RECOVERY UPDATE: After watching on TV the Trail Blazers win over the Grizzlies with Leland last night, I felt good enough to send him on home--I knew he was just a phone call and less than two miles away. (It was Lamont's turn to go to the game. What a fine one to witness, stopping a sweep by Memphis!) I slept very well, waking up twice during the night, but went right back to sleep. Woke up Tuesday morning, April 28, at 4:30 a.m., ate some warmed up leftover plain rice and drank some Twinings English Breakfast Tea. Washed those few dishes. Washed my face and brushed my teeth. No need for pain medication. Much less discomfort in the abdominal area today which I take the mean that the tissues severed at the four small incisions are getting back together satisfactorily. I will not go overboard with activity. I will walk around in the apartment, in the apartment hallway where there is a chair rail at a good height for helping to balance one if one feels tilty. I am happy to have one window open completely, another one open a few inches, because it is 57 now. However, it's supposed to only get to 61, so I may have to close that wide open one some, if it gets breezy.

Thanks for every single prayer, all the love and concern.

A Current Monday Morning Photo!

I took this photo a little while ago with my iPhone 5 so that I could have something current on here! Lamont and Leland's friends Lance and Kendra gave me this superb wall hanging and a couple of other nice items on Saturday, by way of Leland, I think--I was still groggy when I got home from the hospital. Thanks, you two! Congrats on the baby on the way!

I slept fine last night, even with a couple of short naps during the day, woke up at 6 a.m. hungry. Ate a little bit of oatmeal. No pain medication needed--hallelujah! Took a shower without any consequence other than being clean. Decided I wanted some hot tea, thus the photo opportunity. I got that wonderful mug some months ago at the Goodwill Super Store near where I work, walked down there on my lunch hour one day. What a fantastic find for a fan like me!

Lamont and Leland took turns being here yesterday, with some overlap for super hero movies on FX; I watched and/or dozed and thoroughly enjoyed peeking at my sweet sons, all day long. Lamont spent the night and just left to go to work for a few hours. He'll be back later before he needs to head home to get ready to go to the Blazers' vs the Grizzlies game this evening. Leland will come here after he gets off work and stay throughout the basketball game which we desperately need to win. Go, Blazers!

Later on I'll eat some of the baked chicken Lamont got off the bone for me--Leland picked it up at Fred Meyer on Saturday at Freddie's, along with a few other items. I've been eating it with plain rice, but yesterday I asked Leland to buy some russet potatoes and carrots which Lamont has scrubbed, wrapped in foil, put onto the cookie sheet and placed in the oven for baking. I'll check on them after the timer goes off. They will go very well with the baked chicken. By tomorrow, I should be able to eat something like a hamburger from The Blue Diamond! They've said they will deliver to me! And some folks from work put some funds on the books there, in my name, for just that purpose. Thanks, y'all!

Unless something unexpected happens during the day, I shall be A-OK by myself tonight and in the morning. Today, when I feel like I need a nap, I'll take one. No over-doing it for me, period. I'll wait until one of the sons is here to walk a short distance in the hallway of the apartment building. It is supposed to be 77 here today. Maybe I'll go, with help and support, out the front door onto the sidewalk in the sunshine! I promise, no over-doing it for me, so do not be alarmed at my maybe.

Thanks for your continued prayers and concern and love. We don't expect any biopsy news until late this week, so, until then, no news is good news!

Seen at the NBA Playoffs at the Rose Garden, April 21, 2011.

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My first-ever NBA play off game, in person! I turned up, all excited and not knowing what to expect, certainly not someone in a rabbit suit wearing a Martel Webster jersey and being photographed by other fans. Fun!



The first syncopated drum group I ever heard, back in my old Southeast Portland neighborhood in the summer of 2006 when they were in a parade. When I walked up and heard them, I got so excited! I love their sound! Google and find videos of them on YouTube--The Last Regiment of Syncopated Drummers. They are superb! I am somewhat disappointed in the perspective of my photos of them outside the Rose Garden Arena--what the name of the building used to be where the Portland Trail Blazers play their home games. I should have joined those people seen in the shade on the right edge of the photo; I'll bet they got some great photos along the drum line.



Once inside, I found the balcony that used to overlook the arena campus. I heard the LRSD, looked over, and took a few photos. I took this at 6:01 p.m.; the game probably started a little after 7:30 p.m.



A closer shot of the LRSD in action. I like this photo!



Blurry, but still fun and representative of the enthusiasm of Blazers' fans! I cannot remember if I discovered why they were looking towards where I was sitting, but the game wouldn't begin for almost on hour and a half, so they had plenty of time to look around, watching people just like I was doing. The lady on the right is pointing out something which she evidently finds delightful and wants to be sure those two with her get to see it, too. I wonder what I missed by not looking that direction? The next photo in line gives no clue.



Each fan got one of these special noisemakers as we entered the arena. Talk about fun to shake and make a loud drumming noise!



Closer look at this fun little item which I still have!



Before games and at the end of half time, this inflated, remotely controlled Ford flies around the arena, intermittently dropping coupons for random items, DVDS, caps, I cannot remember whatall because I don't pay attention. Where I sit the Ford doesn't fly, in my opinion because it wouldn't take long for some exuberant fan to fall from the 300 level while attempting to catch a small piece of paper falling this way, falling that way, enticing folks to act foolishly with no regard for their safety. I'm thankful that I don't sit where this happens, though the next season when I had my first season ticket seat on the front row of that 300 level, a man on the row behind me foolishly thought that a T-shirt shot from the basketball court from a giant slingshot operated by three members of the Portland Trail Blazer Stunt Team would be within his reach. The guy landed on my left shoulder and that side of my head. I looked at him sideways and said, "Get off me." He did.



Chiropractor fodder, some of these folks bending their heads back as they watch the inflated Ford fly. Notice the noisemakers? A couple of people appear to be shaking them for all they're worth already, and tip-off is still about an hour away!



Part of the magic witnessed when the home team introductions took place at the Rose Garden Arena. Go, Blazers!



Blazers win! Blazers win! That's what game announcer Mark Mason said after the Blazers defeated the Dallas Mavericks 97-92. We won the next home game on April 23, 84-82, but lost the series after Dallas won the next two games in Dallas.

Since I'm having surgery on April 24, I doubt I'll get to attend any of the Trail Blazers' first-round playoff games this season. If we make it out of the first round, I may get to go. The Blazers must play astronomically better than they did in Memphis on Sunday night for that to happen.

Signs of the times.

NBA play offs begin today for the Portland Trail Blazers in Memphis, Tennessee, against the Grizzlies. To make this collage from a whole lot of photographs I've taken over the years, I scoured out these particular ones with words noticed on all sorts of signs.

I will be watching the games on television in my apartment, the entire first round probably. You see, I'm having surgery on April 24; our first home game is April 25, and the second one is on April 27. I'm counting on my Portland Trail Blazers to win it in six because, by May 1, a week after surgery, I just might be healthy enough to go to the Moda Center and watch in person as the Blazers advance to the second round!

For those of you who think I've lost my mind when I make that statement about advancing to the second round, I can assure you that I have not.

I am a fan, spelled F-A-N. Through and through. No matter what. I believe in my team which is made up of skilled, determined, decent young men.

UPDATE as of Sunday morning 5:57 a.m., Portland Time! I won a Portland Trail Blazers' autographed basketball from my friend the Portland Trail Blazers' official DJ--O.G. One--as a result of my having donated to his Team OG 2015 team for the local Autism Walk! I'm in shock because I had no idea such a thing was a possibility! Lamont and Leland don't know it yet--they are bouldering up in Leavenworth, Washington, camping out--but they will be picking it up from DJ O.G. One before the game begins here on Saturday night. Wowsers!

Big room, big, happy crowd. I was there last night in a big, happy crowd. Different reason.

Big crowd last year at the NBA First Round Playoffs, the night the Trail Blazers eliminated the Houston Rockets. May 2, 2014. On April 15, 2015, I was at the Moda Center for pure entertainment, the Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood concert! No confetti, but plenty, plenty of music and fine light show. What an evening. Now, the Blazers are back in the NBA First Round, but, since I'm having surgery on April 24 and our two for sure home games are on April 25 and April 27, I will be watching on the TV at home. Go, Blazers!

Rip City Uprise

The roller-coaster-tilt-a-whirl that was this season for my beloved Portland Trail Blazers is finished. I am not a fair-weather fan. I stayed with them to the end of Thursday night's Game 6--Mama did, too. We'll be back for the first pre-season game. I imagine it will be in October, 2010.

We want all of our players and coaches and the general manager, everyone connected with the team, healthy in body, mind and heart, ready to give their all again--for their team, for their fans. Thank you, guys, from the bottom of our hearts.

In particular I want to thank you for giving my Mama a new consuming interest for the past three seasons. Never in my life would I have believed that the little ol' lady (who is now 84) would have become a basketball fan! She even misses "Wheel of Fortune" for the Trail Blazers! Thanks to KGW and CSNNW for broadcasting the entire season. Thanks to Mike Barrett and Mike Rice. Those two networks and those two guys played a large part in Mama's transformation from someone who happened to be into the room when the TV was on NBA basketball into a FAN.

13 players misses 311 games in the regular season, due to injuries.

Regular season schedule, 50 wins, 32 losses.

And we still made the play-offs.

Plus, no one misbehaves on or off the court.

I love these guys!