I am working!

I do not post as often as I use to.  It is interesting.  When I had cancer, almost five years ago now, you feel as if time is running out, the clock going faster and faster.  There were stories I wanted to tell, episodes in my life, what happened and my reaction to this and that.  If you go through the cancer experience even getting up in the morning is a pretty serious achievement.  I told those stories and I got well, chased that cancer away and now my life is not unlike anyone else's.  Day to day is pretty much the same thing adjusted for the seasons.
I am working now and I should be shouting with joy!  And I am. Oh I could post pictures and tell you the process but I have done that so many times before.  I have showed you my website and you will find what I do there.http://www.PictureTrail.com/slate  a few short years ago I couldn't lift 20 pounds and now I am Superman!  This is my immortality.  I built structures and gates and metal creations that will far outlast me!
It is snowing all across the Nation, all 50 States, I hear!
So many of those metal framed canvas structures from China
are collapsing. It is nice to know I I build strong creations!

I cleaned out my greenhouse early this year and started from
seed all the "cold crops": Spinach, lettuce, kale, broccoli,
cabbage and others.  They are doing well. And Valentine's
Day is time to start my tomato seeds so they are started and
under a light.  I have posted lots about my tomatoes and the
greenhouse so as far as blogging, been there, done that!
But I am happy with my tomatoes and always have the goal of
the best ever!
All is great.

One of my Standing Creations under 18" of Snow!

50 Million Have None...

Obama care was first proposed by the Republicans as a method allowing each of us to pay our fair share towards the spiraling cost of medicine.  It has been implemented in Massachusetts by then Governor Romney,
the current front runner of the Republican Party for President.  Both the Democrats and the Republicans know we have a huge problem with our National Health System in the United States.  The problem is we do not have one.  It seems to be a difficult discussion and it shouldn't be, everyone knows there is a problem.
   I suspect a lot of it is political.  Republicans do not want the Democrats to have any credit even though what the Democrats proposed was a Republican idea!   And I suspect there are people who would oppose anything Obama said simply because he is black.
   The Supreme Court is entertaining this discussion now:  would it be legal to force us to have insurance?  I admit I do not understand this argument.  We are forced into paying for Medicare from our very first job. Aren't we glad we have it now?
   The math is very simple.  If everyone paid into the system then health care would be less expensive and everyone would be covered.  I don't understand an argument against this? The ideal thing in life is that everything would be free but that is not likely to happen.  It is nice to be against National Health Care, nice until you need it anyway.  Until you get cancer or need a knee replacement or find yourself in a serious accident.
I have great insurance and my being in favor of National Health will just cost me more money.  I do not need it for me.  I want it because I live in a Society and I enjoy healthy people around me.  I want it because Hospitals will go out of business without it and the best insurance in the world won't be of much value if there are no hospitals to provide the care.  One of the reasons our health care keeps getting more expensive is that they keep raising our rates to cover the uninsured.  Sort of like retail stores raising their prices to cover theft.
   The funny thing is that I am in favor of National Health Care because I am a Conservative!

Mixing My Blogs!

I have two Blogs, this one and the other one. The Cancer Blog is the other one and is supposed to be that story. The story of the Hero who almost doesn't make it and is constantly getting deeper in trouble before he miraculously escapes just in the nick of time, running off into the sunset with his sweetheart. This Blog is suppose to be about Art, so really it can be anything I want. They overlap. A book within a book. They are both story telling. There is a commonality to them. So, you want to hear my "Faith healer" story? It is Art, I promise.
This all happened over thirty years ago when I was very sick. I never knew what was wrong with me. I developed diarrhea like you wouldn't believe. It was like water, about twenty times a day, and all through the night. I lost over twenty pounds in a very short time. I have forgotten every single detail. I did go to my doctor who preformed a lot of tests on me, drinking barium, x-rays, lab culture stuff, the whole lot. He couldn't find the cause and wanted to do experimental, exploratory surgery on me! I told him that I really needed to delay that decision!
I was put on a diet of eating stale toast. I would toast the bread and leave it on the counter and eat it the next day, plain. That is a diet for constipation but it didn't work. This all went on for at least ten days with no improvement. I drank lots of liquids and they ran right through me.
A friend of mine is a Rosicrucian and I am not really sure what that really means. He stopped by one day and wanted to take me to a friend of his, a Mr. Dumount. He was also a Rosicrucian and had been so for years and years. He was an old guy in his late eighties. I went to the bathroom before we left and upon arrival at Mr. Dumount's house. Watery, watery, both times!
He lived in a small nondescript house on the edge of a nearby town. I remember sitting in his living room and talking about his rock collection and his explaining to me that the Earth was alive.
My friend had told me lots of stories on the way to his house. Mr. Dumount could levitate. He could hold a light bulb in his hands and turn it on. He had a book in his living room full of signatures of people that he has helped over the years. People who arrive in crutches and left on their own. I told my friend that I didn't believe in any of this. "You don't need to" he said, "he does."
After about half an hour of small chit chat and using his bathroom twice with my watery deposit, we went to a back bedroom with a little couch and I was told to lay down. Nothing weird here, I was fully clothed and he was standing over me. He never touched me. He began with his hands at the top of my head and ran them slowly, about three inches from my body, all the way down to my toes. This whole thing took about twenty minutes and the sweat was pouring off his brow. He said nothing but was very intense. His sweat was dripping on me.
When he was done he said he was very tired and needed to rest and would I please sign his book on the way out. I am thinking sure, this was a waste of time and could I please use his bathroom before we left!
This is the part that is unbelievable. Totally inexplicable. Weird. I used his bathroom and everything was normal!!! For the first time in almost two weeks I had a normal crap! There was no gradual improvement. It was instantaneous.
He would take no money although I offered it to him. Just to please sign his book. It would have been nice to have known him while I was fighting cancer but he must be long since dead. I think.

One Hand Clapping!

I live in these, they are my friends. I sleep with them on. These are rabbit fur-lined gloves and I take them off for the bathroom and while on this computer otherwise I wear them all the time.

My hands never feel good, always as if I am stirring a bucket of cut glass. It is the prize I won with my voodoo chemo-therapy that cured me from cancer! I am a winner and have this neuropathy in my hands to remind me of the whole ordeal, my cancer battle!

One doctor says that in eight years they will heal themselves, another says that in eight years I will have gotten used to it. In the meantime I am not waiting. If I do nothing they hurt and if I use them they hurt. The gloves help a lot.

So I am returning, doing what I like to do, painting a bit and I have some welding ideas, things I need to be doing. It is part of who I am. To have a good day I need to stand back and say, "I did that!" So soon you will see some iron wok on this site!