“Take yourself for instance; yesterday you were better off than you are today but it took today for you to realize it. But today has arrived and it’s too late. You see? People are never happy with what they have.” Recognize this quote? The movie is very violent, brutal really, but excellent as well:  Lucky Number Slevin.

The quote is true– Ken talked this morning about how attractive life before cancer seems right now. He said that he never appreciated how good life actually was until it became frightening and complex.

It’s Erbitux day: his weight is down 5 pounds. He says it’s because he’s not wearing his heavy sweats again (they’re in the washer).  I think his comment displays an unusual amount of optimism — heavy pants will not account for his weight loss.

On the positive side, his lab work is good. We were wondering if low iron was the culprit. His iron is low but not THAT low. He was so exhausted yesterday that he couldn’t work. He really tried; we drove all the way to town but he was lying down in the car. There was just no way. So, we went back home and he went back to sleep for hours.

The rain is playing havoc with our hilly, postage-stamp backyard. One of the retaining walls collapsed — mud everywhere. I took pictures of the mess and shifted all the flagstones; I’d write “lifted” except that I couldn’t even pick some of them up so I rolled and pushed, as necessary, to move them aside. Then I shoveled and shoveled and shoveled until I realized that I needed help — Tristan to the rescue. Yesterday, on his day off, he rebuilt the wall for me. I’d like to say I helped but the difference between his easy lifting and placing and my dragging and pushing was laughable. Ken came outside to watch for a few minutes but he’s learned the hard way to stay out of the sun. His sunburn is finally healing and neither of us wants to go through that experience again!