Catching up, spouting off

I haven't posted for a little while because things are changing rapidly here in black sheep land. Thanks to a job offer I could not refuse I packed up the car with as much crap as I could squeeze into t and headed down the east coast to Florida, the sunshine state, God's waiting room, where you can take you gun to work.

A few things I have thought about recently:
I could rant incessantly about Pope Benedict's newly polished image after his US visit but let me point out that he is still keeping the world's most notorious pedophile enabler safe and sound in a cushy basilica job in Rome and made sure Boston Bernie has the world's best "get out of jail free card", a Vatican diplomatic passport. I do not trust the Pope's miraculous change of heart, infallible or not.

John McCain makes me grit my teeth every time I hear him utter, "My friend...". Let us just hope that enough local election commissions de-certify the use of Diebold voting machines this time around. Give me a butterfly ballot any day.

More later.

Replacement post

I just finished a barn-burner, pissed off rant about a personal incident regarding my former employer and health care coverage. After reading it over, editing and spellchecking an editing some more I decided to just leave it unpublished for reasons that I will also keep to myself. I will however publish one, and only one line from the essay:

"Bah, Humbug!"

So in place of that acrimonious rant, a bad joke:

Two TV antennas got married. The ceremony was boring but the reception was great!

Yeah, I know. I liked the humbug line better myself.

Episode IV: a new beginning

Well, the force has a habit of listening to you when you least expect it to. I haven't posted anything in a while but that doesn't mean that nothing has been happening. Au contraire. For you loyal TV Black Sheep readers out there, yes, you, Mom... You might remember when I posted that my career was in the dumper. Well it was at that time but the universe got wind of that and sent me a candy-gram in the form of a new job offer complete with relocation in the Sunshine state. Yes folks, I am moving to Disney Nation, God's waiting room, the insect capital of the free world...Florida. I will be able to wear shorts and/or a wetsuit year round and choose any one of 100 special interest license plates to slap on my car. Now that's living! The new job is pretty darned good and I am looking forward to starting it in a few weeks. It is a TV engineering gig somewhat like my present but soon-to-be-former job with a couple of minor differences: 1.) The new company actually makes a profit, and 2.) Does not appear to be run by a clique of retarded, drunken baboons. I just wonder how long I can stay out of trouble at the new venue.


I am still awaiting some sort of word on the results of the stem cell transplant. I should hear something any day now. I can only hope that the little buggers are doing their job and making cancer-free blood cells in Dave's (not his real name) body. I hope you get to enjoy many years of long walks on summer nights too, Dave.

Charity begins in the third world

Fri Feb 15, 11:08 AM ET MANAGUA (Reuters)

Shirts and caps proclaiming the victory of the New England Patriots -- when the American football team actually lost the latest Super Bowl -- have ended up in the hands of poor Nicaraguan children. Hundreds of shirts and caps, which had been manufactured in advance to celebrate the Patriots' expected victory over the New York Giants, were handed over to children in the southern city of Diriamba. "The children are the winners," said Miriam Diaz, of World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization. World Vision has links with the National Football League, or NFL, and every year helps out poor children in Latin America and Africa with the unwanted "winners" shirts of the team that actually loses the Super Bowl. Winners' shirts and other garments are produced in advance so players and fans can put them on to celebrate immediately after the final whistle of the game. Garments of the losing team are obviously unwanted.

The Giants stunned the previously undefeated Patriots 17-14 in this year's Super Bowl.

Its a good thing they didn't print "19-0 Superbowl Champions" on spent fuel rods from the Seabrook nuke plant.

Postscript

It has been well over a month since I slept off off the side effects of the Neupogen and the long day in the transfusion center. I have since had the chance to put a few more things in perspective. I realized a universal truth that had always crawled around in the back of my head. If you haven't walked a mile in those shoes, you can't know the real truth. Almost all of the people who "get it" when the issue of bone marrow or stem cell donation is discussed are people whose lives have been affected in some way by cancer. Whether they themselves are survivors or a loved one has triumphed or succumbed to the disease. A branch of my extended family has had numerous battles with breast cancer. My father succumbed to cancer. Maybe for reasons such as those, when I was asked to become a stem cell donor there was no internal dialogue, no weighing the pros and cons. I just said, "yes."

From the beginning of this whole process there have been many people who have praised my decision and just a few others who just didn't get it. Someone even said to me, " You don't even know who you're donating too, I'd never do that!" I think of that now and feel terribly sad for that person. I hope that someday they get it.

My partner in all this, the recipient of my stem cells is doing well from the reports I hear. He has not rejected my cells and the doctors are waiting for signs of Chimerism, the appearance of cells bearing my own DNA signature alongside cells bearing the patients DNA within his blood. As I understand it, that's a good thing. I am looking forward to hearing more reports about his progress and hope for the day when I can shake his hand.