Onan Lives !

Years ago, I began using my motorhome as replacement for hotels that I would normally stay in when I was on jobs that took a long time to complete. It only has 55,000 miles on it but it's an older model and needed some work to bring it up to standards.

I had the headliner replaced when I moved it to Leesville to build the stone yard/rail spur. Jenny threw a truck load and a half of "stuff" away when she agreed to clean it and replace all of the bedroom stuff from pillows, sheets, bedspread covers etc. She basically did a remodel job on the inside.

Better than that, Joey fixed the Onan generator today.

It only has 600 hours on it but it hadn't run in 4 or 5 years so the work over has required points, plugs, condenser, a new air filter and some wiring to get it to crank. It ran the roof mounted air conditioner which was blowing cold as ice. When he tried the microwave oven while the air unit was on it lugged down a little bit but that was before he increased the speed at which it runs when it's under a full load.

There's still a bit of fine tuning to work on but he's working on that and hopes to find a solution to the rough idle and the "lugging under load" by tomorrow. May be a govenor thing or some kind of fuel control module that gives it the "gas" when you start pluggin in microwaves and air conditioning units.

We already bought a new air compressor for the air ride suspension system but will probably have to get an RV place to install it as they have the tools that he doesn't. The end result is going to be a motorhome that cranks in an instant, has full generator power at any time, rides like a land yacht and is clean as a pin on the inside.

Don't tell anybody at the hospital but I'm planning on going to spend the night in Opelousas with Jay, Woody and the guys, then go to Lake Charles for a visit. Going to go back to Leesville, too but not necessarily in that order.

I'm going to be off radiation in one week and one day and then will have chemo for 5 days on and 25 days off per month. I do the chemo at home so I don't have to be in the hospital everyday for chemo like I do for radiation. Look at that rig at the top of the page and you'll see why. IT's a big machine and, like a Daryl Zanuck movie, it takes a cast of thousands to make the whole department work.

Speaking of radiation, the fatigue level really caught up with me over the past week or so.

Doc told me today, as did Waylon, Cathy and Lisa, that it's a "comulative dosage total" thing but added that they have been really impressed with the methods I've used to fight the fatigue and still maintain a positive mental attitude about all this. Despite that, fighting the fatigue isn't really what it's all about.

I can't help the fatigue thing anyway so I've given into it like they asked me to do. I just make an extra special effort to have Joey bring me to Tim and Kristin's as soon after radiation as possible so I can immediately get into some pajamas and close my eyes. It's helped in that I'm sleeping somewhere around 10 +hours per day or better and that amount of sleep helps me escape that totally knocked out feeling that comes when you don't nap.

In addition to the fatigue, I'm beginning to have some burn spots on my head. Waylon, Lisa and Cathy, when they noticed the spots, hooked me up with a lotion called "Alra". It is some super, super stuff.

It's formulated to address "the skin care needs during chemotherapy and radiation". Label says it's "100% aloe vera gel, collagen, vitamin E, lanolin and allantoin". I'm tellin' you, this ain't ya momma's skin cream. It's great stuff.

One last note about the head.

This hair loss thing stimulated me to call Leland. After I explained all of that to him, he just said it was okay cause we were used to that. For some reason, it made me wonder if he really did have that alligator in the trunk of his car.

Anyway, talking about the recent discoveries around the temporal lobe of my brain and the connection of that with the hair loss, I wondered if they ran a tube up my nose and shot the radiation from the inside out instead of the outside in, would it grow hair instead of making it fall out? Hell, it's worth a try.

Kristin spent a lot of time attending to the sterile needs of my head wound immediately after surgery and after the staple removal. As a result of that and her use of hydrogen peroxide and some kind of alcohol impregnated cotton pad, I don't have much of a scar.

Joey's creed: "Don't sweat it, chicks dig guys with scars", may be a lost cause if the scar isn't big enough. When we finish all this I'll get Jr to take a profile shot for the curious.

That's it for now, gang. Feelin as good as can be though very fatigued. Looking forward to lunch tomorrow cause it begins another free weekend. Waylon, Lisa, Cathy, Steve, ya'll are just the baddest of all times.

Sr.