In December, based on an X-ray and an MRI, doctors told me there was a high probability of cancer from two significant nodes in my lungs. I mention this because some of you had some awareness of the situation. There has been a steady stream of testing since then to try to find out what is wrong and there was an intensive situation yesterday with the result that the doctor said after consultation with senior doctors that, well, we don't know what is happening. This is not terribly bad news as it means the probability of cancer has dropped.
This was a short to medium term death threat which now seems to have abated, at least to some extent. If you're wondering why things got weird, that's why. Weirdness will continue. Nothing else regarding the matter will go online and this mention is only because of what I wrote up top that some of you knew of it already and it would suck to leave it hanging.
Algernon was a rat.
While spending most of the day inside a hospital would, from most viewpoints, be considered a full day, of course this one wasn't complete. There was very little fuel in the car and Yevette had five dollars but I didn't have anything and fuel gauge doesn't work. We knew we could make it to the hospital but knew we couldn't get back. We did look for a gas station. We did not find one in time.
Running out of fuel on an Interstate highway is one of life's rare thrills, particularly when it's not possible to get the car fully out of the way because of the wreckage of a tire from a big rig truck whose driver was also was not having the best of luck. Thus far I only know one friend who got whacked when his car broke down on an Interstate and I have little interest in becoming the second one. We couldn't use her phone as we were miles from anywhere.
Sometimes you need an angel to come flying in from somewhere.
Enter Joaquin. He left Mexico nineteen years ago but hasn't been back except for the funeral of his mother. He has probably been hassled in his life more than once about being a 'wetback' but get how he does.
Joaquin had to change the tire on the truck plus fix the way the back of the truck had been bent up and mangled by the wreckage of the tire when it exploded. He did all that in about thirty minutes. Then he drove my friend to get some fuel. All's good now, right.
Wrong. Joaquin said to my friend that he wanted to put some air into a rear tire because it was almost flat. Then he looked at the others and said they're so dry-rotted that all of them are done. He couldn't do anything about the tires but he did get air in them and that would finish it, right.
Wrong. The Dallas / Fort Worth area has the most confusing and ridiculous highway system of anywhere and it will be an eternal tribute to the King of Concrete, Governor Rick Perry, who has wangled more highway contracts than an L.A. slush master. We don't need no stinking mass transit system, not in the State of Texas.
My friend didn't know how to get back even though we could see the road we needed. There was no clear way to get back to it. Joaquin said that's no problem, follow me. He led us back to I-20 and, glory be, free at last.
Wherever you are, Joaquin, we send the deepest thanks from both of us.
(Ed: What did he charge?)
Nothing.
So, that was the story for the day and the only things missing were a cop chase and fuckin' helicopters.
This was a short to medium term death threat which now seems to have abated, at least to some extent. If you're wondering why things got weird, that's why. Weirdness will continue. Nothing else regarding the matter will go online and this mention is only because of what I wrote up top that some of you knew of it already and it would suck to leave it hanging.
Algernon was a rat.
While spending most of the day inside a hospital would, from most viewpoints, be considered a full day, of course this one wasn't complete. There was very little fuel in the car and Yevette had five dollars but I didn't have anything and fuel gauge doesn't work. We knew we could make it to the hospital but knew we couldn't get back. We did look for a gas station. We did not find one in time.
Running out of fuel on an Interstate highway is one of life's rare thrills, particularly when it's not possible to get the car fully out of the way because of the wreckage of a tire from a big rig truck whose driver was also was not having the best of luck. Thus far I only know one friend who got whacked when his car broke down on an Interstate and I have little interest in becoming the second one. We couldn't use her phone as we were miles from anywhere.
Sometimes you need an angel to come flying in from somewhere.
Enter Joaquin. He left Mexico nineteen years ago but hasn't been back except for the funeral of his mother. He has probably been hassled in his life more than once about being a 'wetback' but get how he does.
Joaquin had to change the tire on the truck plus fix the way the back of the truck had been bent up and mangled by the wreckage of the tire when it exploded. He did all that in about thirty minutes. Then he drove my friend to get some fuel. All's good now, right.
Wrong. Joaquin said to my friend that he wanted to put some air into a rear tire because it was almost flat. Then he looked at the others and said they're so dry-rotted that all of them are done. He couldn't do anything about the tires but he did get air in them and that would finish it, right.
Wrong. The Dallas / Fort Worth area has the most confusing and ridiculous highway system of anywhere and it will be an eternal tribute to the King of Concrete, Governor Rick Perry, who has wangled more highway contracts than an L.A. slush master. We don't need no stinking mass transit system, not in the State of Texas.
My friend didn't know how to get back even though we could see the road we needed. There was no clear way to get back to it. Joaquin said that's no problem, follow me. He led us back to I-20 and, glory be, free at last.
Wherever you are, Joaquin, we send the deepest thanks from both of us.
(Ed: What did he charge?)
Nothing.
So, that was the story for the day and the only things missing were a cop chase and fuckin' helicopters.
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