5/10

5/10/2025

And I’m back again.

Just doing my thing, living my best life, or whatever the kids say these days. I am very glad I’m in the condo that I bought right before all of this shit started, so I don’t have to answer to anyone.

Except for the HOA, and this lady that decided to take on the challenge of representing the HOA for our neighborhood. And then she met me, (and my real estate agent, who loves this shit).

So, a couple of weeks ago, she sends out a letter, via email and website post, complaining about people throwing trash over their balconies. In response, I take a bunch of pictures of the dumpster (fire) area, and the recycling (let’s call it) area, and the bamboo invading the ground next to the same, and fire it all off in a somewhat agitated email.

She tries to mansplain to me that I clearly didn’t read the document she attached, (written in part in 2003), and that she’s worked with other groups in the past (trying to justify her existence and credentials), and that it’s somehow my fault that the dumpster (fire) area and the recycling area are fucking disasters.

We go back and forth a couple of times, with me providing more pictures of just how bad it is each time, and her telling me that she’s done this before, and related.

Then my real estate agent decides to jump in and offer her thoughts, and suddenly the area’s cleared out for at least 30 seconds. They even took the bamboo to ground level, which still won’t fix the problem, but I’m sure they felt better about it.

It’s already gotten bad again, specifically the recycling area, but they tried ™. And I’m sure someone felt better about cleaning it out for those very important 30 seconds.

As for me, I did 6 weeks of what they called targeted radiation, paired with 6 weeks of nightly doses of chemo. The radiation was a process where I had to get to Alexandria cancer center every morning by roughly 8:30/8:40, shout-out to everyone who helped make that happen, then I’d lay down on a board for like 15 minutes wearing a hockey mask (I’ll take better pictures later), while these machines rotated around my head and blasted away. The room was cold, and warm, and in the middle, it varied by day. They offered warm blankets which helped, sometimes. They had a towel setup to support my left shoulder, (broken, see previous posts), which helped a little. And then there was the music.

It was Sirius XM, and only a little under their control. I would ask for them to turn it up on a regular basis, which they normally heard. The music selection was all over the place, but again it was Sirius XM so they mostly just picked channels. Some of the selections were great, others were less great. But as long as they were louder than those machines, it was all good.

The chemo was in capsule form, and honestly never really did much of anything to me. I was ‘promised’ nausea, vomiting, weight loss, loss of appetite, and related. I never had any of that. We made arrangements in case I did, trash cans in multiple rooms without lids, plastic liners, and I allowed myself an hour every night after I took the poison for any reaction. Never had it once.

Now, somewhere around the beginning of June I’ve been told I’ll be taking a much stronger dose for 5 days, and then I’ll get 23 days off. I don’t know what to expect from that, so maybe I’ll look back longingly on the nights when nothing happened, but who knows?

In-between, I’m just trying to take it easy, make sure everything around here is under control, yell at the HOA lady every so often, and do battle with the assorted insurance companies. More on that later.

To be continued.