Janet is Fuzzy now.

Hi!

Sorry to make some of you wait so long, but we are really busy and
there have not been many clearly defined changes to report. We are
both doing well.

Janet is clearly Fuzzy now. Think Marine Corp Boot Camp haircut
without the tattoos. Her eye lashes are coming back and even the
eyebrows are starting to be more than 5'oclock shadows. This is all
much too slow to suit her, but what else in new?

Dave is really feeling the pressure to get the remaining important
items sold or sent to good homes. For example, Dave's dad was also
interested in Lighter Than Air (LTA). Not the Hindenburg, but more
intelligent designs like the ZMC-2. This was greatly stimulated when
he met and became close friends with Ralph Upson, one of the major
pioneers of LTA. It was like knowing one of the Wright Brothers.

Ralph gave my dad a large roll of blueprints for the ZMC-12, yes 12,
not 2. (This is what Google is for, right?) and a thick packet of 8.5
x 11 papers, and two plates (like dinner plates, with beautiful glazed
paintings of important pre-1700 balloon flights) that were made in
about 1710 and were prizes Ralph had won in balloon racing.

Most of you that don't just say, "So what?" will say, "How can you
RACE unpowered balloons?"

Well, few can. Janet & I went on a hot air balloon ride in Central
Turkey. I already knew how, from my dad and Ralph, but even I was
amazed at how our balloonist was able to cause us to fly over to a
miniature Grand Canyon and descend into it and even deliberately get
so close to the walls that we could and did touch them with our hands.
All was done with a balloon that he can ONLY make go up or down or
stay the same. Only!

Basically, the idea is that the wind at different layers is usually
going in different directions. The Balloonist must know which way
these layers are going in advance and put the balloon in the correct
layer for the correct amount of time to get the desired result.
Hopefully, you see that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Like
saying that I am going to invent from scratch a 300 miles per hour
Ferrari, because I was just told that when I burn something, it causes
the air to expand.

If none of that makes any sense, don't feel bad, There is no quiz and
it won;t be on the Final Exam.

And, I need to get back to being busy,

Dave & Janet

Selling Dave's Folks personal items

I just noticed that 2 weeks has gone by without an update. FYI: That
usually means not much to report. Of course, it could mean that we are
working flat out on some sort of disaster, so I will try to not go
toooo long between messages, if I can just remember to do them.

Apr 20, Janet had her "Final Exam" with her Oncologist. She did great!
Of course she always wants to do better. To get a lower CA-125, to
have her hair already long, black & curly. She always lusted after her
Toni Doll's hair. I mean, her dog had hair like that. Why not her.

This lust for "If I only had blah blah, then I'd be happy." is wide
spread. It drives commerce, at least in America.

Well, she has a case of it. Who doesn't?

Dave continues to have rottweiler duty with the medical bills. One
example of many: The skilled nursing facility that Dave's mom was in
wants $500.00 more, but Dave can find no mention of why that is a
legitimate charge in the rules of his mom's insurance "Evidence of
Coverage". He asked the Insurance Company and they had no idea either,
so they are thinking about it and promised to get back to him within
30 days with an answer.

Most of our time recently is spent trying to sell Dave's Folks
personal items that were not really garage sale sorts of things.
Mostly we are using eBay. The items currently for sale are shown here.

http://shop.ebay.com/dave-on-alegria/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340

Please frequently check that link. It changes.

We are challenged by the esoteric nature of some of these items.
Dave's dad, John Heath, was, most of his life, a BIG frog in a very
small pond. He tried to get people to appreciate the extensive
knowledge of the Arctic Peoples. Mostly as it pertained to kayaks, but
they obviously knew many other things.

I use Arctic Peoples as while we used to lump them all into "Eskimos"
which some say should now be Inuit, they were several ethnic groups,
and I am told that many of the Alaskan groups still prefer to be
called Eskimo. Most agree that the Arctic Peoples that we used to call
Eskimo were NOT what we used to call Indians, even though their lands
adjoined. Often the 'Eskimo' and the 'Indian' were enemies.

We all pretty much agree that 'Indians' is a dumb name for the people
of hundreds of nations that inhabited the New World. A Public
Relations artifact of Columbus (who's real name might have been Colon)
pitching his 'discovery' of a New World for the Europeans to rape and
pillage. But in no way related to India.

I am NOT an authority at all, but I was told that Europeans were being
guided further north with 'Indian' allies and when they first saw a
new to them and clearly 'different' people in the distance, they asked
their guides, "What do you call those people?" They were told a
pejorative. Some have said that Eskimo means "disgusting, barely
humans, that eat raw meat". Well, if you Google > Eskimo wiki < you
will see that that was probably a made up story. Sort of like the
viral emails that are nearly all nonsense, with just enough truthful
sounding stuff to make your eyes get big and forward it to all of your
friends. (Thank goodness for Snopes.)

Anyway we are trying to find homes for weird things like a large
library of spell binding books like these:
The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain
and Ireland Vol. XVII 1912
Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology - Smithsonian Institution
The Ammassalik Eskimo
Ethnography of the Egedesminde District with Aspects of the General
Culture of West Greenland
Watkin's Last Expedition
Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology -
Smithsonian Institution
La Civilisation du Phoque
Qaannamik Pinnguaatit
Instruction in Kayak Building

And some more ordinary dishes and hats and stuff.

But, if we want to be done in about 30 days, something needs to
change. One might be for Dave to not write long blog posts. <grin>

It has been said that "Dave doesn't know any Short Stories."

More info about john Heath at
https://alegria1976.wordpress.com/davids-father-john-heath/

Or explore the upper right hand part of our WordPress blog.

Clowning Around 1

I sent this email about the perils of chemo 8 minutes ago, but it has not arrived on our blog, so I will try again.
>>>>>>>
A friend of ours sent Janet some clown noses and as part of her last day, a chemo friend and Janet tried them out. When the chemo nurse was out of the room, they put them on and called out, "Could you come back in? Janet's nose is turning red!"

Actually, getting red in the face is a common danger of this type of chemo if it is administered too fast.

However, in this emergency, a good time was had by all.

Clowning Around 2

There is supposed to be some text, but it is lost in HyperSpace.

Clowning Around

A friend of ours sent Janet some clown noses and as part of her last
day, a chemo friend and Janet tried them out. When the chemo nurse was
out of the room, they put them on and called out, "Could you come back
in? Janet's nose is turning red!"

Actually, getting red in the face is a common danger of this type of
chemo if it is administered too fast.

However, in this emergency, a good time was had by all.

The LAST chemo!

I am again, in a room down the hall as Janet has her chemo. The difference is that this is THE LAST chemo!!

Now the annoying side effects will begin to disappear. Getting her hair back is just one goal of many.

We are both well and looking forward to new adventures. Watch this space. Thanks again for your prayers, good vibes, affirmations, etc.

Please keep 'em coming.

I can hear frequent laughter coming from "The Chemo Chicks".

Dave & Janet

Happy Birthday Alegria!

37 years ago today, on April first 1974 an infant Alegria came out of the mold at Blue Water Boats, out in the woods near Seattle. She was then moved to our backyard where we changed her from a bare hull (no deck or anything inside at all, just a skin from the gunwales down) to an almost finished boat. She was put in the water for the first time July 1976.

She is patiently awaiting our return in Finike, Turkey.

Janet just had her last "Carbo & Taxol chemo". Only two more Taxol chemos to go, but the best news on that front was her CA-125, a test for Ovarian Cancer that began at 563 last year and is now 5! Anything less than 35 is "normal" as other things going on in the body can raise CA-125. It is not a precise measure of only ovarian cancer, but her oncologist says that in his extensive experience that people with 5 or less do not have recurrences of cancer! So her being told that she is in remission three weeks ago, has been underlined and writ in BOLD.

Dave and everything else are doing well and we need to go run errands, so I will spare you more text.

Happy Alegria's Birthday!