Saturday 5-8-10

I didn't get time to write yesterday, I was very busy with having to go back to chemo to get a shot that helps increase my white blood cells. I also had to find out what I could do about my low hemoglobin count. It seems the only thing that will increase it is meat, eggs, and dairy products. So I went to the store and stocked up on some things that will help me but not kill me. The eggs are actually no problem as far as I am concerned. My father ate at least 2 eggs every day of his life when he was my age. Now Margo says he didn't do that towards the end of his life, but Ithink that is more because his health care providers thought as do many Americans, that eggs increase your cholesterol. Since I have visited a very large eggs producing farm and talked to some people that really know about eggs, I have changed my mind about the connection. Eggs do have cholesterol, but it does not cause increased cholesterol in your system. My total cholesterol is 104, so I can't see them hurting me all that much. It much the same with meat. I try and eat more of the low fat meats these days. I bought black Angus beef that was already cooked and had very little fat in it at all. I then got some turkey, and some ham that again was very low in fat. I will have to admit that there was some sausage on sale that was probably not my best choice, but I will put it in my salad, so at least I'm not going to put it in a sandwich.

I also spent a great deal of time trying to get this computer to act like my old one. For some reason I can't get the different programs to keep me signed in all the time. I have to always put my aol password in and when I sign in to blogspot I have to do the same. It happens with ebay also. Anyone with some ideas as to what I should, please let me know. It is much faster that my old computer. but they lost most of my documents or I can't open them yet because my Office product is old and the computer guy will not use my disc because I don't have the codes anymore. I've asked three people to look into getting me another Office, but no luck yet. Cate is here this weekend for mothers day, so maybe she can get Bobbie over here to help me out.

While I was working on putting in all my phone numbers and addresses for my friends and family that were lost in the conversion, I had two very disturbing phone calls. Marc Kouzmanoff called me to tell me that an old friend from RIA had died. He was the head editor of the Federal Tax Coordinator and had become a good friend. He and I had a day on the podium together where he challenged me, almost by accident, as to how CCH was used correctly. Now that was our largest competitor at the time and he and the staff did use it all the time to do the tax research that analysed and put in our own tax service. I made the statement that most tax researchers don't know how to use CCH correctly in the first place, with that he took exception and said I should no make statements like that. He felt I was almost insulting a researcher like himself. I then had him show me and the entire sales staff how he used CCH. When he was finished, I asked him if that was all he did. His answer was, that's all you have to do. I then showed him how they updated their service and that he had left out three of the most important steps in the research process. When it was over he sat me down for about an hour and discussed how important it was that I did that in front of the entire sales force. He told me how important it was to understand how to do tax research correctly and in all his years he had never realized how to update the service and how difficult it was to do. He then admitted that he always wondered why my region always sold so many Federal Tax Coordinators and why everyone who worked under me seemed to be so good when they were promoted. For the next 8 years he always sat down with me when I was in New York and wanted to talk. When I was fired, he was the only man from the home office staff that called me and said how sorry he was to see me leave. He eventually learned that I had won the law suite and again called me to tell me how sorry he was that the whole thing had happened and he felt they had made a big mistake to have ever let me go. I am also very sorry to see him go. He was the only black editor that we had and a very smart man and wonderful person. He will be missed.

I got another call from a classmate, Chuch Reid, my best friend from Marmion, letting me know that Paul Danahy had a stroke while on vacation with his wife. He had never had any kind of trouble that anyone knew about. He was in good physical condition and not an once of fat on him. He loved to do field testing with his dogs and was a big bird hunter. He was resting on the beach and one minute he as alive and the next thing he was dead. You know when you get sick with cancer you have some idea that your time may be up soon and you start to do some thinking about what has to be done now, when you think your in good health, sometime you do not think about what you should be doing to get ready for eternity.

I'm feeling pretty good for the second day after the shot I got yesterday. I must admit I have had to take some pain medication, but that just because of the Radiation recall and the fact that your bones hurt like you have the flue. My blood pressure was a little high today, but that I think is because of the flue like symptoms. 141/72 my HR was 81 and the blood sugar was still out of control at 365. It should be getting back to normal today or tomorrow, I stopped taking the pills last night. It usually takes a day or so to get back to normal. I'll keep you informed.

Have a great weekend and don't forget about Mom, living or deceased. Love to all Tom