If you know me, you know I can't resist a cheap joke. That's a gecko btw... And they're like squirrels down here. They're everywhere.
We had some interesting events here in Sarasota yesterday. That's right, yesterday. The tech challenged author couldn't figure out wifi issues last night. Oh well, looks like it's working today, so here goes nuthin.
We had an event at a place called, well, I'm not gonna use the name of the place since the only good thing to come from it was this photo and the accompanying game -
"How Many Mistakes Can You Spot in This Picture?"
That's the actual poster, btw. Yup, we're makin' a difference out here, touchin' a lot of lives...
A quick time out from the usual snark, as you may have noticed, this is a couple days late. We had some Wifi issues here, I alluded to them earlier (yesterday, when I wrote that) and then "somebody" had the wrong start time and I had to drop this and scramble to get ready to head out yesterday morning. Got back to the trailer park (pictures to follow), had a snack and fell asleep. For ten hours. It's 4:30 in the morning as I write this.
Sigh.
Yesterday was a pretty cool day. We stopped by the Moffitt Cancer Center and chatted with some folks coming into and out of the center. The staff there was great too, very happy to have us.
Pamela, shown here signing Karen, was an amazing person with a remarkable story. She was advised to get her affairs in order in May 2012 because her doctor didn't think she would survive the summer. She was initially diagnosed with breast cancer at age 40. A vegetarian that worked out regularly and had no family history, she didn't fit any of the profiles. She lived in NYC at the time and was treated at Sloan-Kettering. Later when she had a recurrence she was treated at Johns Hopkins. Now these are well known, top notch cancer hospitals. And ultimately, they couldn't cure her. She moved to Florida, and now, with the right care-giver and the right doctor and the right treatment, she's kicking cancer's butt.
Rich, from the Tampa area chapter set this stop up and he met us at Moffitt. It was there that Dave told me about Rich's wife, Laura.
She works at a school out in the suburbs of Tampa, and she's been in and out of school for some time, due to her illness and her treatment. Laura has colo-rectal cancer. She's been fighting it for quite a while now. And she's not about to quit. Their costs are through the roof between hospital stays, chemo costs, treatment and such. That's one reason Laura went back to work, she's out of sick time... Just like the other day with Harry and Donna, this story makes my blood boil. Rich and Laura take their kids on vacations whenever they can because they want them to have as many great memories of family life before cancer destroys it.
I don't blame them.
Rich told us he gets some sideways looks from people. Apparently they don't think he should use his money (or money people raise for the family) for that. Here's the thing; a typical fundraiser generates about enough for one treatment. They get "grants" from the drug companies. A quick internet search found four of the top drug companies had profits of $6, $7, $9 and $14 BILLION in 2012. Awful nice of them to give grants.
Laura told us about Morgan while we were there at the school. Morgan is in (I think) 5th grade and when she was 5, she was diagnosed with leukemia. She fought it and beat it, but while she was doing that, she lost her Mom to cancer. We dragged Morgan and her class out to the parking lot to see and sign the pink fire trucks.
That's Morgan surrounded by the guys, with Laura taking her picture.
The more I do this, the less I understand.
Pink Heals!
Peace
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