Up and Down Like a Toilet Seat

Howdy All,

So much has happened since my last post on the 1st of the month.  Some ups and, unfortunately, some downs but let's start with a big up.  We drove straight back to Todd from the last treatment at Duke.  Shortly after we got home we went to a retirement party for our very close friend and former landlady Linda Foulsham.  She had just resigned from a pressure cooker job that was a complete downer.  After a few weeks rest and relaxation she is planning on opening a bookstore in Boone where she will be her own boss.  We were so happy for her that we drank a lot and had a wonderful time at Mary Love's who hosted the party.

Linda at her retirement party

Linda is famous for being the life of the party until you suddenly look over and she is sleeping in her seat.  Not that she isn't following the conversation because she is apt to awaken just as suddenly and jump right into it.  A highlight of this party for Helen and I was the arrival of Sarah, Evan, Caroline and Ella who were just arriving after driving all the way from Austin, Texas.  They were here to spend a week with us and what a "grand" week it was (if you have grandchildren you will know what I mean).

  Even though there was torrential rain every day (Todd had over 11 inches of rain in the first week of July!) they had a great time hiking, horseback riding and keeping old Grandpa company.  We were missing them the minute they left to head back to Texas.

The Grand Pollan Clan

Helen's sister Teresa's visit overlapped with the Pollan's so we were one big happy family up there on Riverchase Trail.  God bless Evan who manned the grill all week and served up some delicious carnivorous treats.  The grandgirls delighted us with their arts and crafts and left us with a refrigerator covered with their talented drawings.  On the second we bid a fond farewell to Teresa who was such a help and such great company.  Helen drove her down to Asheville where, believe it or not, she finally found her bag.  Everything was going great as we waited for the fourth of July which promised to be a big day not only because we planned to participate in the Liberty Day Parade but also because it was Helen's birthday.

Ah yes, the fourth.  As it turned out it was one for the books but not in a way that we had planned.  It had been a busy busy past few days so, even though it was Yankee doodle dandy Helen's birthday, she was determined that I would have a nice lay it and catch up on my rest.  So you can imagine how surprised I was to get a text at 7:30 am that read "the Merc has been robbed" which got me out of bed quick.  When I got there Helen told me that the thief had broken a window on the back to door to get access to the deadbolt.  Among other things he had made off with Helen's laptop and her purse which she had forgotten to bring home the night before.  In the purse was a lot of personal items that were very important to Helen and she was understandably very distraught.  We had been robbed recently before and so had installed a security camera which did catch the robber in the act.  The sheriff sent a patrol car to gather info but we did not have much hope as they headed back to town.

                          A little movie of the (fill in your favorite expletive here) who robbed the Merc

As if to add insult to injury, the skies opened up and it just plain poured down on what was supposed to be the Liberty Day Parade and one of our busiest at the store.  The parade was canceled and the skies cried our tears for us.  Helen was just about ready to give up when some local ladies stopped in with a basket full of goodies, a dozen pink roses and, most importantly, words of love, sympathy and encouragement.  They told Helen how much she meant to our little community and how sorry they were for her setback on what should have been a special day.  It says more than a little about the folks in Todd that one of these kind souls was the organizer of the Liberty Day Parade which had to be postponed.  She certainly had enough to worry about as it was but took the time to gather with others to lift Helen's spirits.

Like I said, it was a time of big ups and downs and that point was driven home when we went to the Riverside Restaurant to see our good friends the Wooten Family perform Christian music upstairs.  The Wooten's are Mom, Dad the three boys and Grandpa all of home are hugely talented and they all sing like angels.  Think of the Statler Brothers and you get an idea of there harmonies.  Anyway, they sang this wonderful song "God Will Make This Trial a Blessing" that just tore us up as it was completely apropos.

So after a roller coaster of a day there was nothing for it but to party so off the the annual July 4th gathering of the Riverchase gang we went.  Our home in Todd is on a little dead end street called Riverchase Trail.  There is only five homes including ours and we are the only year rounders.  I have to say that I have maybe the greatest neighbors in the world many of whom you have already heard about in this blog.  Since it was, of course, still raining buckets we avoided our usual river front location - now underwater - and instead brought our covered plates to Pam and Warren Kicklighter's front porch.  Did you know that you can light fireworks in a epic deluge?  I don't know how they did it but fireworks did arise from the front yard which Caroline found to be colorful and Ella found to be intolerable.  After the show it was time to climb to our house at the top of Riverchase to put an end to a long, emotional day.


Sarah and Evan head home......


Every day in July is a busy one in Todd so the next day (Saturday) proves the point as we were up and at'em first thing to get the oven turned on for baking goodies for the weekend.  Shortly thereafter I was off on a 50 mile round trip to show property in the adjoining county with my partner Jim.  We got back just in time to help set up the sound system and food booth for the evening concert featuring Laura Boosinger and Josh Goforth.  We made a last minute call to have the concert outside instead of moving to the gallery at the Mercantile and it turned out to be a good and bad decision as, although the concert started with the sun it wasn't long before the heavens opened up and it began to pour.   Fortunately, Laura and Josh are pros and asked everyone to join them on the stage where the roof kept everyone dry.  

A New Arrival and Other News

Hey Y'all,

Has it really been two weeks since I last posted?  Time seems to have flown by with births, visits and the summer season in high gear.  I really have not had a chance to sit down and post a post which has let to some subtle and some not so subtle hints that I should make the time - so here is the latest......

The REALLY BIG NEWS is that my amazing, beautiful daughter in law Paige delivered a 7 pound 9 ounce bundle of joy named Grayson Lorelei Rielly on the 27th.  I was on pins and needles all of that day getting sporadic text messages from Sean and his Mom.  I was in my office at the Merc when the good news came via text and I ran down to tell Helen yelling "It's a boy!".  You see we were all sure that it was going to be a boy - I even had a dream that it was a boy - and I was so excited to receive the text that I totally misread it. Needless to say I had a red-faced return downstairs to set the record straight and how happy I was to do so because we are all over the moon to have this beautiful baby in our family.

Grayson Lorelei Rielly

OK, I'm a proud granddaddy but you've got to admit she is precious.  And so is her family............

The Rielly Clan of West Hartford, CT

By the way, in case you have not met him, the little guy with the curly blond hair is Tanner Joseph Rielly who will be two in October.

It is not an easy segue to go from birth to cancer but here goes.  I am really feeling just fine.  I do not have any symptoms of my disease that I can tell and sometimes I have to "pinch" myself just to make it seem real.  One thing that does bring it into focus is a trip down the mountain to Duke Cancer Center.  But before we get there I need to tell you about the trip Helen and I took to the Cataloochee Valley in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

As you may know, the park is one of the most visited national parks but Cataloochee is probably the least visited part of the park.  To get there you have to navigate eleven miles of single lane, switch-backed dirt road with no guard rails and sheer drops that can make your head spin.  The valley has a winding river, a few old buildings, amazing pastures and the only Elk Herd left in North Carolina.  In the whole huge valley there are only 25 campsites so the miles and miles of trails, streams full of trout and pastoral views of mountains, pastures and elk are yours to enjoy without crowds.

Cataloochee Elk

After a few days camping, fishing, biking and hiking it was time to pack up and head home.  Helen volunteered to pack up the tent while I did a little fly fishing so I was able to avoid having a heart attack because I missed seeing the little fellow who was sleeping under us between the tent and the ground sheet.

Strange Bedfellow

You are not supposed to mess with the wildlife so we left the ring snake there to seek out a new home and headed down the road.  On the way home we stopped at the Asheville Airport to pick up Helen's sister Theresa who very generously offered to mind the Merc while we went down to Duke for my second treatment.  The good news is that Theresa arrived safely; the bad news is her bag never made it.  As a matter of fact, it is still missing as I write this although there is rumor circulating that the bag is making endless loops around carousel number two in Asheville.  Helen's sister Kathy also stopped by for a visit so we had three of the five Barnes sisters under one roof.  Here's a photo of them after more than a little bit of wine.

The Three Amigas - Kathy, Theresa and Helen

So this past Thursday Helen and I headed down the mountain to stay once again and our good friend Karen and Rick Wilson's beautiful Chapel Hill home.  After a restful night we were off to Durham and the Duke Cancer Center.  I have previously mentioned how beautiful this facility is - like a five star hotel.  Here is a look at the atrium.

  As you can see there is some amazing architecture as well as some amazing people.  Being old hands now we knew that the agenda was first floor for blood tests, third floor for a consult with the oncologist, and fourth floor for treatment or, as I like to call it - lab, gab and stab :-)  Here is what it looks like>>>>

Lab

Gab (with the wonderful Dr. Hanks - a really good guy and excellent  oncologist)

Stab (waiting for the bag that says DANGER  Hazardous  Drug)

The best part of our time at the Cancer Center is always meeting with Dr. Hanks.  He is a really good guy - professional, generous and always ready to listen and field any question.  I told him that I had a goal.  I said "Doctor, I live in a small town and that my goal was for everyone in that town to say - that Jack Rielly is such a bullshitter, he went around telling everyone he had cancer and he never got sick at all".  Dr. Hanks had a good laugh over that but also agreed that it was a good goal to have and that it was his goal too.  On a more serious note, I asked him about the missing primary (that is the spot on your skin that you don't want to find and one that has not been found on me).  He said that in a small percentage of melanoma cases the primary self resolves and that was because the patient's immune system had attacked it.  He also said that there was some statistical evidence that patients with a missing primary do better with immunological treatment.  That was good news to both Helen and I and we took that home with us as we climbed back up that mountain to Todd to await Sarah, Evan and the Grandgirls who were do to arrive that night but that is a story for the next blog.

One last thing.  I have been overwhelmed with good wishes, emails, facebook messages and so on and I really appreciate every single one.  If I have not had a chance to respond I hope that you will know that it is not because I don't appreciate your thoughts and input, it is just that I have not had the time and space to give it the attention it deserves.

J