Dan's Sh*tty Website

I was just reading one of Wil Wheaton's blog postings (You may ask yourself, "well, how did I get here?"), and I realized something. Wil, along with most or all of the people whom I am fans of have a deep sense of gratitude. There are many famous actors and writers that I couldn't care less about. People who I will happily watch their movies or read their books, but I won't follow on Twitter or stand in line to shake their hand.

FaceBook has gotten big lately. I mean really, really big. So big, that it strains credulity that there might be people who choose not to connect with all their friends, loved ones, friends of loved ones, enemies, frenemies, and that one person you met on vacation and friended but don't really know but are too nice to unfriend. How can people not want to join this amazing thing?

As I write this is is roughly a week and a half since I had my adrenalectomy to remove a tumor. The surgery was mostly a success, in that it accomplished the task of removing my adrenal gland. However, it turns out that there was nothing wrong with it and the tumor was only adjacent to it rather than growing out of it, but a person can live a normal life with only one gland, so it's okay that it's gone. The tumor itself was significantly more complex and slightly larger than appeared on the Contrast CT. It also grew along the vena cava to below the vein that feeds the kidney.

Just a quick post to say that I have surgery tomorrow to remove my adrenal tumor. It isn't a particularly dangerous surgery, and it seems pretty unlikely that the tumor is cancerous. There is a fair chance that it's what's known as a Conn's Tumor, and if so it will explain all of the strange symptoms I've had for some years now, but had been attributing to asthma (and the meds to treat it). I should just be in the hospital overnight, though it sounds like there will be a fair amount of accompanying pain. I'm sure I'm macho enough to handle that no problem.

It is always a little uncomfortable for me when I talk to someone and they say that they read my blog. I'm not too comfortable with people praising my work, though fortunately, that is seldom an issue. Instead it is that all of my worthwhile stories and anecdotes end up either here or on Twitter (http://twitter.com/aristeos). What little wit I can muster I pour into my posts (yes folks, this is the best I can do), so I'm forced to try to come up with some new and interesting topic that I haven't blogged yet.

Living on the plains of North Central Montana, like anyplace, has its ups and downs. There are the winters, the hot dry summers, and the wind (you know, it makes the mountains sound like folks were up there dyin'). However there is one good thing we've got, one of my favorites. Something that most places have and likely take for granted. But sometimes things that are commonplace in one area become near miraculous in another. Frogs. I know, every place that has water has the slimy little guys, but that's the thing, we don't have water, not regularly at least.

Ruth, Sophia and I recently attended an "infant dedication" at a Foursquare Church. Dedicating your newborn to raised in your faith with the belief of a loving God is an idea I understand, and for the most part approve of. I wholeheartedly believe this to be the intention of the parents who were dedicating their baby. The thing that scares me however is the venue. I will freely admit to having a problem with the Foursquare denomination and all the the related Pentecostal and Charismatic belief systems.

I really don't like talking about myself too much. Regular readers of this website may well disagree, and its very existence would argue against that statement. But it is more or less true. However, when certain things are going on in your life it can be awfully hard to write, much less think about anything else. That's where I'm at right now.

Is it ironic that this year we have had a mostly pleasant spring, but since I haven't had cows to take care of, I haven't been working outside enjoying it? Ruth and I have an ongoing argument about the meaning of irony, but I think that the first nice calving season in years--just after we sell the cows--counts.

It has been quite an adjustment living without the cows, but I have to admit that the opportunity to travel in February and March have been a rather welcome upside.

Leaving tomorrow for Seattle, then Oregon then back to Seattle. Ruth has a dollhouse show next weekend and Emerald City Comic Con is the weekend after, and we thought it'd be fun to spend some time on the coast in between. Getting excited to go, even though we just got back from Arizona. The Oregon Coast contains three of the best places on earth: Robert's Books in Lincoln City, Tillamook Creamery in Tillamook, and Doogers Seafood Restaurant in Seaside.