VII Random Facts

 have been tagged by my redoubtable friend JackeHammer to list seven weird or random facts about myself. Only seven weird facts? I guess that must be where the "random" factors in - otherwise I'd be typing this all night.

1. I am obsessed with my parents' hometown of Winona, Minnesota. Mom and Dad used to trundle us kids up there at least twice a year when we were kids. Later on, I would go to weddings and family reunions up there. Now it seems to be mostly funerals.  I still go to Winona every chance I get, just to be there: visit graves, drive by houses and other landmarks, and muse upon my impending mortality.
2. I am a fanatically picky eater. I don't like much, but what I do like, I like a whole lot. When I studied at the American Academy at Rome in 1986, I ate spaghetti carbonara for dinner every chance I got. Twenty summers later, I was prowling the streets of Saint Petersburg, Russia, looking for the best spaghetti carbonara in town - which can be found at Mama Roma.
3. I am happy when it rains. Not that I wouldn't go nuts if it rained positively all the time. But I tend to get depressed when it doesn't rain for a while. I also used to love electrical storms until I married and bought a house with someone who is extremely afraid of them. There's something about owning real estate that takes almost all of the fun out of even the wimpiest thunderstorm.
4. I feel no nostalgia whatsoever for my hometown of Oak Creek, Wisconsin, where I lived from my fifth through my twentieth years. I can see Oak Creek from the air whenever I'm landing at the Milwaukee airport, but once I'm in my rental car I very seldom drive the half mile south to Oak Creek.
5. I have been a compulsive reader since the age of two. I cannot sit down at a table by myself and eat something, at home or in a restaurant, unless I have something to read. If I don't have anything I want to read, I don't eat.
6. I think my favorite smell is that of creosote and diesel exhaust - that is, the smell of a railroad. It reminds me of hours spent tagging along with my Dad as he shot trouble - that is, fixed recalcitrant signals - along the Milwaukee Road's double-track Chicago-Milwaukee main line. Trains, and quality time with Dad.
7. I do crossword puzzles only in ink, because my Mom taught me early on that only wusses do crossword puzzles in pencil. I also have Mom to thank for my passion for word games of all sorts: Scrabble, Word Twist, and the dreaded Facebook Scramble.

I've got more, but you'll have to friend me on Facebook to find out.

Post Number 100

All right, I had really planned to do better than this. I have been composing blog posts in my brain, but obviously nothing has hit the screen since my previous masturpiece two and a half weeks ago. But my life has been pretty much station-to-station these days, for obvious reasons. And the important thing I have to report is that my beloved Lisa has finished her first cycle of chemo and she is doing (and looking) great! Not that it has been a walk in the park - far from it. There were some grueling times and some frightening times, especially in the first week after the first infusion. Still, Lisa keeps fighting back with her native strength and her positive attitude. Between her and the chemo, whatever cancer cells might remain don't stand a chance.

Here she is today, after getting a buzz cut from renowned hairstylist Mr. Joseph of Springfield. Nubi looks as happy as ever, while Yongy still looks a little miffed that his personal hairstylist now has a second customer. And Lisa is even more beautiful than ever.

Please don't get me wrong. I couldn't wish the horrible plague of cancer upon anybody, much less the human being I love most in this world. At the same time, I can't say that our experience has been 100.00% awful. Lisa and I have been granted the opportunity to see how utterly wonderful human beings - sometimes total strangers - can be, without any obligation to be. And we are even more aware of the blessing bestowed upon us when God gave us to each other. For all of which Lisa and I are, in fact, quite thankful.