Alan’s Army

I’m happy to report that Alan has now finished chemo set #3 without incident other than on Monday night where he said he didn’t sleep very well.

It is Saturday afternoon and we are at the church right now for our “directory” photo. We’ve had the photos taken, now we are waiting for the sales pitch. Anyone who has done this before knows that the photo for the Church directory is free, but then they confront you with a dazzling array of photo packages which you need to purchase for your friends and family. Some of these packages are roughly the same cost as buying a new washing machine.

Last time we actually got one of those big oval pictures that looks like an oil painting. Not sure who wanted it, but it was probably me as I’m a sucker for this stuff.

Alan’s birthday went OK yesterday. The guys at work took him out to Conte’s for a birthday pizza lunch. Prior to that in the morning he made the rounds in Princeton to say hi to everyone. Ginny made his favorite for dinner - meat pie. We went over to the football stadium at about 7:45 to watch Amber play in the halftime show but forgot it was spirit week so all the homecoming King and Queen stuff preceded the band actually taking the field. While standing in the cold on the tarmac at the end of the field somewhere in the middle of the roster of potential home-coming kings, Alan leaned towards me and in his deadpan style said “Greatest Birthday Ever” - we must have laughed for 5 minutes.

(All kidding aside about arcane high school rituals, we heard the name of a daughter of old church friends and were happy to hear she won homecoming queen - yay Mallory!)

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<Sorry folks. Ginny’s phone rang and it was Amber who had left 5 minutes earlier for the school for a band competition. I heard “hydroplane” and “hit a tree” and took off like a shot.> Thank God that Amber was perfectly fine, just shaken up.

After stopping at the red light at the end of Griggstown-BelleMead Rd. she pulled out to head South on 206, fishtailed, and somehow ended up 90 degrees to the road with the front of the truck off the road and the rear tires still on the road. If it had all been grass or field right there the truck would have been fine but unfortunately there was a 10 inch cedar which pushed the bumper into the tire, and shifted the front quarter-panel enough to prevent the driver side door from opening more than an inch or two. So the truck was flat-bedded away.

Amber wanted to continue her itinerary of the band competition and then the homecoming dance, so after we finished with the police (who were very nice) I drove her to school and then returned to the church to get Ginny and Alan.

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OK, back to the update, its now Sunday evening. Last night Aunt Dari stopped in for dinner and b-day gifts for Amber and Alan. We had a nice time but she missed Amber who didn’t get home from the dance until after 11pm.

Today was the cut-a-thon fundraiser for Alan. I stopped in at “Beyond the Fringe” this morning, said hello to the owners and stylists and took some pictures. They were all wearing camo Alan’s Army T-shirts and I gave them all wristbands to wear as well. What a great bunch of folks! Ginny, Alan, and Amber went to visit in the afternoon. The courier news had done an article in yesterday’s paper and apparently a towing firm in Somerville called the salon and said they would help if they didn’t reach their goal of raising $5,000. Amazing!

Speaking of amazing, I still owe you all a write-up on a bunch of disc golf events that have done fund-raisers for Alan. Ranging from a fantastic Labor Day weekend tourney and dinner and auction with our friends in Maine to a recent doubles-tourney in Philly.

A lot of busy days lately, but I’ll be returning to Germany for meetings in a few weeks (much to our family’s chagrin as I’ll be away for my 49th birthday and more importantly, our 27th wedding anniversary, and even more important the day before which is Renees operation) so I’ll have time on the long plane rides to catch you all up. I also have a few months of photos to upload and I will pick some out to include.

In the meantime your continued prayers are appreciated for both Alan and Renee.

Also your prayers for compassion and doing-the-right-thing on the part of the insurance company which has now stopped paying all claims and again has Alan’s case “under review” and is making noise yet again about it being a “pre-condition.” “Under review” right now are all 33 radiation treatments at $3600 each and the last few months of doctor visits.

God Bless,

Andrew