TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE - SUCH A DEAL!

Today we are going to have two separate blogs in one because of two entirely different subjects. The first will deal with a fabulous weekend we just had.

This one involves a weekend visit from my Brother-In-Law, Les Hawker and his wonderful wife Donna, from South Charleston, West Virginia, and at the very same time a visit from my beautiful niece, Holland (Holly to me) and her husband Eric Laurin, from Denver.

The unfortunate and ridicoulous fact of life is that my borther-in-law is a fantastic person and one of the most enjoyable people you could hope to be around. Because of a different society we all live in today, prior to this visit I think I have spent a small portion of a day with him twice in our entire lifetimes. I went back to West Virginia to his and my wife's mother's funeral, and Les and Donna attended the wedding of my son Andrew in Indiana. The lesson should be to remember what is important in life and do those things while you can instead of waiting til life is passing you by and regret not doing the things you should have done.

The second subject is about a very serious topic I have already emailed everyone about but want to remind you again and encourage you to support. I have forwarded an email this past week related to breast cancer, which I had received from a fabulous girl from the Pacific Northwest who has been a friend of mind for some time. I will call her Carolyn - because that is her name, and will tell you that she is one very super lady I would do anything for, but I would promote this subject regardless of who asked me to do it because it is so serious and so important.

Carolyn lived in Albuquerque when I met her and she created a big loss for Albuquerque by moving away. She and I have continued to be pen pals via email since then and I consider her one of my very favorite people.

Speaking of pen pals, I used to have a number of pen pals but they all had numbers on their shirts and wore black and white striped shirts and lived in tiny cages behind bars.
I tell people I had the first cell phone in Albuquerque. Well, I really didn't have the first cell phone, but there was one right outside my cell on the wall. If I pressed my body against the bars and stuck my hand out through the bars I could just barely reach it. The problem is, I would often drop the coins as I was trying to get them into the phone to make my call and they would fall to the floor and roll around out of reach which ended my phone call before I ever made it. The guards would congregate around my cell just to pick up the coins I dropped. I kept the guards in cigarette and beer money just from my failed attempts to make phone calls. Just kidding - I have never been inside a facility of incarceration, at least to the best of my knowledge.

Actually I have been in a jail facility. I went to a small college in Southern Colorado, Adams State College, and we played football against the inmates at the Colorado State Penitentiary in Canyon City. We actually went inside the prison to play football. We were a bunch of seventeen to twenty four year olds playing against a group of men up to age fifty and beyond who were tough gangster type men. To say they kicked our butts would be a gross understatement. Whenever they did something good the convicts in the stands would boo them. When we did something good or injured one of their players, which was seldom, the convicts would stand and cheer. At the end of each quarter of play, we would drag ourselves into a huddle and try to figure out what to do next. They would lay down on the grass and light up a cigarette and just calmly wait for the next battle at the line of scrimmage and activity of slaughter.

WEEKEND WITH RELATIVES IN NEW MEXICO:

Just another unexpected blessing occurred when two sets of relatives came to town this past weekend.

My brother-in-law, Les Hawker, and his wife Donna came in from South Charleston, West Virginia. These folks are plagued by the same thing we are in New Mexico. You say; "West Virginia", and people automatically relate to something they know about in the state of Virginia. It isn't like West Texas which relates to a portion of a giant state. West Virginia is actually a separate state and not a suburb of Virginia. And, of course, all of you know, that even people who are supposedly highly intelligent don't know that New Mexico is a state. I had one man ask if we had a Chamber of Commerce like they have in the United States.

Anyway, Les is a retired chemist and a fantastic individual. He and his wife, Donna, have traveled all over the world and had never been to New Mexico. Maybe they didn't know it was a state and didn't want to wait for a passport to come here. Les is also a very astute student of history and thoroughly enjoyed some history from New Mexico that dates back to the thirteen hundreds.

The night before they were to arrive, I got a call from my niece, Holly, saying that her husband, Eric, had just accepted a job with the Federal Government and was given the option of moving to Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Albuquerque. Naturally, they chose Albuquerque because of me - and maybea few other factors, so we were thrilled to have them come in at the same time that Les and Donna did. Get this - our wonderful Mayor, Martin Chavez, on his own - without anyone asking him to - just spent $8,000.00 of taxpayers money to go to China as he said it would be good for Albuquerque's economy. I got two fantastic professionals to move to Albuquerque without spending any of the taxpayer's money. Holly is a Physician Assistant dealing with children and has already established a great reputation in the Denver area. We are thrilled that they will be living in Albuquerque soon.

The first day, Saturday, we all had a late lunch at the Elephant Bar and Grill in the new ABQ shopping area. If you haven't visited the Elephant Bar, I would encourage you to do so. The atmosphere is great, the food is wonderful and the prices are very reasonable. We then came up to the house and sat around a bit as, especially the Hawkers, were pretty well worn out from only three hours of sleep and a two hour time change.

Sunday we all went up on the longest tram in North America which operates on a continuous cable of 5,000 feet as it climbs almost straight up the mountain from our mile high elevation to over 12,000 feet. I didn't think it would be appropriate to tell them that on a few occassions the wind had blown the car off the cable track and the car was stuck just dangling in the air overnight until a helicopter could come in and lift the cable back onto the track. The wind wasn't blowing on Saturday anyway. At the top you can look down on the city of Albuquerque to the west and down on the chair lift and ski slopes on the east side to the valley on the east side of the Sandia Mountains. Many people who live here don't realize that Albuquerque used to be a huge lake with the waters approaching the top of the Sandia Mountains going all the way North up into the San Luis Valley of Colorado. We have used a lot of water over the last few years. No wonder the Mayor wants everyone to use low water flush toilets. I go nuts when I go back East and you see tall trees on each side of the road and have no idea of what is on the other side of those trees or how to get there. Donna was amazed at how flat everything is in Albuquerque and how you can see forever and a mile here. Albuquerque really is a beautiful place. You have the history which relates to the Sandia Mountains and the Sangre de Cristo range on one side and the historic volcanoes on the other side with all kinds of history between.

Holly and Eric seemed to be attracted to the city because of the many bike and jogging trails we have all over the city and the ease of getting around with so much less traffic than the Denver area. Obviously, doing my part as a good citizen, I didn't tell them any of the bad stuff about Albuquerque. Is there any bad stuff?

We came down off the mountain and all went to Garduno's Mexican restaurant for some real and very delicious Mexican food. I have to admit that Holly and Eric are acquainted with good Mexican food as there are many good Mexican restaurants in Colorado. And, Les and Donna report that they enjoy good Mexican food in West Virginia. However, my goal is always to have people eat real Mexican food in New Mexico before they ruin their taste for Mexican food by eating a poor substitute in Texas.

After we stuffed ourselves with the best of the best in Mexican food, we went down to historic Old Town and visited San Felipe de Neri Catholic Church on the Old Town Plaza, which dates back 300 hundred years. We visited a few of the shops and they all went to the rattlesnake museum as I sat outside in the shade. I don't want to see a rattlesnake under any circumstances and I am not going to pay to see one. Eric wanted to see the gunfight they have in the streets of Old Town, so we watched a funny skit where several people ended up getting shot, including the Sheriff and two cranky wives - I liked that part. The last stop in Old Town was the Atomic Museum which was very interesting. We went down town and had refreshments at the Flying Star and ended the evening at the Great American Cattle Company with another great meal of some of the best steaks you can get in Albuquerque.

Monday Eric and Holly stayed in Albuquerque to house hunt and the Hawkers followed us to Santa Fe where we once again did the sight-seeing routine including the Church with the miracle staircase, another church which is the oldest church in America dating back to the thirteen hundreds, the oldest house in America which is next to the oldest church, the Palace of the Governors and the Georgia O'Keefe museum. The Hawkers spent the night in Santa Fe and were going to Los Alamos on Tuesday and back to Albuquerque on the Turquoise Trail and on to Arizona on Tuesday.

My chemo therapy limits me to about four hours before running out of gas and hitting the wall, but we spent several days in near 100 degree temperatures climbing stairs, walking, standing around museums and I somehow survived. I can go through a museum in about ten minutes. I look at the displays and pictures and I am out of there. Les and my wife are both very interested in history and they read every word on every plaque and script in each museum, so I had plenty of time to catch my breath between the various stops.

When you live here and go about your daily routine you forget to appreciate what a fantastic place this is and the amazing history in this state. If we could just figure out how to send our politicians to some remote island - or even Texas, we would be an almost perfect state.

BREAST CANCER:

My dear friend, Carolyn, sent me an email which I have forwarded to all of you. But just to reiterate, this is all about breast cancer and proposed changes which are being forced on the unfortunate victims of breast cancer by insurance companies. I am very sensitive to this subject because of my own cancer and my own problems with insurance companies in dealing with my own problem.

I doubt if many can appreciate and understand what a woman must go through when she discovers she has breast cancer. This has to be especially true of men. According to the information I have seen, there can be, and usually is, a tremendous amount of physical pain during and after a Mastectomy. This should be understandable by almost everyone. But in addition to the horrible experience of physical pain, these women must have a tremendous mental anguish and psycological pain which no one but them can understand and appreciate.

Insurance companies have decided they could add to their bottom lines if they could just do the procedure and kick these women out on the street to fend for themselves. They are trying to force a mastectomy into the category of "outpatient procedures" where the women would go in, have the procedure and spend a few minutes coming out from under the anesthesia and go on home - very much like you would a routine colon exam or some other simple procedure. They are sometimes sent home with drainage tubes still attached. Hey - it makes sense! The insurance companies can save a couple of nights expense of hospital stay, and if it makes more money for the insurance companies - it is worth doing. We have drive up service for McDonalds, dry cleaning, liquor purchases and banking - why not mastectomies?

There is a bill called the BREAST CANCER PATIENT PROTECTION ACT which will require insurance companies to cover a minimum 48-hour hospital stay. Lifetime Television has put this bill on their Web page with a petition drive to show support. Please go to this site and sign the petition to show your support. Go to;

http://www.lifetimetv.com/breastcancer/petition/signpetition.php


THANK YOU!!!!