This could be the last time.

You may not see much of me midweek, for lo, I am going to the Rolling Stones concert Monday night here in Detroit.

Don’t ask me why. I don’t know why. No, I do: A friend asked if I’d like to go, and I said sure, why not. At the time, we thought we were buying tickets for a summer 2020 show, and I liked the symmetry: 25 years after the first (and only) time I’d seen the Stones. Five years after Kate’s first (and only) time seeing the Stones, both of us in the days after our respective high-school graduations. I figured it would be the last time (maybe the last time, I don’t know), but why not? Have the Rolling Stones ever disappointed us? Who cares if everyone is old? Isn’t that a triumph in and of itself? Isn’t that worth an evening of my life?

So I’m going to see the Stones with two friends. Kate, flying in from a weekend gig in Seattle, might be there with another friend — depends on whether everything is on time. Our seats won’t be close, but we’ll be under the same roof, and that’s symmetry enough.

But I’ll probably be very tired on Tuesday, fading into Wednesday. You never know.

On to more depressing topics: There’s a missing man in East Lansing, a 19-year-old who disappeared the weekend of the MSU-UM game two weeks ago. Last seen leaving a dorm. He wasn’t a student there, but at another school, in Grand Rapids. Since the last anyone saw or heard from him, his phone hasn’t been used, ditto his credit cards. As you can imagine, his family and friends are devastated, and there are prayer vigils, searches and fundraising for rewards and such. You can’t give up, they say, and I absolutely agree. It’s the not knowing that’s the worst, they say, and I agree with that, too. But I have a feeling I know where he is, and it’s not good. You tell me what your conclusion would be, factoring in that the football game is always a blowout party weekend, that the red dot is the dorm he left to walk back to his car and his phone last pinged on Beal Street:

I think he’s in the river. It’s terrible.

I can’t go further than speculation, because I don’t know the depth of the river there, and how hard it is to get to from the roadbed. But it puts me in mind of the deaths at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse some years back:

Between 1997 and 2006, La Crosse experienced tragedy after tragedy as 8 separate college students were found to have drowned in the Mississippi River. The deaths, contrary to some “serial killer” theories put forth, were determined to be the results of excessive drinking combined with a close physical proximity to Riverside Park, bordering the Mississippi River.

You don’t say. The 2006 victim had a blood-alcohol level of .32. I was thinking of these deaths when I worked on the college-drinking project for Bridge some years back. That year, there had already been three in Michigan – a Chinese freshman, a girl, who died of alcohol poisoning before classes even started (BAC >.40); a kid who thought it would be fun to cross the glass roof on Nickels Arcade in Ann Arbor (.20), and fell through; and a weekend visitor to Central Michigan who got lost walking late at night and stumbled into a pond in a garden and drowned (can’t recall his BAC, but he was drunk).

One might think, “But why would he go down to the river? That makes no sense.” But drunks often do things that make no sense. That’s one of the side effects, you drinkers might remember from the last time you were overserved. As I recall from our reporting, the single most dangerous time for college-drinking misadventures is the first semester of freshman year. All of this lines up with the missing 19-year-old here.

Rivers flow, and bodies flow with them. Cold water holds them down for a while, but eventually they get caught on something, stop their downstream progress and, in time, reach the surface. I expect his parents will get him home, soon enough. You always hope for a miracle and who knows, maybe he’s in Florida, having slipped the bonds of civilization’s expectations and lighting out for the territories. But I doubt it.

When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras.

On a cheerier note, random French picture, this one sunset at Arles after a long, dreary storm:

I’ll say hi to Mick and Keef for y’all. Back whenever.

Posted at 5:41 pm in Current events, Popculch |
 

52 responses to “This could be the last time.”

  1. Ann said on November 14, 2021 at 7:04 pm

    I’m here for all the French photos. The missing kid story is so sad, as they all are. Happened to the son of a colleague at Cornell. Took seven months to find the body under the cover of a swimming pool. Ultimately determined to be suicide. Horrible.

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  2. Julie Robinson said on November 14, 2021 at 7:51 pm

    My uncle drowned on a fishing trip and it took several days for his body to float to the surface. In the meantime our family was in agony, though of course that never really ended. I’m so sad to think of another family going through it.

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  3. David C said on November 14, 2021 at 7:51 pm

    I think there’s been one student from UW Oshkosh who drowned in the river. If I remember right, he was the son of a Green Bay Packers coach so it was a big deal. The campus is build right along the river so I’m surprised it doesn’t happen more.

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  4. LAMary said on November 14, 2021 at 9:24 pm

    And speaking of Rolling Stones and drowning, there’s Brian Jones.

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  5. Dexter Friend said on November 15, 2021 at 2:56 am

    Daughter Lori, who is commuting weekly for a while between Las Vegas (selling their house) and Columbus, saw The Stones in Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas a few days ago, said they kicked major ass, not the same without Charlie but Steve Jordan is a helluva drummer.
    I always read George Cantor’s column when I used to have access to Detroit papers. I remember when his daughter fell from a window at UM and died. Read this short writeup and you’ll know what university kids are subjected to. https://www.michigandaily.com/uncategorized/cantor-sues-national-fraternity-daughters-death/

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  6. Deborah said on November 15, 2021 at 3:49 am

    I’ve only been to one Stones concert, when I lived in St. Louis, it was the Bridges to Babylon tour. Very memorable. It opened with a dark stage, then a single chord played on a guitar, when the lights came up there was Keith Richards draped in a fur cape, I think it was leopard skin (I can’t remember, even though I said it was memorable). The crowd went nuts yelling “Keef”. At one point a bridge telescoped out to a small stage in the center of the stadium, the Stones ran over the bridge to the stage while bras and panties rained down on them.

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  7. alex said on November 15, 2021 at 5:40 am

    Some good news for those who’ve been following this story:

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/american-journalist-released-myanmar/2021/11/15/9492cf4c-45f7-11ec-beca-3cc7103bd814_story.html

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  8. JodiP said on November 15, 2021 at 8:45 am

    Enjoy the concert! RS adjacent: we just got tickets to see Lisa Fischer who sang back up with them for 25 years. January 22nd. This is about the 8th time we’ve seen her.

    I wonder if alcohol abuse has waned in recent years; I am assuming universities have tried to do educational comapigns and such…but young people (my young self included) most likely scoff.

    Alex, that is good news indeed.

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  9. Suzanne said on November 15, 2021 at 9:17 am

    The year our son graduated from Indiana State U, there was a kid that disappeared several weeks before graduation, his body found downriver a few days later. It was very sad. Our son knew a kid who had been in class with the deceased, who said he was a great guy, rarely ever drank, but after his last final had had a few and the outcome was awful. He was an only child and his dad was deceased. At graduation, the university gave him a posthumous diploma. My heart still bleeds for his mother.

    The thing that has changed with college drinking, from my observations, is the parental attitudes. I was in college in the late 1970s and people drank, people smoked dope, Quaaludes were big but it was the students being wild, sowing wild oats. Now, the parents come and party with them, buy them the booze, and brag about their drunken escapades. I would have been mortified by my parents coming to Bloomington to get me drunk on my 21st but it’s common now. Sororities have mom and dad weekends which include bar hopping and carousing.

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  10. nancy said on November 15, 2021 at 10:03 am

    You’re right about that, Suzanne. When I was reporting the college drinking story, I saw lots of dads playing beer pong with their sons in frat-house yards.

    And there are always stories about moms gone wild, sometimes seducing young men on campus. Shudder.

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  11. ROGirl said on November 15, 2021 at 12:19 pm

    Someone in my office is wearing a Stones tongue t-shirt today. She’s going to the show, of course.

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  12. tajalli said on November 15, 2021 at 12:54 pm

    The only drowning death known to me personally was the disappearance of the Holoholo while on a research voyage south of the Big Island in Hawaii. There were speculations that it encountered a Soviet sub and that either the crew were captured and/or the ship sunk with all aboard. Officially, the most likely cause was thought to be a faulty temporary hatch leading to capsizing. I knew Susan, wife of one of the researchers Gary Niemeyer, who was widowed at age 23. The lack of closure was stunning.

    https://www.ilind.net/2018/12/09/40th-anniversary-of-the-disappearance-at-sea-of-uh-research-ship/

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  13. Alan Stamm said on November 15, 2021 at 1:34 pm

    Those two birds and waving flag elevate the Arles image from vacation snap to elegant artistry.

    Sharp shooting, Nance.

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  14. Little Bird said on November 15, 2021 at 2:45 pm

    What Deborah isn’t telling you is that when Keith showed up in that spotlight, she leaned over to me (sitting right next to her) and said “Keith Richards is SO hot”.
    My skin tried to crawl away.

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  15. Jenine said on November 15, 2021 at 3:00 pm

    Oh what a gorgeous picture. The green light metaphor is a sweet detail.

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  16. David C said on November 15, 2021 at 3:10 pm

    When I was seven or eight when my uncle drowned. He was a cop and was skinny dipping in a gravel pit pond with another cop and two women neither of whom was my aunt. Naturally it was front page in the paper so my aunt had to grieve and be completely pissed off at the same time. About the kindest think anyone said about my uncle was be my grandfather and that was “I never liked the son of a bitch anyway”.

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  17. Deborah said on November 15, 2021 at 4:10 pm

    How embarrassing, I did say that, and I never say things like that. But it was a very sexy moment, even though it was Keith Richards who looks like he’s already dead.

    I’m just back from my 4th PT session and they did a thing called dry needling where they used acupuncture needles but inserted deeper in the muscle and then moved it around. Ow, ow, ow. If it works it will be worth it, but it was hard not to react vocally. On Wednesday they’re going to do it again, not looking forward to that.

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  18. LAMary said on November 15, 2021 at 4:36 pm

    I heard the Bridges to Babylon concert from my house. That and the Michael Jackson Beat It concert were the only two Dodger stadium events loud enough to hear clearly from my house which is around 3 miles away. The Stones played here at Sofi Stadium this year. Elton John is already selling tickets to the farewell concert happening next year at Dodger Stadium.

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  19. Deborah said on November 15, 2021 at 6:35 pm

    What I also didn’t tell you about that Stones concert that we went to in St. Louis is that the domed stadium where it was held was a project that my husband was the senior designer on. It was a conversation with Walter Payton that my husband had that made him take particular attention to the acoustics in domed stadiums that made him very proud that the St. Louis stadium performance of the Stones was used as one of their recordings for their CD. The other location was in Brazil I think. I believe I’ve mentioned Walter Payton’s conversation with my husband here before so I won’t bore you with it again.

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  20. Julie Robinson said on November 15, 2021 at 7:00 pm

    My FB ads inform me that Elton John has a line of eyeglasses selling at Sam’s Clubs. Now there’s some cognitive dissonance for you.

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  21. Dexter Friend said on November 16, 2021 at 1:50 am

    Well, Julie Robinson, after all, Sir Elton’s rocket is SKINT! That commercial makes me laugh even after at least 100 viewings. It’ for Uber Eats, with Lil Nas X.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCj53-GEIbc

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  22. alex said on November 16, 2021 at 6:47 am

    Why is it that Sir Elton shilling for Sam’s Club and Uber Eats doesn’t seem as pathetic as Tom Selleck hawking reverse mortgages?

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  23. basset said on November 16, 2021 at 9:14 am

    Deborah, go ahead & tell the Walter Payton story.

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  24. Dorothy said on November 16, 2021 at 9:19 am

    I’ve been hanging out here for more than 20 years. I have no recollection of the Walter Payton story. I have a Manny Sanguillen story but that’s not very interesting. Please share Deborah.

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  25. LAMary said on November 16, 2021 at 9:33 am

    Alex, I think it’s because we all know Sir Elton is probably not broke. Tom Selleck might be. Probably not, but maybe. Also, I trust Elton more than I trust Tom Selleck and Elton is not trying to earnestly tell me to hand my house over to some sleaze bag company.

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  26. Deborah said on November 16, 2021 at 9:55 am

    OK, when my husband was working on the design of the St. Louis dome there was a group of movers and shakers involved in trying to make the project a reality. They were trying to convince the city to fork over tax money etc. Walter Payton was one of those guys at least initially. One time my husband was presenting possible design schemes to that group, Payton took him aside a asked him to please pay close attention to acoustics because football players among other things use sound to orient themselves on the field especially when they’re running furiously with the ball looking down at feet so they don’t get tricked by fake moves of opposing players. Domes made the sound bounce around and confuse players orientation. So from that conversation on my husband made an effort to make sure the design team focused on acoustics along with everything else. The funny thing is my husband is not a sports guy, never has been, for him he was designing the building for the Stones or Madonna etc. and he didn’t even know who Walter Payton was except that he had been a player, that was obvious my husband said, by his handshake when they first met. After the meetings they often had conversations about this and that related to what players needed. Payton backed out of the project pretty early on in the process, maybe because of his health. St. Louis didn’t have a team when the dome project started and during construction. Later the Rams played there and even won the Super Bowl, that game wasn’t played in the dome as I recall.

    Many years later my husband was asked to speak at Walter Payton highshool in Chicago and he told that story, I don’t remember what the occasion was.

    I’m pretty sure I’ve told that story here before.

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  27. basset said on November 16, 2021 at 10:00 am

    Maybe so, but I don’t remember it either. How did the design change to accommodate sound?

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  28. alex said on November 16, 2021 at 11:45 am

    My partner took my mother to a medical appointment this morning where she learned that she has triple-negative breast cancer. She is refusing any treatment. She turns 93 in December.

    I’m in shock and haven’t quite absorbed the information yet. It’s just so unexpected.

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  29. Jeff Borden said on November 16, 2021 at 12:04 pm

    The Rams move around quite a bit. From Cleveland to L.A. to St. Louis to L.A., chasing more money and better stadium facilities. I recall their move to St. Louis, the efforts to get a stadium financed and built and then, later, the exploits of Kurt Warner.

    One of my beats at Crain’s Chicago Business was the operational side of all the pro sports teams, so I was forced to learn a ton about stadium financing. What I learned then applies now: athletic facilities and especially football stadiums are almost always a terrible deal for cities and taxpayers, an expensive, seldom used structure that benefits only the owners and investors in the team. (Domed stadiums in party cities, i.e., the Superdome in New Orleans, are an exception because they can be used for national events ranging from the Super Bowl to a political convention.) It’s why so many cities are balking at ponying up any money for new stadiums and why most of the recent builds have been done with private funding. I certainly hope Chicago tells the Bears to go pound sand as they threaten to build a new facility in Arlington Heights.

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  30. Deborah said on November 16, 2021 at 12:04 pm

    Basset, Acoustic design is a specialty, they had a consultant brought on board to help with that. It has to do with subtle changes in shape that direct and deflect sound and cladding materials that absorb or reflect sound properly. It’s complex and challenging. Then it was my husband’s job to make all that work within the aesthetic strategy as well. The designers of symphony halls like the Frank Gehry one in downtown LA are incredible. The design of the seats and the railings not just the walls and ceilings are all done with the express purpose of sound quality. We went to a performance there once, a pianist was on the program and it was amazing. I couldn’t begin to tell you how it works.

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  31. Suzanne said on November 16, 2021 at 12:26 pm

    Oh, Alex, I am sorry. It seems so unfair. At 93, she has earned the right to not have to deal with something like this, but that isn’t how life works, is it? I wish it did.

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  32. Deborah said on November 16, 2021 at 12:41 pm

    So sorry Alex. I don’t know what “triple negative” means. We have a friend in Abiquiu who has cancer and he is involved in immunotherapy instead of chemo, its much less debilitating apparently and he feels pretty good.

    Jeff B, yes stadiums in cities are a racket and my husband said working with the NFL wasn’t fun and seemed corrupt. My husband worked on a design project in Vegas and dropped out and let someone else take over the design of that conference center project. There were some shady characters involved for sure.

    My husband joined the sport component of the architecture firm he had been working in for years before. His specialty was assembly buildings in urban areas which he focused on when he was in graduate school at Harvard. He started with convention centers and some of those had stadium extensions that’s how he ended up on the St. Louis Dome project. He’s done convention centers, mostly expansions in Indianapolis, Anaheim CA, Fort Worth, Phoenix, St. L and I don’t remember where else. He also worked on masterplans for convention centers in Denver, Manhattan (that’s when he met Giuliani when he was mayor, that’s another story) and a few others. My husband also designed courthouses in urban settings. He got tired of doing those mammoth projects that were hard to have design control over because they had teams of 50 or more people at a time working on them so he later concentrated on much smaller college/university buildings until the money for those dried up during the great recession. Most of his work was in the public sphere.

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  33. alex said on November 16, 2021 at 1:17 pm

    Triple-negative breast cancer is a fast-spreading and aggressive form. It gets its name because it’s not detectable on three different types of cancer test and it’s also not treatable except by invasive surgery and chemo, which are two things my mom doesn’t want to undergo at her age. She would rather die at home naturally with palliative care than endure a bunch of trauma that she likely wouldn’t survive anyway.

    My parents have outlived almost all of their friends and relatives, so I think they’re pretty much at peace with whatever happens to them at this point but it’s still such an unexpected shock. I relocated close to home 17 years ago thinking they’d need my care yet they’ve remained fiercely independent until now, so we’ve been given a lot of good years to be thankful for.

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  34. Brandon said on November 16, 2021 at 1:39 pm

    Sir Elton is probably not broke. Tom Selleck might be. Probably not, but maybe.

    Doubtful. He earns an estimated $200,000 per episode of Blue Bloods, and he doesn’t plan to leave the show anytime soon.

    Plus,
    he has a 65-acre ranch in Ventura, California.

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  35. Sherri said on November 16, 2021 at 2:54 pm

    So sorry to hear this, Alex.

    Taxpayer funding of stadiums for billionaire sports teams owners is always a bad idea for anyone but the billionaire sports team owner.

    BTW, St Louis is currently suing Stan Kroenke, the owner of the Rams, over his departure from that city. He made a settlement offer of $100 million, which was rejected.

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  36. Deborah said on November 16, 2021 at 3:47 pm

    Kroenke is married to a Walmart heir, or at least he was. My husband said he only peripherally had to interact with him. Mainly Kroenke was involved in trying to wrestle the Rams away from Georgia Frontiere who was the floozy widow of the owner of the Rams. She was a case, she was in first class once on a flight we were on in coach. She had a little poodle with her that she treated like a baby, literally spoon feeding it. She was wearing a red, sparkly sequined dress that was fitting for the madame of a brothel, this was a morning flight.

    Kroenke was always playing behind the scenes pulling deals to get his way and they were often on the edge of being illegal according to my husband, during that time that he worked on the dome project.

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  37. JodiP said on November 16, 2021 at 4:02 pm

    Alex, I am so sorry to hear about your mom. My mom had that at age 77, treated successfully, but it came back and by the time we found out it was too late to do anything. My mom lived another 2 weeks at a hospice house with excellent care and no pain due to morphine. We had a lot of good last days with her. I hope it goes well with your mom. I am also happy to hear you’ve had so many good years near your folks.

    I would make a gentle request that if someone shares bad news, and you have a question about what’s going on, that you google it before asking. Alex, maybe you didn’t mind, but I try to be sensitive about burdening people already dealing with a lot.

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  38. Julie Robinson said on November 16, 2021 at 4:56 pm

    Alex, I’m very sorry about your mother, and Jodi, for the memories it brings back. A close friend went through treatment for triple negative over a year ago. It was hell for her, and she’s still fighting side effects, so I think your mom is on to something. As Jodi says, hospice and morphine will help, but it’s never the end we want.

    My own mom is definitely slowing down physically and mentally and it’s hard for both of us. It might have happened on this schedule anyway, but it felt like she shriveled up during the lockdown, despite everything we did.

    But today; today was a good day. We took her to Whole Foods for the first time and boy howdy did she have fun. She bought a bunch of overpriced junk food and especially enjoyed the hot bar. Now I know where to take her next time she needs a pick-me-up!

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  39. Colleen said on November 16, 2021 at 6:40 pm

    Alex, I am sorry to hear your news. I would encourage palliative care when the time comes. The care given is really wonderful.

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  40. alex said on November 16, 2021 at 6:40 pm

    My partner filled me in. He was surprised that they were going to an oncology office but didn’t ask. My mom had him sit in on the appointment.

    They gave my mom her options and she just wanted to know whether this will be a painless experience if she doesn’t pursue any treatment. They assured her that unless it erupts through the skin it should be otherwise painless. She might even live with the condition for a few years yet before it metastasizes but the breast mass will continue to grow and eventually will metastasize if it hasn’t already.

    She told them that at almost 93 years old she’s grateful for every day she wakes up and wouldn’t want to spend her last days suffering the effects of chemo and a mastectomy on her frail body.

    I remember when her mother died at age 95. Her organs began failing and she was going into septic shock and she was experiencing what was otherwise a natural death. Then they discovered breast cancer in her mother as she lay dying in a hospital and wanted to operate and the family objected because there was no chance of saving her and the trauma and expense seemed ridiculous to even contemplate.

    Her mother lived independently until the end and I think that’s what my mother wants to do as well.

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  41. LAMary said on November 16, 2021 at 7:37 pm

    Alex, I think your mother is doing the right thing. Not that you asked, but I think it’s a sort of peaceful courage she’s showing. My favorite people to hang out with when I worked in a hospital were the palliative care team. The quality of life versus quantity of life question came up often.

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  42. Dexter Friend said on November 17, 2021 at 12:58 am

    Sorry about MIL, Alex my friend. Here’s hope for remission. My daughter rang the bell a couple years ago after her last breast cancer chemo. She’s in remission and working, and actually about to get a higher paying job.
    She’s a physical therapist and actually is mostly an administrator of a facility in Columbus. She has endured a steady regimen of surgeries, and now the reconstruction phase is complete. She had a wonderful surgeon, a highly-respected breast cancer specialist, then later came the reconstruction team. She is 43.
    Deborah, do you remember the fabulous old arena in St. Louis that in its last years was called The Checkerdome? I was there in 1978 when Kentucky beat Duke for the NCAA Men’s’ National Basketball crown. I think it was torn down later on. Also, is Kiel Auditorium still standing? That place was ancient. I used to watch the old St. Louis Hawks with Bob Pettit play NBA ball there back in 1959, on TV. When I went to an all-star game there on Sunday of tournament weekend, I was amazed. The seats were original and so damn small. Very closely jammed together and hard seat bottoms and rigid wooden seatbacks. At that time the St. Louis University Billikens basketball team still played there. The concourse was very narrow and the toilets were ancient fixtures…it was a trip for Journeyman, the time traveller.

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  43. Deborah said on November 17, 2021 at 7:24 am

    I went to some hockey games at the checkerdome, if I remember correctly it was still standing by the time we moved to Chicago but is gone now. I think Kiel had a major overhaul in the 90s, almost a completely different building or maybe they tore it all down and built a whole new facility, I don’t remember. I didn’t go there much. They built a new baseball stadium since we moved away. We’ve been back to visit friends, the new stadium is fake old stadium looking, I liked the original Busch stadium, which was white and had a midmod feel.

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  44. Dorothy said on November 17, 2021 at 7:25 am

    Alex I’m sorry to hear about your mom, but I’m also very supportive of her decisions and attitudes about end of life. I feel like if I were in that situation, that is exactly how I would react. She is to be praised for her very eyes-wide-open decision making abilities.

    Dexter I think you know I’m moving to Grove City in a few months. Maybe by mid or late January. I’m retiring from my current secretarial position at UD. But I’m entertaining the idea of getting a part time position in a medical office or hospital. Ideally I’d like to work about 4-5 hours in a morning. In the fall I am going to be caring from my granddaughter when she gets off the bus from kindergarten. If you get a chance would you ask your daughter if she’s aware of any kind of job opening that meets this description? In my mind, being an office worker at a hospital who greets patients when they come in for morning appointments is exactly what I’m interested in.

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  45. Deborah said on November 17, 2021 at 10:38 am

    Dorothy, that sounds like an ideal job for you. It sounds like you’re headed for the best time, being around family, seeing your granddaughter every day (and soon to be grandson). Happy for you, I love being retired and traveling back and forth between NM and Chicago. Well, to be honest I don’t like the actual traveling part, especially flying. We did finally get our TSA Pre-check reinstalled after it had expired, that turned out to be a hassle, their website was full of gliches for a few months. I had to make 2 flights without it, the one from Midway to NM on labor day weekend was hell.

    Hard to believe we’re heading back to NM for the winter on Saturday.

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  46. Julie Robinson said on November 17, 2021 at 1:25 pm

    Dorothy, is there a cancer center associated with the Cleveland Clinic near where you’ll be moving? When we took mom in for some blood tests they had a concierge at the front desk who took it beyond just being a receptionist. She took us up the elevator directly to the office and waited until a person was free to check us in. The entire time she was making soothing small talk and it really did help us feel less stressed. BTW her blood tests were fine.

    We’ve had some chilly days and have some more coming, but today it’s sunny and 83°, and I’ve been outside soaking it all in. That’s why we moved here and it makes it worth all the horrible politicians and high cost of living.

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  47. Dorothy said on November 17, 2021 at 3:04 pm

    I don’t know, Julie, but I’m positive there are cancer centers around Columbus because… Ohio State has some very impressive medical places!

    I have hemachromotosis (too much iron in my blood) and I go in a few times a year for blood letting. It happens at a cancer center in Dayton, and the peripheral employees I’ve encountered (i.e. not nurses or doctors) are all very, very nice. I could see myself being a patient escort. I’m pretty good at small talk. I love meeting people and being helpful. I was one helluva candy striper in 1973! Then I got a paying job so that experience didn’t last long.

    Doing something like being an escort at a cancer center – ? I imagine it might be hard to pull yourself away and go home because the need to help people is endless.

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  48. LAMary said on November 17, 2021 at 3:58 pm

    Brandon, who knows? He might converting it all to crypto currency. He might be investing in NF stuff. Sorry I don’t rmemeber the whole acronym. I’m at work and can’t google it.

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  49. Deborah said on November 17, 2021 at 4:41 pm

    NFT, non fungible token

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  50. alex said on November 17, 2021 at 6:28 pm

    Dorothy, my ex had hemochromatosis. At first they diagnosed him as diabetic because the symptoms and lab values are similar in untreated hemochromatosis but he didn’t respond to diabetic treatment. Then they discovered his off-the-charts iron level and that’s when they figured it out. It’s a genetic condition and a fair number of his family members have also tested positive and are being proactive in their dietary habits, which makes a huge difference in how often you have to visit the phlebotomist.

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  51. Dexter Friend said on November 18, 2021 at 2:08 am

    Dorothy, I emailed Vanessa and will post here what she responds with. Yeah, she was happy as a clam yesterday as she just finished hammering out a contract for her new job’s pay and benefits. She “done good”.

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  52. Dorothy said on November 18, 2021 at 9:20 am

    Alex as I’ve mentioned here before (probably waaaay too many times) I have nine siblings. Two of my older brothers both have hemochromatosis too. One’s condition is much worse than the others. By that I mean one of them has to do the bloodletting thing more frequently than the other. I don’t think all of my sibs have been tested. If it’s left unchecked it can create really serious health problems, which I told the others about a few years ago. It’s in their hands now!

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