hey everyone! thanks for the kind words and support. I apologize for not being able to respond prior to now, but things have been a little bit crazy. Pain is a bit better today, without narcotics at that. I was in a bad bad place Monday night, I wanted to pass out as a temporary escape from the pain. I've had kidney stones, broken bones, been struck by lightening, stepped on a fishing gaff the diameter of a dime and had it pass clean through my foot, ACLs, fractured my left foot in 14 places, and leg in 3, including a compound fracture that broke the skin, rupturing my Achilles in the process and this laughed at those levels of pain.
I have more imaging scheduled for this afternoon, they want to review the spine again, and get the pelvis and brain. This is a bit of a complicated beast. I have a history with leukemia (AML), having dealt with it twice in the past, it's looking like it may have onset after surgery and treatment had begun on adenocarcinoma tumor from the duct. Apparently we might be dealing with a 2 headed beast (well, not a 2 headed beast, but 2 separate beast that appear to be intertwined, when they actually aren't but will overlap). This is something that I didn't even realize was feasible until yesterday. I'll know more for sure before the end of the week, but it's interesting, terrifying and has me wondering if it's worse then it appears, or not really as bad, all at once.
Travel is definitely out, the only foreseeable travel I might be taking is to MD Anderson in Texas.
I've lived a remarkable full life for not having reached 40, that's not to say that I'm ready to consider this the twilight of it, but there isn't much on the bucket list left, courtesy of being incredibly immature in my 20s. Outside of some travel which isn't in the cards for now.
I appreciate the idea and offer of finishing the 323, which is quite the state; smashed windshield, stripped paint, bad gas and fuel filter at this point, donor engine still in a similar condition protege. I want to be able to assist in the work being done to it, nobody should be subjected to taking that thing on. I don't want to miss out on the final development and build side of it, that being said, once i'm functional again, I'll take all the assistance in the world and if that doesn't become possible, it's to be completed, go to Gainesville then be the Studdards problem to find a location for storage of a new project car.
It's occurred to me that outside of friends, who I honestly keep all but a close select few in the dark about this as it's a downer, I don't even post about it on book of faces as I don't want an endless pity party. And that I also, despite having enough entertaining experiences to fill a book of short stories, don't have much of a legacy. That being said I would never want a legacy to be about me. If I were to want to see something done or implemented, I'd love to see a $201X rallycross challenge. It could be held annually at The Firm, as it's close to GRM HQ, or it could travel amongst SCCA regions from year to year. I'd like to see an additional $40-50 per an entry into the challenge portion of the competition with 50% being donated to the American Cancer Society, 30% going to the winner, 20% going to the runner up and 10% going to the 3rd place finisher. I also wouldn't complain if any of the winners decided to kick into a hard luck loser fund, should someone's vehicle fail them in spectacular fashion. Rallycross is perfect for beaters, the results are more driver relevant, but beating placed on the car is much higher. Low cost and barrier to entry, high amounts of test of the driver, test of the build and equipment and high amounts of fun. That's what I'd like to see happen, and I hope to be able to get to it.
You are in my thoughts. Keep fighting man, never give up!
