Ned Henry January 15, 2021 · nedhenry.medium.com
Just want to say that this blog is open and public. If it’s boring to some folks that’s OK — it’s just my daily life since it’s changed with a cancer diagnosis. So I’m putting it all out there little by little in chunks as they come to me. Some big things and some teeny tiny things. Lots of warts but also lots of beauty marks. If you know me (no matter how well you think you do) and you read this, you will be surprised by some things. But I don’t care who reads this or not. My life with cancer has become an open book and I want it that way. And this blog is helping me both to process the cancer and to appreciate the life I have had so far. I was talking to John next door today. He is a cancer survivor. Got his treatment at Winship. He was a theology professor at Emory long retired now but he shoots his age in golf — like 80 or something. And after cancer twice. I told him about how I was doing and what I was doing he said that doing what I am doing might someday help someone else going through the same thing. (He was a minister at Glenn Memorial for some of the time years ago.) And if that is true, then that’s reason enough to keep writing.
I was going through my photos looking for something specific and I saw this and thought of my sister Peg and her 2 boys who are gluten free and I’m sure there are many other of the nieces and nephews following all different kinds of diets. But this is a pretty good recipe for Gluten free pancakes made from plaintains. Ripe plantains work best. Blend the dry ingedients in a blender and add milk to this to make pancake batter consistency and fry em up like pancakes and enjoy a decadent weekend breakfast. Not for me today. Got no plaintains — it’s another oat meal day for me. Think I’ll put plantains on the shopping list. Got up at 6 AM. Early for me but couldn’t sleep more.
I enjoyed that opera last night greatly. I listened the the first act while I folded clothes and tidied up. Didn’t see any of it. I watched most of the second act — actually I watched until this very graceful and delicate 20–25 minute ballet came on in the middle of the opera. Then went to bed with it still on the TV just rested and listened to the end. Cupid was in it. I’ll get the story another time. The music was beautiful. Watching opera doesn’t have to be all engaging project. Just enjoy what you can and don’t worry about the rest. I never did get the story. That’s what I did with Armida last night with Rene Fleming. I enjoyed her voice, I enjoyed what I saw and heard but didn’t feel bad for missing any part of it. Casually treat yourself to an opera now and then. Text me if you want to know if the opera tonite or any nite is any good and I’ll tell you what I know. Free Met opera on TV every night is a pretty good thing. I sent them a donation to help cover the costs and keep the company alive during Covid with no performances and no revenue stream. We cannot lose more of the arts, We just can’t.
CIM Lesson 14 — God did not create a meaningless world. (Really excellent 12 minute lesson this morning.)
2 PM just heard this on Sirius XM radio in the house. I like the song.
4 PM — Another good day. Listening to jazz on Sirius XM. I did have eggs this morning. with avacado, green onion and salsa. And a croissant. Oh and my morning meds. God did not create a meaningless world. Had a zoom with palliative care at Winship. Palliative care is not just hospice care. They do things to help people deal with this disease. Good to know they are there if I need them. And I do know things could change at any time as I get further into chemo. I have no idea what’s in the future for me and well neither do you if you think about it.
So here’s the the “selfie of the day”. Hair is just coming out in chunks. I have been blessed my whole life with GREAT HAIR. You can see it in all the pictures. and the profile pic for this was taken after Thanksgiving so this losing my hair thing is a brand new thing for me. Hair is everywhere in the house. I am going to just let it all fall out on its own. Not gonna shave it or cut it. I’ll clean up the mess after it’s all gone. Have a load of laundry in the dryer. And I did finally get around to putting these Styrofoam covers on the outdoor faucets to keep the pipes from freezing. That is a problem around here if you don’t prepare for the cold weather. Probably everywhere else too but not in California. Pete liked the Shepherd’s Pie and Allen did too so the recipe is a keeper. He’s bring me a meal tomorrow that will last me a few days. John across the street asked if I wanted some of the take out they were getting tonight but I’ve got plenty right now. And David across the street picked up some post office boxes so I can start sending out CD’s to nieces and nephews and anybody else. James they’re coming — I promise. You get the Clapton box set for sure. More for you too Ronna. Anybody else? Now that they are all in the cloud I don’t need the disks anymore. Allison? Also kinda resigned from all my fantasy football leagues today. Told the guys that run the leagues that I didn’t want to spend the time on it anymore. All of them wrote back with messages of support. I might collaborate with Pete in a league or 2. That’s would be fun — not have to do all the damn research myself. We’ll see. Gotta check on the clothes. Laundry 2 days in a row and I still have more to do but not another full load so I won’t do more laundry tomorrow. brb.
Hair on the clean sheets. Hair might be with me for along while. Just not on my head. Well not for now anyway. The thing in the microwave that makes the table rotate stopped working. No more rotation. Talk about a teeny tiny thing. Makes me think of the people in this world that couldn’t make a cup of hot tea for themselves at all if they wanted to. They don’t have electricity. We are so lucky in this country. We don’t appreciate it enough. God did not create a meaningless world.
So I was gonna write about trophies today. I didn’t win many of them in my life. Got tee shirts for swimming or running in the Peachtree or even the Bay to Breakers. Stuff like that. Here is the trophy for winning that fantasy football league last year with my team SlugFest.
The bottom plate says “2019 Ned Henry “SlugFest.” I also got trophies every year in grammar school for winning the Religion award. And I’m sure there were little league trophies from Queen Anne park where I played little league. And then I’ve won a few bridge trophies over the years from tournaments and rank changes — stuff like that. Maybe some from intramural basketball or something like that. Oh and I did get Shambhala pins for all the levels I achieved there. I have several of those and I don’t even know what they are for anymore. I think Warrior Assembly was the highest one. I even staffed that event a couple of times. But not many awards and certainly none I treasure more than this one…..
WAIT — this just in — the email just came from the MET. Here is the lineup for next week.
Monday, January 18
Bizet’s Carmen
Tuesday, January 19
Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor
Wednesday, January 20
Bellini’s Norma
Thursday, January 21
Verdi’s La Traviata
Friday, January 22
Puccini’s Tosca
Saturday, January 23
Massenet’s Manon
Sunday, January 24
Wagner’s Die Walküre
This is as good as it gets. Pick a night and watch an opera on demand. I will watch Lucia and Traviata (even though I have already seen these productions earlier this season) And Tosca (but that’s chemo day so I migth not be up for it. I hope it’s the more up to date one not the Pavoratti one. He’s a great singer but the older productions aren’t as good.) And probably Carmen again and definitely Die Walkure. The opening of ACT 2 in Die Walkerie is INCREDIBLE if this is the same production. I watched it over and over when I saw it earlier. This my friends is an ALL STAR opera line up next week. And All for free. Take a couple hours off and treat yourself.On DemandFrom old-school legends to today’s great stars, experience more than 700 full-length Met performances with our online…www.metopera.org
So back to trophies. Sorry for the interuption but that email just came and I had to share it so you could plan.
This is the trophy I treasure the most. You see I AM CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS!!! It all started with my nephew JV. And now even Allison addressed me on her card yesterday as “Uncle Ned/Captain Underpants” JV really, I mean REALLY got into the Captain Underpants books. I mean really really really. To this day I have no idea how he turned out to be so well adjusted. He is a normal kind
caring human being but I don’t know how he did it. He was OBSESSED with Captain Underpants. He sent all the books to me and he made some figurines out of clay and cloth. I actually don’t know how long I can I talk about this but JV was really into Captain Underpants and we would talk about it on the phone and all kinds of things. You can see the
cloth figurine in the picture with all the books. There was a clay one too but the plunger broke and now I can’t find it in this mess of a house. The broken figurine is around here someplace. I mean this kid was nuts for Captain Underpants.
So it was parent’s 45th wedding anniversay I think. And the party was on the Oregon coast at Seal Rock just north of Waldport. My sister Ronna has lived there since like forever. She’s been there since I don’t know 1980 at least and still there. I haven’t spoken much about Ronna but I will. She has a big family of her own — 9 kids and now they have kids and well Ronna is just the Earth Mother of the family. Very devout Catholic and keeps me supplied in cannibas. She sends me whatever I want from Oregon so I always have some on hand these days for which I am very glad especially after chemo. It is nowhere close to being legalized in Georgia. It’s not even legal for medical here. Ronna is the kindest sweetest person on God’s green earth. She does home hospice on the Oregon coast so she helps old people to live comfortably while they are dying. It takes a special person to do that work and it doesn’t pay very much. We’ll talk more about Ronna later but for now we have this big BIG party planned for Mom and Dad’s #45. Peg made up tee shirts for all of us. Let me see if I have a pic.
I haven’t found the pics from the 45th yet but I did come across this gem. That’s the twins on the right and Ronna on the left with mom in the middle. They were collecting those glass balls on the beach on the Oregon coast. I’ll keep digging for the pics from the 45th and then I’ll finish Captain Underpants. Gonna break for dinner. It’s a little after 6 PM. God did not create a meaningless world.
9 PM — This is all of us at M & D’s 45th on the Oregon coast. The tee shirts Peg had done for everybody was the photo of Mom and Dad on their wedding day leaving the reception and looking out the back window of the car as they began their new life together. They were within one year of their 70th anniversary when Mom died and dad died a few months later.
Jan has more pictures of this event and we took a lot of them. This might be done by a professional. I think it was. We had a huge softball game I brought Braves hats for everyone on MY team.
So there is this BIG house that is up the hill from the beach in Seal Rock. We always just called it the Big House. It is owned by (and still is I think) an international lawyer and his wife who hired Ronna since high school to be a babysitter and caregiver. They took her on International trips like to Lebanon where he went a lot on business. They live in Bend now. Well we could use the Big house whenever we wanted so we used it for this event. It’s big, lots of bedrooms and a couple of stories, great porch looking out over the Pacific. I’m sure they rent it out now on Air B & B or something for a pretty penny. So one morning all the grandkids
were downstairs playing and I walk down the stair in my tighty whiteys and a cape yelling, I AM CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS!!! There are better pictures than these but you get the idea. The boys are absolutely ecstatic, giddy with delight. They couldn’t believe I was THAT crazy. The girls all go running into the kitchen rolling their eyes because they think this is just so gross. It was hilarious. And ever since then, I have been known as Uncle Ned Captain Underpants. We had a great family reunion that weekend in Oregon. I HAVE had a great life. And I love these kids so much — all of them. And now they are all young adults and they are all as close as they can possibly be. We
had another family reunion maybe a 2 summers ago in Indiana on Lake Michigan with the WHOLE family. Not just the Henry’s but all of my grandparents decendants. I don’t have any good pictures of that reunion. This is Mike and Jim Leahy and Jack Jan and Terri and me. Anyway we rented an Air B & B and we had Jack’s beach house. The nieces and nephews all stayed together in the Air B & B and the brothers and sisters stayed at Jack’ house. Well I stayed in the house with my nieces and nephews. Such a great weekend hanging out with 20 somethings. And meeting some relatives for the first time and others I hadn’t seen since I was a little kid. I am a very lucky man. This is fun to just reflect on memories of really how fortunate I am.