Editorial: Reenacting a Dark History?
Turning back the clock in Richmond.
Who could have anticipated that our elected officials would take African-American History month and Women's History month so seriously that they would literally try to turn back the clock?
Letter: Support Volunteer Firefighters
After reading the article, "Old Tensions Delay Fire House Expansion," I pondered how quickly memories fade, for the article said nothing about the retribution heaped on volunteer firehouses for their opposition to the ambulance fee.
Letter: Don’t Treat Deer as Pets
The Potomac Almanac cover photo and story dated Feb.22-28, 2012 misrepresents the harm deer cause to our community. Depicting deer as pets is just plain wrong. Deer are a wildlife species that have exploded to untenable numbers.
Column: “Battling Cancer”
I suppose, as a cancer patient, there’s a presumption/understanding that not giving into cancer and its potential ravages is an ongoing battle – to the death, if you will. And I imagine, on many levels, some truer than others, it is. War is indeed waged – so to speak, in hopes of defeating this horrible disease (enemy).
Column: Marking Time
As much as I don’t want to be ever-mindful of today’s date – relative to when I first learned of my diagnosis, that Thursday three years ago this very week, when my Internal Medicine doctor called me with the results of the biopsy (confirming the malignancy); and of course all that had preceded it and all that has happened since.
Column: "Diseased"
But not sickness. Not health, either, as last week’s column ended. At least that’s the way I characterize my having stage IV lung cancer. And I don’t know if I’m splitting hairs here, since I’ve never worked in a salon, although I do get my hair cut regularly; but I have been accused of speaking double-talk.
Column: Getting Into Hot Water Again
Legend has it that civilization began with hot water. Most of us could not imagine a life without that hot wake-up stuff in the morning. My grandfather heated hot water in a big pot on the wood stove for the weekly bath on Saturday evening. Lots of folks used to do that.
Not Another Valentine’s Day: Gifts Outside the Box
Flowers, chocolates and Hallmark Cards are standard Valentine’s Day fare. Unique gifts with a personalized element, however, are all the more significant for impressing that special someone.
Column: Back On The Juice…
The chemotherapy juice, that is. Going forward now, every three weeks until I’ve completed six infusions, finishing sometime around mid May barring any foreseen – and previously experienced blips (meaning delays): levels, counts, readings, etc., that would compel my oncologist to stop åhe treatment and await results of a retest
Open Forum Meeting
WMCCA
More Government Secrecy?,POTOMAC SWIM AND RECREATION ASSOCIATION INDOOR TENNIS BUBBLE FACILITIES, ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT
Column: "Progression"
There’s a word – in a medical context, anyway, that you don’t hear every day. And if you’re a stage IV lung cancer survivor – like me, 35 months post-diagnosis, it’s hardly the word you ever want to hear – or see – describing the most recent CT Scan of your lungs (Mediastinum) where your malignant tumors have been in "partial stable remission" going on two-plus years now. "Progression" means growth. Growth means the relative calm under which you’ve existed for the last few years is officially over.
Editorial: About Halfway
Always entertaining, the high-stakes session of the Virginia General Assembly reaches new heights this month.
The user-friendly website for the Virginia General Assembly plus live-streaming of the legislative sessions might make you believe that most of the important decisions in Richmond are being made out in the sunshine.
Letter: Out-of-Touch County Council
Finally, the Montgomery County Council issues a Request for Proposal to turn an organic farm on Brickyard Road into a soccer complex. Interesting timing. Only after a persistent uproar from the people whose communities would be impacted by such a complex, did the County Council issue this proposal.
Column: For All I Know…
Skipping my monthly targeted treatment (Avastin) because my kidneys are under stress might be a good thing. It might mean my body doesn’t need (it certainly doesn’t want) to be infused.
Column: Soulless Ant Colony
That is what a reporter for Norfolk’s Virginian Pilot called Reston in a column recently.