Day Four - A Fantastically Beautiful Sunday

 "This is the day which the LORD has made; 

Let us rejoice and be glad in it." 

Psalm 118:24

I had trouble sleeping in the middle of the might, so I got up and read the Bible on my Bible Works program for a while, and then I went back to bed, turned the electric blanked to low, and went back to sleep. When I finally got up I saw that Riley had brought me a cup of tea, but it was completely cold, so it must have been rather late when I woke up. The sun was shining gloriously and I went down to the garden with my tea and my Bible and sat on my chaise and read.


I think that I need to start using the special tea dishes that I own. Like what am I waiting for? All the silly things we do! This is a tea set my grandmother Nana gave me when I was 16. It did come with a teapot, but I managed to get one whilst in Hong Kong. Then years late Riley aunt died and his dear sweet cousin Jean, realizing that the two people she knew collected the same china as her mother did (Riley's sister Valerie and me) divided the china between us. That was so incredibly nice of her. So I now have lots of cups and two teapots (different sizes). That pattern (called Petit Point by Royal Albert) has never been for sale in America. I never met Auntie Florence, but I hear she was quite a character.


It was so lovely in the garden, and I pondered all the wonderful things God has given us on this earth, despite out sinfulness and the presence of Satan and his henchmen.

"The earth brought forth vegetation, 

plants yielding seed after their kind, 

and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; 

and God saw that it was good." 

Genesis 1:12

Riley brought me something to eat, a small cup of cereal I think, and he heated up my tea. I've been having such a problem eating anything. It's probably my fear that is debilitating my digestive system. Then in good time I got dressed and we left for church. For some reason I couldn't really sing in church. It was as if I didn't have that much energy, or I was partially paralyzed by my fears. After church, as we were leaving, pastor Jason prayed for me, and us. That was so nice. They are praying for me at church.

Emily was so glad to see me. She's missed me. We all went to Fleur de Lis, where I had just some water, and Emily and I sat at the table and we drank water. It is so hard that I can't manage to really explain to Emily why I'm not taking care of her any more. I'm sure she's pondering it in her own way. I hope that there will be a time in the not so distant future in which I will again be able to take care of Emily part of the time. I think maybe when she is well potty trained at least. But I suspect I will feel a lot worse before I ever feel a lot better.

After our coffee time Riley and I went to Macy's and I bought two very nice bras, because it seemed like a very good idea. Then at Barnes & Noble Riley bought me a book by Yogi Berra called When you come to a fork in the Road, Take It. I always enjoy what Yogi has to say. On the way home I decided that sushi sounded good, so we stopped at Sushiville and we each had a plate of California sushi, which tasted to good.


Not long after we were back home, my brother Bill and his wife Jill came by to bring me some things and to chat. They brought a book entitled Beating Cancer with Nutrition by Patrick Quillon, which comes with it's own CD and also Jill gave me another CD called Natural Solutions for the Challenge of Cancer by Dr. Sandra Bavacqua. My sister-in-law is a Shaklee representative and she is very into many aspects of nutrition. While we were chatting my brother said that he would like to send over someone to my house to clean it. That was so nice of him. He's such a generous person. My house is so big, and in such disarray, that I don't know how one person could tackle the job in a day, or even at all, but any progress will be welcome.

After reading the book for a while, I went in to take a short nap, because we were going to a picnic at Heidi's at 4, and the Symphony at 7:30 to hear Joshua Bell. Riley was starting to look very stressed. I suspect it was getting hard for him to keep such a pleasant stiff upper lip, He busied himself with the pool and the garden, and other things, but looking stressed the whole time. We were late in arriving at the picnic, but Heidi was behind anyway. At first I sat in the living room and chatted with Sarah. Then we all went to the back yard and had a great time. Riley had gone off to buy me some halibut, which Zac showed him how to cook. It was really delicious. Annie had made a special effort to make potato salad just like I would like it, and it was very tasty. She also made a potato salad with everything in it, and that was too much for me. Because I had read in Jill's book that 40% of cancer patients actually die from malnutrition, I made and effort to eat what seemed good for me.


After eating we had a wonderful game of crochet. The yard wasn't big enough, so the course was set out diagonally. We didn't have all the wickets, so makeshift ones were produced, and one of the balls was missing, so Zac played with a baseball. The lawn was ever so rough, so that made for a lot of challenges, which is always fun. Unfortunately we had to leave before the game was over, but I got Sarah to take my place. I don't know who took Riley's place, maybe Annie. And by the way, wouldn't it be fun to play croquet on a beach sometime? Either Arch Cape or Sauvie's Island.

We made it to the Symphony just in time. Our seats were very nice, with two young boys sitting in front of us. Joshua Bell was amazing! I really enjoyed Mendelssohn's violin concerto, and afterwards the audience clapped so long that he played an encore, which turned out to be Yankee Doodle, and was quite amusing. I was not at all sure about the second piece, and I even toyed with the idea of leaving before it, but I didn't so that. I should have. It was a very trying symphony by Anton Bruckner, an Austrian. The symphony was way too long, and had no real continuity and a great deal of dissonance and overly loud sections right after soft and melodic sections. We left pronto after the final barrage of all the instruments. Riley was pretty darned upset at having to sit through that symphony, and I don't blame him. Of all things, that's the third time that the Oregon Symphony has performed that one. What can they be thinking?

We went straight home, and pretty much straight to bed. Well I think I stayed up a little bit, but I knew that I would need my sleep, because tomorrow was terrifying me - the biopsy that is. But I had really enjoyed my day, especially the picnic with the family playing croquet, and Joshua Bell.

"Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; 

For His lovingkindness is everlasting." 

Psalm 118:1