Another Boring Oncologist Visit

My Kappa and Lambda light-chain numbers are stable, so no changes in the treatment regimen. After I said last month that the doctor visits were getting boring, my sister Renee said that boring is good. I guess she's right.

Knitting

I think I have a case of startitis. I have three baby blankets on the needles that I have started in the last week. They are numbers four, five and six since I only had two for Alyssa to choose from for a baby shower on May 31. Oh well, that gives me a choice of what kind of knitting I want to do, doesn't it?

Weather, etc

I've been listening with special interest to the reports on flooding in Iowa. Several days ago the governor mentioned Oskaloosa. My cousin Valera lives there and her brother John lives in University Park right next to it. In an email yesterday John's wife Prudy said the rivers near them have crested, so they should be OK. Thier main concern is their water supply.

Yesterday All Things Considered reported from Oakville, which is where my cousins Gene, Frank and Donna grew up. Aunt Ruth (Mother's sister) and Uncle Bob have both been dead for several years, and none of the family live there now, but Gene and his wife Mary went there on Sunday to fill sandbags. As they were working, someone came in a vehicle and told them to leave because the levee had been breached upstream. Today All Things Considered was reporting from Mediapolis, where Gene and Mary live.

This morning at the cancer center the new flat-screen TV on the wall (that's an 'improvement' I could do without) was on and they were reporting conditions in Burlington, which is where Donna lives. I haven't heard whether she's affected by the flooding or not. (Frank lives in Chicago.)

Of course all of that water dumps into the Mississippi River and that from the floods in Indiana dumps into the Ohio River. The Ohio flows into the Mississippi about twenty miles from me, and the nearest point on the Mississippi is about fifteen miles from me. That's far enough and I'm high enough that I don't have to worry, but I'm sure the western end of Carlisle County will be inundated. I believe very few people live there, but there are fields there that will probably be lost for this year.

Speaking of fields, on the way to and from Paducah today, I was looking at the fields. The wheat is mostly harvested, the corn is shoulder high, and the soybeans are up. I also saw one tobacco field that had recently been set. Tobacco is not a big crop here like it used to be. I love seeing the seasonal changes in the farms. When Dominic was here, he was not interested. He likes to eat, and he knows where the food comes from, but he seems to have no respect for farmers and their profession. I know I raised him in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, but I thought that with a bunch of farmers among my aunts, uncles and cousins, he'd think highly of farming. Also he and Carmen spent a couple of summers with my parents in central Kentucky. Mom and Daddy worked with dairy farmers, testing milk for butterfat content and keeping records for them, so they would know which cows were making money for them and which ones they should cull from the herd. The kids went to these farms with their Granny and Grandpa, so it's not like they were complete city kids who had never seen a farm. I just can't understand Dominic's attitude; I don't think Carmen shares it.