Rough night. The Cytarabine is not agreeing with my digestive system and I ran a temperature last night. Still, only a few more days to go, so I can take it.

Yesterday evening I did something that I think I’ve never done before – I watched a whole state of the union address on TV. Readers of this blog will already know I’m no fan of the shrub, but I felt I owed it to myself to hear what he had to say on healthcare; as it turned out, not a lot that we didn’t already know – he’s pushing HSAs and more tax breaks, and cutting back on Medicare, as the baby-boomers retire. For all his talk of bipartisan government, it seems as if this administration has already decided what the solution is. This one’s going the way of the social security reforms last year.

I loved some of the cutaway shots that they had for the state of the union. One in particular of Hilary looking smug, and ever so slightly shaking her head in obvious disagreement with something the shrub had said. I also felt bad for Samuel Alito; there were a couple of times where the camera caught him looking totally lost, gazing around the chamber, as if to say, “who are all these people and what have I gotten myself into?” Also, who was the guy dressed as Dr. Who in the back? All the men were dressed in standard tailored dark suits, varying only slightly in shades of grayness and color of tie, except for this one guy who had on a brown jacket and a striped scarf wrapped around his neck.

Last night was Miranda’s band concert and Mo tells me it went well. The scheme of listening in on it via cell phone did not go so well, however. Even though Maureen was sitting near the front of the auditorium, the microphone of a cell phone is not designed to pick up sounds from more than a few inches away. From my end it sounded like the sound was coming through a very cheap short wave radio that someone kept tuning in and out. In the end, I had to hang up. I hope I can catch the concert later this month on the Comcast local channel.

[later]

I hear that there is still no word on the Volpe Center contract award, and that it may not come for another month. This is just another area of uncertainty to deal with in the coming months. If I return to work and my old bosses are no longer there, then I can’t just slide back into my old job. I probably can’t do that anyway. I have no idea at this time when I’ll feel fit and energetic enough to get back to work, maybe April, likely later. I’ll have to play it by ear, I suppose with the advice of my doctors. I’m not sure that I want to work part time as a way of slipping back into work; this may be difficult to do anyway and still retain my disability benefits. Also, Parkinson’s Law (work expands to fill time available) would almost certainly mean that I’d end up working more than I planned. It’ll be strange getting back to work, but I expect that after a few days it’ll feel like I’ve never been away. I miss you guys at work!