Malware es Muy Malo

About a week and a half ago I fell victim to an especially odious malware virus. I spent twelve hours total (two days) trying to remove it, which I've done in the past, but nothing worked. I knew I could reformat the hard drive but then it'd be another few days getting my laptop back the way it was. Long story edited, I took it in to a great little place in San Pablo called Reliatech-No Fix, No Fee is their motto. No way around a reformat. Three days later and $110.00 well spent and I'm up and running. Sadly though my Dell (never again-next time it'll be a Mac) still won't recognize my external 1 Terrabyte of hard drive with all my back-ups, music, and movies on it. I thought that was just because of the malware, so back it goes today, Monday, April 25th. Hopefully by this coming Sunday I'll be able to write a proper blog, but right now, siento MUY frustrado! If you see anything like this pic come up on your machine for god's sake don't take it to the Geek Squad. "Yelp" a nice smaller computer repair place in your barrio and pray they have experience with this particular viral manure. The maleware's trick is fear based. Exactly like a Mafia movie, pay for protection. Then they have these fake windows and toolbar pop-ups that tell you:

Fix Disk
Windows Recovery Diagnostics will scan the system to identify performance problems.
Start or Cancel

Critical Error!
Damaged hard drive clusters detected. Private data is at risk.

Critical Error
Hard Drive not found. Missing hard drive.

Critical Error
RAM memory usage is critically high. RAM memory failure.

Critical Error
Windows can’t find hard disk space. Hard drive error

So, DO NOT buy it, it is in itself a virus only, not a tool.

#28 No Worries? My Brooklyn Behind!

The last week has been good in many ways. On Tuesday I got to spend time with Mumsy, which I hadn’t done in a while, and it was real nice. The only drawback was that we were at the VA clinic in SF, hurrying up and waiting, and waiting some more, but everything turned out OK.

The first appt. was with Radiology because it felt like the docs had left a part of a tube from the port I used to have in my neck! Turns out it was just some scar tissue that had developed around a bend in the tube. No metal, no plastic...still if I run my fingers across it I can feel it.

The second appt. was with Hepatology, a very long wait, and no new news. But just sitting around and waiting gave my mom and I some good time. We both have a lot of stuff on our plates right now and just hanging out together seems to have a positive effect on our attitudes. 

Passover is this coming week and Ha and I are hosting a very low key Seder on Saturday, (I know, a few days early) with mom, Marvin, and us. Mom will bring the main meat dish, and I’ll do the sides and apps. Dessert? Who knows?

On the home front just about everything is good. Ha and I are a little bit up in the air about her job. A couple of weeks ago, the city powers that be decided they had to cut 40% off labor costs across the board. So it’s not just her department, everyone is affected. They will make the cuts known at the beginning of May. Needles and pins, but she is not taking this sitting down, she’s worked too hard not to insure that her future is secure. So there!

I would have to say one of the best things that happened this week is Lisa, our social worker, wangled and finagled a very nice portable air-conditioner for us. Ever since the chemo treatments the Sun and any room over seventy degrees makes me ill, like my skin is burning, I run a fever and have zero energy. I was dreading the Summer so Kudos Lisa!! The way we’re going to be reimbursed is with a $350.00 Safeway gift card. That’s a good thing because ever since Safeway started in with their O organics line we’ve shopped there quite a bit. So, it will be used. We usually stop there on Saturday, acupuncture, then lunch, then shopping. My acupuncturist is in Oakland, so we can start with Whole Foods, then Tokyo Fish Market, Trader Joe’s and/or Safeway, then home.

Whole Foods Oakland had a little surprise for me this last time. Every time we go there we usually hear “No worries” three or four times as an answer to something that no one in their right mind would worry about. And besides “no worries” is an implied cop-out. But whatever (that’s my word...WHATever) this time it’s besides the point, except for the fact that the “no worries” people are usually strung taught like a new violin and ready to pop unwound at the drop of any real worry.

So, at the Whole Foods Oakland I got a chance to get in touch with my inner Brooklyn. We’re done shopping and headed for the ten items or less cashier when this tall, blonde, wiry, looking, maybe twenty-eight or so guy carrying a rotisserie chicken and looking the in the opposite direction in which he is walking steps out in front of our cart. I was about a foot away so I did this sound that my wife and I use when we can’t find each other in a store, and we also use it with our cats if they are being bad boys. It’s kind of a snaky noise that sounds like IT’S without the I first. So this unaware, no worries looking kind of guy got a loud double TS, TS. He looks down at me and as smug as only someone from England can sound asks, “Is that how you communicate man?” I said “ Yeah it is.” And tried to keep going, then louder and chest puffier he mistakenly tells me, “You need to learn some manners.” So I motion to him with curling the four fingers on my outstretched right hand to come here and I say, “Why don’t you teach me some.” At that point he just smirks and turns to walk away...so I let him. It felt good. My wife wasn’t thrilled but she could see how much I liked it. What a woman, huh? Albeit, that situation never would have culminated in such a manner in Bensonhurst, but Whole Foods Oakland; No worries!

The rest of the week was all right. The pain is still a problem especially when I eat even a few ounces too much food. I’ve really slowed down and have been trying to eat slowly and realize when I’m just full and stop there. It doesn’t take a lot and I can spread my meals over the entire day.

 

This coming Tuesday I have an appointment with a cardiologist at the VA and Cousin Craig is driving. It will be fun.

#27 One Year Since and Six Months Past

On March 31^st it had been one year since my diagnosis, and six months past my prognosis... and the clock goes tic-tock Doc, tic-tock.  Part of me wants to march in to that bastard’s office and make some trouble in a publicly humiliating sort of way, but then again, people like him are not worth my time.  Time; every second a precious commodity, another opportunity to love and laugh and now inhale the first fragrances of a new Spring.  A different Spring than the ones before.  The small blossoms that will become French Plums in our backyard, and the tiny buds which are already flowering into the roses out front. I’ll snip our first vase-full tomorrow.

  Along with all the beauty comes the heat, which used to be good with me, but ever since my chemo treatments it is unbearable.  The sun on any exposed skin feels like it’s burning to a blister, and itches for days after, and when the house heats up it robs me of all my energy, it feels like I’m coming down with the flu, and I can only sleep for an hour at a time constantly changing my shirt and shorts because they’re drenched from sweat. Ha and I are trying to get the money for a portable air conditioner as conventional AC’s won’t work in our slide to the side windows.  We have Lisa, our social worker from the hospice team working on that.

Ahh yes, hospice.  New info hmmm?  Well, most people are unaware what hospice is really all about.  It can be as much as seven days a week high maintenance care and drug administration— to what I’m on, which is a once a week, forty-five minute check in visit, from my nurse, Patty.  They are also there for people, like me, who are done going to the emergency room when something scary happens.  They are available 24-7.  My oncologist, Dr. Katie Kelley, recommended that we check it out sooner rather than later because this way we won’t have a bunch of strangers storming the house if I ever need the high maintenance hospice care. 

Physically and mentally I’m doing quite a bit better than I was the week before last.  That was a rough go and takes a while to recuperate from.  I don’t think I’m fully recuperated yet because the pain is still a couple of points up...patience.  Last Saturday’s acupuncture session was extremely powerful and helpful.  Christy said it may make me kinda sleepy because she was working on a number of pain meridians.  That was no lie, it felt like all I did was sleep for two days! But it did put me on the mend, and until those hot days I was doing fairly well.  But yesterday and today was good.  Ha and I didn’t really do anything special other than spend time together and that is enough.