Saturday, November 11, 2006

Doing well.

hi y'all.
just thought i'd give a little update on my dad. he came through surgery fine. The doctor said that there were no other signs of cancer, so that's a good thing. he'll get tests back in about a week to see if there was cancer on his lymph nodes, which they also removed.
I stopped by the hospital today to see him. He looks better than i thought he would, but he's still in pain. He moved to a chair while i was visiting with him and they were going to have him try to walk a little later.
Thank you so much for your prayers and concerns. he'll probably be in the hospital another 2 days, then with friends for a week or so until they remove his catheter.
He was joking around today and definately being himself, so i'm pretty upbeat about his recovery.

oh... and thanks for the birthday greetings. i'm not feeling too old, though my age is starting to scare me.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

With a little help from my friends.

Some of you know that my dad found out a few months ago that he has prostate cancer. He's been running back up to lancaster for tests and to talk to his doctors. They gave him a couple options for surgery, explained it all, set a date and well........ it's on friday.

The basic idea is that they're going to go in and remove his prostate, along with some lymph nodes that are close by. It sounds pretty easy, but it's going to be a pretty big surgery. He's been pretty relaxed about it, but I think it's starting to sink in that this is a big deal.

My mom and dad left this evening for lancaster. My dad is going into surgery early friday afternoon (November 10th). it's expected to take a couple hours. After that he'll need to stay in the hospital for 3 days, then another week or so up in lancaster until he's recovered enough to come back down to virginia.

So..... i'm asking that you please pray for my dad, his doctors, my mom and everybody involved. you never expect things to happen, but they sometime do. we just wanna cover this in prayer.

I guess that's all. muchos thankos.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Denison Witmer is gettin old!!!


So i've been listening to Denison Witmer since Lancaster Mennonite High School, where he graduated with my brother and where I would often get to hear him play. I've followed his career and made sure to get to shows.

My German friends might remember seeing him play at Carambolage a couple years ago, or at Kubik NUN Kaffeehaus this year.

Well Denison just turned 30 and decided to reward us all with some great free music. He's done this with a website made specifically for his birthday.
happybirthdaydenison.com

He's recorded a bit lately with a full band or with electric guitar, but those who know him from way back still love the simplicity of just him and his acoustic guitar. That's what he's done for this..... just sat down and recorded himself playing his songs and singing.

I'm so happy that he's done this and love the opportunity to download great classic versions of 33 of his songs.

Cause Ulf asked so nicely.......

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Trip facts.

I got back from my trip a couple weeks ago and somehow still haven't done a general rap up of my trip. So here's some general info and numbers about my rampage across the country.
Total mileage- 11190 mi/18008 km (about the distance from karlsruhe,germany to peking, china and back)

Mullah Spent in Gas- $821.35
Gas used- 333.283 gallons/ 1261.6 liters
Average gas price- $2.54/gallon
Average gas useage- 33.6 mpg / 7 liter auf 100 km
Oil Changes- 2
Patched Tires- 1
Speeding Tickets- 1

Nights slept in my tent- 9
Nights slept in my car- 18
Nights in Hostels- 2
Nights "Mennoniting My Way"- 1
Nights staying with friends/family- 13
Number of times woken up by Police- 1

National Parks Visitied- 13 (Rocky Mountain NP, Saguaro NP, Grand Canyon, Glen Canyon NRA, Bryce Canyon NP, Zion NP, Sequoia and Kings Canyon NP, Yosemite NP, Crater Lake NP, Olympic NP, Yellowstone NP, Grand Tetons NP)

States/Provinces visitied- 25 (Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinios, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin)