Get the kidney out!

By this time he had already had a minor surgery to get a sample of the tumor on his right shoulder and put a metal bar inside his right upper arm bone connected to the ball joint where the tumor was sitting on.  The goal was to give him some more mobility on his right arm.  It did give him some movement and at least it wasn't just hanging there anymore.

Now a couple of hours before he has his kidney removed we're all with him, we had written daddy a letter on how he enhanced our childhood and made us better people.  We were all scared this would be it.  So was he.  The surgery was a risky surgery.  His right kidney would have to be removed, it was completely encased in a larger tumor. 

Off he goes to surgery, and off we go to the waiting room where several of his sisters and brothers, neices and nephews are waiting also.... four hours later he's doing good, they were able to completely remove the kidney.

The funny part is that when he woke up in surgery he was convinced he was dead because he was surrounded by other patients covered in white sheets, lined up .. and it reminded him of the movie Coma.  Then...none of the family were allowed in yet, but when his cousins, Albert, Sylvia, Norma and Aunt Soccorro just walked in he figured he was still alive.  You had to be there I guess.

Car Shows

Lately we've been getting flyers for the car shows in the area.  Daddy would go to Tulare in the Spring, Clovis Big Hat Days, Clovis Fest, Christmas Parade with the  mustang club.  The last parade, Christmas in Fresno, he had a couple of the grandkids ride with him.  Bethany in the front.  But he also loved the NASCAR, him and Gabe would go to the races.  At the end it was the plan to go again but with the chemo he wasn't up to the trip.

Gabe and daddy always were into some sort of motor vehicle.  Daddy use to race go-carts in Tulare when we were little.  He would build his own motor and car with Gabriel.  Later they started with the dirt bikes, then Gabe started racing.  Momma went to watch once and saw Gabe get hurt and decided she wasn't going to go again to see him get hurt again.  But they continued,  Gabriel happen to get in it when it started to grow in Tulare, so he was one of the first dirt bike racers in the area.  Now it's a big event to watch.  Eventually they started to go to the NASCAR races and the grandkids starting watching them on TV, Samuel would watch them with grandpa and he likes all those race shows; Speed, Pinks, Extreme dirt bikes, and NASCAR.  Samuel even has some of his hot wheels on his stone.  Grandpa has kept his spirit of racing in the kids spirit, among other positive influences.

St. Patricks Day

Ten years ago momma, daddy, me, David, and Esther all drove into San Francisco for the Saint Patrick's Day parade.  Front row seats in front of Union Square.  We had a good time and got to pretend to be Irish for a day.  Plus eat corned beef and cabbage, daddy liked corned beef but especially the cabbage, anytime I made soup; abondigas, cocido, or chicken it had to have a lot of cabbage and carrots.