Day 1499: "A Few Minutes after Midnight"
It's a few minutes after midnight, I have a busy day today, starting when I wake up officially at 5:15am. I couldn't sleep thinking about a lot of things, namely my buddy.
We all know life ends.
We all know this 1500 effort ends tomorrow, (Thank God, I am ready.)
Today, I had a feeling I would write what I am about to write. I am never sure, but it is easy topic.
It's a thank you. Without my support group of some friends and some family, it made this effort easier. I say 'some' because, hell, after 20 years, doing various things, people burn out supporting me.
Okay, I laughed at that line, but it is true.
I am a tad driven when it comes to cancer and I hope to help the rest of my life.
This effort wasn't easy but it wasn't hard. As I sit typing, it is raining hard out there, and cold, but I am dry, warm, and healthy.
What is hard is getting cancer, having to get your 'affairs in order' and to say goodbye. Goodbye to your mother or father, wife, and children.
Not being able to see your children, whom you raised expertly hit milestones. Get married or allow you to become a grandparent.
For every one of you, there are worse stories, the kids.
I won't go there, I am trying to stay focused on you.
I started out with this being a fundraiser by bringing awareness for the Mayo/Iowa Lymphoma SPORE and I am so thankful for all the support. I raised almost $30,000 (there is another grand missing from the total of $28,505.)
I made it to 3% of my goal, I naively thought I could reach more people, namely strangers. I should have known
1) I can't stand asking for money
2) I can't stand the fund raising part for cancer advocacy. To me it is like that one Sunday in church where you talk about the budget/Tithing/Offering.
I suck at fund raising, but it is liberating to me to know, how I feel right now, I will not ask for another dollar for cancer. I will just quietly be a volunteer advocate. I am done fund raising and it is a relief.
I'd lie if I didn't tell you I was disappointed in not being able to reach one stranger out there. I compare it, even if you think it is irrational or not, to the "Mugshot Guy" (look him up) a felon, who because of his face, not his character, strangers donated to his cause. Now, he posts pictures of himself with nice cars outside his mansion.
Our society sucks at times. We stand behind the wrong people.
You have to expect these tangents?
Back to you, special thanks to my friend Rob, my one Canadian friend, whom I met about five years ago in Cabo San Lucas. Just speaking to him then reminded me I could do more and I started this. Special thanks to my buddy the Bull, who has been there all 20 years and behind this, behind the scenes. Special thanks to my parents, Dick and Sandra Haines. They made me. I am equal part of both of them and I grateful for the mind they gave me, along with my wicked sense of humor and wicked tenacity.
This is where athletes thank God and point to the sky. I struggle with my faith. I still fear God but I struggle. I take comfort knowing there were notes from Mother Theresa, late in her life, explaining the same thing. I don't care if you understand or not. I sent my favorite picture, after all these posts on here, to my buddy recently, this one:
I wanted to say special thanks to a handful of you, I didn't need you to do this, but it was powerful for me, the few likes I got each day. You didn't need to do that, I would lie if I didn't tell you there were days I would put a ton of effort into a post, a post that maybe took an hour to write but only because I had two decades of experience behind it. It would bug me, I would get (at most) about 8 likes, but then go to the other side of FB and see 134 likes for someone who took ten seconds to write something about themselves or their breakfast.
The main site has never been on FaceBook, but I am thankful for Google and Facebook, it is here:
If someone ever goes back you will see the first 100+ days were not even on Blogspot but on Google Groups. I still think they were some of my best posts and no one was reading them. I tracked them all.
On that note, and this is interesting to anyone making money off of blogging (I never made a dime because I didn't buy into adwords etc. and Karma is a bitch.) However, I did track the pageviews and traffic. I am grateful for Google but they obviously play games. I feel sorry for the bloggers out there who get caught into this game.
Every once in a while I would have a huge spike in the numbers, the first few times I thought, I hit home with a post. Then I would go behind the numbers. The tracks were only partially covered. I could tell, especially with one post a day for 1500 days. Operating system Linux (what normal person runs Linux), not tied to a specific post, all the traffic from America.
Shady.
The first site for all days but the missing 100+ from Blogspot and FB:
Tangent. Back to the people who gave me 'likes' when I promoted things through FB.
It mattered, thank you to these people:
Sandy Manos
Erik Rasmussen
Andy Kohls
Patty MacNamara-Nelson
Annie Roberts Harts
Pam Holm (nod to buddy Jim here too.)
Sherry Lyn Johnston
Jenne Andrews
Jenne Andrews
Of course there were many more of you who liked these posts, but these folks are in the 500-1000 range, Sandy I bet you are in the 1300s. Thanks Guys, it meant a lot, during days when it was tough to post. Janice's second diagnosis, my concussion issues last year, thank you.
Finally, I leave you with this section. A special section. This is how we will end cancer. Thanks from the bottom of my heart. At the time I started this, Crowd Funding wasn't really known, well it is known now, it actually is obnoxious sadly, however. People asking money for way too specific and many times not because of life threatening reasons.
This special section, those who donated, to advance science, it all went to the Mayo/Iowa Lymphoma SPORE:
Top people:
Andy and Leah Kohls
Next:
Klaiber family
Bullerts
MacCuish
My parents
Us (That is for Janice, laughter.)
Anonymous Neighbor
Donor First Name
|
Sandra
|
Mark
|
Patricia
|
Diane
|
Scott
|
Sandra
|
BR
|
Andrew
|
Mark
|
Richard
|
Patty
|
Sandra
|
Mary Jo
|
Margit
|
Sandra
|
Diane
|
Patty
|
Jim
|
Jennifer
|
Scott
|
Jean
|
DeAnne
|
Sandra
|
Benjamin
|
Brian
|
Karen
|
Jane
|
Lawrence
|
Lisa
|
James
|
Jennifer
|
David
|
Andrew
|
Eric
|
Joan
|
David
|
Ann
|
Daniel
|
Steven
|
January
|
Sue
|
Jeff
|
Glynis
|
Nichole
|
Becky
|
Maxwell
|
Susie
|
Lisa
|
Jennifer
|
Laurie
|
Tami
|
Paula
|
Jeff
|
Maria
|
Maura
|
Karen
|
Judy
|
Scott
|
Mary And Ken
|
Todd And Amy
|
Connie
|
Kathy
|
Patty
|
John
|
Jim
|
James
|
Theresa
|
Jenny
|
Sandy
|
Diane
|
Paula
|
Mark
|
Sandra And Dick
|
Benjamin
|
Sue
|
Benjamin
|
Mark
|
Benjamin
|
John
|
Sharyn
|
Gloria
|
Benjamin
|
Benjamin
|
Mary
|
Amy
|
Benjamin
|
Patty
|
Benjamin
|
Robert
|
Jennifer
|
Merle
|
Benjamin
|
Sue
|
Benjaminm
|
Brent
|
Jim
|
Mike
|
Benjamin
|
Marsha
|
Jean
|
Benjamin
|
Ben
|
Benjamin
|
Paula
|
Karen
|
Benjamin
|
Kim
|
Jude
|
Melinda
|
Tom
|
Eric
|
Jenny
|
Diane
|
Lisa
|
Bret
|
Erick
|
David
|
Wendy
|
Mary
|
Mary Jo
|
Ben
|
Thank you.
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