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In Today's Treehouse... Could be worse, could be raining Blow, crushing, not Smoke one, drink one Peach trucks 'round each corner No matter what, 'Never quit'  (rc) Rejecting the seven stages Get to see next 5 Bond films A decade to 'enjoy' Motivation out the Wazoo Quote of the Day "If you have to have some,   this is the kind you want."    -- Dr Laura, ...the one with pants on

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If you have some hard liquor nearby, shoot three big ones first - then read... 
 

 Remember this - from Friday, February 13th?
 

> Medical Update

> I'm fine, no need to call for any details because there aren't any.
 
 

That was a lie - I'm not fine. 

Truth is, I have untreatable cancer - that's the bad news. 

The good news is, I'm going to be here for the 2004 election and
I'm going to be here for the 2008 election and ...and maybe beyond. 

Since I'm 50, this isn't the same crushing blow it would be if I was 16. 
 

Hey, smoke one - drink one... 
Take some deep breaths - we're all going to make it thru this, but anybody 
with a passing acquaintance with logic knows that nobody lives forever. 
 

Why did I lie?

Stupidly, (and this is not what a smart gambler would do) I assumed things would be OK, 
I've lived a charmed life for 50 years, so I figured there was no reason for my luck to change. 
So I announced to dozens of people that I was going to the doctor on Friday the 13th. 

Sidebar:
When I was in the ER 15 days earlier, I was dizzier than Jessica Simpson on Cuervo and the doctors
told me I had a problem and that it might be cancer.   Then I thought I heard another doctor say I was
in a ton of trouble, so, in my dizzy state, I thought I had maybe 3 months to live.

So when the specialist told me I have a decade or more to go, I felt like Superman.
 

Another Sidebar:
When Dr Laura came in to tell us the news, I said, "So, what do I have?" ...and he didn't answer.

He started with the "get to know you" small talk, which I've always hated. He asked me about my
hobbies and my job and stuff. When I told him I was a comedian, he got all sparkly and cheery,
be he still wouldn't tell me what I had, so I asked him again.

Instead of answering, he asked if I had a church group or close family and friends nearby,
and I don't remember what words I used, but I basically told him that it was time to cut the
chit-chat or we were going to be wrestling on the floor in the next few seconds.

Finally, he said, "You have a very scary sounding disease,
but if you have to have untreatable cancer, this is the kind you want."

ha ha

What a stupid thing to say.
 

On the way home from the doctor, all I could think was what to say on the page. 
That Friday the 13th,  dozens of people wrote to ask, "So, how did the Doctor visit go?"

With no time and no other options popping into my head, I took the coward's way out and lied. 
I knew if I told the truth, people might take an hour to write a long e-mail that would include: 

How sorry they were for me, 
Their experience or their family's experience with cancer, 
All the details about their symptoms and procedures and surgeries 
Talk about support groups, therapy and online chat rooms 

That would only make it harder for me to deal with this. 

I have no symptoms, I may go years without any symptoms. 
There's no reason to get into any of that. 

Besides, cancer can blow me.
I could still beat this. 
I would enjoy adding cancer to my list of victims. 

Y'know those seven stages of grief you're supposed to go thru? 
I don't intend to go thru any of them. 
I'm 50 and I have a great time every day and that's not going to stop. 

True, my peach truck has arrived, but instead of running a red light and killing me two weeks ago, 
it merely served notice that it I have a decade or more to enjoy before it arrives. 
I can live with that, and that means you can live with that. 
 

I really don't want to swap cancer stories with anybody. 

You might think I'm in denial, but I'm going to handle this MY way, and I'm asking you to respect that. 
I'm the one with the cancer, not you, and if you have it, please don't tell me about it. 

There's no reason for me to take all of you with me on this ride - that would be crazy. 
If something particularly funny happens, I'll mention it, but this is a comedy page. 
We're going to continue to have a good time every day. 

Sam is doing triage on the mail. 
If you write some long, sappy story, she might read it but I probably won't. 
If you want to write me about the situation, please make it very, very short. 
I don't have the time to read regular mail and there's no reason for me to know your details, 
but if you know someone who's found a cure for cancer, feel free to send that along :). 

I'm not dead, I'm not even sick - as far as I can tell. 
I've got a decade, or more, to party and have a good time - so let's enjoy our lives. 

So, we have some new rules

1. This is a comedy page.
   You're hardly ever going to get any updates, and even then - only if something really funny happens. 

2. I'm not joining any support groups and I won't be cruising the cancer chat rooms. 
    I'm going to ignore this situation and have a good time until it needs attention later.

3. Nobody needs any details.  I mean, what would be the point?

4. If you ask how I'm feeling, I'll just say "I'm fine."
    If you come to the big Pokerfest at Foxwoods, we'll play poker and drink tequila and have
    a good time but we're not going to talk about any of this - that makes sense, right?

5. This is not the time to say Jesus loves you. 
    I refuse to give up a lifetime of common sense because the inevitable will someday occur. 

I may have untreatable cancer - but since I'm a Democrat, I have positive spin!
I'll have no surgery, no chemo, no radiation and no bone marrow transplants. 

By the way, Mrs Bart is taking this like Victoria Barkley. 
She's not too worried because I'm not too worried. 
 

There is one more thing we need to talk about. 
On Friday the 13th, I wrote: 

> One thing I thought of while I was waiting to see the doctor,  if I was given some bad news,
> I'd be unable to qualify for life or health insurance, so use this false alarm as a wake-up to
> increase your life insurance before someone tells you you're not eligible.
 

I assume I'm not eligible for any more life insurance, and the coverage I have is 60 percent less than 
what I thought I had.  I had a lot of 'accidental death' coverage, and not enough life insurance. 

So I have a decade to raise as much money as I can for Mrs Bart. 
Her family is cursed with longevity. 
Every female in her family lives to be 100, so she's just getting to her halftime. 
What was once a hobby tequila treehouse must now become a money generating machine. 

Recently, either on the page or on the radio, I mentioned how Michael Corleone had to kill a crooked 
New York police captain to save his family. I find myself in a similar situation - I need to save my family, 
but instead of killing a cop, all I need to do is throw a big-ass party that people will want to attend. 
Pretty good deal, right? 

So - we are going to make some changes. 
First and most obvious is we're going to increase production.

There will be more pages and more radio shows. 
Right now, we have 1259 pages and 29 (by the time you read this) radio shows. 
Someday, I expect to have 4,000 pages and 1,000 radio shows online. 

With this new incentive, we might eventually go to live, streaming shows every weekday. 
I need more subscribers ao I've got to give more people valid reasons to sign up.. 

The Bartcop operation will swing into full gear in order to ensure I leave Mrs Bart with something. 
If I can't buy life insurance, the only way to make sure she is taken care of is for me to get busy.

You may have noticed that we've picked up the pace on radio shows and the page. 
Lately, new subscriptions have exceeded cancellations, so we're moving in the right direction. 
I plan to continue this -- Who knows what could happen with this much motivation? 
 

Also, and some of you might hate this - but we're going to clean things up a little. 
The Ozzy-style editing is the best example of that. 

I often get mail saying, "Bart, if you'd clean up your language, I could give subscriptions
to my parents or my kids, but the way you talk, I can't do that."

Well, I need those extra subscriptions now - so we're going to mainstream things up some. 
Also, I'm going to clean up the page language, too. 
Who knows, maybe if we clean things up, we'll get a real offer from somebody. 
 

I broke this on BCR Show 29 because I want people to hear the calm in my voice. 

I'm OK with an extra 10 years or so, even tho that's not written in stone. 
Any of us could meet our peach truck tomorrow and not get those extra 10 years, 
so I'm OK with the hand I've been dealt. 

In a dumb kind of way (what else would you expect from Ol' Bart?) there is a freedom 
or a weight lifted after getting this kind of news. I can't explain it, maybe it's just that my 
"Have a great time every day" attitude means more now than it ever did. 
 

In closing  (have you ever been happier to see that phrase? :)  please respect my wishes. 
Don't smother me with your, "I have a cancer story, too" mail. 

If you call BartCop Manor and say, "Call me back with all the details," don't expect a call. 
I'm not sure going public with this is the smartest move, but since I stupidly made the doctor visit public, 
and then lied about it, I felt like I had to set the record straight. 
I'm sorry about the lie - people do stupid things when they panic. 

So - what's the plan?

We're going to work harder and longer and smarter (ha ha) and mainstream things more and build 
the treehouse and the radio show into something so good - that everyone will want to subscribe. 

I'll try not to be a shamless whore, but yes, this is a new ballgame. My little hobby has suddenly turned 
into a crusade - a race against time to raise as much money as I can in the next ten (or more) years. 

If I was in the concrete pouring business, or if I mowed lawns for a living. I'd have to work constantly 
at some hard job in the hot, Oklahoma August sun. But since I'm a damn lucky man, it's my job to host 
a party and kick some ditto-monkey ass in the most entertaining way I can think of. 

We have things coming up. We're hoping for some 'celebrity interviews' and we're reaching out to a 
wider audience. With the cleaner language, maybe we'll get a mention on Crossfire like The Horse gets. 
If you have ideas about how to grow the hammer higher, send them to: bartcop@bartcop.com
 

So instead of wasting time talking about things that we can't change, we're going to party and have fun and play poker 
but most of all we're going to work together to kick the Unelected Fraud and his gang of Nazi goons back to Texas. 

Smile, because I'm in a good mood. 

Some people suggest that since it was my first visit,  "Dr. Laura" was possibly low-balling 
my time left because it's a lot easier to say "You have more time than we thought"
than it is to say, "We miscalculated, you have less time than we thought."

So smile a little more. 

Update
I fired that "Dr Laura" handjob.
He's a religious nut who wants to "prepare me to meet the angels."
I'm not going to let some religio-handjob drive me any-fucking-where.

Sidebar:
You know what that lying bastard did?
He put a note in my file (that goes to other doctors) that said
I had alcohol on my breath for a 2 PM appointment.

Sure, I enjoy a cocktail now & then, but I don't drink in the morning or
the afternoon and I don't drink before I go to the doctor's office.

I assume it was his religious insanity that made him lie.
He knows I drink - but that's a sin that makes God very angry,
so he chose to slander me and send his stupid lies to other doctors.  
I should kick his ass for that.
 

On a hunch, I called the Mayo Clinic in Scottdale, AZ and blow me down!
They're on Mrs. Bart's insurance coverage provider list (Whatever, I don't
undertand how that works and I don't care.) 

So, for a $30 co-payment, (and free frequent flyer miles) I'm being treated by some of 
the best doctors in the country and in my first appointment I made it clearer than Lake Concha
to them that I didn't want any talk of God or angels or any other religious stupidity.

As of Feb 9, 2007, Doc says there's no reason to start chemo - yet.
When that time comes, if I can find a way to make it funny, I'll tell that story :)
 

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