Real estate news coverage is suspended from December 21 through December 31. NOTE FROM JOHN MILES:  It has been a bit more than a year since my friend Tony passed away.  I was fortunate enough to have spent the last weeks of Tony’s life with him, his family, and some of his closest friends.  I was also an avid reader of Tony’s blog posts that Larry and the OC Housing News have been reproducing over the past few days.  Regular readers of Tony’s blog and the comments know that Tony was also writing a post for the MD Anderson hospital blog.  Unfortunately, it was never published.  Tony’s wife Deborah recently shared that post with me and gave Larry permission to…[READ MORE]

Real estate news coverage is suspended from December 21 through December 31. Rest In Peace My Friend Tony’s last post, “Burn, Baby, Burn” was published on October 12, 2012.  Unfortunately, Tony never received his bone marrow transplant, and he passed away on the evening of November 17, 2012.  And, in many ways, his Blog journey was incomplete.  I was fortunate to have spent much of that last month with Tony, his family and several of his friends.  Larry has asked me to fill in the gap in information here.  I’ve tried to describe what happened from my perspective during that last month, although I have left out some very personal items that were shared between Tony and me and Tony…[READ MORE]

Real estate news coverage is suspended from December 21 through December 31. Tony was fortunate to get quality time with his family while he went through his treatments. This post recounts some of those times and finishes with his new hopes for a treatment not to be. This was Tony's final post, but not his last expression. He wrote a lengthy post for the MD Anderson Hospital to share with its patients undergoing treatment for CLL. That work will be the final post in this series on December 31. Current Status, or “Burn, baby, burn!” By Tony Bliss A special note before I begin: I want to call out a special thanks to the amazing, astounding folks of the Sunshine Committee…[READ MORE]

Real estate news coverage is suspended from December 21 through December 31. John Miles, Bobby Dunham, Tony Bliss and I have been close friends since junior high school. As Tony's conditions worsened, John was in a position to go visit him and spend a significant amount of time with him near the end. During one period, Tony was unable to write, so John stepped in to recount the good times and try to keep Tony's spirits high. SEW, Week -1508 (That’s 29 years ago for you math-challenged people) By John Miles and Tony Bliss If you couldn’t figure it out from the title alone, your usual author is on strike.  He’s demonstrating his sympathy for the poor NFL officials who have…[READ MORE]

Real estate news coverage is suspended from December 21 through December 31. Each time his cancer treatments failed, the odds of success on the next diminished. Tony faced those long odds with courage, determination, and of course, his indomitable sense of humor. Warning: This post contains some disturbing photographs. Current Status, or “I should get a part-time gig with Motel 6!” By Tony Bliss Those of you who have been following my cancerous adventure for a while can probably recite my ‘current status’ by heart by now. It typically goes as follows, which I will write in the form of 100% make-believe HTML tags this time to just to keep it interesting for everyone. By everyone, I mean mostly me. <chemo:…[READ MORE]

Real estate news coverage is suspended from December 21 through December 31. Of all of Tony's posts, this is the one I felt revealed the most about his humanity. He artfully describes that poignant moment each of us must face when we realize our time is near. Far from being depressing and morose, Tony shines with his usual humor and wonderfully positive attitude. Current Status, or “Denial is the sincerest form of courage!” By Tony Bliss So here’s the deal – I said in my first post that I wanted this blog to be an honest look at this crazy little thing called leukemia, or technically now lymphoma – so it is with that in mind that I make this post,…[READ MORE]

Real estate news coverage is suspended from December 21 through December 31. The treatments for cancer are not pleasant. The side effects are a smörgåsbord of torment. To help cope with his pain, Tony ran a contest to guess how many times he threw up. Who does that? Tony turned his suffering into a funny game that calmed the fears of family and friends. What a remarkable man. Warning: some of the pictures in this post are disturbing. Introducing the Side Effect of the Week! :-) By Tony Bliss Today I’m starting something new on Let the CLL Games Begin – I’m going to feature an interesting side effect from all my chemo/transplant treatments each week! They may be side effects…[READ MORE]

Real estate news coverage is suspended from December 21 through December 31. After spending a week in pain, Tony's hopes for a cure were dashed once again. Rather than respond with despondency, Tony finds new hope and rejoices with humor. Current Status, or “How the Grinch Stole the Last Half of July and the First Half of August” By Tony Bliss We all know the timeless story of the Grinch, and how that little green meany tried to steal Christmas from all the Whos in Whoville, including (gasp!) little Cindy Lou Who! In the end, though, he didn’t have the heart to do it, or rather, he had too much heart. Basically he was just a heck of guy, when you…[READ MORE]

Real estate news coverage is suspended from December 21 through December 31. Tony's sense of humor regarding his condition was irrepressible. He could have written in serious and somber tones about waking in the middle of the night in need of immediate medical treatment, but in his own jocular way, he brings this frightening tale to life. He even composed a funny poem to his pain. [Tony put no graphics in this post, so I helped him out.] Oh What A Night! By Tony Bliss I’m not referring to late September back in ’63, because I wasn’t even alive yet. No, I’m referring to this morning, or ‘last night’ by the time I get this posted. I’ve been awake ever since…[READ MORE]

Real estate news coverage is suspended from December 21 through December 31. Cancer treatment is nothing you would sign up for if you didn't need it. It's painful and it has numerous side effects. If you get queezy easily, you might want to skip this installment. If you want to appreciate how difficult this kind of treatment is, read on. The clot thickens! By Tony Bliss As I mention on my What is CLL page, CLL is a bone marrow disease, and bone marrow is responsible for creating your blood. It only constitutes about 4% of your adult body mass, but produces a staggering 500 billion red blood cells per day – that’s some pretty heavy lifting for only 4% of…[READ MORE]