Just Brian Being Brian

We went for another tandem ride this morning. We did the old Aiken Bicycle Club pre-meeting loop of out Rushton and back in Wright’s Mill, a nice 12 miler of smooth roads, little traffic and a nice variety of elevation changes.

The FRS were on TV last night on ESPN and this afternoon on FOX, so I’ve been glued to the TV so far this weekend. The announcers on ESPN are less annoying than the yutzes on FOX, but in both cases I would rather listen to the Red Sox radio guys call the game. The only problem is I can’t do it, the radio broadcast on MLB.com is about a pitch and a half behind the TV. I don’t know what the reason for the delay, it is not like it is the MTV Music Awards or the Super Bowl halftime show…

Part of today’s non play by play chat has concerned the fact that the American League’s top vote getter will not be appearing in the All Star game this coming Tuesday. Boston’s Manny Ramirez has begged off because of a right knee soreness. Tim McCarver felt that maybe even if he wasn’t going to play, he should at least make an appearance at the game. But Manny is going home to spend three days resting, this being attributed to “Many Being Manny.” This phrase is used quite often to explain his erratic or odd behavior both on and off the field. Because he is such a great hitter he gets cut a lot of slack. I thought, cool saying, it’d make a nice T-shirt, maybe I would add it to my CafePress shop, but somebody had beat me to it.

Well I paraphrased a Lance Armstrong T-shirt for myself by substituting Brian for Lance, why not do it for Manny? Look for a Brian Being Brian T-shirt on CafePress soon.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 254

Looking Shaggy

As far back as I can remember Donna and I have been getting our hair cut every 4 weeks. At the last one each year we sit down with the stylist’s appointment book and mapped out our haircut schedule for the coming year.

The other day I asked Donna was it time for our haircut soon as I thought that mine was getting a little shaggy. She looked in her little calendar and said, “Nope, we aren’t due until July 25th.” “Wow, that is nearly three weeks way,” I said, “my hair is getting long enough that I might have to start carrying that comb again.” That’s when she looked backwards and realized we were supposed to go on June 27th. We had missed an appointment. That was 4 days after chemo #4, so she wasn’t exactly paying attention to those mundane details. Besides, it is not like she noticed needing a haircut, she balder than a new born.

Although, Donna’s head has been itching something fierce and we could swear that some places that were smooth a week ago, so maybe the hair is starting to make a comeback.

Finished With Phase Two

We had a “final” meet with the Hemo Oncologist this afternoon and got the pass off to the Radiation Oncology side of the building. Final is in quotes because there is a continuing relationship between Donna and Dr. Ergul because there will be quarterly blood testing for a year to be sure nothing pops up, then semi annually for the following 4 years while she is taking the hormone preventative medicine, Tamoxifen (AKA, Phase Three.)

First meeting with the radiation doc will be next Thursday which I guess he will outline Phase Two of Donna’s treatment, six weeks of 5 days a week of microwaving breast tissue. I’m sure there will be pretreatment tests of some sort before that can begin. As it is they won’t start treatments until at least 4 weeks after cessation of the chemo and this Friday will only be 2 weeks.

All in all for just 12 days post chemo Donna is doing pretty well. No more nausea, but she has some mouth sores that are limiting what tastes good. Her energy level is pretty good and she is wanting to start back working eight hour days, I talked her into waiting until next week before trying that.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 251

Can We Go Back To Interleague Play?

The FRS were 16-2 against the National League East and now that interleague play has ended, they have lost the last 2 games to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays who are in last place in the American League East 14-1/2 games behind Boston. The only saving grace is the Yankees have lost the last 2 games against Cleveland, so they are still 4 games back.

Washed the car yesterday and I waxed it today. If it wasn’t for a last minute night-time drive for a Micky D’s Hot Fudge Sundae, the Emperor wouldn’t have left the driveway today.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 250

10 Miles

In honor of the 4th of July we rode 4 miles on the tandem, 2-1/2 times this morning. And as always in the summer, we did a dawn launch to avoid the heat of the day, plus it is always nice to be out on the roads when traffic is light too.

Another meandering thru subdivision ride, but I think we are getting ready to start extending the miles and routes into the surrounding countryside. Donna is getting stronger by the day and now the only hold up on doing slightly longer rides is our posteriors. Donna has been using the seat that came on the bike and because she has the softride beam as a shock absorber hasn’t really complained, but after today’s ride she asked about a different seat. Guess we will be going shopping…

828 Miles Later…

828 Miles Later?…we are home again. Maybe 275 of that was today (I didn’t keep track) on the way home. Half the trip back was mountainous twisty and only about 1/3 of that was spent at “speed.” It is during the 4th of July week and high tourist season in the mountains. Most of the time I was stuck behind a car from Florida or an old man in a hat driving a Camry. Secretly there were times when Donna was happy to have a slow poke in front of me for some of the trip, by mid-morning she had had just about enough of being tossed around, bless her heart.

The Blue Boar Inn is a mile and a half into the woods on a dirt road and after about 8 trips on that surface, the car was ugly dirty, so I washed it this evening. Much better.

One last story from the trip. On Friday when we went out to see the Milky Way, but were thwarted by the bright moon, we did get a substitute show. Right across the Skyway from the overlook we stopped at was a big old hill full of trees that spread from left to right traversing our whole view. The hill side was alive with fireflies. It reminded me of people flicking their lighters at an outdoor stadium rock show. We sat on a little wall and watched for about 10 minutes oohing and aahing, until some animal snorted in the woods behind us. Being city folks this noise made us get up quickly, dust off our butts, walk to the car and head back to the Inn.

Started up, went down, back up, back down, up to wash, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 250

Robbinsville Part II

We did go up on the Cheohala Skyway last night, but the Milky Way was a no show. It wasn’t cloud cover it was the moon. Amazing the amount of light generated by the 1st Quarter Moon when there is no other ambient light present.

And we did do an out and back Gap run before breakfast. Donna normally loves riding through the twisties as much as I love driving them, but the chemo has made her a little more sensitive to jostling around. I ran through the 318 turns at about 3/4 speed and it went good as we had an uninterrupted run. On the way back I dialed the speed up a little bit and she was a real trooper about it. We got about 9 miles of free running before I caught the tail end of a 3 cruiser motorcycle group. When we finished she told me that that was quite enough Gapping for awhile. We made it back in near perfect time for breakfast.

As always the food was fantastic, but way more than we normally eat. So instead of going for a hike after breakfast we returned to our room and laid on the bed like lizards in the sun digesting. At 11AM we finally got in the Miata for a trip all the way across the Cherohala Skyway to reconnoiter lunch or dinner spots for a future MMC visit. Whenever we have gone over there in the past we have always eaten at the same ol’ place and while the food is good it is kind of pricey. Guess what? other than that place the picking are extremely thin. A Subway, a Hardee’s (where we ended up and were sorry we did), a pizza place and a little family restaurant. The most interesting thing about Telico Plains was that the natives spoke an entirely unintelligible form of English. The accent was 1/2 mountain south and 1/2 mumble. One women in the Hardee’s parking lot spoke to us and we had to say what twice in an effort to understand her and we finally just shrugged our shoulders and moved on. The nicest part about Telico Plains was leaving it.

For our evening meal we ended up in Robbinsville at a BBQ we had eaten at before. Last couple of times we had been in there we wondered how they stayed in business as the customers were nearly non-existent. This night the joint was jumping, it was jammed with motorcyclists and we had to finally wave over a waitress and demand she take our order. After dinner I wanted to go to the start of the Gap once again to get a sticker for the trunk lid to replace the one that used to be on the old trunk. Strangely enough the Crossroads of Time was closed this morning at 6:30 when we went by. When I hung a left out of the BBQ place Donna asked why. She thought we we going the long way, over the Stecoah Gap and up NC28. I said I didn’t think you wanted any more really windy roads, but she said 28 is so pretty a drive and even though it is very twisty, the curves are not as densely packed as the Gap itself. So we went that way turning a 12 mile return trip into 60 miles…cool.

Tomorrow we are going for today’s scheduled hike before the huge and delicious breakfast so we won’t have any excuse not to go for a walk in the woods.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, down once more, and back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 245