It's not having been in the dark house, but having left it that counts. President Theodore Roosevelt

One more day!  Hard to believe but it is finally here, the 2012 Alaska Clean Air Bike Challenge.  The fundraising is now a bit of a competition, too.  Yessirree...there are not many things that get me truly motivated but losing first place to a boy/man/person of the male persuasion just does not set well with me and the person in second place is exactly that.  At check-in the other day I heard he is stalking me and is out to beat me.  Well, let me tell you what...there is NO way that is going to happen.  So, in case you are still interested in supporting me - here's the link and Saturday at noon is the deadline.  Dara Glass - Clean Air Bike Challenge.  All dignity and humility has been thrown out the window at this point!

Ok, enough of that.

Just in case you are wondering, I wrecked on my bike last Saturday at the end of my training ride. In fact, and I am so embarrassed to admit this, I was in our condo building's parking garage getting ready to stop my bike and hop off, when WHAM!  Down I went.  There is now a very lovely yellowish, black, blue and purplish goose egg on the fatty part of my left arm between my elbow and wrist and it hurts to rest it on my desk and type.  It is a deep bruise because it really did not show up until Tuesday, 3 days after the fact.  I iced it thoroughly Saturday when I finally got upstairs and again on Sunday when I got home from the Bike for Women, otherwise, it would probably be about 3x the size it is now.  I finally have a battle wound and I am so very proud.

Even moose know how to Tebow which is what this guy
was doing when I saw him on my bike ride the other day.

Sam is doing ok.  Next week he is scheduled for an MRI and CT scans because of his head and his legs with the results coming the following week.  As Sam says, it is what it is because there just is not anything we can do about it anyway, just make the best of what life throws at us.  I know he is not feeling all that good, though, because he has not been doing much which is very unlike him.  And, I admit, he is much more patient than I am when it comes to waiting for the results.  I want them NOW not tomorrow or the next day but NOW.  Can you imagine?

This will be the first weekend since we moved here that we will be apart and I think we are both suffering a bit of apprehension about it, although if you asked Sam, I am sure he would deny it.  It is an odd feeling, though, knowing if anything happens to him I will not be here to help.  I am sure he will be fine, but there is still that little part of me that worries.  On the other hand, Rocky and Sweet Pea will be here to entertain, so the three of them will probably not even miss me!

Ciao!

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. – Mark Twain

Sam and I went for a leisurely Sunday drive today - only 230 miles roundtrip - to Eureka, Alaska.  Normally, the wind at Eureka is, well, let's just say if Eureka were a city, it definitely would be the "Windy City" rather than Chicago.  Since it is a lonely roadhouse with a few cabins, it is a great stop along the way to Glenallen.  We decided to drive there for lunch and it was beautiful.  The Matanuska River is starting to come alive, fresh snow is on the glacier, and the best part, no wind!  The snowmachiners (snowmobilers for you Outside) had a poker run at Lake Louise today, so we shared the roadhouse with many of them.

At the Matanuska Glacier overlook today on the drive to Eureka.

Yesterday I managed to talk Sam into going to the gym with me.  He did not exercise much this week and he needed to get his body moving and get the blood circulating.  Today as we were driving, he finally told me he is experiencing a new pain in the middle to lower part of his left lung which is why he did not do much this week. Of course, with my family history, my first thought is the heart...and then...what in the heck is he doing telling me this when we are already 40 miles out of town?!?!  I then remind myself it is difficult for him to tell me about new issues, so driving down the road when he does not have to look me in the face is much easier. This new pain, Sam believes, is from a new tumor his GP talked about a year ago. Whether or not it is, we will not know until the next CT scan which is not scheduled for a couple months yet.  No matter what, new pains and new tumors are a part of the process.  We hope and pray the Tarceva has slowed the process down, something we will never truly know since non-small cell lung cancer - adenocarcinoma of the lung, is generally thought to be slow growing anyway.

Sweet Pea giving me the evil eye stare down.

I know he is in pain when he is very quiet and that is how the entire conversation got started.  Sam did not hardly say a word for the first half hour and I finally commented about the silence. The challenge for him is determining how painful it truly is because he is already on pain meds, so asking him to rank it on a scale of 1-10 is simply unreasonable on my part.  Instead, I secretly maintained a silent vigil watching him out of the corner of my eye and listening to him breath to determine for myself how painful it truly is.  He seemed a bit uncomfortable, so without the pain pills, it is probably a 6 or 7.  With the pills, it is probably a 1 or 2.  When Sam swam for the UofO, he learned a relaxation technique which he still uses today.  It has proven to be a life saver for him and he used it today.  That really makes a difference as well and makes the pain and other issues much easier to tolerate. Rather than fight the pain, he acknowledges it and controls it rather than vice versa.  He is amazing.

Of course, upon returning home, Sweet Pea met us at the door and immediately began giving us a piece of her mind that we left her alone with Rocky.  She gets very anxious when we are both gone for more than a few hours and is quite relieved when we return since she is the true caregiver in the family, don't you know?  I am fairly certain she is much more worried about Sam being gone than me because she hardly notices me when I come home from work.  Unless it is time to eat, of course, then I am the chosen one.  I count on her to tell me when Sam is truly not feeling good and she does a fine job of that.

We had a good weekend altogether and are looking forward to a good week as well.  The snow is melting rapidly and, although it is probably wishful thinking, I hope we have seen the last of it.

Ciao!