
I’ve had just about the best week. I know I’ve mentioned it in past posts, but I’ve never felt more energetic in my life. I’d say I’m at about 80% now. But after the last couple of months of chemo brain and anemia, 80% is like being on amphetamines. Man. I’m FAST. I’ve been working 10-12 hour days. No wasted time. It hasn’t all been in the shop.. I’ve been doing some projects around the house as well, and some construction stuff over at my mom’s new place (my folks are retiring* to an apartment two blocks away from us here in harlem!). But I did manage to build a frame this week. I’ll get out to the shop today to build the fork and do some finish work, but other than that, it’s ready for the painter.
I sure hope that this sense of perspective lasts.
A brief medical update for those who come for that: I haven’t seen Alberto since getting back, but have a meeting with him next week. He says that he’s spoken with the surgeon he has in mind, and that the surgeon is on board with the feeling that it’s worth trying to save my continence.. weeee! I’ll meet with them both next week. Alberto is going to try to track down another surgeon to get an unaffected opinion from him, just to see if, independantly, he has the same sort of optimism. Surgery will be sometime in the middle of November. If it gets pushed too far back and seems as though it will interfere with thanksgiving, I may request that we wait until AFTER.
Thanksgiving is my holiday. That’s the one I like. There’s no heavy commercial component, no pressure to buy stuff and give it to people, just the encouragement to get together with a bunch of people and pool resources to have a really good meal (and then think about how fortunate you really are.. just take a deep breath after good food and good drink, and think “yeah.. we’re winning.”) For the last bunch of years, we’ve hosted thanksgiving here at the house in harlem. We try to collect as many folks as possible from the city who aren’t going home to their families. Travelling around the holidays sucks. We always have a much better time just staying put. Anyway, I love TG and it would be a real pisser to be layed up for it.
On halloween, Megan (aka faster panda kill kill, aka BFF, aka fast boy cycles web guru) will be arriving! She’s coming up from Austin TX to visit for 5 days or so. During her stay some fun stuff will happen. Laura Clutterbuck, my dear dear surogate Auntie (mom’s best friend from growing up in South Africa) will be in town to run the New York marathon. Talk about inspiring. She STARTED running at 60 years old, just a few years ago. Ran in the London marathon last year, and did well enough to get a spot in the NYC marathon. Also during her stay, we’ll oust the current administration! No matter what way your political views swing (and to most of you, I’m sure it’s pretty obvious where I stand), I think we can agree that this current crew has sucked. Make sure to vote!! It’ll feel good.
So! stay posted. I think it would be fun to organize some sort of a ride while Megan is here. Maybe even a halloween ride?
* “retiring” may not be the right word since neither of them plans to stop working, but we’ve been calling it that anyway.