Month: February 2009

This week I started a day late because Alberto was swamped with other patients on monday (cancer is suddenly all cool!  People are biting my moves!).  So I’m getting unplugged today.  It hasn’t been a terrible round.  I feel as though if I didn’t have this pump hanging off me, I might be able to ignore the symptoms..  kind of..  There’s something really creepy about having a tube stuck in your chest.  Always such a relief to get it pulled.  This one is a little special. I am half way through post surgery treatments.  Just 3 more months to go (oh god).

Yohei is in the USA.  He’s here for what has become an annual pilgrimage to NAHBS.  Each year it seems that he makes a few more stops while he’s here.  NYC is a standard.  He’ll be staying with us for a few days about a week from now (unfortunately, he’ll be catching me right at the beginning of the next round of chemo.  Oh well..  He has offered to make trips to the super-market..  he LOVES fairway).

NAHBS is this weekend.  I’m a little sad to be missing it.  I didn’t even get it together to send the assless..  Oh well.  Mike Flanigan’s response was “nahbs Schmahbs.. you’ll be there next year.”  Right on.

I’ve had a rash of new orders in the last few days.  Maybe people are feeling spring or something.  It was pretty dead there for a while.  People are feeling the pinch, and aren’t excited about spending money.  I WAS working on the last bike in the queue!  Now suddenly it’s a 4 month wait again.  Suits me fine!  keep the orders coming!

I’m looking into moving into a warehouse space up in the south bronx.  I need a little more room.  I need to be able to make noise at any time of day (particularly early morning).  And I need a space that I can get BIG machines into without having to completely dismantle them.  I need some big machines.  For sure.  I’ve taken a look at the numbers, and this year would certainly put the squeeze on.  But I believe in the business..  I believe in what I’m doing.  It’s my sense that in times like this, the bold end up being rewarded, and that a few years down the road I’ll be very glad that I made the move.  This whole thing has been a real jump-and-the-bridge-will-appear type venture.  No reason to change philosophies now!

It went pretty smoothly this week.  I’m feeling good, relatively.  I got unplugged yesterday morning.  The weather has been warm here in NYC for the last handful of days, which is great for the whole cold sensitive neuropathy thing.  I can actually go outside!!  Great.  I took a trip to the supermarket yesterday on the xtracycle and made a big haul.  Collapsed when I got home.  HA.  Not quite myself.  Still, to be able to go to the store at all on a chemo day!  I win!

My white cells are pretty low.  The doc has requested that I take every precaution for the next few days.. through the weekend.  He’ll have me taking antibiotics over the weekend just to protect against possible infection.  But then I’ll be in the clear.  Hopefully get a good week of work in.

The current project is a fun one.  A dutch inspired town bike..  relaxed angles, all stainless lugs.. a chainguard.. a rear rack with leather panniers.. a flashlight mount in the front.  Quite a lot more work than a standard single speed, but fun.  I’ve got three bikes at the painters at the moment.  All of them with builds waiting in the bike room.  So over the next few weeks, I should get the pleasure of seeing a bunch of projects through.  There will be pictures.

Mckenny Welding Supply will be dropping off a big tank of argon this morning..  So I can squeeze in a little TIG welding practice.  Good.

Hi there.  It’s monday on a treatment week, and I’m sitting in the office getting dripped.  Mondays are long.  I’ll be here for about 7 hours all told.  Plenty of time to do a little writing.

Last week was good.  Not quite as manically productive as several weeks ago (last time I wrote), but I did manage to get some work done.

I’ve decided to embed this blog in the Fast Boy Cycles site.  I hadn’t updated the ‘words’ section of the site for ages and have been majorly slacking on the blog.  It seems to me that, as I get better, and my focus shifts more and more from being a sick guy to being back in the shop, it only makes sense to have the blog shift focus as well.  For those of you who are more interested in cancer than bikes, I apologize.

The weather here in NYC has turned warm over the last few days.  What a thrill!  On saturday, Hill and her brother and I got out for a bit of a ride.  My first in quite a while.  One of the chemo drugs makes me SO cold sensitive that riding in sub 30 degree weather is out of the question.  But saturday was glorious..  I even rode a bike with an ass!  Weee!

When I think about Chemo, my stomach turns somersaults, and I shudder.  It occurs to me, that if I can have such a reaction to just the THOUGHT of it, there must be a pretty powerful psychological element to the whole thing.  So I’m trying to just talk myself out of feeling lousy.  Trying to talk myself out of feeling anything at all.  I think I may need to talk louder, though..