Sunrise Ride
Crappy weather yesterday – Vandenbusch took the chicken exit- so no Saturday ride. I still had the itch but the Sunday schedule was filling up fast. Breakfast with Liz and Gary and Liz’s mom Rose, then a drive to Stockton to see Staci and Shane. My only choice was a sunrise ride. I was on the bike a little after 7am. Took the short way out to Coyote Hills. Over Highway 880 and the curly que down to the bike path that skirts Ardonwood Farm. They were just opening the back gate when I came through. Perfect timing. Through the empty farm on the first day of Autumn. The Corn Maze ready, the pumpkin patch cleared. AND PUMPKINS EVERYWHERE.
Through three blocks of city streets and into Coyote Hills. Heart Attack Hill and the back side of Coyote, then home the long way along Alameda Creek Trail. Stopped long enough to take another picture looking towards Mission Peak. Turned out to be a nice little 15 miler. Great way to start the day!
And the rest of the day was just as good.
Things aren’t quite the same around the Flaherty house these days. We’ve had the new kitty for about 6 weeks now and all I can say is that life with Lulu is anything but boring. First of all, she is a kitty, so that automatically makes her adorable. She is a survivor and still is in some sort of survivor mode. She only trusts Barb and is skittish a lot of the time around anyone else. She is skinny as a bean pole and jumpy as long tailed cat in a rocking chair factory. BUT SHE SURE IS FUN TO WATCH! 
Hit the next stop on the cancer reality tour yesterday when Barb had Chemo session #1. On Tuesday she had a minor outpatient procedure to have the chemo port installed in her chest. Arrived at the oncologist office yesterday at noon. After a brief consult we were given the green light to proceed with chemo. Downstairs to the “chemo lounge” with other lucky cancer patients. The place was really crowded and I’m thinking that this place is not conducive to healing. I turned out to be wrong. We shared a room for a short time with a little old lady from the Bronx New York, who had stage IV (there is no stage V) colon cancer. She was getting routine chemo just to keep her cancer from progressing. A real sweet lady who made us both feel at ease. Barb’s chemo routine is as follows. they connect the chemo port to saline bag and then inject a shot of steroids and a shot of benedryl into the line. Wait 30 minutes for it to sink in, then the first chemo med. One hour each for the Carboplatin, Taxotere and then the Herceptin to drip in. With each drop of each med I was waiting for Barb for have a reaction. Thank God she didn’t. We were done around 5:30pm and home. Barb was fatigued and had a headache but otherwise was doing ok. After a not so good nights sleep, she is doing ok today. The oncology nurse said that she wouldn’t sleep well with all the steroids they gave her.
Got in 60 miles of riding over the three day weekend. Friday, Saturday, Monday. The latter two with Vandenbusch. On the way back from this mornings ride, we were riding along, talking about Steve’s great Aunt Betty. We passed a couple of walkers and I went to get a sip of water. I was going too fast with one hand on the wheel trying to get back in formation when I almost clipped Steve’s back tire. I hit the front break a little too hard and….. JIMMY’S DOWN!!!! 