November, 2008. Riding Again

GPC: Healdsburg–Jimtown, 10/29/08

This was entirely inadvertent: I must’ve hit a button funny as I was trying to down load this foto. But okay. Souvenir of a recent Wednesday Ride with the Grizzly Peak Cyclists to the Alexander Valley in Sonoma County. As a Yellow Jacket I was of course interested in the honey bee jersey.

I’ve been riding a lot with this group recently after not seeing them for a couple of years. It has helped to carpool with some locals from here: Carla (who takes Wednesdays off from her dental practice) and Paul (a fellow Post Office retiree), because many of the rides are in Marin. We also see Rich and occasionally Laurie, also Yellow Jackets. An interesting group, both tight-knit and fluid, many of them older citizens (in September we celebrated the eightieth birthday of one of the Pats) but remarkably durable and strong. Many of them go on bicycle vacations, in New Zealand, in the Pyrenees. Hard core cyclists. We’ve ridden out to Inverness and Point Reyes; to Novato and the Cheese Factory and back over Lucas Valley Rd.; from San Francisco over the Marin Headlands and out to Larkspur; over Mount Tam to Bolinas and then back over the ridge to Alpine Lake and Fairfax (this was the ride which nearly finished me!); from Healdsburg out to “Jimtown” (mostly flat, for the fall colors in the vineyards); most recently from Oakland up to Skyline Dr. and out Redwood Rd. to the golf course. I’ve also ridden a couple of times in the South Bay with the Fremont Freewheelers and my friend and comrade Valdez Hill: across the Dumbarton Bridge and out the bicycle trail to Lakeside Park (real nice café), and through the streets of Fremont to another coffee stop.

I’ve also managed several rides with the Oakland Yellow Jackets, my home club. In August the breast cancer ride: Bike Against the Odds, which we sponsor and host (I elected to ride an extra twenty miles in order to avoid the hill on Pinehurst!) In September a long, hot loop from Oakland, over Fairmont and Dublin Canyon to Calaveras (right at the limit of my endurance—fortunately we rode back on BART from Fremont). Diana and I missed the annual club overnight ride to Monterey when we travelled to Maine for my son’s wedding. In October a longish (but flat) run to the park at Point Pinole. All this must be pretty boring, but I wanted to give a brief report of my riding/training this fall. The point is I’m riding a lot and, even with the setbacks noted, I am stronger and fitter than last year and than I was in June. I’ve been working hard, and it seems to be paying off.

I should also add I’ve been serving as an unofficial/official fotografer on all these rides, have been getting some quite gratifying results (and a lot of compliments). Which brings this page full circle; maybe it was not sheer inadvertence which brought me here, because I certainly intend to use this space to post pictures. I’m starting to feel as if I know what I am doing with a camera, as if I have a real viewpoint and an actual style. Learning by doing. I’m trying things, becoming more confident, am finding a lot of enjoyment in it.

A New Season

If I knew how to draw a double line or turn the page. . . This is Fall of 2008 and time to begin a new chapter, after a long pause in my blogging, which has partly coincided with a long pause in the AIDS/Lifecycle training season. Cycle training and the AIDS Ride have provided the framework and rationale of this writing—and I certainly have not ceased riding. But life and events have also gone on in the interim, and soon I guess I’ll have to give some account of them. But here we are, facing the kickoff ride for ALC 8, this Saturday (I’m going to have to decide whether to skip it and go help sing a Gregorian mass at St. Ambrose, where they sorely need me, or whether I can ride and still get back on time). Diana has volunteered to help conduct a clinic for beginning riders, but I didn’t sign up to help; I felt that others would probably appreciate the chance to act as leaders. And I haven’t yet registered to ride this year. I think I need to see what my cancer situation is before I commit myself; in fact I also have some reservations about the ride and some concerns about my determination to do the fundraising. Again, maybe I need to give others a chance to ride: they’re going to limit registrations again. And Diana won’t be riding; she will be undergoing knee surgery in just a few weeks and has extensive rehab to look forward to. Actually the bike will help her regain her strength, assuming all goes well. But the main factor is her school schedule. The first week in June is the worst possible week for a teacher to take off. Well, we have both been recertified as Training Ride Leaders and intend to help train AIDS riders as we did last year.

While speaking of ALC and fundraising: our friend Valdez Hill, who developed the ALC Concert Series last year, is back with even more ambitious plans for this year. And we’ll be joining him, as supporters and performers. I’ve been trying to set up a program in February at Northbrae where I sing. He’s been lining up sponsor churches, some very desirable venues this time, and recruiting musicians, professional and amateur. And he’s found he can reach out beyond AIDS/Lifecycle, will be staging benefits for several organizations, including the Young People’s Symphony and a rec program for HIV positive teens. It’s exciting to think about.

Well, my condition. I am continually embarrassed by people who ask me in that urgent way how I am feeling. I should appreciate their concern, for me, for a fellow human, but they are seeing me as a “cancer patient,” and almost seem disappointed to hear that I feel fine. And I am fine. Yes, I am on anticoagulants, until December, and there is the possibility I could bleed dangerously if injured. While they were scanning me in the hospital for my embolism they discovered another spot in my lung which appears cancerous. But it’s way too small to biopsy for now, so we are waiting to see if it will grow. It’s just the same story as my colon mass: no symptoms, nothing I can do about it, just take one step at a time. I’ll be going in for another scan when we get Diana through surgery and recovering. Worst case could be very bad, but there’s no reason to assume the worst. So yes, I am fine and feeling fit and riding strong. That’s enough for now.