I DID IT!

“Today is a gift, that’s why we call it the present.” - Somebody, probably. 

The last few iterations of this weblog have been concerned with much of the future, and some of it rightfully so. I have to worry about my Boi and his fight going forward. But this morning I only worried about the right now. 

My homie, Bobki sent a text the other day to a few of us that ride together and have known each other a long time saying he was going to do the 18 Hours of Fruita solo and wanted to know if we all wanted to do it solo, you know, together.  

I very much want to, obviously all depending on how the Boi is doing in his battle with cancer, so that’s worrying about tomorrow. Knowing if I want to do the 18 HoF I have to start doing something today, so if the opportunity presents itself, I’m ready to jump in and go. So I got the mountain bike down, dusted her off, pumped up the tires and shock and took a spin this morning, the first mountain bike ride in 77 days. 

Do you remember that nervous feeling when you went back to school after a nice summer off? That’s kinda how I felt this morning heading out in the dark. I haven’t ridden my mountain bike in 2 1/2 months, so I didn’t know what to expect. Was a a little slow on the climbs? Sure.  Was I a little squirrelly on the technical stuff and the descents? No doubt. But, there’s a reason that when you start doing something again that you haven’t done for a while people say “it’s like riding a bike.”  And damn it was great. Was it my best ride? Not by a long shot, but it for sure reminded me why I want/need to ride. 

Then, Mother Nature gave me another reason why it was a good morning to go for a spin. Had I not gone for a ride I would have missed this. 

Yesterday, the Boi told me this is the best he’s felt in 6 months…it almost brings me to tears typing this.  I don’t know how he feels today, but we’ll take that as a win.  We’ll live in the moment for a bit, thinking that the Boi is doing better and I got a ride in this morning.  Who knows what tomorrow holds, but we’ll get up tomorrow and give it another whirl. 

Racing Through Autumn With No Riding In Sight

I’m feeling like the latest iteration of this blog is turning into a cranky old man’s rant, yelling at the clouds. 

I’m trying my best to not be a cranky old man, but holy shit, how much stuff does one person have to endure? I realize I have (very) broad shoulders, but I can’t/don’t want to put anything more on them. 

Before I start (rightfully) ranting about cancer, I’ll begin with ranting about my business. As most of you know I am co-owner of a natural foods store. A few years back, our Chamber of Commerce merged with this new entity called Elevate. The guy who was running Elevate at the time was hell bent on getting a Natural Grocers here in town. A direct competitor to us, the co-op, and the other natural foods store in town. He wanted it because that’s what he had wherever he was from. And he got his wish, with one opening just 3 blocks from my store, and he’s not even with Elevate anymore. What the fuck. This fucking ass-clown got his wish, dumped gasoline all over the small, locally owned businesses, threw a match on it and rolled out. Didn’t create any competition for the big grocers in town but just fucked the little guys. Nice work dipshit. 

But let’s get to the 900 lb. gorilla in the room. The Boi’s cancer. If you follow his Caring Bridge page, you know we had high hopes for an immunotherapy trial we tried to start in Boston, but got set back even further by finding his cancer had spread to his skull/brain. MOTHERFUCKER. Now we’re in full-on fuck cancer mode, with his total course of treatment changing. He just wrapped up radiation at Mayo in Minnesota on the skull/brain lesion, which the team at Mayo thinks is very treatable. The other positive of this is the doctor that was getting ready to start the immunotherapy trial at Mayo is overseeing his treatment, so we have a constant link to the person that can get him back into the trial. 

Now I will bitch about myself for a minute. We all have been going nonstop for 3 weeks now dealing with this, and I’m trying to juggle keeping the Boi’s cancer at bay (by far my main priority) and keep my business viable, but this isn’t only for me, but a number of my employees that use this as the source of their livelihood.  It all makes it so riding a bike is low, low, low on my list of priorities. 

And it shouldn’t be that low on my list. If I had more opportunities to ride my bicycle I could work out many of the things in my brain that are bugging me about both of these situations, then I could be clearer about what I need to get done. My bike is my transportation. My bike is my stress relief valve. My bike is my personal trainer. My bike is my therapist. I always feel better about everything when I’m done riding. 

The Boi and my Lovely are traveling home today, with a little more than a week to just regroup, relax, and hopefully get a few rides in before we get back in the car and head to Mayo for the next round of treatment.