The Rambler

Four weeks out of surgery, and I'm feeling pretty darn good. The first picture is from just after the surgery, when I hadn't come fully off the pain meds and I was feeling great, and the second picture is what I looked like 18 days after the surgery. The surgical adhesive and first round of scabs came off after three and a half weeks, and at this point there's not much abdominal pain left - although I would not want to try rowing yet... well, I want to, but I think it could set my healing back! My doctor did give me the go-ahead last week to start riding my bike again, which has been great. The pathology report came back last week looking very good - there is a very high likelihood that all the cancerous tissue was removed. There will be further testing to determine if it's gone for good. My post-surgery doctor follow-up is a few weeks away. Hopefully at that time I'll get the green light to get back to rowing.

I haven't really kept up with recent doings around here. I'd neglected to review my pictures, and after doing that today I realized there have been several events over the past few months that deserve some mention. So here goes...

In early March we had the back yard tree removed. We want to put solar on the house at some point, and we want a large garden in the back yard, but the tree created too much shade. In addition to that, the tree had been badly trimmed to keep it from overhanging the lot line, so it was ugly as well. We decided to get it out, and we're happy to have it gone. After that, we put in cattle-panel fencing to keep the deer out and the dog in. The garden had begun!

No Kings day on March 28 was a big day for me, as I was heavily involved in helping to plan and organize the event. We had around 3000 people filling the street on one city block.

On May 16 the All Roads Lead to the South march occurred. Not being able to participate in any nearby actions, and certainly unable to travel to Montgomery, I decided to march alone. I made this sign, and walked around downtown and through the farmer's market. I got some thumbs-up, had a couple good conversations, and had one conversation with a bigot who disagreed that the Voting Rights Act is necessary. The work continues.

The following week I got up early one morning to ride along in the coach boat with my rowing coach Danelle. If not for the surgery, I'd have been out there rowing instead of riding along and taking pictures. But I love the morning rowing experience, watching the sky and clouds brighten as the sun rises. It was - and is - fun to critique the crews from the outside.

Later that day Audrey and Paul came to spend a couple nights with us as they were taking a loop tour around the upper midwest. The time was short, but we got in some hiking and a nice dinner at Nodo downtown.

A few months ago Kristin and I were at the ReStore and found this rocking chair. Every single joint in the chair was loose, it had been poorly repaired, probably more than once, and it was not possible to pick it up without one of the rockers falling off. Kristin wanted it, I wasn't too keen on doing the repair. It was very comfortable to sit in though, and it was just $12. Figuring that the downside was pretty minimal - being out $12 - we decided to get it. It sat in the basement for a long time, until I finally got started on fixing it a few weeks prior to my surgery. After the surgery, as I felt able, I kept at it, and finally finished it over the past weekend. It came out very nicely, with a total cost under $25!

Finally, it's never a bad idea to close with a picture of Archie! And it's pretty cute that a squirrel decided to use our grill as a perch. And one more note: I've added a couple new sardine reviews, including one from Emma, who is now my first guest contributor to this blog. Yay Emma!