Category Archives: Personal stuff

No Kings ride this morning; attended a medical conference instead (???!!!)

Personal stuff
One of many, many, many slides with information relevant to my status as someone afflicted with a Myleoproliferative Neoplasm. I’d much rather learn about bicycle doping. 🙂

Got to admit it felt really strange, getting up at the regular time for the regular Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride, but instead of getting Kevin up, I took a shower, got dressed, and rode my bike. To the shop. Wrong direction! At the shop I switched from my nice bike to the shop klunker, and headed to catch a train to San Mateo. Felt like a regular commuter, taking a train full of bikes and people to their jobs in the ‘City. Got off and rode just over half a mile to a corporate campus (Franklin something-or-other) where there were tons of places to park fancy cars, lots of fancy buildings and… no bike racks! Seriously?

An early discussion panel featuring some of the best & the brightest medical minds in their field.

So why was I here, instead of riding through the steep part of Huddart Park on my way to Kings? Because it was time to associate with my “other” peeps. I got the regular titles, cyclist, dad, husband, biz owner. But there’s also that other title I acquired a year ago May. Chronic Myleoproliferative Neoplasm guy. A type of “mild” bone marrow cancer, specifically Essential Thrombocythemia. Part of a family that includes Polycythemia Vera and Myleofibrosis. Stuff that scared the crap out of me at diagnosis but I’ve gradually come to terms with it over time. And now, it was time to hear from the experts, in a room with others similarly afflicted. My peeps.

These peeps aren’t going to be seen riding a bike fast up Kings, although one woman had recently run a half marathon. Mostly they’re my age or a bit older. They don’t look different from anybody else, although in general they’re suffering from various chronic ailments like bone pain, fatigue & headaches. Things that fortunately haven’t found their way home to me. But it seemed like a good idea to attend a function where my other peeps got to hear from a panel of 5 or 6 experts in the field and get informed about the latest drugs, clinical trials, and prognostic breakthroughs. Yes, with enough data they can now offer a reasonable idea of how long you’ve got. But… do you want to know? They actually didn’t get into that question, which surprised me.

These are the tools of torture used to perform a bone marrow biopsy.

Turns out I’ve got until Sept 20th, 2026. JUST KIDDING!!! I don’t actually fit into the prognostic formulas, partly because I haven’t had the latest super-advanced genetic mutation testing, and partly because that testing is likely irrelevant because my primary mutation is, frankly, the best one to have. Life expectancy is generally normal, even if my disease “progresses” to the nasty end-stage that, ironically, my father died from 30 years ago. In my case, it ain’t got no teeth. It’s possible I could pick up additional mutations along the way, but so could anybody else.

They even had a bone marrow biopsy specialist there, explaining the procedure for getting samples… that’s fine… but did they have to show the slides with the equipment they use? Equipment being hand-held needle/punch hybrids? Somehow I got through it.

Overall it was very worthwhile. It felt good to confront my mortality head-on in a deliberate fashion. I learned some interesting new stuff, but mostly it was about finding my place in this alternative community I’ve acquired. I guess it’s not really alternative, but I see it that way because it’s not something I had a hand in choosing.

Heading home, I got to the San Mateo (Hillsdale actually) station just as a train was leaving. If I’d known the station better, I probably could have made it. Next train, 15 minutes. Not a big deal but… I’m on a bike… why not ride the 6 or 7 miles back? Maybe I can even beat that train! Didn’t quite beat the train, but would have, if not for the zillions of traffic lights on El Camino! Also, I feel a LOT safer on a road bike, with narrower bars, than a mountain bike. On the other hand, on the old beater mountain bike, when a car looked like it might get in my way, I had this feeling of “Yeah, just try it, bring it on!” Was also thinking of one of the Star Trek movies where The Borg have defeated Worf’s battle cruiser so, for his presumed final command, he yells out “Prepare for ramming speed!” 🙂

John F Kennedy understood The Ugly Ride

Personal stuff, Ride reports (not Tu/Th)

My favorite tree on Skyline (the Oak on the hilltop)
Never thought I’d be channeling my inner JFK, but here goes. My reasoning for doing a solo “ugly” ride today, a ride I really don’t look forward to but do on those days where I feel beat, spent, the rear view mirror showing a week behind me that I’d not want to repeat. One of those days it would be so easy to rationalize taking the day off. That rarest of days where you’re thinking, this is not a day I’m going to feel better after then ride than before. When I find myself thinking stuff like that, it’s time for The Ugly Ride. No Pescadero cruise with a reward at the Bakery. No climb that I’ve done zillions of times before and could do blindfolded with one leg in a cast. Time to do something just to prove I can. So here goes my personalized version of JFK’s famous Rice University “Moon Speech” (from September 12, 1962).

I choose to climb Redwood Gulch. I choose to climb Redwood Gulch, when I’ve had the toughest of weeks, not because it is easy, but because it is hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of my energies and will, because that challenge is one that I am willing to accept, one I am unwilling to postpone, and one which I intend to win, and the others, too.

Kevin was off on a date with his girlfriend so it was a solo ride today. And yes, it was an exceptionally-challenging week at work, and some of that challenge followed me home. Plus the whole Supreme Court thing, where we can’t really know what happened but we do know that our newest member of the Supreme Court said at the hearing that he was drinking legally because the legal age was lower then, except… that it wasn’t.

At the time of Kavanaugh’s self-described heavy teenage drinking, he not only knew what he was doing was illegal, he also had to rationalize why it was OK. That rationalization, to me, is the important part. Does he still rationalize things the same way, or did he have a come-to-Jesus moment and suddenly become an adult? We don’t know because he lied about the circumstances. And because nobody on the panel thought to ask about it. So the un-knowable remains (a lack of corroborating witnesses to provide validation to Ford’s story) but what was known, or became known, wasn’t explored. OK, that’s as far as we’ll go for the politics right now. Back to the ride.

I knew it was going to be slow, and it was. Slow enough that I had time to think about things that bothered me, like the rattle in the front end of my bike that’s been there for like, forever, so I actually stopped on Mtn Home Road to look things over. Couldn’t figure it out. Even pulled out the handlebar end caps to make sure nothing was rattling around inside. Nope. But it continued to bug me as I rode, so I started holding onto different things, hoping to either feel what’s rattling or stop it and know why. And… I found it! Turns out to be the switch on my Garmin camera. Who knew. Explains why the rattle is especially loud in the videos. 🙂

I couldn’t help but take the small detour into the shopping center where our Los Altos location used to be… still empty. It’s hard not to think about the opportunity the landlord passed up when we discussed a bit smaller space for less rent. If I was riding with Kevin we’d stop at the Peet’s for coffee, but the point to today’s ride wasn’t about having fun; it was about perseverance and part of keeping things “Ugly” was skipping little pleasures.

It was inevitable, obviously, that despite how slowly I approached Redwood Gulch, I couldn’t help pushing hard, and ended up with a respectable time. Once on Highway 9, totally different story! If you didn’t know a sloth could ride a bike, I’m here to tell you it can be done.

And once on the top, the worst of all possible worlds. No Mr. Mustard, and heavy smoke from a fire somewhere! This “Ugly” ride was living up to its promise!

But from that point on, the ride got better and better, as I felt increasingly human, especially when faced with a rabbit (another cyclist) to chase on Skyline. Not a very talkative guy, but at least he’d respond when I’d warn there was a car back.

And yes, by the time I got home, I was really glad I’d ridden. Especially when I got on the scale and saw a number I hadn’t seen for a while.

Below is the original text from JFK’s “We choose to go to the moon” speech-
“We choose to go to the moon,” the president said. “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”