Stay with Me...Let's Just Breathe...

My first zinnia bloom this year.

I am interrupting my RAGBRAI posts to do a monthly stats write-up. John and I are going to talk to another doctor today to talk to them about a possible new plan they have for me, so I will keep you informed when I know more about that as well. For now, you get my monthly stats.

It was a great riding month for me, because....RAGBRAI/OOBRAI and I have lovely garden/food things I've been able to do as well. Here it is in words and numbers:

1. Miles Run: 41 miles. Not great, but there were reasons...

2. Miles canoed: I didn't record it, but it felt like about 6'ish? And it was damn fun, whatever it was...

3. Miles biked: Exactly 900. That's right. We rode 9 miles to get exactly 900 this month. I figured with everything else going on, I might not get many miles in August, so I might as well be a dork about it and get an exact amount.

4. Books read: 5 - 1. "The Sell Out" by Paul Beatty, 2. "The First Bad Man" by Miranda July, 3. "Redeployment" Phil Klay, 4. "The Woman Upstairs" Claire Messud, "Zoo Force: We Heart Libraries" (graphic novel) John Ira Thomas.

5. Firsts - I definitely had some firsts this month. Some better than others...I had my first biopsy, my first cancer diagnosis, my first filling out of FMLA papers, but much better than that was my first bike bagging adventure, my first stay in a hotel/casino and the first time I got to go to New Glarus Brewery.

6. Races Competed In: 1 - the time trial at Clear Lake.

7. Places Traveled To: Madison, Wisconsin, Clear Lake, Iowa, New Glarus, Wisconsin, Burlington, IA, Ottumwa, IA, Centerville, IA, Washington, IA.

9. House Projects Completed: None, really, but continuous gardening counts, right?

10: Blog Posts Written: 9 and no real creative writing done this month.

Sooooo, today I find out more about the doctors' new plan to treat my cancer and I'll get back to you with as soon as I now. I was lucky enough to get to do amazing things in July. If that isn't the case for August, I guess it will balance out with last month.