Well, two days 'til launch. The weather here has been beautifully cool (for here) all Spring. On Sunday, June 18 when I leave, the temperature is to hit 90 degrees. Definitely unwanted, but what can you say?
If anyone wants to take a look at my planned itinerary, contact me by email in the next day and I will send it.
I bought many carb gels today to take during the first 6 days. Lynn will replenish them then, somewhere in Michigan. These are good, expect they add weight to my already heavy packs.
My trusty new bike is still in the shop. Boo. "Just can't get to it, too busy all of a sudden," Brian (my guy at the bike shop) says. So, I rode my old bike this morning, unloaded, up some hills. Hey! It works! Did I really need that expensive new thang, which sits in the shop, anyway? And, without all that weight, hills are much more doable.
How about my Polymyalgia Rheumatica? You know, this is an illness that comes on suddenly, with no known cause, is rare, afflicts people over age 50 usually, with more women than men--and it is debilitating in its pain all over the body. It can lead to Giant Cell Arteritis, which can results in sudden blindness. Not good, that. This is about all that is known about it. Prednisone, the cortico steroid, is the only known treatment. It really does help, but its side effects are not pleasant. I was fortunate. My doctor diagnosed my condition right away and put me on 20 mg of Prednisone a day. "You'll kiss me in the morning," he said to me (if the steroid worked). I was about ready for a wheel chair at the time, early December. Lynn and Zack had installed a grab bar on the wall next to the bedroom toilet because I could not get up and down. The Prednisone provided some noticeable relief. No kisses, though...I am now on 8 mgs. of Prednisone daily, tapering 1 mg per month.
Last Monday I was losing confidence in my ability to do this bike trek because I felt considerable pain. Interestingly, it was the first day of what I call my "functional retirement;" my official date is Aug. 31. Coincidence? The rest of this week has seen an upswing in my health so I am now feeling a return of some self-efficacy about this endeavor.
I will be carrying with me two banners from the National Research Foundation for Polymyalgia Rheumatica as a way to bring this strange and exremely painful illness some attention.
I will close today with a poem I wrote when deep in the throes of PMR pain. I wrote about 20 poems then, most of them being morbidly existential. This one is a bit more cheerful and, I think, connects with my bike ride:
Liberation
O the countless
women and men
caught up in daily
tasks captivating
their souls.
Contributing, one hopes,
yet in harness,
yoked.
Pulling weight
arising from a
source ever more distant.
Coming of age
in later times.
Creating a life
open to sky, breathing life.
Free.
Robert Conyne
February 2, 2006
Til later,
Bob
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