Living with MCL

The further there is to fall.

As if it wasn’t bad enough I started having withdrawal pains Monday night about not riding my bike, after not riding for about a week, and then over sleeping yesterday morning, and not able to get a ride in before work [and it was too hot afterwards], today I had a visit with my oncologist, and discovered my platelets dropped to a minuscule 112 thou/cumm, well below the norm of 140 to 400 thou/cumm.

I had noticed a little more fullness in my spleen the last couple of days, but that isn’t really anything unusual. I often have those feelings. They come and go all the time. Even this morning they seemed to have dissipated, and I felt good riding the bike, but that was before seeing my oncologist.

Of course now I am experiencing a sensation of fullness again, along with a some feelings of trepidation. Low platelets and fullness in the spleen is a good indication of a malfunctioning spleen, especially when all my other counts were essentially stable.

It’s as if I’m being punished for having had such a great time this past weekend, and/or pissing off that friend of mine a week or two ago.

My best hope is it was a lab error, and if not, a few good hard bike rides, might shock my body into recovering. I will definitely be riding my bike into work tomorrow.

Or maybe it’s the 1000 IU of vitamin D I just started taking a couple of weeks ago. I knew there was a reason I don’t like taking supplements.

Oh well, stay tuned. I’ll know more next week. I’ve got another blood test scheduled for Monday.

Fleur de Lys Aug ’10

That’s Edie and me having dinner at Fleur de Lys the night before attending the Aureole Wine Weekend at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas this past weekend. Now while dinner at Fluer de Lys was one of the best meals I’ve had anywhere, it still pales in comparison to what was in store for us the following three days at Aureole.

To put it in its proper perspective, I would just say it is probably the only event, or place I’ve gone to where I didn’t miss being off the bike. That’s how good it is.

The level of the food, wine, and service is unmatched anywhere. It is a little pricey, but there are some things you just can’t put a value on. But always remember, you can’t take it with you, and the event included 2 dinners, 3 lunches and 2 breakfasts. So it was definitely worth it.

Even better is the exclusivity of the event. There were only 28 in attendance, most of whom also attended last year. Some of whom I even remembered. One couple even flew in from Germany, strictly for this event.

And not only was the food and wine first rate, but the knowledge gained by being able to pick the brains of some of the more noted people in their fields is priceless.

Words really can’t describe it, so I took a few pictures, on my new Droid X. Unfortunately a photographer I’m not. Plus I was having a little trouble using the camera, but I still think the pictures provide a relatively good representation of the event.

Last night I discovered I pissed off a friend with one of my recent posts. I won’t mention which post, but if you frequent this blog, it shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out.

Be it known, that certainly wasn’t my intention. It’s just sometimes I’m compelled to express my feelings of frustration. It’s a big reason I continue with this blog. Let’s face it, I’m a pretty liberal guy, and when confronted with something that goes against my core beliefs, I vent. I could scream and yell (which I do on occasion), but this blog seems to be a more appropriate venue to do that, not only because it’s less confrontational, but I can usually get some support from at least a few people here.

But if it’s any consolation to my friend (who incidentally I don’t hold any animosity against because he doesn’t believe how I do) this morning was not a good one.

It started off by getting up late. So I was already in a rush when I decided to grease my left bicycle pedal (that’s the one I believe is causing the clicking I’ve been experiencing as of late again), and in the process accidentally got some grease on my nice clean riding shorts. This caused an ugly, obtrusive stain, which I only discovered after spending about 5 minutes looking for the little [tiny] screw I lost, which covers the grease hole in the pedal, and to no avail I might add. So after giving up looking for the little screw, I still had to change my shorts, which put me even further behind schedule than I already was for the start of the club ride.

I did manage to catch the group, but not without some extra effort.

Then to top it off, I got dropped by group 1 in the hammer zone. Normally that wouldn’t be such a big deal, but there was only one group today, a third of which were group 2 riders. There were some mitigating factors which I could use as an excuse, but it doesn’t make the feeling any less demoralizing. I should have been able to keep up.

So is that what some might call bad karma?

I hate Mondays. Monday is a day off for me. A day off from work, and a day off from riding.

I did have a golf game lined up in Industry Hills this morning, but golf just hasn’t excited me as of late, so I passed. I also could have gone for a bike ride, but I put in over 900 miles last month, and I think my body could do with a little R&R. Besides it was foggy this morning, and that never makes for a pleasant or fun ride.

So what did I do instead? I got up (after a lousy nights sleep), surfed the internet for interesting stuff (which there wasn’t much of), watched some news and early morning talk shows on TV, and then just got depressed.

The ever bleak and gloomy picture[s] being painted by many economic experts is disheartening at best, and the continual bickering and infighting by our elected representatives, and others, repeating the same old rhetoric over and over again, is enough to make a grown man cry.

I really need to put a stop to this!

Work might have even been more enjoyable, if it weren’t for the damn 80 mile drive.

I think I’ll just go for a walk! At this point anything would be better than sitting in front of this computer any longer.