Isn't Life Delicious?

I believe it was 1990 (give or take a year) and we were living up in Orange County, NY in the village of Washingtonville. It was a gorgeous spring day and I was doing some kind of yard work while the neighborhood kids were busy playing on our swingset. I remember taking a break for a deep breath of the crisp country air while I enjoyed our view of the rolling hills and a brilliant blue sky. Hanging nearby was Jamie, a pudgy freckle-faced kid from up the street, and as I expressed how beautiful the day was he came back with one of those “out of the mouths of babes” quotes that has stuck with me to this day.

Jamie hit me with “yes, isn’t life delicious?”. He couldn't have been more then 4 or 5 and when I say this kid was pudgy and freckle-faced I mean he was pudgy and freckle-faced. So at the time I thought that what he had to say was mostly hilarious but I’ve always remembered that moment and lately Jamie has come to mind more and more often.

This past Saturday was much colder and a whole lot windier then I’d like for a bike ride but Dan, Stephanie, and I did get out for a 24.5 mile ride nonetheless. And yes, it was delicious. So too was the similarly chilly ride 2 weeks back but these rides never fail in making me feel vibrant and alive. I wish more of our group would come out to ride with us. With treatment on a 2-week cycle it’s impossible for me to get out on my bike more frequently but I sure do appreciate simple pleasures such as bike riding more and more.

Yep, treatment is tomorrow.

I’ll be taking a few decadron tonight and again tomorrow morning to see if that doesn’t take the edge off of treatment day. This will be on top of the variety of pre-meds that I get via IV as part of the treatment but for some reason this protocol has been tough on treatment day so I hope this is even a small step in the right direction.

I know that It’s a full 5 months away but our Mintz’s Mentschen team effort is getting off to a slow start so I can't end this blog post without mentioning it again. We only have 7 registered riders at the moment so please consider joining us. Our goal is to have 30 riders. All are welcome! Remember that our team motto is “start slow and ease up” so please take that as an indication that you should not be intimidated if you’ve never done this type of thing. We have 5 months to train you and to teach you the finer points of road cycling. Send me an email with questions or click here to register for our team effort at Philly LiveSTRONG on August, 21^st.