Chemo round 4

I told some of you at one of my Zoom meetings over the weekend that I’d be starting a new kind of chemo this week. Turns out I’m not. I’m still on the same stuff I’ve been on, although at a 2/3 dose.

So far I’m doing ok. My hands and feet are swollen and tingling, but I can still walk around the neighborhood. I’m not sure how much of the swelling is due to the meds and how much is just due to the heat, lol. It’s 100 degrees hot! It doesn’t look like I’m going to get a swimming pool this year, but next year, just wait. I’m going to figure something out.

We went bicycling on Wednesday! I’m slowly recovering from the surgery. I recently emailed my sister asking about my surgery recovery. I feel ok but there’s still a fair amount of discomfort. And it’s been three months! I asked her if that’s normal and she said yes. She said it was major surgery and it’ll take a year. A year!

John had worked some overtime recently, so we took Wednesday morning off and went biking on the Bosque trail. The Bosque trail is a wonderful, long, flat multi-use paved trail near the river. You can’t quite see the river from the trail, but the trail is tree-lined and you can see an irrigation arroyo that parallels the river and usually (always?) has water in it. On the opposite side of the arroyo are the backyards of some very expensive homes, with irrigation rights, so their large yards are landscaped beautifully and are probably the greenest section of all of New Mexico.

I was super excited to be able to bicycle for 45 minutes. A 45-minute bike ride on flat terrain is not very far compared to what the previous-me could do, but it’s very exciting for the current-me. And my mask didn’t bother me at all. I suppose it’s because it’s a homemade mask and not tight. The breeze from the bike’s movement kept plenty of air circulating. That probably means the mask wasn’t protecting me from anything, but hopefully it was keeping the worst of my own aerosols contained.

I love that trail and wish it wasn’t on the exact opposite side of the city from us! A year or two ago, before we bought this house, I looked for a house near that trail. But prices are a lot higher over there than where we ended up, and at the time we thought John would be commuting. So we bought this house near his company to minimize his commute. And now he works from home and only goes into work about once a month. So we totally don’t need to be here after all. Ah, hindsight.

I have been feeling kind of bummed about my neighborhood lately (as a few of you know). But then something very nice happened yesterday. John and I were out for our usual walk, and we were walking past a house that I like. The balcony is full of colorful talavera pots, and the front yard is an untamed riot of desert plants. There’s just something about the place that feels homey.

The owner was checking her mail as we walked by and she told us to smell the blossoms on her mimosa tree. And they were so sweet. It’s just a little thing. But we’ve had a couple of neighbors move in right near us recently who aren’t the sort of people who would even grow mimosa trees, much less invite passersby to stop and smell them.

So today I dropped a little greeting card into her mailbox. John said I was crazy. I don’t even know her. He also said it’s illegal to put things in people’s mailboxes. It’s a card! Isn’t that what a mailbox is for?

Here’s what a mimosa blossom looks like. I didn’t take this picture. It’s from the web. I’m getting lazy!

Due to the hand-foot thing I have from the chemo, my palms are smooth so I can’t unlock my phone with my fingerprints. Plus, I can’t see the phone screen through my sunglasses, and I can’t push them onto my head because of my sunhat, and then there’s the mask right in the way of everything. I get tired of trying to mess with my glasses, my mask, my sunhat and my phone, just for a picture while we’re out for a walk! I didn’t take pictures of the Bosque trail either, even though it’s nice and green at the moment.

However, I did get my phone out for a photo of this roadrunner Darren and I saw on a recent walk. I think it’s got a lizard in it’s beak.

I’ve seen that roadrunner at that same house before. He must live there 🙂

Roadrunners are hard to photograph, lol, they don’t stand still very long!

There’s a lot of things in life I miss right now. And I feel bad I can’t join the peaceful protesters. But I do enjoy our daily neighborhood walks.

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