Where Will I Go?

Wow.  It's been over a month since my last post, which I guess in a way, that's a good thing. Most of my previous posts this year have been about my health, but since I'm feeling really good right now, it's allowed me to get out and about, which means that P.J.'s monthly photo theme of "Where Will You Go" worked really well for me. 

This past month, I was able to get two short road trips in.  One was totally geocaching related and though the wandering was just within the state of California, it gave me an idea of what my stamina might mean in the coming months should I decide to do some longer road trips out of state. The second road trip was a bit longer and it involved the granddaughter, so that's always a good thing. That trip near the end of the month was the first time we'd gone up there since my diagnosis back in December. So here's my monthly installment of the theme for this month.

1. I went where the wild things roam

A lot of my geocaching friends call me a snake whisperer. I take that as a badge of honor, but in reality, as I've noted in the past, I like to think that I'm just a little bit more observant around reptiles, especially snakes. I know of three people in my geocaching world who've been bitten by rattlesnakes and I don't want to become part of the club.

This being said, I found this guy crawling across the road that lead up to an old cemetery where I'd found a geocache. 5 minutes previously, he hadn't been there, but was halfway across the road when I came back down the hill from the cemetery. So naturally, I got out of my car, walked over and took several photos while it continued on its way across the road. I did that for two reasons, one of which was to obviously get some photos, and secondly to make sure that it got across the road without being run over by anyone coming up the road. Once it disappeared into the brush at the side of the road, I hopped back into the car and continued on my way.

2. I went where there are some "interesting" things to see

I've noted this several times in the past, but geocaching has taken me to spots that I would have just ignored previously. I'm not saying that Gum Alley was a prime tourist attraction, but it was quite different and something that I wouldn't have even known about were it not for geocaching, so that in itself is a good reason for me to continue this silly game I play.

I walked back and forth down the alley and was followed by another family of four. The older boy (about 5 or 6) had it right off the bat when I heard him whisper to his mom who was busily trying to keep younger brother from touching anything, "This is disgusting!" And yet people keep coming to sites like this, not only here in Atascadero, CA, but also other places around the world. I guess disgust breeds a kind of fascination.

3. I went into a child's imagination

My granddaughter is walking and talking and has a very vivid imagination. Her breakfast smoothies she makes have quite the list of ingredients and of course she expects you to eat them. This was the first time we were able to see her up there at her house since Christmas time and since there were other geocaching related things happening up in the Bay Area at the same time, I was able to kill two birds with one stone. It was a very fun trip and I wish we'd been able to stay longer, but we had a short window of time sandwiched between optometry appointments and dentist appointments. Fortunately, they're coming down here twice in the next couple of months so I'll still be able to get my Papa fix. We also FaceTime on almost a daily basis at dinner time, so I get to see her a lot. She fills my spirit.

4. I went hiking

This was so good. I like to hike a lot and with my health problems over the past half year, I haven't not been able to do that. But a couple of weeks ago, I went on a full fledged hike in the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park and hiked the loop trail which ended up being over 6 miles round trip from parking spot back to parking spot.

I was able to check up on a couple of my geocaches that were along the trail, four of which I'd noticed had problems since the last time I was up there. As it was, I ended up archiving two of them because they'd been buried by trail crews right before I wanted to get up there, but was able to confirm that two others were right where they were supposed to be. I also helped a couple other cachers out by checking up on their caches. 

When I got home, I was definitely gassed as my body was saying, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING TO ME?" Yeah, I know, I haven't done this in a while, but it's going to feel good once we get back into the rhythm of it again. My problem is I need to start getting up earlier in the morning as summer is definitely here and if I wait until 10:00 in the morning it's way too hot to hike the loop. What I need to do is get up at 6:00, hit the trail, then have breakfast, a cup of coffee and a shower afterwards. Yeah that's the ticket.

5. I went geocaching with 300 of my closest friends

Well, that's definitely an exaggeration, but I did attend a geocaching Mega Event up in the Bay Area when we were up visiting the granddaughter. For those of you who aren't geocachers, we have events all over the place. I host a monthly coffee event on the first Saturday of the month in my local area, usually drawing between 10 to 25 people. A Mega Event draws over 300 people! 

This was held in an historical park in San Jose, CA and geocachers from all over the country and possibly other countries as well converged here the last Saturday of June. There were all sorts of gadget caches (caches that are more difficult to open to sign the logbook) that we could work on at the event. The historical park gave us lots of interesting things to explore, plus there was a nice hiking trail that took us around the park to other newer geocaches that published that same day. This was the 6th Mega Event I've attended and it was a very enjoyable event. I look forward to my next event, probably next February in Yuma, AZ. 

When I go out geocaching, I always take my green ball point pen with me to sign the log in the geocache. Looking at the photo, I think I need to invest in a couple of green Sharpies so my name shows up better on the log sheet for Mega Events.

Well, there you have it, my interpretation of the theme "Where Will You Go?" Feel free to check out P.J.'s blog for his interpretation. There are links down at the bottom of that page to other people's interpretations as well. Feel free to leave your comments down below. I try to respond to all of them. Thanks for reading along.

A Brief Update

For those of you who have been following along on this journey of mine, you should recognize by now that the photo attached to this particular entry means that this entry is about my health. This is a brief update on what's been happening over the past couple of weeks.

Last week I had several procedures done.  Last Wednesday, my nephrostomy tube was removed and then Thursday of last week I had the stent removed. So for the first time since February 10th, I do not have any tubes sticking out of me or inside of me. 

Today, I received the last of 6 doses of my BCG immunotherapy. Now I'm taking a break from that as well, so the summer is free and clear for me.  BCG will probably start up again sometime in August, but for now, I'm done with surgeries and treatments for my condition.  Now it's time for my immune system to take over and wipe out the remaining cancer cells.

So, hopefully, the next post you read on here will be about geocaching.  I have a short little geocaching road trip planned for the first week in June.  The rest of the summer is going to be devoted to visits to our wonderful granddaughter.  I'm really looking forward to it.

Nicer Weather means Hiking and Geocaching.

This post is about geocaching, so if you're not into that, feel free to leave.  I won't be offended. 

Today, I went on a short hike today to test my stamina and also to scout out a spot for a hide that I've been working on. It was a short hike, but the views were worth the effort as seen by the shot I took from the trail.

One of my goals is to hide quality hides and to hide approximately 2 per month. For obvious health reasons plus weather related issues, I've only been able to hide 6 caches this calendar year, but now that the weather is better and my health is improved I can get back out and hide some more caches. Today was a start.

I found a spot that has a fairly nice view and with the type of camouflage I felt I did a pretty good job of hiding this one in plain sight. I haven't submitted it yet mainly because I want to hike back up there again to test the coordinates and to work on my stamina. Today, I walked about 500 feet further uphill before I turned around and headed back down for the day. I don't want to over do it on the first foray back into hiking.

So tomorrow, I'll head back up there to test the coordinates and see if I can get further up the hill. Oh, and as a public service announcement for those of you hitting the trail - be on the look out. I saw lizards today and unfortunately I found a two and a half foot dead rattlesnake. I much prefer the live variety to the dead one and I know some of you think I'm weird that way, but I'd much rather prefer a snake over any kind of rodent. Needless to say I was a little sad to see this guy at the side of the trail, but he was providing sustenance for other creatures, so it's all a part of the circle of life.

You Do You

Yesterday, I noticed that P.J.'s photo blogging challenge showed up in my Facebook feed and I thought to myself, "Self, this looks like another one where you're not going to have any content to post." I haven't really thought about the photo blogging challenge, or photography in general for several months, mainly because of my health issues, but this month looked particularly doable. I'd taken some shots, many of which I love and I think they all fit the theme of You Do You, since I've been concentrating on getting back to my old self, the one before the cancer diagnosis. 

I haven't got the hiking, camping or traveling parts back in place yet, but that will come, but I've been doing a lot more geocaching lately and fortunately have gotten several visits from my daughter, son-in-law, and of course the granddaughter who just lights up my life right now. So without further ado, I present to you my five shots for the theme You Do You.

1 - 4. Easter and family visits

This post in general is going to be heavy on the cutest little girl in the whole wide world. That's my unbiased opinion, and no matter what I'm sticking to it. My wife and I haven't been able to travel much over the last four or five months due to my health issues so it's been enjoyable to have the kids come to us, so to speak. By the way, if you're not up on what's been going on in my life, you can read about it starting here. There's about four posts in all detailing what's been happening. I'm in the middle of the immunotherapy treatments and I'm very optimistic about the long term prognosis. And as a friend of mine says, so I've got that going for me.

But anyway, the kids have come to us, visiting us for a whirlwind visit right after my birthday and then for a much longer visit before and after Easter. I've always been told that being a grandparent is even better than being a parent and I'm going to have to agree. It's such a joy to hear the pitter patter of little feet running around the house, to hear giggles again and just see the wonderment of a little one as she discovers the world and all there is to explore.

One of the days later in the week, we went down to visit my parents. They met their great granddaughter last summer, but she was very shy toward them. My dad just wanted to hold the baby and wasn't able to last summer, but this time the little one was a little less shy. It took awhile, but we finally got her to sit in his lap. Needless to say, he was in seventh heaven. All it took was a little screen time where they were looking at photos of herself on the phone and she just sat in his lap.

My mom ended up trading stuffed animals with her. The little one is very good about sharing just about anything with anyone, just as long as you give it back pretty quickly. This started over Christmas when I'd ask her for her pacifier. The first couple of times, I'd just take it from her and say, "Thank you!" in a high squeaky voice and then give it back to her. It became a game very quickly and now she'll give you all sorts of things, just as long you give it back fairly quickly afterwards. So that's what my mom was doing there, just playing the game.

One of the other things the little one has really glommed onto is the characters of Winnie the Pooh, particularly Pooh Bear and Tigger. We discovered this sometime in January I believe and so I went on-line and purchased a Pooh Bear for her, which has become her favorite stuffed animal. My wife and her sister had Pooh Bears when they were growing up and we have both of those bears.

As you can see, they were very much loved and have faded over time not nearly as vibrant as the newer Pooh Bear, but they were fun to have around. At one point, my granddaughter decided to have a Council of Pooh Bears. She had an entire meeting with the three of them, telling them in her own monosyllable words what she wanted each one of them to do. She was even dressed the part and I just love the way this particular shot turned out. On a side note, the Pooh Bear with the missing eye, got loved a little bit harder during the week and is now missing that bulbous nose it used to have. Things happen to stuffed animals if they're well loved, and these three will continue to be well loved for many years into the future.

And, as any self respecting grandfather will do, he will take a lot of photos of his grandchildren, particularly ones where he can get them to giggle and laugh in them. In my opinion, the best sound on earth is a tiny human giggling. It's good for the soul and what ails you and we got a lot of that during that week. If you look at this photo long enough, you can hear the giggle emanating from it.

5. Geocaching

And most of my posts would not be complete unless I mentioned geocaching in some form or another. Last week, I contacted my friend NotableFind and asked her if she wanted to go on a geocaching adventure. We decided to each take the train into downtown Los Angeles and meet at Union Station for a geocaching adventure. She's always said she's allergic to Los Angeles and because of the pandemic, I hadn't been there in about three years, so it was high time to take another walking tour of the area.

We walked down Olvera Street, then walked over to Chinatown and then back over to have lunch at Philippe's. She'd never eaten there before, so this was a must stop and the food didn't disappoint. After lunch we decided to walk over to the music center because there was a new virtual geocache that had been set up there in the past couple of months. One of the requirements was to post a photo of ourselves in front of one of the four buildings, so we decided on the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and called it good.

After that we headed back to Union Station to take our respective trains home. I think I overdid it that day because, according to my Fitbit, I walked almost 10 miles that day, way more than I've done in the last couple of months for obvious reasons. My wife and daughter have both said that I don't recognize my own limitations and I agree with them. I've come to be more aware of them. But the day was so fun and I kind of overdid it, because you know, it was fun.

And there you have it: my take on the theme You Do You. As always, please feel free to comment as I won't bite. Also, please check out P.J.'s blog to see how other people interpreted the same theme.

The Detours Seem to be Getting Shorter

Here's another quick update on my situation. A little over two weeks ago I went in for a second surgical procedure on my bladder. Coming out of surgery, I was greeted by my urologist/surgeon and he was very pleased with what he'd seen in there.  He did several deep biopsies in and around the area where the large tumor was and the pathology report came back with good news.  Not great news, but I'll take the good news at this point.

What they found was microscopic residual cancer cells around the edges of the tumor, but they found no cancer anywhere else. What this means is I'm not going to have any more surgeries for the foreseeable future.

Now comes the fun part. The big problem with cancer is the body's immune system doesn't recognize cancer cells as foreign entities, so the newest treatments have been designed around tricking the immune system to see that they really are foreign invaders.

So once a week for the next 6 weeks, I will have a type of weakened tuberculosis bacteria injected into my bladder. This treatment has proven highly successful against my kind of cancer.  After 6 weeks, I'll take a short break, then begin the regimen again. If all goes well, my immune system will take care of business and I can move on with my life.

As always, your notes of encouragement, support and love are totally appreciated. Thank you one and all.

 

Health Update

Over the course of the last couple of weeks, I've been asked a number of times how I'm feeling, what's up with my health and various other questions. Because of this, I thought I'd give you a brief update on my situation.

I didn't write about it here on Blogger, but did post about it in Facebook, so many of you already know what happened in the middle of February. My second surgery was February 10th,  and I had a third surgery scheduled for the 22nd. That surgery was postponed because 5 days after my second surgery I ended up in the emergency room and hospitalized for not one, but two pulmonary embolisms. Doctors put me on blood thinners right away and I have been steadily improving, but I'm not out of the woods yet. About a week ago, I developed a urinary tract infection (my second one since being diagnosed) and have been on a regimen of antibiotics to knock that out. I feel good overall, having gone on several four mile hikes over the last couple of days, so that's a good thing.

What it boils down to is my third surgery was rescheduled for six weeks down the road, because apparently I've been "stabilized" on my blood thinners. The surgery is still risky, but my urologist believes that he needs to get in and do some more work on the remaining tumor inside my bladder. And so I go in for surgery, tomorrow, the 29th of March. My doctor told me he didn't expect this surgery to last as long as the first one, which means my recovery should be quicker. Upshot of all of this is, this particular surgery will determine what the next line of treatment is for my cancer.

So if you don't hear from me in the next couple of days, that's the reason. As always, I have appreciated your kind words and support through all of this.

Collections and traditions

For those of you who know me well, you already know that I'm most comfortable in tee-shirts and shorts, unless it's the winter months and then it's tee-shirts and pants. Not really much difference, but at least it keeps my legs warm.

Anyway, most, if not all of my tee-shirts are ones that I've purchased when I travel. I started this way back in high school when the family would camp in Yosemite National Park almost every summer. And every time I was there, I would purchase a Go Climb a Rock tee-shirt. It sort of became a thing for a while there and I had a Go Climb a Street shirt that I bought in San Francisco and a Go Climb a Volcano shirt that I purchased in Lassen Volcanic National Park. I even had a gag tee-shirt that a friend of mine purchased for me that said Go Climb Mt. Fuji.  

After high school, I tended to drift away from the Climb shirts and just purchased ones that I liked. Most of these tee-shirts center around the national park experiences, but there's also novelty tee-shirts that some of my family and friends have purchased for me. So what does this have to do with anything?

Well, when I'm out and about I tend to wear a tee-shirt that fits the theme of the day.  If I'm geocaching, then of course, the likelihood is I'll be wearing a geocaching tee-shirt.  If I'm camping, more than likely, I'll be wearing a national park shirt. Family visits usually mean I'm wearing a shirt given to me by one of my kids.  You get the idea now.

After looking over some of my more recents shots I took at several national parks, it seems like I have a "Go to" shirt for when I enter a national park and get my photo taken at the entrance sign of said national park. I'm wondering if it's my subconscious telling me that I have to wear my Yellowstone National Park tee-shirt every time I enter a national park, or if it's just a coincidence? It's probably the latter, but no matter what, since this has become sort of a tradition, I obviously will be wearing that tee-shirt on my next excursion out into a national park, or at least when I get my photo taken at the entry point sign. And of course, because I noticed this, I'm going to either have to get back to Yellowstone to get a couple more tee-shirts, or order some on-line so I have a ready supply for future trips.