Home, Sweet, HOT, Home!

Passing Under the Tacoma Narrows Bridge

Approaching Deception Pass

Passing Under Deception Pass Bridge

We are back in Seattle, having arrived Friday afternoon to a nice hot “in the low 90’s” day. I’ve included pictures of the two notable bridges we went under this summer, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and Deception Pass Bridge, which connects Whidbey and Fidalgo Islands. Both bridges are quite high above the water, so there’s lots of clearance, but always still a moment of taking in your breath as you pass underneath.

We returned to Anacortes on Thursday about 12:30, and spent the afternoon cleaning the boat, readying it for haulout. At 11am on Friday, Tamarisk was pulled from the water to return to her winter home, high and dry, while Kae and Phil go play elsewhere. We managed to get back to Seattle in time to join our Friday night crowd for drinks and dinner in our local neighborhood. Kind of wishing we were on the boat still, taking advantage of the relative cool one achieves by sitting in a bathtub of cold seawater.

So now it’s time to sort through bills and mail, put in some groceries and get back into the swim of things. We’re just in time to catch a bit of some of the exciting Olympic competition, which we have not seen up til now.

I was able to get out rowing Saturday morning, and managed to hold my own in a double for an hour. The exercise will be good for my left leg, I think. It was talking to me a bit by the end of the row, but actually seemed to be a bit less swollen until we got into the heat of this evening. Strangely enough, I realized while driving that another piece of exercise my left foot gets around Seattle is depressing the clutch on my car. It’s been talking to me a bit while doing that too. We’ll whip it back into shape soon!

I am looking forward to spending the rest of my Sunday enjoying feeling great before starting my radiation on Monday. Except for my leg, most of my system seems to be back to normal. I recovered my taste for wine in the last week—and with it rediscovered how much wine also dehydrates me so I wake up thirsty at night. A sacrifice I will deal with. It is wonderful to know that I will recover it again after the next round of chemo. My hair is starting to fill in a bit—so it will probably recover enough during radiation that I can appear in public without a scarf (just in time to be mowed down again by the final 3 rounds of chemo). My bowels are also beginning to move normally—they’ll likely have a couple of weeks before the radiation impacts them. You can see why a full day of feeling “normal” feels like a treasure.

So now I am “at home” for the next 5-6 weeks, pinned down by daily radiation sessions. I will find out on Monday when during the day my appointment will be. After that my weekends will be my only flexible full days. I will keep you posted on how it goes. I rather expect to make it through the first week or two without too much ado. Then who knows.