It has been a picture perfect summer day. After a pretty sedentary week with lots of time in the car and persistent rain, I pumped up the tires on my bike and went for a RIDE this evening. I am not sure if I rode at all last summer when I was in the thick of bazooka blast chemo. My bike spent the winter downstairs on the trainer and  I rode it only a couple of times. As best I can tell, my balance is pretty good but I was still quite cautious on this inaugural ride and just did a couple of laps around my neighborhood. With that successful test run in the books, I am looking forward to some longer rides!

The second photo on tonight’s post is of my front planter that is beautifully decked out with flowers selected and planted by Julie. She is one of those amazing people with an eye for texture and color - skills that I definitely do not have. Julie has been making the front of my house look beautiful both winter and summer for many years now. Thanks so much, Julie. I just love it when my house looks nice!

I had only one trip to Mayo this week but it was an EARLY morning with an 8:00 head and neck CT scan. This was prep for removing the cancer-compromised lymph nodes just under my left collarbone. Cheryl and I will leave for Rochester late afternoon tomorrow, spend the night at the Marriott (I am REALLY accumulating Marriott Bovoy points!), and Monday the ENT will remove the lymph nodes and inject my paralyzed vocal cord with a collagen-like material that will, hopefully, strengthen my voice. I will be blissfully asleep through the entire process and will get to go home later in the day. The interesting twist is I am not allowed to talk for 24 hours after the vocal cord injection. So this afternoon I figured out the text to speech feature on my iPhone. I have selected a very nice British voice and can now write and highlight any text that displays on my phone and my new friend “Kate” will speak the words. Pretty cool! 

Please direct some good vibes to southeastern Minnesota on Monday. Either Cheryl or I will send along an update confirming that the removing and injecting have all gone well.