Not any more! Divine Mother put me back in the game today.
I realized this morning that I had to get blood drawn today for my oncology follow-up appointment next week.
I also needed to pick up a prescription and buy a few food essentials.
I was definitely well enough to drive to town — no problem. But it did feel like a rather unexpected and sudden expenditure of energy after spending over a week at home recovering from COVID.
In fact, it’s only 9:30pm and I’m already looking forward to being in bed.
Today I had a noon time medical appointment in Grass Valley, followed by a mid-afternoon appointment in Auburn. This was perfect, as it allowed me to set up a lunch date with my Dad and two of my siblings.
Unfortunately, my body took exception to something I ate yesterday, throwing my system off and making last night and this morning more than a little uncomfortable.
My energy was pretty zapped but I still got it together to drive to my appointments. So far, so good…except that it decided to rain and then snow throughout the whole drive. Thank goodness it didn’t accumulate much, so the roads remained clear!
Needless to say, I was pretty much wiped out by the time I got home.
I’ve been so short on sleep lately that I was feeling a little drowsy on the drive from Yuba City (where I had my final post-op appointment-yay!) to Grass Valley, where I was meeting family for lunch.
I don’t usually turn on the radio in the car, but — in the interest of giving my mind something to focus on — I searched out a classical station and found myself listening to the symphonic music of Johannes Brahms for the first time in years and years.
It was his Symphony No. 2 in D major. It’s the only one of the four I’ve never performed but I still recognized it instantly. It’s such a glorious piece of music (a recording of the first movement is below)!
But what I found rather incredible is how intense of an experience it was. A number of feelings and insights came to me, which I need to reflect on in order to sort out what it all means.
One thing I do know is that I love Brahms just as much as ever.
I drove a total of approximately three hours today — to Yuba City, then Auburn, back to Grass Valley, and finally home to Nevada City — leaving the house at 9:00 this morning and returning around 6:00.
The stops along the way included a consultation about hernia surgery; lunch with my Dad and my sister; a follow-up exam for my dental implant; getting the car washed (it really needed it); and grocery shopping.
Needless to say, I am done in and rather desperately hoping to get to bed early.
For various reasons it had been all too many years since I attending a Brooks-Stroud family gathering. So, today was the day!
The picnic was in Sunnyvale, which is usually a three and a half to four hour drive (depending on traffic). Well, today — thanks to traffic, detours, and a grass fire along 580 — it took closer to six.
I enjoyed a couple of hours connecting with Dad, siblings, aunts and uncle, and also getting reacquainted with a number of cousins. But since the friend with whom I was planning to spend the night came down with COVID 😱, I decided to go ahead and drive back home.
Lots less traffic and a dinner break along the way with another friend both helped a lot. But I was definitely getting a little tired about halfway through.
Thank goodness I happened to throw a couple of CDs into the car when I left!
Between the high energy Irish music of Orla & the Gas Men (my Irish friends from way back when) on their Minding Mice at Crossroads CD and the high energy singing of Ella Fitzgerald (“Newport Jazz Festival, Live At Carnegie Hall“), I was able to stay engaged and alert all the way home!
A beautiful sky for our final night in Riomaggiore
The train trip to Genova went smoothly, but the drive from Genova to Assisi was a form of GPS hell.
No need to go into detail. Suffice it to say that instead of driving for four and a half hours, we were on the road for more like seven and a half.
We saw a lot of beautiful Tuscan countryside, but still…
These are some serious clouds! In fact, the real rain finally arrived as we were leaving Riomaggiore.The first glimpse of the basilica in Assisi is always a thrill!
An early morning dental appointment — following a night of freezing temperatures after days of rain — required extra careful driving today on my way out of the Village (especially our famous S-curve!) and on the way into town.
It also brought to mind a memory from my brief relocation to Ashland, Oregon in the mid-90’s.
A lifelong resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, I was not accustomed to winters with regular ice and snow. I also had an slightly decrepit Dodge Colt that leaked when it rained and whose windshield defroster didn’t work very well.
After months looking for work, I was hired for a temp job at an Imation plant a good thirty minute drive from my home in Ashland. It was past Medford in a town called White City. I usually worked from mid-morning into the afternoon, but a co-worker asked me to switch with her, which meant being there at 6:00am.
Being somewhere that early was already a challenge, but what made it super crazy is that the weather turned really cold and the news reports were full of warnings about black ice — something I had never seen, didn’t know how to recognize, and wouldn’t know what to do if I encountered it!
I was already pretty well terrified before leaving the house. To make matters worse, it was pitch black outside and the lack of a defroster meant that I couldn’t see through the windshield very well at all. So, I had my window rolled down and would stick my head out periodically to make sure I was staying on the road. I was also driving slow because of my worry about black ice.
Needless to say, I was not popular with other drivers on the freeway and I was a wreck by the time I got to work. But I did get there safely.
Remembering that experience put this morning’s town trip in perspective; after all, now I have a solid, dependable car with a working defroster and it was bright daylight. But I was still cautious and very grateful to arrive safely.
Yesterday was the first Tuesday since February 8 that we didn’t visit the Infusion Center for my chemotherapy injection.
It took me until the evening to realize that the discontinuance of the routine had me feeling a little “off”.
It would be too much to say that I miss getting blood drawn and drugs injected every single week, but we did get to know and appreciate so many lovely people over the many months — at the check-in desk, in the oncology and radiation departments, and especially in the infusion center, where I spent from two to three hours every single Tuesday.
So, I’m kind of missing the people, and it’s definitely an adjustment.
Of course, just as we were congratulating ourselves on doing a lot less driving, we realized that we’re about to start weekly trips to Sacramento in preparation for the bone marrow transplant.
