20 posts from April 2007

I'm looking into workout options while I'm in Chicago and I was reminded of a business trip a couple of years ago that required me to stay at Hamburger U. (I wasn't working for McDonalds, but my client was located near the campus). Whenever I travel, I toss in my bathing suit, cap, and goggles because they don't really take up any space and you never know if you might have a chance for a swim. Mostly, hotel swimming pools are nothing more than glorified wading pools--not really suitable for fitness swimming.

Imagine my surprise, therefore, when I walked into this swimming facility at The Lodge at Hamburger U.

Hamburger U. Pool

Honestly, the picture doesn't do justice to the size or luxury of this facility. What you also don't see is that it has a glass roof, so that it feels much more like an outdoor pool.

To get to the pool, you walk down a long corridor, where  McDonald's-themed artwork is displayed. Really--they commissioned artists to do serious works, some of which were very well done and not as cheesy as you might expect.

However, no Hamburger U. on this trip. Looks like a Bally's Total Fitness will be the deal -- I can even print out a free two-week pass online. (Of course, I am sure they will be calling me about membership for the next year.)

I had a good long talk with my Dad's wife Carol last night. It had been a long day that included a trip to both the oncologist and an ear, nose, throat specialist.

My Dad had been scheduled for chemotherapy yesterday, but they decided to delay that one week to see if he can gain some strength. There are signs that the therapy is slowing the cancer. The bone scan (done last week) showed only one additional small cancer "hot spot". His PSA is down to 31 (from around 50 a few weeks ago, and around 115 before he started treatment).

However, his overall health at this point continues to be fragile, which is why they did not go forward with treatment as scheduled. I am really hopeful he can gain even a small amount of ground in this next week.

One thing they are looking into more seriously is the problems he's had swallowing. This has been chronic for several weeks now and combined with periodic nausea is impacting his ability to eat. Meals are difficult for him and poor Carol - it's almost impossible to predict what might work for him. So far, he's not lost any additional weight as he's still been able to tolerate the nutritional supplements. The oncologist referred him to an ear, nose, throat specialist; he was scheduled to have an esophageal x-ray today.

I leave Friday morning so will be there soon!

Despite a very poor night's sleep and an odd crick in my lower back, I pulled myself together for my planned bike ride.

Drake and I drove up to Kenmore, where our good friends Karen and Phil live -- he dropped me (and my bike) off -- I did my ride while he visited with P&K (I joined them later after my ride).

Riding the Sammamish River trail is my favorite ride in the Seattle area. It's north of the city and quickly gets you into (relatively) wide open spaces.

I had hoped my back would loosen up with the ride, but that wasn't the case. I can count on one hand the number of times I've any any problem at all with my back, so I was surprised the stiffness persisted. As a result, I kept the ride short and easy.

On the way back, I had a er, riding companion. He was a friendly enough guy and I didn't mind the conversation, but when I got back to the parking lot he asked for my phone number and suggested we could go riding together sometime. I was a bit flummoxed by that -- he seemed to be a serious cyclist and I wonder if rather than going to bars, he just rides the trail looking for gals riding on their own. Who knows - it might be a great strategy. Of course, I politely declined.

Despite my uncooperative back, it was a great day for a ride - mostly sunny and mid-50s. Not shorts weather yet, but it's getting there.

I have tried to remain as upbeat as possible about my Dad's condition, but this past week had several concerning developments.

• On Tuesday, he developed a fever of 102.5. His doctor wanted him to go into the ER, but not surprisingly that suggestion was not well-received since he'd only just gotten home from a 5-day hospital stay. So, they started him on oral Cipro at home and that worked to bring the fever down. However, he was having horrible side-effects from it, so tried to stop taking it. The fever came back, so he went back on it.
• He doesn't seem to able to gain much ground with his hemoglobin level, despite last week's transfusion. That makes me worry his bone marrow is not functioning right at all.
• He went to the Coumadin clinic to have his blood checked (he's on Coumadin as a result of a stoke he had about a year ago). He seems not to be responding to the Coumadin therarpy (it's not thinning his blood) and they don't really know why.
• He's not eating much right now.

I leave for Chicago on Friday and plan to be there (with a few days on the East coast on business) for at least two weeks. It happens to fit with work that makes sense for me to do from Chicago, but I am prepared to stay on as necessary.

I keep hoping he's going to turn the corner on this, but the trend line the past several weeks in particular is not running that direction.

In today's Wall Street Journal on the recent CrackBerry outage:

Lori Sale, a senior agent at the Los Angeles-based talent agency International Creative Management, was at her 14-year-old son's baseball game when her BlackBerry stopped working. She first realized something was wrong at about 5:15 p.m. PDT, when she noticed she had received no emails on her BlackBerry since 5:03 p.m. Ms. Sale, who estimates she receives more than 500 emails a day, became alarmed when her boss then called and asked why she hadn't responded to his email sent four minutes earlier about a sudden problem.

Her boss is asking why she hadn't responded to an email sent just four minutes earlier?

Then there is this panicked soul:

"It felt like a tremor," said Mr. Kleinschmidt, an engineer at a software-development company in Troy, Mich., who gets an average of 250 emails on his BlackBerry each day. Panicked, he pulled out the battery several times, trying to reset the device. No dice. He stayed up the entire night, calling the BlackBerry help line every hour. No luck. Then, he logged on to his PC and began reaching out to other users to see what was going on.

Sheesh.

All I can say is that I am very thankful I have a job that allows me to have a life. (And, by the way, I do have a Treo 700p, but I use it to access email during the workday when I'm away from the office, not around the clock.)

The organiser of a Devon music festival has spoken of her horror at seeing a £45,000 ($88,000) grand piano fall off the back of a removal firm's lorry.

"It was going to be so magical for the festival to have its own piano, a dream come true."

The piano was being lifted from a hydraulic lift on a removal lorry when it toppled over and fell 8ft (2.5m) before landing on a bank, causing extensive damage to the instrument.

Oh Shit.

Later, they brought in a tractor to lift the darn thing off the ground.

Steady, now

Full story is here.

I just can't seem to get an "outside ride" in this week.

Sunday, I got out on the trail early, only to see an absolute wall of people walking towards me. It was the MS Walk. I thought I might be able to cycle through them (it is a multi-use trail, they should have made room for me), but alas it was completely impossible. Usually when there is a big event using the trail, they post signs the weekend before. In this case, that didn't happen. I was not the only frustrated cyclist.

This morning I had the bright idea to ride before work. I normally just do the trainer on weekday mornings, but since my schedule was free of meetings I decided to go for it. The weather was cloudy, but otherwise looked OK. Fifteen minutes into my ride: downpour. Downpour to the extent I couldn't see in front of me. I don't mind wet conditions (I live in Seattle after all), but this was crazy. So I turned around and rode slowly and carefully back. Of course after that morning storm, it's been beautiful and sunny all day. Sigh.

Dad was released from the hospital today; his blood values appear to have stabilized and he was feeling better (though yesterday was not a great day for him -- more weakness and fatigue).

He's due for his next chemotherapy treatment a week from tomorrow; he hadn't talked to his oncologist about this, but he suspects they will delay the treatment until he recovers more. I assured him that after Drake's third or fourth treatment his blood values were such that they almost delayed treatment for him (he was borderline, and since he'd otherwise been doing well, they went ahead as scheduled). I know it happens a lot with therapy, so if they do need to delay hopefully it will just be for a week or so. Dad described feeling pretty "womped" by the last round of treatment so I think he's very open to having a bit of a recovery period before the next treatment.

I'm glad he's home now; it's always nice to be resting in your own bed.