If It's Monday, It Must Be Chemo Day

Our good friend Tara is visiting from Santa Cruz, and we're expecting Indigo and Elena too. If it's Monday when you're reading this, Roger is starting chemo today. We're nervous, but ready, especially since the oncologist told us that Roger shouldn't expect side effects for the first two weeks. That's why he gets the third week off, to recover, get necessary blood tests, breathe a sigh of relief. He's chosen to do Xeloda, an oral medication that he can take at home. He wanted flexibility and some sense of autonomy during these sessions. The oncologist said he thought Roger had made a good choice. There is no way to measure if the chemotherapy is working. There is no tumor to shrink. It's more like insurance or like wearing a seat belt. Did that belt save your life? Maybe. It's all about chances.
In the meantime, we've been hiking on a new trail out behind our neighbor's place. It's a lovely walk through the woods, along a ditch, and up around the reservoir. It's become our new favorite hike, and mostly because we see the most beautiful red-winged damselflies there.
These are things we always love leaving the house for. A beautiful balance to everything else.

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roger sez.......

i have been apprehensive about this chemo thing. long hikes and work in the prospective garden have helped pass the time and build up my strength. also…the oncology doc was most reassuring about working with me as far as adjusting dosage to minimize the "side effects." i had no apprehension about walking in for surgery. modern medicine is sometimes referred to as "cut, burn and poison." i've been cut. now it's poison. no burn yet.

on the extra plus side, all of the actual humans with whom we have interacted have been quite nice and wonderfully competent, many charming. so far my experience with "the system" has been good.

Pictures From The Pond

Now that the temperatures have finally moved into somewhat normal range, we're starting to see more insects out and about (and luckily not close to the poison-zone around the house). This makes us very happy. Most of the action takes place down by the pond. So, we moved a picnic bench down there and just sit and watch.
We're seeing a lot of dragonflies. This one skims the top of the pond for food. A rather handsome fellow, a Common Whitetail.
We're also seeing damselflies flying around or hanging about together while otherwise engaged.
The thing that caught my eye though, and made me look at bugguide for hours was this beautiful orange moth. Still no ID on this one, but what a strikingly brilliant orange moth it is. I wish it would have unfolded its wings, but it sat quite still for a long time just like this.

The field around the pond is full of tall grasses that we are letting go to seed. The variety is quite surprising and I can see that we're going to spend time learning how to ID them as well. Don't be surprised if you see photos of grasses soon. It's the kind of thing that thrills us now!

I've posted most of these photos already on Facebook, but I like having them here on the blog for the recorded history of our new home, and for our friends who are not on Facebook to take a look.

The Latke Eaters' Impetuous Dream

I was going to write a post that sounded like this:

Hello, the blog you have reached is out of service and there is no new blog. If you think you've reached this blog in error, please hang up and try again.

or this:

Hi, you've reached Roger and Robin. We aren't updating the blog right now, but if you leave us a comment after the beep, we'll try to think of something to say as soon as we can. Thanks for calling...
We're floating. Off in our own little world.

We had a day last week without landline, cellphone, or internet service. It suited us perfectly in many ways. Someone had intentionally cut several A T & T fiber optic cables throwing three California counties into virtual black holes. It was, coincidentally, the day we had finally decided to write another offer on the house that we have been so freakin' ambivalent about. We have become desperate about finding a home, now that it is SPRINGSPRINGSPRING. So, we went back, looked again, and decided that we could maybe in our darkest moments put up with a house that has mind-numbingly negative feng shui. But then we found ourselves on a day without a single way to communicate that desire whatsoever, an impetuous dream suspended. I am not a reader of tea leaves, but I kept thinking that if I were to interpret this communication void that we found ourselves in, I would say that the entire universe had conspired to shout at us: DON'T BUY THAT HOUSE.
Well, we ignored all that and wrote an offer anyway the very next day. Desperate times call for drastic measures, right? Once we sent that offer in, we started to have second thoughts. Could we really make a go of it? What if Countrywide actually accepted our offer, that lifeless box with a roof would be ours. Oh shit. But Countrywide in its glorious, infinitely selfish wisdom countered us at full price.
They gave us a huge spectacular out, for which we joyously spread our wings, flew right through and never looked back.

So we went for a celebratory walk in the mountains and found beautiful damsel- and dragonflies out and about. We had a picnic of homemade potato latkes and applesauce in a fantastically quiet meadow. The clouds drifted slowly by, while the breeze fanned the tall spring grasses and purple lupines at our feet.

Such a joy is ours.