She Skates

Sunset

It's time to pay up my yearly dues to Typepad for my blog.   I think when I started I had the idea that it would be forum for my thoughts, and playback from my friends.  It's been that at times, but I think most people have moved on....or in Janet's case passed on.  Somehow it seems that I'm talking to myself except for Pattie.  I hate to lose the pictures and posts, but as I get older I realized just how ephemeral all this stuff is....I mean, our lives, all that "stuff" that we collect and the dramas we indulge.  I've not declaimed at length about my spiritual ideas, but the SRF teaching is to know this.  And to know that the only Reality is God, and our own Soul that is a part of that.  The things I rant about aren't ultimately important.  Guruji said "Change yourself and you change thousands."  As I tell my children constantly, and as my Mom often said, "Actions speak louder than words."  

I think it's time to take SusanSkates into the sunset.  It's been a good trip, and I appreciate the feedback that those who read have sent me...sometimes privately.  I'll see  you all at Olympic Trials in Marquette next month! 

Susan, who is still skating slowly, but skating nevertheless!

Gallbladder be gone

There's nothing like being around a hospital make one grateful for basically good health.  I went to UCSF for my surgery yesterday because statistics show better outcomes in a teaching hospital.  My surgeon was a woman!  So is her chief resident, who looks Gillian's age 0_0   Dr. Kirkwood is amazing.  She had a patient before me who had pancreatic cancer.  Her surgery went 5 hours over as she took out a pancreatic lobe, spleen and gallbladder....through the belly button.  It was 8:00 p.m. before I got into surgery.  She bounced, yes bounced, in to see me at 7:00 and I asked if she still had energy left for me! Her pearls jiggled in her scrubs, her African turban shown brightly as she said, "Sure just let me get something to eat."  (She is white).  Instead of those tacky blue shower caps you see on TV they do some stylin' at UCSF with the head covers, but Dr. K's turban had 'em all beat.  It takes a very distinct type of person to do this work:  the constitution of an Olympic athlete, the confidence of a Marine commander.  She picked up some other info on her internal camera and suggested a consult with a gastroenterologist who may be able to help with with chronic pain problems I've since 2004.  I'm really excited about that!  Going to an outstanding medical center puts you in touch with people on the cutting edge.  I should have gone over there to a GE earlier.  Somehow got to work in that trip to Olympic trials in and amongst these medical visits.  Well, the surgery is surprising pain free, comparatively.  I've not needed any narcotic meds since we left the hospital at 1:00 a.m.  Some ibuprofen, a nap, and lots of reading and drinks.  Tomorrow its on to Chicken soup, and then the culinary world of fat filled food again!  (Well, not enough so as to put on the weight I've lost so painfully).

More friends from the past

Yesterday a friend from the really distant past came for a short visit.  In the fall of 1981 Ted and Adam (18 months) and I were stewing in line at the DMV in Butler County, Ohio, trying to get new drivers licenses from our move from Oregon.  Why is it always that dealing with DMV is a pain?  A very nice young woman offered to loan Ted some money to pay for whatever it was that we needed.  Gail Carey had just gotten her Ph.D in nutrition and started work at Procter and Gamble in nearby Cincinnati.  For the next 3 years she was like a member of the family, spending Saturday nights making dinner and listening to "A Prairie Home Companion."  She reminded me that I also gave her my famous strawberry pie recipe that she's been sharing ever since, and also how to make strawberry jam.  (I'd forgotten this.  Why don't I remember the good things I've done, only the bad??)

I have a picture of Gail holding Gillian on her chest when our girl was only a couple of weeks old :)  We haven't seen her in 23 years, but I never lose a friend who will keep in touch.  Gail is a professor at the University of New Hampshire.  Her daughter is a high school senior and was coming out to attend Outward Bound in the Sierras and tour UC Berkeley (Cal) and UC Davis, where Gail got her Ph.D.  We ate Indian food (well, as usual I ate lentils and rice, all I can manage with the gallstones right now).  We talked until late at night and felt the years roll away as if they never were.  Some people are just so genuinely good, putting out a positive and happy vibration, that you want to be around them.  Gail is like that.  Her research for the past 5 years has been on the effects of chemicals in the environment on fat.  Her research shows that rats (yes, those poor long suffering rats again that caused Gillian to eschew research) exposed to flame retardants gain more weight as babies than those not exposed.  And fat cells exposed in vitro to flame retardant grow and get, well fatter!  So here is an unexpected link to the obesity epidemic.  Children exposed to the huge number of new chemicals (80,000 in the last 35 years) may be triggering the growth of fat cells.  It's not all about McDonald's.  Very interesting. 

Gail is going to send me some of her good thoughts when I have surgery Monday.  I'm going to try hard to keep off that 7 pounds that I've lost so painfully.  It really means, no fat! And cutting down on the amount I eat.  Gail eats hardly anything, and she's as always thin as a rail.  Oh the price we pay for vanity!

Rocky Mnt National Park 2009

Once I got my stomach settled down, and Ted became more confident with his new derotation brace, we went on some of our favorite hikes.  No 10 milers this year though.  Most were in the 6 mile range, but hey, we were glad to out there together.  Most interesting were the humongous Queen bumblebees in Hollowell Park.  They caused the purple vetch to actually bend way over!  The queens only last a year, so they weren't wasting any time.

The wildflowers were at their peak, as usual.  This is sulpher flower.
I really liked this arrangement of Indian paint brush, sage, wild geranium and yellow stone crop.

The aspens have their own beauty in the summer.  In September they are spectacular.  But I still prefer summer.   I'm sorry the YMCA has gone so commerical though.  Lots of new fancy buildings to attract the conference crowd.  Tastefully done and very estheticaly pleasing, but it's lost that feel of a rustic summer camp.  Well, that's the nature of everything of course.

Heading to Colorado

We're heading to Estes Park tomorrow.  I love going in July because that's the peak of wildflower season.  Ted got his new derotation brace today, but he won't be doing much hiking.  He's been out of commission for several months after his bad right knee gave out several times.  Nothing torn on the MRI so it's joint damage and stretched ligaments from the injury he incurred when he was in the Air Force.  Sparring with a Special Forces guy twice his size.  It finally gave out completely and he had an ACL rebuild 14 years ago, but there's a big difference between a 25 year old body and a 60 year old.  That's why when I see the young skaters incurring all these horrendous injuries I feel so badly, knowing what they have to expect as they age.  Still, one can't sit on the sidelines like a pumpkin.  I may not go very fast but many people think I'm nuts to be out on skates trying to go very fast at all.  Ted's many sports injuries (I've not mentioned the others....) have just caught up to him all at once.  Still, the right attitude in every situation is gratitude.  It changes the way your brain functions, and improves your attitude.  I've got some painful health problems myself, "just" chronic pain, but I'm going to keep going.   Time to kick the bucket later.