Selling the Civic

I got up the nerve to post a For Sale ad on Craigslist last night, for my trusty 16 year old Honda Civic. Now that we have the CR-V, we're a little short on garage space, and I'm not too excited about carrying insurance on both of them. This morning I found 9 replies in my email inbox! The first person I called came right over and left a deposit. She was driving practically the same car, but with double the mileage as mine. She's supposed to return on Monday with a friend to help her drive it away. The only other time I tried to sell something on Craigslist, my old aviation GPS-90, it didn't move for a long time, but I think maybe this time I got the "priced to sell" part right.

Home From LV

What a week. We got home after midnight this morning, and didn't get to bed until 3am, after emptying and removing our new rooftop cargo box, so I could park in the garage. The new CR-V did really well on the trip. Even with several stops, we got there in just twelve and a half hours. And there was enough room for everything we needed, even with the big 42 inch high liquid oxygen supply tank in the back. It's hard to believe that Joanie only left us a few days ago, with so much happening before and after. Her loss will leave a big hole in our lives, especially after losing Sal so recently, in October.

Our friend Gabe is due in at 2:30 today from San Francisco. Maybe hanging out with him will take some of the sadness out of this week.

Aunt Joan

K and I embarked Saturday on our first long distance trip in over a year, on short notice. K learned this week that her Aunt Joan was deathly ill, at home with hospice care. She'd been wanting to visit Joan for over a year, and especially so after Joan's health took several turns for the worse. With K's own health issues, it just seemed too difficult to achieve. This latest very serious news got us jumping through hoops to make a trip happen. Most of the usual options weren't available to us, because of K's need for bulky equipment to provide oxygen 7x24, and also because of the uncertain schedule. So we took advantage of this challenge, to buy the Honda CR-V model we were eying throughout the winter. I felt the need to stay in town to support the first launch attempt of AV-009 on Thursday morning, and then the actual launch on Friday morning. The mission was successful, but not without issues, and I had to stay a little later than expected. Then we stopped into Honda and spent several tedious hours getting the paperwork done. By that time, it was late enough, and we were tired enough, that we decided to grab some sleep before leaving. We headed for the highway in our new vehicle on 6am Saturday morning. The drive went really well, with some really beautiful scenery that we'd almost forgotten about. I got really sleepy about halfway, but that was no problem, with K available to take over the driving. We made it in a little over 12 hours, and found K's brother John waiting for us at the curb outside the house. Joanie was in bad shape, lying there with very labored breathing. We stayed until midnight, keeping her company. It seemed like she was reacting to our words and touches, with an occasional sigh or groan. We finally headed over to our hotel for a few hours sleep. Joan died just a few hours later, very early in the morning.

Ride to Racines

Ken and I took Jim on a post-birthday bike ride down the Platte River, and up Cherry Creek, heading for Racines. We had our first en route equipment failure - Ken's rear tire went flat, from green goo gumming up the tire valve. His emergency CO2 cartridge really saved the day, and got us to the restaurant in time to meet up with Katie and Kristan for breakfast. It was a gorgeous day, forecast to approach 90 degrees later in the afternoon. We had a nice big lunch, and it did get hot, so we took the easy way out, and rode the light rail back home, after stopping at Turin Bikes to fix Ken's tire valve. He liked some tires he saw there, and decided to replace his knobby high-friction tires with some much smoother tires, which will work much better for all riding that we do on hard paths.

Bear Creek, Joan

K found out today that her Aunt Joan is in the hospital after showing symptoms of disorientation, and may have something going on with a mass in her head. Now she's struggling with the urge to get out there to visit. I dread having to deal with those logistics. Our ex-Boeing friends launched a Delta-II rocket on Thursday 6/7, and we're hoping to launch an Atlas-V next week on Thursday 6/14. See spaceflightnow.com for details. I got in some more riding with friends on Saturday, to Bear Creek Dam. On the way home, I stopped at Abe's Deli in downtown Littleton, and had a really tasty Gyro sandwich and bottomless cup of iced tea, at a sidewalk table.

June's Here!

K and I went to her appointment at the transplant clinic on Friday, talked to an MSW and an MD about the "next steps" in the process of trying to qualify for, and how to deal with, a kidney transplant. I've been wondering about this for some time, so I finally asked straight out about a pancreas transplant, and though the doc was a little hesitant because of her age, he didn't rule out the possibility. Next, our HMO will have to decide what they want to pay for. Right now, her only kidney transplant possibility would be from a cadaver, since everyone who's volunteered as a donor so far, doesn't qualify for various reasons. This doc mentioned something interesting: a surprising number of people are living with only one usable kidney, but don't know it, I guess the point being that two healthy kidneys are truly redundant. If Kaiser decides to go for a dual Pancreas/Kidney transplant, then the only option would be a cadaver, and we're off to Chicago at some point, for an evaluation. The doc says the good news is, they only like to take a dual organ transplant from young cadavers, in which case both organs would be likely to last longer. However, he recommended jumping at the opportunity of a live kidney transplant, since they generally last far longer. Somewhat unpleasant considerations, but necessary for us.

I went bike riding Thursday afternoon to Chatfield Dam, Saturday morning around the Lee Gulch loop, and Sunday to Bear Creek Dam. The little flying bugs are really out, this time of year, and the Cottonwood trees are all dropping their big fluffy seeds, too. The air is full of stuff. We feel like the personification of that old joke about how you can tell a happy biker by the bugs in his teeth. It's interesting, collecting heart rate data for each ride, with my new exercise watch. K and I were at Costco this week, and picked up a specialized biking backpack for $19.95 that has a water bladder inside, with a little nozzle that goes over the shoulder. The main idea was to get all the biking support junk (rain jacket, tools, snacks, etc) off the bike, but the water thing is pretty cool too. I tried it out today, and it works pretty well.

K and I took a walk along the Platte River Sunday afternoon, from the Nature Center down to the wildlife preserve, round trip almost a mile. The bugs and cottonwood seeds had a real presence. I don't remember either of them being such a big deal. But the walk was fun and the sunset was very peaceful. We even saw a beaver swimming in the reeds in a shallow spot.