T3's blog

went to the track

2009-05-31T22:14:00.002-05:00

I haven't been riding enough lately. There was a high probability of the cancer to come back and going into my first checkup I wasn't completely committed to the amount of training required for bike racing. My checkup was this week and I'm all clear, at least until the next checkup.

I raced tonight with low expectations knowing that the 2 days a week or so that I have been riding are nearly enough to prepare me for race speeds.

My flying 200 was average. I'd never done one before. I'm pretty sure I can go faster. The tempo race I managed a single point on the first sprint but faded fast. The 360 sprint was fun but I did not advance to the finals. I thought I was putting in just enough effort to advance but a dude came around me and beat me at the line. The Miss and Out reminded me that I hate Miss and Outs. The final race was a points race and the plan was to hang while I could and then if I got dropped, go down a lap and jump back in again. I think riding with a group at race speed is probably better for me to get back into shape that doing a Individual Time Trial for 40 laps. I did about 30 laps or so and packed it in.

Looking forward to going back. I needed to get that first night of racing out of the way and I think I found the motivation I needed to get back in shape.

2009-05-25T22:34:00.002-05:00

In the background there you'll see some Jay Bennett before Wilco. That's not the best song, but it's all I could find on the you tubes.

2009-05-25T21:41:00.002-05:00

I might need to do some quick fire posts for a while to push that last post down in the stack a bit. The picture is kinda gross. Tuesday and Thursday nights are full of kid activities lately so that means no TuffRide and no Track. Thursday I go back to the doc for a checkup so I wouldn't be able to go to the track anyway. After this sort of check-up you spend the next 12-18 hours dealing with some unpleasent side effects. I'd be happy to tell you all about it over a beer sometime. Just ask.

woah

2009-05-07T09:59:00.001-05:00

Just noticed a draft post laying around that I never published. So yea, that's some of the crap that was inside me. While I'm no doctor, I don't think you need to be one to see that -- that shit aint right. Anyway, now you know what the inside of my bladder looked like.

First cancer checkup coming up in a couple weeks. Fingers crossed.

hypothetical question

2009-05-01T08:05:00.003-05:00

Pretend for a moment FryeOnTheRivet asks you for a ride to/from a retirement party and the last thing you remember is driving him home. You wake up in your car down by the river with your pants and wallet gone and there is a bike throw dot com t-shirt that smells like it was soaked in some sort of ether like substance stuffed in your mouth. *AND* (here's the weirdest part) there is a coupon for a free Mammoth Muffin from Perkins on your dashboard that is simply inscribed "Thanks" !?!?

Do you tell anyone? I'm pretty sure if something like this happened to me I would burry it away deep inside my brain and try not to think or speak of it. Ever.

totally getting screwed

2009-04-16T06:59:00.003-05:00

So, for a couple years now I've never had any issues using the bus when riding my bike to work. My stop was the first on the route so I was all but gaurnteed a spot on the bike rack. The routes have changed a lot during my recent medical lay off of and now the bus I take starts from downtown. This means many more people on the bus and many more cyclists.

So now it's totally a gamble if I can even get on the bus in the morning. I'm told I have to sit for 45 min and wait to see if the next bus has a spot on the rack. This makes the bus solution completely useless for me now.

Yes, Raymond -- I do realize I could ride all the way to work. I considered it this morning, but I wasn't prep'd for the 23 mile journey. Typically I ride the whole distance home, but not in the morning.

Anyway, I'm royaly cheesed off right now and I have to re-think the whole bike-to-work plans.

Fuckity-Fuck!

2009-03-15T10:09:00.004-05:00

First road ride in forever. Got up super early which is no fun, but the pay off is getting in roughly 40 miles and getting back in time to eat waffles before most people are out of bed. I'm not sure this is the right route, but it's close I think. Frye led me around St. Paul for a while and his ride yesterday must have taken a lot out of him since I was slaying him on the hills even though I didn't ride this winter, and oh yea... I had cancer! I felt better than I thought I would but I have a lot of work to do.

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googe dot com

2009-03-09T12:21:00.003-05:00

As a developer, I'm used to using auto-completion features of IDE's and this sort of stuff has trickled into software like web browsers and other junk you use daily.

What's really annoying is when you make a type-o in your address bar of your browser and it just happens that your type-o now takes precedence over the URL you really want to go to.

So lately I find myself making a lot of inadvertent trips to "googe" instead of google.

tonight

2009-03-07T13:06:00.000-06:00

2009 who wants a mustache ride

2009-03-02T22:06:00.001-06:00

I think this thing might be dead.

pathology report

2009-02-11T10:41:00.002-06:00

My wife and I went to the doctor this morning to get the results of my pathology. The tumor count has increased to 3 now. The tumors turned out to be malignant, but the good news is that it was a low grade, non-invasive cancer.

There is a high re occurrence rate with this type of cancer but with constant monitoring it's manageable. If it turns out that the tumors come back, and as long as they stay non-invasive, there are stronger chemotherapy drugs they can try to get rid of them for good. Mitomycin C is what I had and BCG is the heavier stuff that has more side effects. I don't think they go to the hard stuff until they need too.

So at the moment I'm cancer free. I'll be checked every couple months to make sure this stuff isn't coming back and I'll be taking some vitamins that were developed by a doctor down at the Mayo clinic that have been shown to cut the re occurrence rate from about 80% down to about 40%.

Thanks to everyone who sent me all the kind words of encouragement and support. It really does help a lot.

baby girl is 5 today

2009-02-04T16:15:00.007-06:00

Photo dump.

2009-02-04T16:07:00.002-06:00

Saw the doctor today to get out my catheter. I feel *tons* better without that in. Sleeping last night was rough since I couldn't really find a position that worked. No news yet on the pathology. I'll find out next Wednesday I guess. He did say the main tumor was "really big".

update

2009-02-03T13:19:00.003-06:00

I had my surgery this morning. They found a second tumor when they were in there. I have some pictures from the surgery I might post later. Still not sure... Anyway, it sounds like they got it all out. They put chemo in my bladder to prevent the junk from coming back and I'll have a catheter for the next 24 hours. Looking forward to getting that out. Then I see the doctor next week. Hopefully they'll have the pathology back then.

a sort of explaination

2009-01-21T15:54:00.002-06:00

So I've been a bit distracted lately and also sort of bored with the blog thing so I haven't been updating on the regular.

I've had some suspicious health issues over the past few years that have required a few office visits that turned up no concrete answers and required some rather unpleasant procedures. Things have been gradually getting worse until finally, over the holidays, we moved beyond the annoyance phase and into the realm of completely effing ridiculous.

So... this time around the doctor again found nothing wrong and ordered a CT scan. The CT revealed a mass in my bladder which was confirmed this morning via a scope. The tumor will be removed and then the pathology will be done to determine if it is benign or malignant-- and how invasive it was.

The good news (I think) is that it appears to be small enough and localized enough since it was missed several times, including as early as last week. It was only after the CT scan that the doctor was able to locate the tumor visually. The question is how deep it has penetrated into the muscle. The other thing is the doctor doesn't seem to be overly concerned about getting it out super fast.

Anway -- trying to stay positive at this point. I thought I'd get this out there though while trying to spare a lot of the details.

2009-01-03T22:57:00.000-06:00

Confession... I'm a sucker for anything with muppets in it.

2009-01-03T20:43:00.003-06:00

I don't usually go telling people how to do stuff, but this happens to be a lesson that was hard learned and something I feel strongly about.

When it comes to painting your house, don't waste your time taping. EVER. Alright, I use tape in some tricky spots, but 98% of the time it creates more hassle than it saves.

After owning 2 old homes and painting every room, sometimes more that once... Here's what I've learned.

BUY GOOD PAINT. It's worth it!

BUY GOOD BRUSHES. Cheap brushes get weird and the bristles crack and start pointing in directions you don't want them to go in making it hard to get a good edge. If you buy a brush comb and clean them they will last a long time. A good brush is a good investment. Some people buy super cheap brushes and throw them out instead of cleaning. Don't fall for this trap.

LOAD THE BRUSH RIGHT! This is the most pro tip of all. Next time you go buy paint, ask them for an empty can. Cut the rim off the top of the can. You can use a painter's 5 in 1 tool to cut the top off. Use this as your cut bucket. Cutting the top off the can allows you to get any excess paint back out more easily with less mess and will allow you to load the brush correctly.

Fill it with a couple inches of paint. Then dunk the brush in. Don't smoosh or jam the brush in. Just dunk till you hit the bottom of the can.

Lift the brush up out of the paint and let it drip a bit. Now -- don't scrape the excess paint off. Don't dab. Don't do any of the junk your instincts would tell you to do. Instead just tap the brush lightly against the sides of the can while keeping the brush nearly vertical. Again, don't smoosh or bend the bristles or scrape! You should be able to pull the brush out of the can and nothing will drip and the bristles will all be held together nicely, ready to cut a perfect edge with near surgical accuracy and no mess. Seriously. I've seen pro's paint window muntins with no masking using this technique.

Alright. Feel free to go on masking if you like, but trust me. This works.

2009-01-02T11:59:00.002-06:00

Sent to me from Darby - aka YoYo, Cat 6's Rand McNally... Thanks for the smiles!

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

a couple resolutions

2009-01-02T11:22:00.004-06:00

Cook more stuff that we haven't tried before. I anticipate lots and lots of tears with the kids.

Ride more. To the non bike-o people that read this it probably seems like I ride enough already, but I assure you I could ride a lot more and still not interfere with the family life. I just need to not be lazy.

I got some other stuff that's not only boring, but I'll probably totally fail at anyway so there's no point in putting it out there.

Go ElfYourself

2008-12-18T17:00:00.000-06:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

2008-12-14T15:49:00.003-06:00

Went out this morning for a couple hour ride with Frye. When I left it was drizzling with temps hovering just above freezing. The side streets were a complete mess and I did the crappie flop twice in the first 3 blocks. I sent a text trying to weasel out but Frye called me and started to cry that he was lonely so I soldiered on to our meeting place. Once I got north of the creek the roads were much better so I felt better about the whole situation.

Headed west on the Greenway and I could feel the bike sliding all over the place. Tense moments since I didn't really feel like crashing anymore. Almost ate it again on one of the overpasses. Frye seemed to have no issues. Not sure if it was better tires, a better line through the crap, or if all his extra weight gives him more stability over the ice. I think I need to consider some studded tires.

Anyway -- it was a good ride. I wasn't very chatty and therefore probably not very good company since I was gripped with fear most of the time. Came home and dumped probably a half gallon of water out of the boots. Soggy...

The Dee

2008-12-12T19:35:00.001-06:00

OSHPN

2008-11-23T18:15:00.001-06:00

Oddly Shaped Homemade Pizza Night

american steel

2008-11-22T19:37:00.003-06:00

I've been thinking for a while about repainting the Waterford. The "Get 'em Green" is a bit over the top. The frame is really starting to get nicked up and I'm concerned about rust with such thinly walled steel tubing.

Started breaking the frame down thinking I'd save some shipping and take the frame down with us to Wisconsin over the holidays since the Waterford factory is merely miles from the in-law's house. I've known for a while the bolt holding the cranks on was cracked and it was going to be a job to get them off.

Headed over to Freewheel while Nate was at soccer practice and the fine folks there tried their best to get the cranks off with various tools and bolt extractors. With the crack in the bolt nothing worked since all you are doing is expanding the bolt more as you try to get it out.

It was determined there was no way to get the cranks off without ruining them. So repainting is out of the question for this year since the cranks need to be replaced. I know the PPG color number so I should be able to get touch-up paint anywhere that sells automotive PPG stuff.

hey -- i know them...

2008-11-18T20:16:00.007-06:00

Not sure what this is from -- but I ran across it trolling around on Face book. Seems my two older sisters were on the top of the podium at a indoor rock climbing competition. Trust me... once you get past the beginner stuff, that shit's hard. I used to be kind of slightly above average at it so I'm somewhat of an authority. Anyway, awesome!!

I sometimes lean my bike on the podium at the track while I buckle my shoes. That's as close as I get to one these days.

---

In other news - one of the kids found a mood ring. Finding it means no instructions and no idea what colors corresponded to what moods. The kids took to trying to figure it out on their own. The oldest 2 tried to discern what the color was for "terrified" by doing just about everything short of water boarding the youngest while she wore the ring. Good times...