Agassiz Banana

Month seven has passed pretty much in the blink of an eye over here. It's been two months since my last doctor's visit (and these are my sins.... am I right? All you Catholics were saying it right along with me) and another week before I'll see her. In general I still feel pretty good, but there have been a few concerns over the last couple of months that I'm anxiously waiting to see the doctor about. Back before I went on dialysis there were some signs that I didn't recognize that suggested I was going downhill. A few of those signs are rearing their ugly heads and it makes me nervous. Mind you... these same signs could be almost anything else including coincidence, but my last few test results have had some interesting results that previously were blank and these results literally describe the physical results of what my disease actual does to my kidneys.

Now... I still have my two kidneys given to me by my makers and they function at some small percentage and so I should almost expect these results, but why were those test results blank (or perhaps even not there) until recently. I keep telling myself that if there was anything to be concerned about, the doctor or her nurse would immediately be in touch with me. Then again it's been over two months and at my last visit everything looked good, so have they forgotten about me as they deal more directly with people in dire need of their attention?

But let's move on and let the doctor do her thing next week.

The long winter here in New England put a damper on anything resembling spring for the first several weeks of official spring, but as it has apparently finally arrived I've crawled out of my hibernation cave and into the light of day.

In honor of two of my small goals I've actually gone on a small hike to Agassiz Rock and had my first banana split of the season. Last weekend started out dreary but ended quite beautifully. On Sunday morning the girls and I decided we needed to get out of our lazy rut and do something. I suggested a short hike to Agassiz Rock and while it wasn't initially a big winner on the wheel of choices, once I threw in a walk on Wingaersheek beach and some chowda (chowder for you non New Englanders) at Essex Seafood, my ragtag crew were fully on board. (There's really nothing ragtag about them.. I just wanted to say that.)

It was a miserable hike as it was swamped with bugs who not unlike us had spent their last several months in a state of non-existence and were now starving for some human flesh. Luckily the entire hike is only one mile.

We stopped at little Agassiz first. It rests upon the top of a hill, not to mention another piece of rock, like some kind of art sculpture. The sun was shining and the breeze was mild but kept the bugs to a minimum. I decided to grab a photo or two and as I walked over to a location where I could get a better angle I stepped on a wet rock at a 60 degree angle and took a header... or perhaps an asser and a right hander. The moral of the story is "ouch", I've been feeling it all week.

The girls were losing their patience with the bugs and each other and never even noticed my spill. I could have laid there bleeding out with a broken arm and they were in their own world totally unaware. I hobbled back over to their side of the hill where I was able to coax about 38 seconds of sympathy out of them and then we moved on to Big Agassiz.

The trail back down was worse with bugs than the hike up. Big Agassiz is probably 3 to 4 times the size of little Agassiz and is surrounded by trees but the top sticks out of those trees. We saw it there in all its glory, but the wonder was lost between my spill, the bugs and being hot so we stopped for 23.8 seconds, got a photo and got the heck out of there.

You can read about Agassiz Rock here.

Going back a little over a month ago there was a day where I just wanted a banana split. It was a long over due treat that I deserved and required to help motivate me to get my life back in motion after all of these months of hiding out in the cave.

Meg and Annie were out and about doing something and I think I managed to convince them to bring one home for me. At least that's how I recall the story... but Meg will correct me after she reads this. Anyway... being an unplanned event of course it was going to be a familiar and local version, and my local fave comes from Haley's in Newburyport. I prefer the traditional version, one scoop of chocolate, one scoop of vanilla, one scoop of strawberry. Topped in hot fudge, pineapple, nuts, whipped cream and a cherry... this is the purest example of a banana split. And that they brought it home to me meant I could officially continue my streak of pure laziness and still enjoy my first banana split of the season, and I did so in the warm sun from the back deck... looking out over our yard, the neighborhood and the river beyond.

That's all for now.