Running in Circles

Since I've been sitting here staring at the blinking cursor, sighing heavily, I guess that means I have nothing to say. Having nothing obvious to write about tells me that nothing out of the ordinary happened today-good or bad. And that's not so bad.

Sam went with me and Bubbe to take Ben to school this morning (he went late, Abby went at the customary time. How wonderful that they are learning to be independent), and then accompanied us to Ross to shop for a new skillet. This is what we came home with.

It is Childhood Cancer Awareness month after all. And the color is GOLD. Oh, and I got my skillet.

Today was Hospice Nurse Donna's visit day.In fact, it was access Sam's port and flush it day. Sam hasn't been accessed in 6 weeks, and since he's gained some weight it's become more challenging to access him. With one poke the Donna was able to flush his port with saline and heparin. She didn't get any blood back, which would have been nice-let's her know she's really in and the line is clear. She said not to worry, it wasn't necessary to draw blood, and so he didn't have to endure multiple tries.

I think the heat's really getting to Sam. (Understand that in Grover Beach when we say heat we mean that the temperature rose above 72. It was 83 in Grover today.) Sam's left foot is swollen. He's says it's not uncomfortable, but putting on shoes to go out was hard. Nurse Donna said something about it being connected to loss of function on the left side. I hope when the weather cools down (expected high of 74 tomorrow-still hot for Grover) the swelling goes down as well.

I went for a run tonight. I'm sticking to my 1 mile lap around the neighborhood these days so I'm never more than 5 minutes from home. The lap takes me around our neighborhood school. It was Ben's school. It was Abby's school. It was Sam's school. I was a teacher there for many years. Tonight was Back-to-School night, and for the first time since 2001 the Jeffers were not in attendance. I can't let myself think about it. I choose not to go there right now.

Tomorrow is Rosh Hashanah-the Jewish New Year. Thanks to friend, Elaine, the kids have cookies to decorate and we have apple cake for tomorrow. Thanks to Rabbi Linda, there's round challah, apples, and honey. It's a good thing other people are assuming we're observing and have provided us with some of the traditional goodies, 'cause frankly I just don't care. I'm not going to services, I'm not cooking, I'm not sending cards. It's just another day. It's another day with Sam. That's what I care about.

I want to thank my friends and family in the wide world for continuing to log their miles and hours spent exercising for Sam. Showing your support in this way is a comfort to me. If you are curious how to keep or start logging your exercise, you have two choices. This: Run for the White House for Childhood Cancer Awareness, and this: Sammy Rulz, Cancer Droolz. Check out those pages and like the first one, and request to join the second one (I'll probably let you in). Then scroll down the pages and see how other folks are doing it. If you want to know how it all got started and why we are running for the kids, go here: Brian's Phirst Blog