More Catching Up

It's hard to keep up when you are on the road--then recovering from being on the road.  October 15, I had my third round of Avastin and a Vitamin B-12 shot, hoping to get some energy.  It didn't seem to do much good.  Anyway, Tuesday, Dory and I were off to Fresno.  She did all the driving. bless her.  I could have helped out, but she didn't need me to, so I didn't.  Getting registered at the hotel for Grand Chapter is always a bit of a trial.  Somehow, the hotel never knows that there are going to have a zillion people checking in all at the same time, all with tons of stuff, all needing assistance with their stuff.  It tends to bring out the very worst side of people.  I'm pretty patient, as long as I have my knitting to entertain me.  Eventually, we snagged a bellman and got to our room--about as far away from the elevator as we could get.  OK, I would just take a few extra stops on the way to the convention center.  We had a phone call from the hotel, asking us if everything was all right.  I mentioned the distance from the elevator.  Not to worry, they arranged to move us and sent up a bellman who took us to another room--right across from the elevator.  Points in their favor.
We managed a lot of baseball watching and were not disappointed.  Throughout our vacation, the Giants managed to win it all and keep things very exciting.  Somehow, we managed to see most of it.
This was my 31st Grand Chapter.  It is good to see friends from throughout the state.  It was exhausting because of my lack of stamina.  I would walk a little, start gasping for air, rest, then walk a little more. This meant that I gave myself extra time to get anywhere.  Saturday afternoon was Big Game--in the way wrong time of the year.  I skipped a session and watched the game--which was dreadful.
Installation Saturday night was impressive--mostly because it wasn't overly long.  The new Worthy Grand Matron is from our area, and we were very proud of her.  We were tucked in bed before midnight--when the hotel started shaking.  It seemed to go on for a very long time.  It took a while to get connected to the USGS.  The earthquake was located near King City and it was 5.3 at 11:55 PM.  There was an aftershock at 12:18--we didn't feel that one.  Dory doesn't like earthquakes.  I can't say that I do either, but once it stopped and everything was fine, I was OK with it.
Sunday morning was good, because we didn't have the alarm set.  We were only going to Yosemite, and that's pretty close.  Yosemite was great.  It wasn't too crowded.  There was no water in the falls.  That was fine, because I couldn't walk that far anyway.  Mostly, we rested and watched baseball.  We had a view of Half Dome, so we really didn't need to leave the room.  I took pictures of the many moods of Half Dome.  Here are some:

All taken from the same window.
I felt dreadful the morning we left--really dreadful.  I barely touched my breakfast.  We debated on whether or not we should stop in at the medical clinic--eventually voted no.  We had a long way to go.  We usually take Tioga Pass to 395 and north to Reno, but the pass closed on Sunday and had no intentions of reopening.  So we took the long way--southwest to Merced, north to Sacramento, and east to Reno over Donner Summit.  There was a lot of snow over the summit.  It wasn't falling or on the road, but there was a lot of snow.  The external temperature got down to around 34.  We got to Reno around six.  We had a great time.  Dory did better than I did.  She kept finding machines that were paying off.  We finally had to start for home on Monday, because I had a CT scan on Tuesday.  We leave before breakfast, drive to Boomtown, have breakfast and play there.  We really have fun in Boomtown.  We're thinking of changing our routine and spending our last night there.  We had a little excitement when my foot slipped off the rung of a stool I was about to sit on and I did a face plant on the floor.  Nothing was broken or bleeding, but my dignity was badly bruised.  Two ladies helped me up.  I felt a little wobbly and very silly.  I told Dory about it and she turned me in to the management, who were all very solisitious.  No, I didn't want to go to emergency.  Yes, I was fine.  No, I was not going to sue the casino.  I did feel pretty sore the rest of the week and I've got a bruise on my left knee--which isn't the one that hurts.
CT scan on Tuesday--Glenn took me down because my battery was dead after sitting around for two weeks.  Wednesday was the ophthalmologist--eyes have actually improved in the last year. Thursday I saw Dr. Chee, my oncologist, and got the results of the scan.  I'm stable.  She thinks the exhaustion is the result of all the chemo I've had.  I had the option of stopping treatment.  While getting a little stamina back is appealing, if the treatment is working, I'll keep going with it.  If things get too dreadful, I can always get a wheelchair or scooter--or just continue to walk very slowly and rest a lot.
Yesterday was a haircut.  My appointment was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, but that was the Giant's World Series Parade, and I got caught up in that two years ago--also for a hair appointment.  There was no way I was going to do that again.
Things are getting back to normal.  I have minutes to type and reports to do for the Chapter and a speech to write for an installation on the 11th.  I guess I'll get it all done.
I think things are caught up here.
xxooxx