One of the worst things ever...

As some of you know, earlier this week Walter was viciously attacked by two much larger dogs while he and Cyril were out for a walk. I'm not going to describe that horror here, as I wasn't there and it was traumatizing for all involved. Suffice it to say that Walter suffered major injuries to his back half in particular, and was immediately taken to the closest veterinary hospital to us with critical care services. Everyone else is okay physically, but will require some time before dog walking is a relaxing activity again.

Once Walter got to the hospital, he had an x-ray to confirm his spine wasn't fractured (it wasn't) and an ultrasound to confirm there was no bleeding or fluid in his belly (there wasn't). He was admitted to the ICU and then under anesthesia they shaved most of the hair on his back half and washed and dressed his wounds. Over the last four days, he has undergone the following:

• Four surgeries with general anesthesia for wound debridement, closure, and drain placement
• Placement of seven drains into his wounds
• Placement of a central line (a special IV for fluid management)
• Placement of a feeding tube
• Transfusion of one unit of blood and one unit of FFP (plasma)

Despite all of these interventions, we are uncertain whether he will regain complete use of both of his back legs, and the threat of infection is ever present. The staff at the Veterinary Specialty Hospital of the Carolinas in Cary, NC have been incredible, and have cared for Walter as they would their own animals. They would never let us know if they tired of our frequent visits and calls, and have been honest and reassuring when possible about his clinical status. 

We were able to connect with the heroic mail carrier that used pepper spray to stop the attacking dogs and save Walter's life, and we feel forever in his debt. He said that this was the first time in his entire career that he had ever had to intervene in a a situation like this, and his presence of mind and quick action were the difference between losing Walter and where we are now. We are preparing a thank-you gift, and if you'd like us to include a message from you, please send me a note, leave it in the comments here, or otherwise let me know. We are also so appreciative of the neighbor who provided a ride to our injured baby.

Walter looking so much perkier after a few days in the hospital!

Introducing Cyril

For years, we have been discussing and debating getting another dog. We considered adding a mutt to the family in order to avoid the myriad health problems associated with a purebred dog. We thought about getting a big dog, maybe a pit mix, since we have the space and both enjoy walking with the dogs. We perused the options endlessly on PetFinder before and after it was referred to as "something that resembles Tinder for dogs" on This is Us.

As an aside, in attempting to find a link to that clip I googled "Tinder for dogs" and came up with the following:

• BarkBuddy: An app designed to help you "find fluffy singles near you," BarkBuddy connects people "with cute pups that need a home."
• Tindog: This may or may not be defunct, but looks like it was an app to help people with dogs meet dogs (and their owners). It may or may not match both the dogs and the owners.
• Dog Date Afternoon: More explicitly connects single people who want to date but want to make sure that their dogs are compatible before they invest any more energy into a potential relationship. 
• Allpaws: Another app to facilitate pet adoptions.
• Twindog: Looks suspiciously similar to Tindog, and I wonder whether there wasn't some sort of lawsuit that resulted in a name change here... 

After so much going back and forth and listing the pros and cons of getting another dog, we decided to move forward and applied to adopt another Boston Terrier. We wanted Walter to have a buddy in the autumn and winter of his years, and after we saw this little guy and realized that he had been returned multiple times due to behavior issues, we couldn't say no. We found him through the East Tennessee Boston Terrier Rescue. Having adopted Walter through the Midwest Boston Terrier Rescue, we were committed to a rescue dog. 

And here he is:

Cyril is a 2.5 year old brown/brindle Boston Terrier.

From the moment he arrived, he and Walter bonded over their shared love of blankets. They are shown here in the heated throw they both adore.

 In the morning sunshine, there's no need to burrow...

 And sometimes when Cyril gets too hot under the blankets, he hops out and sprawls out on the floor to cool down.

Of the cats, only Aleks has condescended to snuggle NEAR Cyril. I know he'll eventually learn that they can snuggle just like he does with Walter, but for now he's a bit standoffish. Eli has barely condescended to come downstairs since Cyril arrived... 

Knits of 2017

At the beginning of the year, I like to reflect on the prior year's crafting. Not only does this tend to inspire me for the year to come, but it greatly appeals to the data analyst in me. You can find all of my knitting-related posts by clicking the "knitting" tag in the sidebar, or peruse the 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2016 lists here. Ravelry, which allows me to easily track my progress and record my projects, reveals the following yearly yardage totals that are 100% predictable when you consider how residency went:

• 2014: 851 yards
• 2015: 1,988 yards
• 2016: 5,159 yards
• 2017: 5,909 yards

The second half of 2017 was particularly productive, as residency was over and I had a bunch of cross-country drives during which to knit. The tally for 2017 is as follows:

• 2 pair of mittens/gloves
• 3 scarves
• 4 hats
• 9 baby sweaters 

The baby sweaters continue to dominate the knitting focus, and I anticipate that this will continue into 2018!

Step 0: Address some small plumbing issues

One of the ongoing challenges of the house is the plumbing. Similar to other systems, (e.g. the electrical system and the decorating system) some corners had been cut over the past 85 years of rentals and repairs. Notably, before we moved in, the line between the house and the sewer was not working. This resulted in a rather unsavory situation under the porch and at another point in the crawlspace that has since been remedied.  This required digging up the front yard!

The digging was delayed by freezing weather, but fortunately was complete before Snowpocalypse (pictured here) came to Durham. 

Although that was the largest thing, we've had a few other plumbing issues come up.

1. It was clear after our home inspection that one of our bathrooms had enough water damage/rotting wood in the floor that filling the tub might result in a sort of cable-less elevator situation riding downward into the crawl space. We weren't sure whether the tub/toilet/sink in that bathroom had an ongoing leak, or whether it was old damage. We've subsequently had the toilet and sink cleared, and are deferring use of the tub until we can replace the subfloor and flooring and make sure that the walls are made of something other than mold.

2. The upstairs bathroom is just the sort of endearing space that I love and that normal height people cannot comfortably navigate. We've been somewhat uncertain as to whether water leaks from the fixtures here also, and so have limited usage in that bathroom.

Good luck peeing standing up, gentlemen over 5' tall...

3. The other downstairs bathroom, which we referred to as "the functional bathroom" prior to confirming it was safe to use the toilet and sink in the other downstairs bathroom, is also a work in progress. All of the fixtures seemed to work, which we considered a win, but there was only a tub and no shower. Eli, who likes to drink from the tub preferentially, did not mind, but it was not working well for Lynn and I. 

Although Lynn has done the lion's share of the house work, I did participate in the conversion of the tub to a shower! I learned more about plumber's putty and pipe joint sealant than I ever really wanted to know, and can now recognize "the plumbing guy" at Home Depot. Prior to completing this, I was drawing a "quick" bath each morning before work, which is not really a thing that people do... Now I've installed the shower and Lynn has hung the shower curtain, which was really the much more significant task. We removed a hideous cabinet from the wall and have learned a great deal about mounting things to plaster. 

 The faucet removed from the tub. You'll notice that part of the metal is spontaneously disintegrating because it's so old and corroded. That curved water spout piece was the closest we had to a functional "shower" for a few weeks...

Eli looks disparagingly at the disassembled faucet. 

Removing the cabinet revealed several interesting prior paint choices in the bathroom. You can also see where there was a different shape of window previously. 

The upside-down bathroom cabinet is a temporary stand-in for pantry shelves!

And the shower works!

Step 3: Remove the ugly/dangerous/dirty things from the ceilings.

It had not previously occurred to me that there were so many ugly/dangerous/dirty things that could be on ceilings. I think I'd imagined that anything dirty would fall down from the top of the room, rendering the floor filthy, but somehow leaving the ceiling pristine. Not so. The original ceilings in our place are bead board - planks of wood with rounded edges and a groove in the middle such that it looks like twice as many smaller boards. On top of the [undoubtedly lead based] paint on these gems was a layer of wallpaper (likely with asbestos), and then eight inches of cobwebs and random wires and extension cords, and then a drop ceiling. As those things have come down, we've only found one hole in the ceiling, and it's small. 

Work-life has been busy, so this step has been almost entirely conducted without me present, but still consulting on the phone and demanding constant photos of the progress. Here's how things are looking:

The bedroom with the drop ceiling tiles removed, but with the frame still up and the wallpaper underneath. It almost looks like a geometric pattern, but it's really just water damage...

The ceiling revealed, including a small hole...

The bedroom in its current glory. This time it's the air scrubber sitting jauntily by the fireplace. You can particularly appreciate in this photo that the white paint on the walls stops where the drop ceiling was placed. It now gives this wild edging effect wherein there is white paint, and then about six inches of unpainted faux-wood paneling, then a gap with crazy looking wallpaper, then the picture molding, then the ceiling. Somehow beyond shabby chic...

The living room ceiling is the same material, but a slightly different color of blue-gray. Also, there is still peel-and-stick linoleum in there. I think the previous residents kept the linoleum company in business. There are miles of it...

Overall the bead board is in good shape, and it's beautiful. Once it's scraped and repainted (with lead-safe masks, mom, really) it will be restored to it's former glory. 

I'll leave you with a funny list of how this move has altered my search history in my phone seemingly irrevocably. When I type the word "Durham" into Google, it prompts me for the following items:

• Durham Toilet Rebate Program
• Durham dispose of bulky items
• Durham bike groups

In fairness, I did once Google the toilet rebate program after seeing an ad for it on a television in a lunch place. Only in recent weeks have I heard "Do you need a more water efficient toilet?" on a television and thought, "Why yes, I do!"

Step 2: Connect the top and the bottom floors

When the house was built, it was used as a rooming house. Judging from the holes and patches in the walls, it seems that at some point it may have been configured as a duplex. Most recently it was set up as two separate apartments, a larger one on the first floor and a smaller on the second floor. In order to achieve this, the stairwell in the middle of the house was boarded up. There were a series of two-by-fours, two-by-eights, and two-by-unclear-slightly-larger-amounts which were nailed to a frame of two-by-fours, and then plywood was nailed over the whole thing. The general approach to building this separation seems to have been that more and larger nails were better - no need for screws or other building materials that are easily removed. 

The first of the plywood comes up. As an aside, we don't have any lights upstairs right now, so this stunning photo shoot lighting is from a phone and the crack in the "floorboards". 

Lynn uses the sledgehammer to remove another board. She's kneeling on a weird long step/platform that was also built in, presumably for some security purpose I cannot fathom. 

The stairwell revealed!

Completely connected!

I'll have to make a point tomorrow of taking a picture of the sawed-off banister that is hot glued into the wall. 

Step 1: Remove the ugly/dangerous/dirty things from the floors.

There are so many ways to define the beginning of adulthood. Those of us who are still trainees in our 30's tend to spend a lot of time justifying that we transitioned to being "real adults" when we graduate from college, started supporting ourselves and our scholarly endeavors, moved away, became a "real doctor," or completed all of the training necessary for licensure and board certification. I will stand by my insistence in all of these milestones as markers of a truly adult existence, but will qualify that by staying that I've come to believe that there is not really a firm threshold to cross from young person to adult. 

And then we bought a house. As a milestone, it's out of reach for so many that adulthood certainly can't be predicated on home ownership. In the setting of the recent financial crisis, frankly, it seems imprudent to even suggest that signing for a mortgage is a right of passage. Nonetheless, I don't know that I've ever felt more like an adult than when we sat and, rather anticlimactically I might add, signed on the dotted lines and received the keys to our new home. 

As soon as the deed was registered, we started on the massive project that I anticipate chronicling here: restoring a 1933 gem to it's previous glory. There are layers of tile and carpet over the hardwood floors. The paint on the door frames and baseboards is so thick that they appear rounded in places, and there is certainly lead in the deeper layers. There are likely asbestos-filled wallpaper and tiles in many rooms, and although less medically ill-advised, the decor choices in most of the rooms were not good. 

Step 1: Remove the ugly/dangerous/dirty things from the floors. 

 Distressing carpet gives way to bright green carpet pad, which is stapled to thin wood paneling over the original hardwood floors. Oh, and some of what were supposed to be delicate nails holding the tack strip around the edges are actually 2.5" carpentry nails. 

 The first real glimpse of the hardwood floors. 

The shop vac poses jauntily with the fully uncovered hardwood floors. 

Down dog, a meditative cat, and a mystery

I'm truly settling in to fellowship life! Leading indicators:

1. I have been able to make progress reading a novel in more than 0.5-1 page increments before I fall asleep.  I've been reading On Beauty by Zadie Smith. I highly recommend it.

2. I've started getting back into yoga. I'm not yet back to my Ashtanga life, but I've been using this app called Down Dog that will put together a series of poses that actually make sense for almost any time interval. The dog generally sleeps through any yoga in the morning, but the cat is very keen on joining me.

3. I completed my 50 mile bike ride, and learned of an amazing mid- or post-ride snack: a spoon full of peanut butter rolled in a mixture of M&Ms, mini peanut butter cups, and pretzel bits. This was quite possibly the highlight of a rather rainy and gray ride. The sunniest bit is shown below. I have also made a new cycling friend in the triangle, and I've got plans for more rides in the coming weeks. 

We took Walter to the ocean after my ride, even though it was a rainy and gray.

And finally, unrelated to my progress toward normalcy, there is a mystery involving Clyde. He had been thriving, and even had leaves that looked variegated in color like his old self. Then, one day last week he abruptly lost all of them. We hadn't had rain in a bit, and I'm not amazing with the watering can, but I really don't think that I would have offed him that quickly. I'm pretty sure that some creature ate the stems, because I saw one laying in all of it's green and purple glory next to the pot. I'm starting again from scratch, and hoping that he can make another comeback. 

First training ride, and a Clyde update

Today was my first official training ride for Bike MS: Breakaway to the Beach! I rode a little over 10 miles, exploring some of the parts of Chapel Hill that I haven't seen before. Turns out the UNC golf course is fancy... and to put the hills in perspective, on my usual little 14 mile loop around San Francisco I would gain approximately 1,600 ft of elevation, whereas my 10 mile loop today was just shy of 500 ft. Despite the grade not even approaching that of San Francisco, I am out of shape enough to shift down significantly and pant my way up even the little ones around here!

And in case you were hoping for a reminder, here it is: Click here to help to meet my fundraising goal of $1000! Thank you so incredibly much to those of you who have donated already.

There are a bunch of lush bike paths all over Chapel Hill. Here's one I hit on my ride this morning.

In addition to doing my part to get to a world free of MS, I'm also contributing to the beautiful greenery that defines the North Carolina summer landscape! Here is my most recent photo of Clyde, who has really been flourishing in the rain. He even has some of the darker color in his leaves now!

Still not quite filling the pot, but looking more like a normal plant every day.

Third time's the charm

Click here to donate!

Two years ago, I joined The Best Team. Period. I became a part of Team Menstrual Cycles, an incredible group of cyclists that includes not only many OB/GYNs, but also a number of lovely folks riding with MS. I got a bike jersey featuring a uterus riding a bicycle. Together, we rode in the Bike MS: Waves to Wine ride in California and raised tons of money to fight MS. This year, for my third annual Bike MS ride, I'm riding as a member at large!

It's clear that moving across the country, taking boards, starting fellowship, and dealing with all of the roadblocks life throws up along the way have left me terribly out of shape. I got on my bike the other evening and panted through a 7.5 mile ride through the UNC campus... This is not how I left things after the back-to-back centuries last fall. Nonetheless, I'm committed to riding 50 miles on October 7 in the Bike MS: Breakaway to the Beach ride on the coast of my new state of North Carolina. It looks like some of the routes even dip into South Carolina, although the final details are not yet posted. I look forward the beautiful landscapes I'll see on my training rides and the day of the event!

My goal is to raise $1000 for MS research and support by October 7. While I train, you donate! Even more than wanting to train enough to breezily blow through the finish line on the day of the ride, I want to breezily blow through my fundraising goal! Every little bit helps, and if today isn't the right day for you, do me a favor and pass this along to a friend or family member.

Click here to donate!

Clyde: An Allegory?

I have had a plant named Clyde for over a decade. He was a gift from my mother, and is a cutting of a plant given to her at his namesake's (my grandfather's) funeral. I think we all like the idea of his memorial living on, embarking on transcontinental travel, and botanically connecting the entire family.

What I should have, but did not anticipate when I first assumed care of a Clyde plant, was that I would inevitably kill one through a combination of neglect and drought. Horticulture has not been my primary focus at any point in my life, and if memory serves, at some point in medical school or graduate school I had to obtain another cutting from my mother and vowed to be more careful. Unfortunately, Clyde proved no match for the Midwestern summer sun through the rear windshield of the car we drove from Michigan to San Francisco. I felt terrible as I looked at the hard, baked dirt and shriveled brown stems and roots of my previously beautiful plant. Suffice it to say I was able to move on, and my mother dutifully provided me with another cutting to cultivate. I think Clyde traveled by USPS in a plastic baggy.

Throughout residency Clyde always seemed on the edge of perishing. My erstwhile watering patterns were sufficient for my succulents, but in no way resembled the summer rains in Michigan. He was reduced to just a few leaves that wavered from green to brown over the course of four years. Despite this, Clyde survived, and was loaded into the car for yet another long drive. Suffice it to say that if the summer heat across Wyoming was a bit daunting four years ago, the Mojave was a whole new level of hot. Clyde baked in the sun even inside his protective cardboard box, wilting to almost nothing.

When we unpacked the car, I placed Clyde's pot on the back porch, a sad memorial to a nice memorial. I informed my mother that I might be in need of yet another cutting. Still holding out a small amount of hope, I watered the sad, brown, exposed roots and stems in the pot, and allowed the North Carolina rain to soak the soil in a minimally draining pot that was never really meant for plants. Much to my surprise, Clyde is coming back!

Clyde shows an tiny sign of life...

The little leaves grow...

Starting to look like a real plant again!

And now for something completely different

I've been her in North Carolina for almost a month now, and life is so different from San Francisco. Here is a little table I've prepared to illustrate just how different it is (click to enlarge):

You can appreciate that fellowship is objectively, quantitatively better than residency, despite the steamy weather that heats up early, and that many aspects of living in Chapel Hill are amazing. I miss some of the food options (read: State Bird Provisions and Uji Time Desserts) that were close and delicious in San Francisco, but there are tasty things here that we're discovering every day (like The Root Cellar, which is literally right outside our side door).

Walter does not enjoy the heat. He is, however, loving having more rooms in which to lounge and a guest bed to sleep on during the day. Here

he is recovering from a long walk in the heat, and drinking from a twirly straw:

Just kidding, he cannot drink from a straw. I just posed him like this in solidarity with a friend who was limited to liquids for a bit. 

Good by to the slogan "Brown is the new green!" that was all over municipal green space in San Francisco during the drought. Here in North Carolina freeway rest stops are beautiful!

The view from the passenger's seat on our drive in.

The Final Countdown

As many of you know, I've installed the "Final Countdown" app on my phone. Filed under "wellness," along with my meditation and yoga apps, it counts down the days, hours, minutes, and seconds until residency ends on June 17, 2017 at 5PM (with the start of cocktail hour at our banquet). As of this posting I'm at 35 days, 22 hours, and minutes and seconds that count down as I type. I've set it to display the countdown in a soothing electric blue that seemed somehow less aggressive than red or green event. As we inexorably move toward the end of residency, I find that in a similarly unstoppable fashion my to do list gets longer and my desire to complete those items evaporates.

Things I've been avoiding:

• Cleaning out my closet: There are things in there that I moved but haven't worn since residency began. I know, truly, that I will never wear them and that there are others in San Francisco who would, but the effort to remove them from my closet feels Herculean. 
• Recycling my old medical journals: So many of them have not yet been read. At some point I will just need to embrace that many of them will never be read, and resign myself to the fact that they were lightly skimmed at some point and recycle them. Until that point, however, they will sit, weighing down the desk drawer and my conscience.
• Studying for boards: This is sort of happening. I'm actually doing a little bit of studying each day, but nothing feels like enough.
• Finishing manuscripts that have languished for months/years: Can a little bit more languishing really hurt?

Things I've done instead:

• Went on a little vacation to Monterey: This involved kayaking with the dog, which Lynn thought was a great idea and I was quite dubious about, but which turned out to be fantastic. It also involved a lot of lovely walking, the aquarium, and some new yarn. See photos below.
• Knit: This could be it's own list. The parade of babies continues, and I have been trying out new techniques and some bold colors. Hopefully all of the expectant parents I know are feeling highlighter florescent accent colors and/or bold stripes...
• Pumped up my bike tires: I've not been on my road bike in months, and I'm trying to motivate in that direction...

This has to be one of the most photographed trees in the US, maybe the world - the "Lone Cyprus" on the 17 Mile Drive in Pebble Beach. 

The jellyfish were my favorite.

This little pulpito moved around a bunch for us. I kept thinking of Inky, the one who got away, and his mate Blotchy, who must rue the day he didn't follow his buddy to freedom. 

Walter, in the kayak. There is a longer story that involves him jumping out of the kayak and (later) being spooked by sea lions. Maybe for another post...

From the other side of the drought...

For the first few years that we lived in California, there wasn't much rain. I thought this was pretty great, as I bike to work most days, but recognized that it was affecting farmers and also people with nice-looking lawns in many parts of the state. There was much discussion about how best to conserve water, and apportion the water that was available to the most necessary tasks. Enter late 2016 and on into early 2017...

We have so much rain! There have been many recent stories about the havoc the rain has wreaked across the state, from images of people being rescued from river-like streets to threats of old dams and spillways overflowing to the breaking point. Meanwhile, I've been alternately lazy, using various ride services to carpool with strangers, and super intense, suiting up in my rain gear to brave the weather by bicycle. And then there are my succulents. They cannot decide whether to be thrilled or destroyed by the rain. While some are showing a little brown around the edges and there is tropical-looking moss growing on the dirt in one, others are blooming! Lemonade, I suppose.

 Some of the succulents look fancy when they bloom

 This one has grown so tall with all the water that it falls over whenever there is a lot of wind

This one is threatening to outgrow it's pot

Walter hates the rain, but on the sunny days we do have, he loves grazing in the flowers that bloom

Busy is as busy does

And while I've been busy being a resident, (seemingly) everyone else has been making babies. I present to you, the sweaters of 2016... (Along with a little hat and mittens that also came along this year...)

  

I'm hoping to start posting more regularly now. Fingers crossed!

Next step, dream job...

The last few months have been more than a little crazy clinically, and I just haven't found the time for a big announcement post... Work continues to be crazy, but I'm traveling for a conference right now and have random moments in the airport, in between sessions, and have cobbled this together.

At the end of June 2017, we'll be heading to North Carolina! I'll be joining the University of North Carolina Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology as a fellow in their Training in Epidemiology and Clinical Trials program. Many people have pointed out that the most recent news featuring hurricanes, voter suppression, and bathroom policing are not exactly the most welcoming, but they seem not so terribly different in scope from earthquakes, rampant gentrification, and well, there is no parallel for the bathroom policing that I can come up with, but my point remains the same. We're tremendously excited at the prospect of seasons, having more than one closet in our home, some semblance of work-life balance, and a road trip across the country with two cats and a dog in the car.

Come visit us!

Too tired to boast... almost...

It's already been a week since my last ride, which is hard to believe. and I'm just getting to this post. I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to everyone who donated over $2000 to two great causes, the residents and fellow who helped me to arrange my call schedules so that I wasn't working either Saturday, and to the lovely Lynn, who spent an immense amount of time helping me to get to and from the start- and finish-lines. 

On Friday, September 9 I drove directly from work to Carmel. Early Saturday morning, my cousins and I headed to the starting line for the Best Buddies International Hearst Castle Challenge. I was so nervous that I wouldn't be able to keep up! I held my own for about 65 or 70 miles, thanks mostly to their willingness to let me draft behind them, and then rode with a slighly slower crowd for the next 15 miles. We met up at the last rest stop, and they slowed a bit and I pushed myself, and we all rode in together at Hearst Castle. It was a fantastic ride! I had to work the next day, so I got on the early bus back 100 miles north back to Carmel. I picked up the car, and drove to San Jose, where I met up with Lynn so that she could drive home. I slept most of the way...

I then worked on Sunday, and started my new rotation on Monday. I worked all through the next weekend, only biking as a commuter. On September 24, early in the morning, Lynn dropped me off at Cow Palace for the starting line for BikeMS: Waves to Wine. I rode most of the ride with various Team Menstrual Cycles riders, most of whom were doing some portion of the 82-mile route. I turned off on my own for the inland loop that distinguished the 100-mile route, and found the Marshall Wall to be a scorching, miserable climb that I do not plan to repeat. I was much, much slower without the benefit of my very fast family (7:50 moving time instead of 6:43 moving time), but I still had a great time. I slept on the way home that day, too. 

#200in2016 complete!

Also, thank you to Strava for diligently recording my rides, and to my Nexus 6P which has a decent battery life that allows me to record my rides

My cousin Chris and I in the fog that engulfed almost the entirety of the Best Buddies Ride

A cute lizard that joined me at the Hearst Castle Ranch

Another Menstrual Cyclist tackling Waves to Wine

(Don't worry, I'm stopped and standing on the ground while I take this photo.)

Looking sunny in the official Team Menstrual Cycles jersey

The view from part of the hot, desolate segment of the 100-mile route on the Waves to Wine ride