message in a bottle

so,
after somewhere around 120 miles and 11 hours
and $98,000 raised by our team ($3500 of which
some of you helped me raise)
it is over.
the ride, not the cancer.
but the cancer will end.
if only it was as easy as a long day on the bicycle.

there are times when things were hard.
really hard.
get-off-your-bike-and-swear-at-the-rocks-hard.
nothing as hard as fighting cancer.
that’s [...]

102 miles

that’s what i’ll ride tomorrow
in beautiful moab, ut.
i’ll do it for cancer research
and for leanne
and for myself
and for all the people who wrote in asking me to take them with me:
pinot
lydia
jan
hope
lauren
sweeney’s hometown mayor
and so many more
who didn’t write in.
because of you, i raised $3275
and maybe we raised a few people
out of their future graves.
rad pictures [...]

easy, easy people

leanne’s grandmother
teaches me yiddish.
i teach her spanish.
i tell her to say:
lame mi codo.
she says it.
what’s that mean? she asks.
it means lick my elbow, i say.
blech, she says.
she calls me
kochleffel.
kochleffel, i say.  what’s that mean?
it’s a long-handled cooking spoon, she says.
oh, i say.
used to stir up trouble, she adds.
oh, i say again.  right.
—–
it’s funny how i [...]

iron me

here’s something…
a man, a father, a husband
is giving a talk.
he is talking to senior citizens and showing them stories.
he is listening to one complaining about her broken walker,
another is crying next to her husband after they listen
to their own story of how they met and fell in love,
others are eating popcorn.
his phone rings.
it is his [...]