The First Day of the Rest of My Life - Day +1

A chemo day, too. Rituxin.... had it before, no big deal, except for the benedryl they INSIST on giving me. The result is that I slept through the first 6 innings of the Yankee game (Yanks beat the BoSox, BTW). Still got some golf left for the day.

My counts haven't started to plummet yet... it'll take a couple of days. They told me that I'll  feel the worst in about a week, then my counts should start to come up as Marie's stem cells start to generate good blood cells.

OK, another analogy: In 1985 I bought a couple of boxes of used auto parts and a car that somewhat resembled a TR4. I started to tear it apart, until I had it to bare bones. Then came the painstaking process of putting it back together. The body was completed after spending 18 months at my neighbor's garage getting hammered and a couple of new fenders, inner and outer sills, etc. In the meantime I spent virtually every evening taking all of the bits and pieces, including all the gauges and dash parts, under hood (sorry, bonnet, it is an English car, you know) and scraping and painting... strip to bare metal, epoxy etching primer, wet sand to 600, more primer, sanding, color coats, sanding, painting, sanding... UGH! What a process... a labor of anticipation, not love.

Finally it was time to drag it to Paul DesRosier's house for the paint job. Paul passed away a couple of years after this job, but I think of he and his family often. Paul taught Math at Manchester High, never smoked, and died of lung cancer. What a waste.

When I got to Paul's house on the first day, there was a sign in the front of the garage... "Keep sanding, Beat Bud"  We sanded and primed, sanded some more, sanded again.  After 7 weekends of this it (the body) was finished. Figure it out... small car, gallon of color paint, gallon of clear coat. When I  got it home, the REAL work started... putting it back together... starting with a new wiring harness and plugging the last bulb in place. It was done... It took five years.

Inspection, registration...  Sunday on the show field... First in Class, and just missed Best of Show (curse you Dave Bingham!!!).

I don't want a best of show... I am 64 y.o. I'll take a "place" in class... even "Honorable Mention" is OK.  I just want to come back next year for a rematch.