One year ago today

Dear friends, family and followers:

It’s August 19th. One year ago today, I woke up in the afternoon with a breathing tube in my throat. I had just been the recipient of a quadruple bypass operation. Today, a year later, I am 1/3 of the way through a world bicycle tour.

My ambulance ride

What having your chest cut in half with a circular saw looks like.

The last year has been difficult for me in many ways; I could list a dozen. I am thankful, however, that my heart is not on that list.

The days and weeks following the surgery were very tough; post surgical depression affects about 30% of the heart bypass patients (compared to 5% for other types of surgery) and I won the lottery on that one! There was a very strong temptation to give up…to “go gentle into that good night” (Dylan Thomas). Instead, I turned my back on it and ran, literally, as fast as I could. Actually, I took a bike, but you get the idea. I’m still riding!

I want to thank everyone for following along with me on the ride. Comments accidentally got disabled on the last couple of posts, due to a security glitch. I think it is fixed now; I see every comment and appreciate them all.

Here’s to another day of cycling!

Scott

Post Script: I’m editing this post to include a Poem that my lifelong friend, Thad Walker, wrote the day before my surgery. Thad and I are both fans of the great Robert Service and, if you are as well, you will see the similarities in the meter.

Quite the jolt, that thunderbolt came out of the Facebook sky.

A child!  A bride!  A big bike ride! And then the “my oh my”.

The “say it ain’t so”, the “No God No”, a delay of the Tour de Star Chart

Those medical brass gonna take a pass around Scott’s big ol’ heart!

Scott’s a Service man, so he’s got a plan, to beat this devil down.

Gonna take his hit, gonna hurt a bit, gonna wear that evil gown.

Motto “Don’t Panic”, will get him through the manic days of pain and bed,

And the God Who Sees will heed our knees, and heal him toe to head.

For future action portends an Acton vision of things to do.

Gonna be a sight, to resolve that light, from the pre-galactic stew.

See the heavens scowl without the windy howl of our Earth’s atmospheric home,

And feel God’s like as Scott rides the bike from home to Nome to Rome.

On April’s First day, Scott heads away, north-seeking the Whitehorse Saloon,

On a classic steed, a blue Chevy breed, ridden daily from dawn to moon.

As he cranks out the miles, making old friends smile, others are shocked to uncover,

That this biking astronomer and moon-lighting geographer, will return with new worlds to discover.

For those in the know, rooting Go! Go Scott, Go!, checking daily for news from his blog

The travelogue pics, descriptions of ticks, and vicarious drinking of glog.

The trip’s first leg ranks, Lyons-Al-Can-Fairbanks, with the greatest of bi-pedaled feats

With a circle sawed chest, and a few Sabbath’s rests, to get on and clip in those cleats—!

We greatly admire, in one almost retired, this guts gumption gloryful gig

Enduring hills heat and traffic, with his Guardian seraphic,  as Scott puts the miles on his rig.

His courage and daring, that few when comparing, can claim to have mustered so much,

Inspires the rest, to face up to their tests, and like Scott to come through in the clutch.

I am humbled, Thad.