Day 174, Year 7: Halfway There
Date: Monday, April 30, 2012
Weather: Still Sunny and Cool, Less Windy
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, N Falmouth, MA
Mark had his sixth chemo treatment today which puts him at the halfway point. He shared that distinction with our friends Heather and Jon on sailing vessel Evergreen. They hit the magic 1500 mile point today which is halfway from the Galapagos to the Marquesas. Congratulations, Heather and Jon. They have had amazingly good winds for this first half of their trip and Mark has held up amazingly well up to this point in the chemotherapy regime. But tonight, he was really nauseous. That’s the first time this has happened and it is really hard to watch him suffer. But we’ll figure this out. I just have to put him on the anti-nausea food diet—more ginger, more fennel, and lots of liquids. I think his nausea tonight was brought on by the food we ate for dinner. It was just too rich. Thai soup, minus the hot spice, sounds like the right choice on a chemo night. We are seeing first-hand just how much diet affects one’s state of well-being.
I took Mark to Heather and Jed’s after his chemo treatment and then went to pick up Sam and Jonah. We know that once we move Windbird to Woods Hole, the visiting nurse is not going to come out in a dinghy to hook Mark up to the pump he wears for three days following the treatment at the clinic. So we figured we might as well start having her come to Heather’s now. Hopefully that will work out for everyone.
After naptime for Sam and Jonah, we worked outside on some gardening projects. Sam and I finished planting the sunflowers in the bee garden. Sam is fascinated by the bees and found a few that had strayed from the hive and were just sitting on the ground. He was afraid they were going to die, so we encouraged them to climb on a small stick and I then carried them to the hive. Then Sam and Jonah and I fertilized the peas in the food garden with a seaweed and fish emulsion. I made the mix and put it in their little watering cans. Then they watered the plants. Jonah is interested in helping, but Sam is old enough to be really helpful. We have lots of gardening to do, so we’ll do a bit every day after nap.
Can tomorrow really be the first day of May? My calendar tells me it is. So at the Goldstone’s tomorrow afternoon, we will plant some of the seedlings that I have been growing in Windbird’s cockpit. We might even be adventuresome and plant our first green beans. It is almost a month too early for that, but since everything else is a month early this year, we’ll follow suite. The Farmer’s Almanac tells me we should plant beets, potatoes, and swiss chard, so we’ll do just that.
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| 120430 Day 174 Cape Cod, USA–Heather and Her Bees |
