What a Weekend

I had an amazing weekend...woes of being tired, etc. from last week are all gone and I felt great all weekend long. Friday night was able to play some golf with BC friends who came down, then we had a little cookout and played cards all night. Saturday was the 9th Annual Holly Hog golf tournament at Holly Ridge. This year the money went to the RHCI Center for Children, and a total of $4,000 was raised to help them fund a new computer initiative for autistic children. It's a great golf tournament, with a huge focus on fun and we had a great time, even though the heat was brutal. After the tournament it was more BBQ and cards, then to the official tournament BBQ, and then back for some more cards. It was a great time and had a blast catching up with friends from BC and a pretty big contingent of folks I grew up with in Sandwich.

Sunday was softball bonanza day, with games at 9am, 1pm, and 3pm...things did not start off well as we were down a player from the get go and were forced to play with only 3 outfielders all day. This was no way to handle the playoffs, particularly considering our stunning record of success all year long. We won our first game, 11-3, which was a pleasant surprise. After the game Kristina and I headed home for an hour and she shaved my head. I simply got sick of wearing a hat and the few hairs I had left up top were more an aggravation than any sort of actual hairstyle - so I am officially bald now and I love it, no more hats, no more worrying about my hair - it's all gone now, as the picture above demonstrates. All I need is a little sun to even out the color on top of my head with the color of my face; as it is now it looks like I'm wearing a white swim cap.

So, after being shorn like a field sheep we headed back to Sandwich H.S. to see if our miracle one game playoff winning streak could be stretched to two. Again we played a man down and again we romped to a victory, 13-6. Lo and behold, the RHCI softball team, the same team that barely eked out a victory all year and finished second to last in the regular season, was playing for the championship. Our opponents were surprised to even see us show up at the game, and having handily beat us twice in the regular season I'm quite sure they were all ready to celebrate back-to-back championships. We were all pretty tired from a long day, and excited to have made it that far...at worst we were going to be second place in the league, but the stars were aligned a little differently for our squad yesterday.

It was a back and forth game with three lead changes, but we found ourselves protecting a two run lead, 7-5, as the offensive powerhouse we were playing took to batting in the bottom of the 7th. We were three outs away, and we made all 3 of them look fairly pedestrian...there it was, the Bad News Bears of the Sandwich co-ed league, celebrating in the middle of the field as league champs! We had an incredible day of fun out there and the 9 of us who showed up for what many thought would be a futile day of playoff games were rewarded with three amazing victories, and a trophy, which we will be bringing out to a local watering hole to drink from and celebrate with the rest of the team who wasn't able to make it.

Amazing weekend and it's going to be an amazing week as well...I'll get that same emotional high of victory when I walk out of chemo on Wednesday, that I experienced yesterday. Though I still have radiation to go, completing this process is an emotional victory for me, and a physical victory for my body. It was made easier by all of the incredible support I have had from employees, friends, family, and especially Kristina, who has played chauffeur, cook, guardian, and most recently hairstylist. Perhaps her greatest feats were keeping me happy and positive at the few moments I was not, and for always letting me know how much she cared and loved me - those things make a tremendous difference when faced with a challenge like cancer.

I'll end on a final note of thanks for each and every rider in the Pan-Mass Challenge this weekend, they battled heat, exhaustion and trained for months to help raise the funds needed to continue to fight against all forms of cancer and I can speak for patients everywhere when I say thank you - we appreciate your dedication, hard work, and passion for fighting cancer in the best way you can. I look forward to riding in it myself, probably in 2008, as I try to parlay my first hand battle with cancer into an effort to help others in their battle to face down and conquer this disease.

Thank you all so much for all you have done for me, I look forward to writing on Wednesday when I am 100% complete with my chemo! Best, Gary