A Long Journey

Today I interviewed the parents of a 14-year-old-boy eighth grader. He’s spent the last six months in and out of the hospital, undergoing chemotherpy for leukemia. He’s also very autistic. This chain of beads was made for him by the pediatric nurses at UMass Medical. Each bead represents on treatment. The red beads are blood transfusions, the green are chemo doses. The airplane is morphine and the ambulances are trips down to the Emergency Dept. The spiky-looking thing is for a lumbar puncture. I’m happy to say that after all this, plus a six-week hospital stay for a bowel infection, and cardiac trouble, the leukemia is in remission. Their son will be a freshman in high school this fall.

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Trivia Champs!

Tonight we went to a trivia fundraiser for the non-profit for which I work. I joined Jen’s team, made of her old lab mates: Tom, Tim, and Chris. We won first place… and four tickets to a Red Sox-Diamondbacks game in August.

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How I Spent My Memorial Day

My Aunt Rose is in her 80s and bending over to do the gardening isn’t so easy for her. I don’t usually spend a lot of time on Pinterest, but I saw a palette garden on someone’s page and thought if I could elevate it using 5 gallon buckets, it could be a garden my aunt could easily maintain. So Memorial Day I woke up early, made a Home Depot/Harbor Freight run, came home and got out the power tools. I added a sheet of plywood on the bottom, 1×4’s on the sides, and lined the holes with mesh so the water would run ot but the dirt would stay in place. Nine hours later, her garden was done. We have tomatoes, cucumbers, romaine lettuce, green peppers, and even strawberries. The soil bed is pretty shallow, so hopefully everything will get along together. I think the strawberries and the cukes might be a problem because they’re creepers, they don’t grow straight up. But anyways I’ll post more pics later this summer.

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Midstate Trail, Leg 1

My goal this summer is to hike the 90-mile Midstate Trail, which bisects Massachusetts from the RI border to the NH border. Today my cousin Paul, his friend Chris, my friend Jena, and I hiked the first leg, from Douglas to Oxford (16.5 map miles, 19 “actual” miles). Despite a couple showers here and there (even raining unde a sunny sky), it was good hiking temps in the 50s. The next leg, Oxford to Spencer, will be in late June or early July.

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This Drummer is at the Right Gig

Tonight I got to see Steve Moore, aka The Mad Drummer, at Mohegan Sun in Conn. He’s an amazing, amazing drummer who plays for a nationally touring cover band called Rick K and the Allnighters. They play small venues like casinos, county fairs… Then a couple of years ago a random video of the band (called “This drummer is at the Wrong Gig,” with Steve going Animal-style on ZZ Top’s “Sharp Dressed Man”) was posted on YouTube and went viral. It’s now at about 24 million views. Since then, Steve got a bunch of endorsements, and according his twitter “is at the point where he could buy his mother a new car.” In his interviews and emails, he’s still a pretty cool, humble guy. I always like stories of people sharing their talents, bringing happiness to people, having fun and enjoying their passion, and eventually finding $ucce$$ along the way. Gives hope to the rest of us.

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Mass BIA

I’m writing a new story for the Telegram on the British Iron Association, a club for enthusiasts of British motorcycles. Speant an hout chatting with two of the club’s officers on the history of the motorcycle industry – and how Steve McQueen rode a 1962 Triumph TR650 Trophy to escape from a Nazi POW camp in 1944. Mysterious. Here are just two bikes I saw in the parking lot – an old BMW and a Triumph.

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Pete Kush for City Council

Tonight I went to the campaign kick-off party for Pete Kush. He’s running for Worcester City Council. Good luck Pete!

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Wolf and Star

This afternoon at the WARL, Mike, another volunteer, and I walked two Siberian Huskies, Wolf and Star. They were found together by Animal Control, uncollared and wandering the streets of Worcester. The staff at the shelter believes they were abandoned by a passing car. They’re pretty friendly dogs and definitely used to being around people. Whoever adopts them, I hope they have a powerful vacuum cleaner. (After we were posing for this pic and petting the dogs, I came out afterwards and there was eough hair on the grass that a sparrow was collecting it for his nest!)

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