WetLeather Motorcycle Rider Information

McMeniman's Grand Lodge, Forest Grove, Oregon. Feb 16, 2008

More content to follow!

Bob "You probably know me as copcycle" OBS guy, the jazz bandleader's 13MB .mp3 Audio recording of the ceremony

Copcycle Bob's photos: http://www.rosecityhotclub.com/photos-group-53.html

PART 1

It had been a tough winter and a tougher spring. My marriage officially ended in April. The reality is; my marriage had been over long before. Divorce is such an ugly thing. Divorce is even uglier when someone you loved turns on you with a vindictive rage.

I needed to get my head together. I needed to travel and I needed to think. There’s no better place for both than on the seat of a motorcycle.

I had my surgical follow-up at the doctor's office yesterday.

Executive Summary: I'm doing fine.

Over the last week and a half I've actually started eating real food again! Not much, but enough to feel like a human person again. I don't know how anyone could live on protein shakes and yogurt for more than a couple of weeks. I'd go bonkers.

I was supposed to wait until four weeks before moving off pureed stuff, but I just needed to eat something I had to chew. And since I do most of the cooking around here it was getting a bit tedious to watch everyone else enjoying themselves while I ate little piles of mush.

Today I felt as close to "normal" as I've been since the surgery. If my bathroom scale is to be believed I am losing weight. Today it said "283.5".

For those of you who didn't know I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes about five years ago. Part of my life has become my medicine routine. Over the last year I had been using Byetta combined with Actos, Metformin and Ameryl to control my blood sugar. This had been pretty successful until I chose to discontinue Actos in the late summer.

Today is the beginning of the second week of my liquid diet. I began taking only liquids the day before surgery. Sometime in the last few days it really started to hit me. Its very odd to go this long on only drinks and soups. Very odd indeed.

It's done.

I got out of recovery (great name) around 6:00 PM on Wednesday. My memories of that evening are few and far between. I do recall snapping back to something like conciousness around midnight and then having little luck falling back to sleep. Lot's of poking and prodding by the Legacy Nursing Staff including morphine shots for the pain.

My trip to interview in Ft. Lauderdale on Tuesday the 18th went well. It looks like a good company, good opportunity. They are good people, and gave me very positive feedback on my interviews. I had good rapport with the guy who'd probably become my boss (they have 2 equivalent positions open). They don't expect to make a decision/offer until the first of the year. The job there is a "Sr. Manager, R&D" - very much in line with my career history and experience and comfort zone. It's a solid job,