When the Doc gave me the results from the biopsy and the “options” available I told him I needed a couple of days to decide which way I wanted to go. I walked back out to the VA parking garage and wandered around for almost an hour looking for my car. I couldn’t remember where I had parked it. The VA garage is HUGE and has several stories to boot.
An attendant noticed me and asked me if I needed help.
Something crawled up out of me right then. I faced the poor attendant and howled out F-U-C-K! which echoed demonically all over that garage. He stepped back a bit and said, “Sir, do I have to call Security?” I said, “Security? Security? That fucking word needs to be banned from the fucking language and you know why? Because it gives us all too much of an excuse to be STUPID!”
I turned my back to his astonished & anxious face and walked off.
I found my car on the next level. Drove home. Walked inside. Told Nancy the results of the biopsy. Told her I was going for a bike ride and we would talk when I got back. I locked the battery into the bike. Dialed up an energy-eating pedal-assist level and tore up the hill. I took every change of direction I came to. Came to the old abandoned railbed and flew down it until I came to the trestle bridge over Grindstone Creek. And stopped. The bridge is high over the stream. There are many stones of all sizes in the stream bed. They make the water talk as it passes over them. I stood there listening. As I listened I remembered something. I remembered a King once told me that I would continue on whether I made it through or not.
I breathed out. Mounted up, turned around, opened the circuit between the lithium-ion battery and the wheels. Keyed in a peaceful pedal-assist level and headed home on my time & enjoyed the ride. Walked through the door, hugged Nancy, and told her I was going to kick her ass all over the Parcheesi board. She wiped the board with me & my ragged prophecy, 3-0.
Best game of Parcheesi I ever had.
