Multiple Sclerosis Waves to Wine 2009

I have been a participant in the two day bike ride for Multiple Sclerosis since 2003. This was going to be my seventh year of riding. However, Ann and my lives as well as the the lives of our parents have been very complex since November 2008. Ann's mom was diagnosed with Leukemia in November in Michigan and died a month later; we cleaned out and sold her condominium by May 2009. My mother in Rochester had heart surgery but then had a stroke in surgical recovery; she has come back through rehab and is doing very well. My parents moved into a new senior community apartment in February, we cleaned out the house in May and are within a month of closing on the sale. On top of that, my father succumbed to prostate cancer in August after a six year successful fight; you can see details earlier in my blog. The most telling statistic is that I have traveled to Rochester, New York eight times in the past ten months; at times these trips were direct from Muskegon, Michigan. Needless to say, I have not been staying on top of all of my various activities and disciplines in life.

• The items above are my reason for not sending a printed thank-you note after the ride. The ride was great: two beautiful cool (high in the 70s) days, with 100 miles the first day and 75 the second. With your help, I raised $12,000. This 6th ride for me and 25th for the Northern California MS chapter raised $1.62 million dollars for 2000 riders and 400 volunteers. Thank you all.
  
• I have been working at staying in shape between trips to Rochester, but have been only marginally successful. I'd typically have done five or six hundred mile rides at this point in the year, and would be biking almost 200 miles/week. Instead, I have done two 63 mile rides and am just now working back up to 60 miles/ week.
  
• I reviewed my chances of biking 175 or even 150 miles during the weekend of September 12 and 13 and realized that I was not going to succeed. After much deliberation, I decided to continue my participation, but in a different role this year. I will be taking Ann's car that has a four-bike rack on the back and will be a SAG wagon for both Saturday and Sunday of the event. I'll help people change tires and recover from other mechanical issues, ferry people who have to bail on the ride, provide water and food to the thirsty and hungry. I've used SAG services at various times on many other rides, so it will be fun to return the favor to other riders.
  

Even though I'm not riding myself, this is a charitable event. I'd appreciate your financial support for my efforts of the two days. You can contribute through the my personal page on the MS web site; if your company is like Adobe and does matching funds, please file for matching funds to make your contribution go further.

Thanks in advance for your support.