Back to the Slough

June 24, 2025

just a temporary FYI to avoid miscommunications and confusion for the next few hours: it’s me, throwing my voice through Rocky’s iPad while she takes mine over to the Apple Store for replacement. Oh, I’m a dope - it’s not the iPad, it’d the account talking. I suppose I could sign out and sign again as myself. What a concept! Sorry.
An update to the first FYI: We have a new IPad just like the old one, but new. yay! And we've successfully loaded it from the old, broken iPad we're recycling. Yay, yay!
Ok but not-okay
And last , interesting and non disabling but probably the most long-lasting, my currently quite high prednisone is playing havoc with me again I've been on 40 mg/day for over a month now (right before we went home and I started having worsening vision in my good eye. Scary, but within a day my vision is fine and my test results are normal. But it looks like they're pulling me off and putting me on a twice weekly expensive new injectable as many of you know. Which other than cost and constraint of the new active ingredient, which works a completely different mechanism and active ingredient. Actually it's not but:
In the meantime I have to taper off the old one graduallynuas they validate through ongoing blood tests that the new disease has taken over and isn't returning as the cortisone withdraws from the ramparts that are protecting my optic nerves (Kelly, think of this and similar modern protective fortifications with , soft tissue barriers to protect us from our enemies like Vauban did along the French borders 3 centuries ago. It's exactly the same thing - just like the Loop and Galibier). I have my nest blood test next week, my phone visit with my rheumatologist Wednesday, my first stab Friday, we leave for London four weeks later, and somewhere in that and the following month I'm expected to wean 100% off of cortidateroids doppfor this problem for the rest of my life. And actually, op it's not a new drug - it (Tyeene) has been used as the drug of choice for folks with rheumatoid arthritis because the side effects are so much less less, almost dwarfed by some of the really dire symptoms of long term high steroids, which disable your immipuje system so it can't protect you from other, even worse than the cure of my condition. Moon face, fat feet, pneumonia, maybe even osteoporosis, as awful Moon face and the like are one thing, and as awful as osteoporosis is, how karposi, rhe dark blotch cancer taphat took out aids patients before by because it's acct
So many places in France

dd been prednisone

Here's today's task list, which includes a few items that could get pushed off the page for another day or two if I run out of time:

Bike over to Kaiser to pick up my prescriptions: Tyeene, my replacement for prednisone; and an emergency refill for my cholesterol medication.
Bike or take the streetcar over to the Apple Store to pick up a replacement for my sadly screen-shattered iPad.
Take the new Garmin 1040 we just bought but don't need after all because the missing 1030 finally turned up to a nearby UPS outlet so we can return it for a refund before it's too late.
Watch the video on how to inject myself, so I can learn how to do so periodically for probably the rest of my life.
Inject myself.
Order a pair of portable, rechargeable refrigerated drug transportation units so we can travel with the new meds.
Finalize the proposal for the first itinerary in England, the one we're almost certain to take.
Review the itinerary with Rachael, and discuss and agree on places that we should look for bookings at.
Bike ride!!! (With luck)

Kaiser's just a few blocks from my sweet new find the Bread & Honey Cafe so that's where I'm bound when I cross the Broadway Bridge around seven, stopping at its midpoint to take in the upriver view. A half-mile later I pause again to appreciate the early morning look of Dawson Park before continuing on.

One thing about the knee thing is that it's helped nudge me out of my morning routine. Umbria and Lovejoy got the nod morning after morning largely because they're so close by, both of them an easy walk even back when I was still having trouble seeing and had ti walk with one hand testing the right side walls as I walked. Now though I'm reluctant to walk more than about three blocks when there's an alternative so I start most mornings on the bike -and since I'm on the bike, my horizon has widened. I'm really enjoying putting a couple of miles in on my way to coffee, especially when the weather is fine like this.

Yep. Different every day. It's all good.

I'm in no rush and the light's right so I stop to admire the acanthus in Dawson Park before rushing off to coffee. I like this - it has a Japanese gardenish feel.

I've got a lengthy agenda for the day but there's one more item that got added in the middle of the night when I woke up and realized our future lives call for a new planning tool now. I lay awake for about a half hour thinking it through, and this morning it feels urgent to develop it now so a lot of my time gets spent on this once I've downed my empanada and seen that someone in Pakistan has nominated DJT for the NPP, with their thanks for bringing peace to the world by bombing Iran.

So the new planning tool is an event list, past and future, of events specific to my GCA condition. It includes time critical items like my scheduled blood draws and injections, but also ones that are critical to our plans for the future: when we can get another one month Tyenne refill, how much inventory we have on hand, and when we plan to travel into or out of locations Kaiser will ship to. This looks like it will be a permanent or at least long term part of my life now, so I'd better get disciplined about it.

This is sort of an homage shot, a last viewing of my poor abused iPad before he heads to the recycle bin. Sorry, dude.

A nice touch. I can't strum, bit I can hum - and whistle! I wonder if I'd get a free drink if I lead a whistling singalong.

Roughly two hours later I'm more or less done with the new doc so I close up shop and bike the short distance west to Kaiser to pick up my first Tyenne prescription and the emergency refill for my cholesterol medication that's mysteriously gone awol, along with mail for many of the 40-50 units in Elizabeth's condo.
It's an easy ride, save for negotiating the sharp 180's on the narrow up and down ramps of the pedestrian freeway overpass. I'm fine on the downhill side where I can brake and crawl through the turn and see ahead if anyone is coming the other way. The uphill ramp is a different story though - any ongoing traffic would be dropping down from above and behind my back, and it's on my blind side to boot - so of course I stop at the uphill bend and walk it around the corner.

Two! Finally I nab my second bird of the day on the way across the Failing Street pedestrian freeway overpass. I'm stopped not for the awesome shot though, but because of the sharp uphill 180 degree bend in the ramp I can't negotiate without walking, especially on my blind side.

When it's dispensed the advice nurse discusses the Tyeene with me and since it's the first time she suggests that I go down to the Nurse Station for some hands-on training on injection technique. I've been sent a video on this, but it makes sense to have someone help me through the first jab so I head down. When I get there though I find a crowded waiting room, a requirement that I go back upstairs and sign in first, and a 20-30 minute waiting list after that. With so many other things I hope to get done today I decide it's not worth it and just bike back home.

When I pull up to our building I'm surprised to see Rachael just coming out - it's surprising how often we tend to cross paths like this. Since it's due to get fairly hot this afternoon she sensibly decides that she'll go for a walk this morning while it's still cool rather than wait around to bike with me after it heats up. We confer for a few minutes and then she's off on her twelve miler du jour - this time out to Leif Erickson Drive again, the walk that's become her favorite lately.

I head upstairs, stick my two costly jabs in the fridge, and then spend about about two hours slaving away at the next item on my to do list because it's the one I enjoy the most: detailing out the other planning document, the one that's specific to our upcoming tour. I draw up routes and look for candidate lodging for the proposed first part of our tour of England, the one we're certain to get in before needing to fly home regardless of anything short of a catastrophe coming up. When I'm dine I assemble it all into a document that Rachael and I can review, refine and accept. And we want to do it soon, because we'll need to reserve bike space on the train that will take us to its starting point.

There's $250, under the insurance plan. I could wait to see what the max copay for the year is under my plan, but it really doesn't matter. For $10/day I'm buying another day of eyesight. Seems worth giving up a glass of wine for.

And then I look at the clock and the remaining items on the list. ‘Bother!’ and ‘O blow!’ and also “Hang spring-cleaning!’ Are declared, and Roddy are soon out the door on our way to the Columbia Slough for some late afternoon birding, the GoPro mounted on his hand bars and the Canon in my rucksack, itching for some action. The plan is for a 20 mile loop along the slough to Smith Lake before doubling back along the river and swinging past Force Lake and Vanport. It's only 2, it's only 20 miles, so that should bring me back to the the Lucky Lab for a slice and a pint. Or so I plan anyway.

I'm feeling really good and upbeat about myself when I arrive at the slough force miles later. I've kept a reasonably fast pace the whole way, fast enough that I can time the stoplights and miss only two: at Bell and Lombard. My biking - my whole being really, except for what I can explain away as due to the prednisone - feels really nearly normal again. Getting back to normal didn't get me back to being younger and stronger unfortunately, but I'm still thinking biking my age in miles still feels in the cards for this winter.

And I've kept such a good pace that getting back in time for a pint and slice should be no problem at all.

Like the Willamette, the Columbia Slough takes on many looks, dramatically changing with weather, time of day, season and water level.

But there's a problem, and the Lab will have to keep waiting to see my face again. It's a good problem though, because even though there still aren't many birds out there's great diversity in the ones that do show up. One by one new birds for the day keep showing up - there's the eagle, here's another killdeer, there's a waxwing, the first since down in Tucson. They just keep coming, and by the time I leave the slough I'm starting to think a 30 bird day might be possible - particularly because several of the most common birds here are amazingly enough still no shows: no junco, no house finch, no towhee, no Canada goose for crying out loud. Vanport usually has hundreds of geese out on the golf course at the end of the day, but today? Zero.

Bill should be able to figure this one out.

Menacing! You wouldn't want that cur nipping on your hills, but I think Roddy and I have the situation under control.

Smith Lake has a bit going on today though.

If there's only going to be one bird out here today, at least it's this one.

I see Force Lake has its cottonwood look on today, if you get my drift.

I'm nearing Vancouver Ave and my exit from the slough when one last bird gets added to the list: a pair of reds-tailed hawks gyrates above and then quickly disappears behind the trees,too late for me to snap but not to score. But then a minor mishap happens and I semi-fall when I'm getting back in the bike and my bike shorts get hooked on the horn of the saddle, I lose my balance and topple forward across the other side of the bike, catching myself before I or the camera hit the ground but not before the mirror gets loosened from the impact.

I don't need the mirror on the empty bike path and ims still on the lookout for a goose or finch, but when I come to Vancouver Ave I stop, fish out the multitool to tighten the mirror, and fail to see my wallet in the handlebar bag where I remember placing it. I'm probably just wrong about that, so I check my other pockets. Do you have any idea how many places I have to stash on rides like this? A lot! I check them all, getting increasingly agitated and concerned.

It's not in either of the two compartments of the handlebar bag, or the three pockets of my bike shirt, or the two in my rucksack, and finally the three in my small pannier. It's not in any of them - zero for ten! And I feel just sick. The only explanation is that I had it in my shirt and it slipped out of my pocket on that half-spill a quarter mile back - a quarter mile in which I passed three or four homeless encampments. What are the odds it's still there?

I assess the odds, and decide they're poor enough that I might as well check the pockets one more time first, just in case. I start at the top and find it in the first one, the pocket of the handlebar bag where I'd remembered leaving it. I just didn't look carefully enough.

It's nearing seven when I get home. The lights getting low enough that I'm not enjoying biking into it so LL is out of luck again so I just head home. I spot my first towhee when it hops into a hedge, but I'm still 'stuck' at just 27 birds for the day when I come to the Broadway Bridge. Great, of course - it's my biggest day since Arizona; but not even one Canada goose? Come on Canadians, are you really that mad at us?

And then at the last minute I look back, just as I'm going to drop off the bridge and mostly coast the last few blocks to home. And there he is. Amazing.

Almost home. It's been a fine day, but I can't believe the common birds I failed to see today: not even one junco, house finch, or goose. Goose eggs, all of them!

Sound track: I wish I could Go Traveling Again, by Stacey Kent. (Lyrics by one of her personal friends, Nobel Prize winning British author Kazuo Ishiguro)

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Today's list: Rock pigeon, American crow, House sparrow, American robin, Great egret, Double crested cormorant, Bald eagle, American kestrel, Mallard, Great blue heron, Barn swallow, Tree swallow, , Cliff swallow, Song sparrow, Wood duck, Pied billed grebe, Western gull, Osprey, Eurasian starling, Red-winged blackbird,, Gadwall, Cedar waxwing, Killdeer, California scrub-jay, Vaux's swift, Red-tailed hawk, Spotted towhee, Canada goose (28)

Today's ride: 25 miles (40 km)
Total: 1,382 miles (2,224 km)

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Bruce LellmanI have kept my wallet in the same pocket, no matter what kind of pants or shorts I'm wearing, for decades. If it isn't in that pocket it's truly lost.
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