Feeling a lot like Ice Cube...Today was a good day!

Monday morning usually comes with traditional dread for most, but I had a few plans today that would hopefully make today a welcome change. It started out cool and sunny as I met with my Pastor and another friend at Starbucks to be mentored by my Pastor in the ways of the Lord. We had a good meeting, then Pastor Martie and I left for the church to look at some of the renovations that need to take place. (I am on the properties committee.)

Leaving the church, I called Danielle and my new friend Barry to talk about meeting for lunch. Barry is a kidney transplant recipient who has been giving me advice on what has worked for him in his process of getting a new kidney. We met on Facebook about two years ago when I started dialysis, but had never met, so Danielle and I were looking forward to meeting Barry and his wife Sharon for lunch at Bear Rock Cafe in Cary.

Danielle and I were also going to attempt another bike ride, this time through Umstead Park. We packed up the truck and headed for Cary. When we arrived, we were shocked to find out that Bear Rock Cafe is gone, with nothing to say that it had moved...just gone. We decided to eat at Salsarita's. When Barry and Sharon arrived, we ate taco's on the patio in the beautiful sunshine and shared war stories from dialysis and from his transplant. He gave me a lot of good information on his experience with dialysis and what to expect once a transplant comes available. All in all, meeting Barry and Sharon was great, we are planning on meeting back up in February.

After lunch, Danielle and I drove over to Umstead Park to go for a bike ride considering it was the only place open to ride mountain bikes. We had some heavy rain on Sunday that just drenched the trails. We rode from the parking lot off of Harrison Ave down the main trail to Old Reedy Creek by the pond, then up the hill and onto Reedy Creek Greenway up to the Museum of Art.



We turned around and rode back, then past the hill up to the truck, and up the other side. We made to the top of the first hill heading toward the RDU overlook and turned around to head to the truck. Today was awesome, I didn't have any dizzy spells or weakness today which was reassuring especially with my bouts of low blood pressure as of late. All told, we rode 8 miles in just over an hour on somewhat hilly terrain.



After the ride, we rewarded ourselves with dinner at Los Tres Magueyes with fried ice cream for dessert.



I am not smiling here because it feels like I have chips stuck in my teeth.



And to close with a picture of my beautiful and funny wife.



She is saying,"See, I don't have anything in my teeth."