For the past four years, we have been doing the ADA's Tour de Cure. We lost Rachel's father, Ken, a few years to diabetes. In addition, Rachel and a number of family and friends have diabetes. Therefore, we like to support the ADA when we can.

As Rachel and I do not normally ride our bikes, we are in poor shape for this event; had it been a walk, we would have an easier time. Additionally, even with the liberal application of sunscreen, we still become sunburned. However, we still enjoy doing the ride.

I keep kidding my wife by telling her she does not need to generate situations for me to write about; I have enough stuff happen to me as it is. :) Anyway, I am overdue for an update:

We finally had our garage sale. Anything we could not sell was donated to Goodwill and the local library. It is nice to park (at least one vehicle) in the garage again. Now, if we could only get the garage door open to work.

I need a break. A few Fridays ago, Rachel started feeling sick. A few days later, I was also sick. I was out of work from Monday through Wednesday of last week. As I spent the majority of my time either sleeping or only marginally coherent, I did not accomplish a lot. Both my work and schoolwork suffered.

I was starting to get back to normal when my mother-in-law called Friday night. She was suffering from bad indigestion and was having a panic attack. Her indigestion medication only made problems worse. We ended up calling the rescue squad and going to the hospital.

During a routine checkup, our veterinarian noticed that Kara's teeth needed cleaning. As all three dogs have the same routine, we are not quite sure why her teeth were significantly worse than the other two dogs. At any rate, we had the vet do a full cleaning.

Rachel dropped off Kara at the vet on Monday and picked her up yesterday afternoon. Kara seemed a bit lethargic at first (understandably considering the anesthesia and drugs she was given). But, she seems back to normal. It will take a few days before she is back to her normal routine.

Actually, I am not sick of the snow. But, I am sick and we have had a lot of snow recently. On Friday, it took an extra hour to get home. By the time I got home, I felt wiped. Fortunately, Rachel had been keeping the driveway relatively clear.

Today is the date that we let the clocks "fall back" an hour. I usually stay up until 2:00 AM to do the time change. But I was unable to last; I was still feeling queasy from yesterday and needed the sleep. I still feel bad, but not as bad as yesterday. With luck, I should be back to normal for work tomorrow.

Rachel and I, prepared some dirt cake, dressed up in our costumes, and headed off to the party. Unfortunately, shortly before we arrived, Rachel started to feel sick. I think that it was a combination of her diabetes, visiting her father’s grave earlier, too much sun, and a bunch of emotions. So, I dropped off some food, said a few quick hellos and goodbyes, then headed back home.

Without going into graphic detail, Rachel was having some intestinal problems last night. This morning, things continued to worsen. I ended up having to call the paramedics. Fortunately, she did not have to go to the hospital and she is doing much better now.

We arrived at the hospital around 9:15 AM for my brother-in-law Matthew’s hernia surgery. We did not have to wait too long before he was called away to be prepped for surgery. Just a few minutes ago, the staff called us back to hear the doctor’s report. It sounds like the doctor performed a successful operation. Matthew should be ready to go shortly and be fully recovered within a few weeks.

I am currently in the waiting room of the hospital. That’s bad. Fortunately, I am not the one going into surgery. That’s good. My brother-in-law Matthew is the one who is having surgery performed. That’s bad.

The doctors recently diagnosed him with a hernia. Theoretically, the surgery is minor. However, I tend to feel that “minor surgery” is an oxymoron. I am, however, glad that he was quickly diagnosed and able to get into surgery soon (within a few days). With good luck, he will be back to work on Monday (though I am sure he would prefer to stay home).