Just love, love, love days like today!  Got up and felt like a million bucks....well maybe a little less than a million but you get the idea.  The week following chemo has been a little rough these last few rounds but it is interesting, when I turn the corner it is an abrupt and total change on how I feel.  I just get up one day and I feel better!  There's nothing gradual about it!

Had a great sleep last night, although Bill says I was as noisy as a freight train which has been one of the side effects of my surgery.  Still have issues with my vocal cords which also affects my breathing and it is always worse at night.  I seem to handle exertion better than I used to, although there are times when I exert myself that I just have to stop for a minute and suck wind.  My family says I'm just experiencing what the normal population experiences all the time.  Hardly.....but it has taken me time to accept this and realize this might be the way it is forever.  I had to smile this week when I got an email from my pal Wendy asking if I would like to play doubles with her in the Seniors and Masters National Badminton Championships next month in Vancouver!  Would I like to!!!  YES!!!  Am I going to??? NO!!!!  I haven't touched a racquet in over a year  (other than touching them in my locker) and am still getting my feet under me when it comes to activities like running and badminton that get your heart racing and your lungs working.  It did make me realize however, how much I miss the game and the friends associated with it.  I said no this year.  I'm just not ready for that YET....however, I am taking a rain cheque and told her to keep me on her dance card!  Something else to look forward to.

I headed up to the Winter Club after breakfast and did my time on the bike and a few weights.  Ran into so many people today that I actually spent more time visiting than I did working out.  I ran into another friend who I knew through badminton.  I was shocked to learn she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and has been through surgery and treatment.  The great news is that she is now clean and looks fantastic!  Lucky woman.  Ovarian cancer is such a deadly one and to overcome that one is amazing!  We had a real good chat.  She had been having lunch with her Mom and her Mom was complaining that she was having trouble swallowing.  Then she walked by me sitting in the coffee shop.....we got to talking about weird coincidences that happen in our lives.  How many times have you been sitting in your house thinking about someone and the phone rings and it's the very person you were just thinking about.  It happens to me frequently.  When I was skiing at Castle this week I had a really strange one.  I had mentioned that my old friend, now living in Whitehorse has phoned me a couple of times but we keep missing each other.  The other day I was talking about how certain things make you think of certain people.  Well, my friend was an avid skier.  Castle Mountain, which used to be Westcastle was one of the places we skied together and when I go there I remember the times we were there in waist deep snow.  There was only a t-bar there in those days and a days skiing was hard work. Anyways....I had had that thought when we arrived that morning and wondered if he skied up in Whitehorse or if there even was skiing in Whitehorse or if he had given it up.  Speaking of coincidences......Michelle and I were up on the hill skiing and I had stopped to catch my breath.  I had my iphone in my pocket as I had been using it to take some pictures.  It started to ring.  Michelle looked at me and asked if I was going to answer it.  I said there was no way I was answering my phone on the ski hill!  Phones don't belong on the ski hill and it would just feel weird to be talking to someone when I was out skiing, so I just let it ring, refusing to be married to my phone like so many people are these days.   I heard the phone chirp indicating that someone had left a message and didn't check it until later that evening.  Guess who was calling.....my old friend.....how ironic is that!?

Finished at the club and headed home to pick up my black companion.  He didn't know it but I had a spa day planned for him today!  I decided we would start with a walk at the off leash park before we headed over to the dog wash.  We finished our loop and headed over to Beacon Hill to get him spruced up and smelling sweet.  I pulled up to the dog wash, jumped out and opened the back hatch of my vehicle.  Boomer stood up, took one look where we were and sat down, refusing to leave the vehicle.  He knew exactly where we were and why we were there and he wanted no part of it.  A dog wash, disguised as a spa day is not his idea of a treat!  I had to actually physically haul him out of the back of the vehicle and drag him into the wash.  He then acted like a complete mule, planting all four feet firmly on the ground and leaning back absolutely refusing to go up the ramp to the tub.  Again, I had to pick up his front feet, place them on the ramp and then muscle him up the ramp.  You should have seen the hurt looks I was getting.....the "I cannot believe you are doing this to me" look!  Sad eyes, slumped ears.......who says you need to be able to talk to communicate?  Throughout the entire wash he gazed off in the opposite direction to where I was standing presenting me with a view of his rear end!    To make it even worse I decided to brush him with the furminator before the actual wash.  The only thing he hates worse than a bath is the furminator so he definitely got a double whammy today.  I think I brushed off half a dog today.  Definitely a sign that spring is coming but I so hate this time of year when I have dog hair everywhere! All you labrador owners out there now exactly what I'm talking about!
Finished with the spa and headed over to Costco to bravely battle the shopping crowd, then arrived home at 5:15.  Thank goodness supper was in the crock pot or we wouldn't have eaten tonight!  Dad arrived just as my friend Margot called me from Florida.  She and her husband just got back from a round the world trip and I can hardly wait to hear about it.  She is going to call me back tomorrow when we can really have a good gab!
Tomorrow is back to the TB for hydration.  Sometimes I wonder if the hydration thing is really necessary but then I think I should just continue on with the program.  It seems to be working so if it's working don't tamper with it right???  Right!