At Last.....

Okay, so that was supposed to be a pic of just Sálome, but of course Kona needed to insert himself into the thick of things. I think he thought my camera was a biscuit. Anyway, finally, finally(!) I have my baby back! Dino is still being the faithful co-pilot, no worse for wear, and there don’t appear to be any scratches on her frame. What’s odd is that the only scratches/gouges I can find are on the bar-end shifters. On top. So the scenario I have in my head is something where we hit a huge rut in the road and go cartwheeling over, me still clipped in. Now THAT would have been interesting to see.

As an aside, I’d like to note that the great guys at Get a Grip Cycles did finally badger Felt enough such that they caved and sent me a new fork for my bike, so Sálome is now completely restored to her shiny perfection. Not sure if it was because they were shamed by CancerGirl here or if they were worried that GAG was serious about their threat to no longer carry them as a dealer. I think it was the cancer thing. I was there the day it came in - and hmm, oddly enough, their forks no longer come with those horrifying clear stickers that they once considered so necessary to “protect the frame.” Funny thing that.

Of course, I can’t really go riding her outside yet since I’m still dealing with this dizziness/vertigo issue, though Deanna did most helpfully suggest that I could try putting training wheels on Sálome. Which I certainly plan to do, right after I track down for myself my latest treasure in All Things Pink Land, namely Breast Cancer Barbie. Yes, under the heading of “things people with MBAs from Harvard come up with”, we present BC Barbie, in all her pink sartorial splendor:


Oh sure, she’s actually called Pink Ribbon Barbie or some such thing, but still. I’ve also been on the lookout for her besotted squire, Prostate Cancer Ken, as well as her younger sister, Leukemia & Lymphoma Skipper, to no avail. I will remain vigilant, however. I wonder though, is Barbie actually bald, with a bunch of wigs as her accessories? Are the perfect pneumatic boobs before or after treatment? And how exactly would girls play with BC Barbie? “Okay Amber, today it’ll be YOUR turn to puke your guts out. My Skipper will go for her bone marrow transplant and they can send each other kisses through the plastic bubble. ‘Kay?”

This does make me wonder though – us breast cancer people, we get a WHOLE MONTH all to ourselves, all the pink stuff, a Barbie, a hockey game, tv specials with B-level celebrities, even a Lifetime movie-of-the-week. The leukemia and lymphoma people have The Purple Menace. What about, say, people with liver cancer? Don’t they wind up feeling like the bastard stepchild of the cancer world? Can’t they at least get, say, a DAY? Maybe they just need a catchy slogan. “Paté had its heyday, what about us?” “Liver cancer – what are we, chopped?” Or, Livers are Lovely, which they can shorten to LNL, mimicking the TNT (aka TIT) people. Or, umm, not. Never mind.

On a totally different front, I had to go to Whole Foods to get a new "all-natural" deodorant, since apparently the normal ones can cause my arm to explode or something while I’m being irradiated. I get to the store and am confronted by a shelf of deodorants with scents such as lemongrass/clary sage, bayberry/rose hips, and curry/tea leaf. Great – so I get to smell like either pad thai, a candle shop, or as if I want to sell you a rug. Don’t even you freaky vegan people want to smell “powder fresh” or like an “ocean breeze”? What are you, un-American??