MedicAlert

As I push the mileage, my pre-ride prep is changing. I have to pack more "fuel" (power gels, bananas, etc). I have to think about things like getting a flat 20 miles out in the country. I have to check out the sunset time and plan for that - including the extra time spent on a potential flat. I watch wind speed and direction, think about traffic patterns at different times of day, consider what dogs might be let out as the owners get home from work, try to come up with something new to think about for two hours.

I also have to wear a medical alert bracelet, carry the medical emergency card that goes with it, and make sure I have identification and insurance cards - just in case.

My ride yesterday had me focused on the medical alert bracelet. One of the benefits of my cancer treatment is that I now carry a strange "allergy". The Bleomycin that I was treated with left me with the potential to die from... oxygen. There are some case studies in which people given high levels of oxygen, as in surgery or scuba diving, ended up with severe damage to the lungs that resulted in death. Oxygen. The stuff we need to live. It could kill me. So I wear this annoying bracelet just in case I wipe out, and am taken, unconscious, to a hospital, and along the way, they decide to strap on an oxygen mask and crank it up.

And while I was thinking about how strange all that was, it dawned on me that the little clinking noise I was trying to track down on my bike was coming from my bracelet. And the mystery of how the dogs all seem to know I'm coming was solved. Those yippy little beasts listen for the clinking with their ratty little dog ears, call each other to meet in the bushes, setting up the ambush. Well, Rat Pack, I'm on to you! I will silence my bracelet and you can wake up from your slothy sleep to the sound of my bike whooshing past your am-bush. See ya!