on monday, i was still feeling off-kilter enough to not work from home. given that i would mostly just be hanging about the house, it seemed a good day for a visitor, and my good friend paul was kind enough to drive up from athens on his day off. i have known paul and his wife laura for over fifteen years now, and for a good portion of that, i lived close enough to see his house from my apartment at the time. for the first several years, i was able to simply walk to their house, across an open field, in a matter of minutes. however, at some point, some storage units were built on the field, and eventually, a chain link fence around them, cutting off my easy path. sad trombone. in response to this injustice, paul made me a parking sign, fashioned from pvc piping and a bucket filled with concrete. it looked just as ridiculous as it sounds, and set it up in the driveway whenever i drove over to visit them.

andy had never seen this sign, but had heard the tales of it. "well, we should make him a parking sign." oh, yes. yes, we should. thanks to the internet and a fake tree in the shed we inherited, we did indeed make him a parking sign.

this photo was taken shortly after paul pulled into the driveway. i could hear him laughing from inside his car.

paul got the grand tour of the house, and we soon headed for lunch at tommy's diner. we chatted and caught up on the way there, and back, through franklinton, and back at the house. talking with paul is always time well spent. he headed off in the afternoon, and i spent a few hours napping, and chilling for the evening.

it was apparent by tuesday that it was time for the mohawk to go. it was thinning/falling out and looking less badass than it deserved. and so, off with her hair! andy used clippers and razors and the hawk was no more. the sides, which were previously shaved close, had not really fallen out, and had maintained very short hairs. on the other hand, the longer mohawk hairs had mostly fallen out, creating a reverse mohawk look. this may sound cool and interesting, but mostly it presents as male pattern baldness, which is not exactly the look i'm going for. alas. i would have been fine rocking the sinead o'connor look, but for now it will be hats until all the hair bits fall out.

both tuesday and wednesday i worked from home for part of each day. as with previous treatments, i was feeling 100% by thursday, and i returned to work. it is an interesting rhythm to the weeks. friday was another workday, and another fire pit, hot dogs, and s'mores sort of evening with a friend later on. i could get used to this.

on saturday, my parents came down for their traditional Come See The Colors And Trees And Hills Because Northwest Ohio Is Flat Farmlands autumnal visit. when i lived in athens, hocking hills was the usual destination. but saturday called for 100% chance of rain pretty much all day, so i thought we should stick with the columbus metro parks. why drive an hour in the rain when you can drive a quarter of an hour in the rain and still get equally drenched either way? we brought rainjackets and umbrellas, hiked the highbanks overlook trail, and surprisingly, we were not the only ones. the few, the proud, the soaking wet. we mostly kept inside for the rest of the day, with journeys to restaurants, football watching, and yahtzee playing.

sunday was my first time playing bass at church in quite awhile. it was good to meet new fellow musicians and play together. after church and lunch, we all took a walk around the neighborhood before my parents headed home. i promptly took a nap before waking up to watch the browns be the browns.

coming up is Week 10, which will include my last round of this particular chemotherapy on thursday. given last treatment's resulting nausea, i am not exactly looking forward to it, but there is a certain amount of relief that it will be the last of its kind. then, it will be new, different drugs and side effects... but i will cross that bridge when i come to it. let's do this.