Week of Aug 22

Hello from El Paso.   I spend part of my time here for work so have had to shift my training pattern to accomodate being here.   By that I mean it is wickedly hot and dry.   I joined a gym here so I can train  now strictly on the treadmill.   It isn't as nice as being outside but it does the trick.   I wish I could claim credit for the picture here but I got it off the web.  It is El Paso which is a beautiful place at the very base of the Rocky Mountains.  I did my long  training today and will have a shorter one tomorrow.   

Now on to leukemia.    Our Nacogdoches High School friend Jan Dobbs Barton posted on FB an obit of Rhonda Bobo this week who died of a blood cancer.   She was in my bro John's class of 1968.    It was yet another reminder how this terrible disease touches all of us---even though we may not realize it.   So,  in my life it has touched:

1)  Curtis, my father who died in 1960,  2)  Richard Kline and Rhonda Bobo, both of Nacodoches Class of 1968, 3) my cousin's daughter Natalie, who luckily is a long term survivor  4) Blake LaForce whose life I intersected by chance for one hour in Jan 08.   

Speaking of Blake  I continue to get the journal postings of his family,  now at day 55+ after his death.   Their courage and faith are very inspiring.   In their grief they are trying to help other people, especially those going through Bone Marrow Transplants.

Factoid:  ALL or Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia is the most common in children.  Today the survival rates are 85% in children and 50% in adults for this form of leukemia.   Those rates are  high, in part,  due to the research funded by the Team in Training.

Things to be thankful for:     late season watermelon.    Yumola!  ( that is Italian for yummy LOL)