01.27.2009 | 6:18 pm
I’d like to kick today’s post off by saying that I am incredibly proud of Fat Cyclist readers. Together, we have — in under two months — raised $88,000 $89,000 $90,000 $91,000 $92,000 $94,000 $95,000 $97,000 $99,000 to help the Lance Armstrong Foundation fight cancer.
We’re going to be crossing into six-figure territory very, very soon now.
And I’d like to make it clear that the current big raffle — for a rare, high-end, not-for-sale-anywhere carbon fiber Gary Fisher Superfly Singlespeed mountain bike — is still underway. Click here for details on how, and then go here to donate for your raffle tickets. All proceeds go directly to the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which I have can vouch for, firsthand.
The raffle for this bike ends this Saturday, so if you’re going to donate, you need to do it now.
How — And What — Susan’s Doing
I know perfectly well that a lot of you check in on my blog mostly to find out how Susan’s doing. (For those of you visiting for the first time, Susan has been fighting metastatic breast cancer for about two years. As of last October we’ve moved to hospice care.) And I haven’t said much about her in the past couple of weeks
The truth is, I haven’t talked about how Susan’s doing very often because it’s kind of a mixed bag, and because some days it’s a lot easier for me to write a jokey post than to go into details of our life.
Pain and Panic
A lot of the time, Susan does hurt. And while she doesn’t complain anywhere near as often as she ought to, she’s hurting worse, and in more places. And she’s weaker — I now do a lot more of the lifting than I used to when she moves from her bed to a chair.
What’s awful for me about this is the fact that I can’t do anything to fix the problem. The only thing I can do, really, is to offer Susan more pain medication. And so I do that.
Constantly.
If Susan took pain medication every time I offered it to her, she’d be comatose.
Sometimes — usually at night, after everyone else has gone to sleep and I have time to think — I start thinking about how much Susan’s going through, and how little I can do to help her, and I get this weird mix of panic and helplessness. I get terrified that there’s got to be something I could do for her, but I just don’t know what it is, and I’m failing her.
I’m not like that every night. Not even very often. And I’ve got Ambien for when I am.
You know, sometimes this blog isn’t very funny.
New Normal
What’s startling is how quickly the kids — especially the younger ones — adapt. A couple of weeks ago, for example, one of the twins came in, distraught. I asked her what was wrong. “One of my friends says she’s not allowed into our house because mom’s sick,” she said.
I started to explain that was probably because the friend’s mom wanted to keep things nice and quiet for Susan, that she didn’t know Susan prefers to have the house noisy and full of kids having fun.”
“I know that,” said my little girl. “But I didn’t know mom is sick!”
Which is to say, she no longer thinks of bedridden with an oxygen tube hooked up as anything but normal for her mom.
And the boys — well, at ages 15 and 13, they’ve learned some skills that are going to be handy when they go to college, or start families of their own. Which is to say, they now know how to cook a few meals for the family, know how to do the dishes, know how to do laundry, and even know how to take care of twins. I rely on them to pick up my slack, and they help out gladly. In fact, they volunteer.
Let me point out again: these are 15- and 13-year-old boys doing all this.
New Skill
And meanwhile I have picked up a lot of new skills. The one I think I am most pleased with, though, is my new ability to style the girls’ hair. Behold:
Yes, I cheated, by getting short haircuts for the girls that even I can fix to look nice.
So now I don’t have to send the girls to the neighbor to have their hair done every morning before school (although I will be forever grateful to the neighbor who volunteered to do just that).
It’s almost as if I’m becoming competent or something.
4000% More Awesome Than a Yellow Latex Wristband
The piece of good news we had a couple weeks ago — Susan’s neuropathy has backed off, so her hands work again — has held beautifully. I can’t really describe how glad I am to see Susan happy and busy, for hours at a time, making jewelry.
She enjoys it so much, in fact, that many times she forgets her pain until it gets pretty severe. Ask anyone who’s dealt with cancer in the bones how often they forget their pain and you’ll get a pretty good sense of how absorbed Susan gets in her jewelry.
Here are a few she’s made, incorporating bike chain links into her designs:
Want One?
What’s really cool is that Susan wants to use these bike chain bracelets to raise money for the fight against cancer. Kind of like you might wear one of those yellow bracelets, but a little more personal. And a lot more awesome.
Every one of these is handmade (I do the grunt work of degreasing and disassembling the bike chains), and every one of them is different. You won’t know what pattern Susan chose for you until you get the bracelet. And I think that’s part of what makes this idea great.
If you would like a Susan Nelson original, here’s what you need to do:
- Go to my Philadelphia LiveStrong Challenge page: http://philly09.livestrong.org/fatty.
- Donate $100. If you donate in multiples of $100, I’ll assume you want multiple bracelets.
- If you have special instructions — like you want it shipped to a different address than the one you fill out in the form, or you have an extra-large or extra-small wrist, or if you want a men’s bracelet instead of a women’s (men’s bracelets will not have the beads), forward a copy of the donation receipt to me fatty@fatcyclist.com with your request. I’ll get back to you with any followup questions I have.
- Please be patient. The one thing I do not want to do is start making Susan think she needs to tire herself out doing this.
[UPDATE: More than 80 (!!!) of you have donated $100 to get a bracelet -- that's incredibly exciting, and remarkably generous. Susan has now asked me to say that she doesn't want to take any more on until she finishes making the ones already in place. That makes good sense to me. I'll let you know when Susan's ready to do more. I'm guessing that'll be at least a month away, though.]
Meanwhile, I would like to make an observation: Susan rules.
PS: Some of you may be curious as to whether a donation to get a bracelet doubles as a donation toward raffle tickets. The answer is: Yes. When you donate to get a bracelet, you automatically also get entered in the raffle to get the awesome Gary Fisher Superfly Singlespeed.
Comments (91)
01.14.2009 | 7:41 am
A Note from Fatty: Thanks to everyone for the enthusiasm you’re showing about Susan’s jewelry. She’s excited to get started — and in fact, this weekend she and a friend are going to begin work (and I will help by disassembling and degreasing chains). Once Susan has a feel for it, she’ll decide how many bracelets / necklaces she’s up to making, and that will determine whether she sells, auctions, or raffles her jewelry. Regardless, all proceeds will go toward the Team Fatty LiveStrong Challenge. Stay tuned for details soon.
Win My Dream Bike
A while back, I mentioned that I had managed to get in on the pre-order list for a very limited, not-for-retail run of Gary Fisher Superfly Singlespeeds. Since then, it has taken all of my willpower to not gloat and cackle with every waking moment, for the following reasons:
- It’s a monocoque carbon frame w/ horizontal drops and slotted disc tabs, and custom paint
- It has a Fox Float RLC 29 suspension fork
- It has custom G2 geometry, upon which I am — having recently transformed from a horrible downhiller to a reasonably good one on exactly this geometry — pretty well sold
- It’s a singlespeed. Duh.
And, well, just look at the thing:
(Build in photo for illustration purposes only. Components will be different on actual bike)
More important than any of this, though, is the most crucial fact of all: this bike is not for sale. Anywhere. And all of them that are being built are already spoken for.
In other words, if you haven’t got one on order, you can’t get one. Sorry.
OK, that’s not true. There is one way you can get this bike, because of what I am giddily about to announce:
Gary Fisher is Donating a Superfly Singlespeed Frameset for a Team Fatty Raffle
Yes, that’s right. This is the coolest singlespeed MTB on the market today — except, of course it’s not on the market — and the only way you can get one is by fighting cancer by donating to Team Fatty’s LiveStrong Challenge.
How awesome is that?
“Very, very awesome” is the correct answer.
Oh, and you’re no doubt wondering what size the frame is. Well, it’s whichever size you want.
Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for Gary Fisher Bikes, and for Travis Ott, who is not just a great brand manager but also a really great guy.
If you already ride a singlespeed, you already know what this bike represents and can’t help wanting it.
And if you don’t ride a singlespeed, then you should do either of two things:
- Look into your heart of hearts and realize that you really do want a singlespeed and there’s no more awesome SS you could have than this one.
- Tell your friends who do ride a singlespeed (i.e., who have seen the light) about this raffle so they can take a shot at getting this bike.
But That’s Not All.
Winning a Superfly Singlespeed frameset is easily a big enough prize on its own, but I really, really wanted to give away a complete bike.
So I talked to Brent Hulme, the owner and operator of the extremely awesome SLC Bikes (if you’re local, come check the place out — it’s a beautiful shop, Brent’s a great guy, and he’s got excellent people helping him) and he said he’d spring for the components and the build, making this into the sexy, ready-to-ride machine it deserves to be.
And then he’ll box it up and ship it to you. And you will do a little dance because you have won something everyone else wants but nobody else can get.
But That’s Still Not All.
When I asked the folks at Gary Fisher to help Team Fatty raise money for the LiveStrong Challenge, they obviously came through in a huge way.
And not just as a company, either. Eric “Hootie” Bjorlin, the Trek Pavement Brand Manager, also put his own personal framed poster, signed by Lance Armstrong up as a raffle prize:
I know some of you will ask, so: No, Hootie is not included as part of the prize. Sorry.
Here’s a closer look at the poster, with less glare:
How Can You Win?As those of you who have entered these raffles before know, all proceeds of the Team Fatty raffles this year go straight to the Lance Armstrong Foundation, because the work they’re doing in helping people fight cancer has made a big difference in Susan’s and my life and in the lives of many others I’ve met. (And also since I never actually handle any of the money, this is a lot easier on me around tax time.)
So you can win in either of two ways:
- Donate money to my LiveStrong Challenge page. For every $5 you donate at my Austin LiveStrong Challenge page during the rest of this month (January 2009), you get a raffle ticket, which could be the winner of either the bike or the poster. Click here to donate now.
- Raise money in your own Team Fatty LiveStrong Challenge page. If you’re a member of Team Fatty, every $5.00 you raise on your own LiveStrong Challenge page from now through the end of January earns you a raffle ticket, too. So — obviously — now’s a great time for you to make a donation on your own page as well as to press friends and family to make a donation (You don’t have to tell them that they’re increasing your chances of winning a bike when they do). And if you aren’t a member of Team Fatty, now’s a great time for you to join and start raising money to fight cancer and win cool stuff for yourself.
By the way: the winner will get the frameset when the framesets are available — most likely in March. Also, if you win and live outside the US, we’ll still cover shipping, but you’re responsible for paying customs. Cool? Yeah, I thought so.
How Can You Join Team Fatty?
First off, you should know that Team Fat Cyclist: Fighting for Susan, is currently the top fundraising team in all four LiveStrong Challenge event cities. Our team is 332 strong, and has raised $70,000 so far. But we want to be the first team in the history of the challenge to raise $1,000,000 — and to do that, we need your help.
Luckily, it’s really, really easy to join Team Fatty. First, you’ve got to decide which event you want to be part of: Austin, San Jose, Seattle, or Philadelphia. If you’re just planning on fundraising — not attending an event — then pick whichever city you most closely identify with. Then, just follow these steps:
- Click one of the below links to go to the Team Fatty page for that city:
- Click the “Join Our Team” link.
- Fill out the form. Note that the $50 registration fee is the same, whether you do one of the rides, the run/walk, or join the virtual challenge.
- Start fundraising. You’ve got to raise a minimum of $250 to attend the event of your choice.
Good Luck
This is an incredibly exciting raffle for me. I love the idea of being able to give away my dream mountain bike. I mean that seriously; there is no other mountain bike in the world I am more excited about than this one. And I love being able to give away a signed Lance Armstrong poster right as Armstrong is getting ready for his first big comeback event.
And most importantly, I love that we’re all doing this for one of the most important, unifying causes there is — fighting cancer.
Whether you win something or not, you’re still doing something really great for a cause that affects every one of us.
Thanks, and good luck!
Comments (43)
01.13.2009 | 7:31 am
Something I never knew (until Susan found out the hard way) about chemotherapy and radiation is what they can do to your fingers.
Your hands get numb and tingly, as if they’ve fallen asleep, which is pretty close to what’s going on — but much more persistent.
Also, you can get a persistent tremor to your hands, making easy things like writing and typing really hard.
It’s called “peripheral neuropathy,” and for months it’s been one of the cruellest side effects Susan’s had to deal with.
If you knew Susan, you’d understand what I mean. You see, Susan has always loved making things with her hands. She was a scholarship art student in college. She has written dozens of articles for scrapbooking magazines on paper piecing techniques.
And for the past few years she’s been making jewelry. Beautiful stuff, with an emphasis on silver wire twisted into incredible links and patterns.
And of course, the neuropathy robbed her of all of that.
She’s Back
Here’s the cool thing, though: a few days ago, Susan’s hands steadied. They don’t shake anymore. They do what she wants them to again.
Of course, I have to keep telling myself that this doesn’t really mean anything in terms of the cancer: it doesn’t mean she’s getting better, just that she’s not being plagued by the side effects of a medication she stopped taking months ago.
But: it does mean she ought to be able to start use her hands again, the way she loves to — and is so good at.
And when good news doesn’t come your way often, even a little tactical win like this feels like a big deal.
Win a Susan Nelson Original (Hopefully)
And so of course I’m going to put Susan to work for me. I’ve asked her if she’d be willing to let me raffle off a couple bracelets or necklaces, with a cycling theme — kind of like this lady’s bracelet she made from a bike chain for a contest winner way back when the blog was young:
Susan says she’d like to, but that she first wants to make sure her she’s up to making jewelry.
So, for now, this is just a piece of good news. Soon, though, I’m confident this’ll be a chance for you to fight cancer and win some of Susan’s work.
Meanwhile, You Definitely Should Tune In Tomorrow
By the way, tomorrow (Wednesday) I’m announcing the latest Team Fatty raffle. And this one’s a big one, for something you cannot get anywhere else. I think you’re going to want in.
Comments (57)
12.23.2008 | 2:45 pm
I know I said I’d post about the 2009 Weight Loss Challenge today, but I think I need more time to refine it. Here’s what I was thinking:
- Ante: Everyone who wants to join has to put some skin in the game by donating a certain amount to my LiveStrong Challenge Fundraising page. I will then reciprocate by donating the same amount to your LiveStrong Challenge Fundraising page. The amount you choose by donating to my page becomes our monthly bet amount.
- The Monthly Bet: Each month, we state how much we will lose by the end of that month. It has to be an ambitious goal.
- Loser Pays: If I miss my goal, I donate our bet amount to your page. If you miss your goal, you donate that amount to my page. If we both hit our goals, then we’re both lighter, and that’s pretty cool, too.
- No Quitting Allowed. If you join the challenge, you’re in until the end of July. No exceptions, no bail-outs. You can quit dieting, but that just means you lose and donate to my account every month.
What I Like About This Idea
There’s a lot I like about this plan. Specifically:
- It Exposes Me, Big Time. I don’t do well with bets when I can afford to lose. If I’m betting an average of $20 / month with 100 people, I could wind up losing $2000 per month. I could afford that maybe once, but certainly not more than once.
- It’s Personal. I’ll be betting something with each individual person. I like that.
- It’s Simple. A couple years ago when we did the B7 Challenge, I just about lost my mind keeping track of the prizes and rankings. And while I did very well, the effort of collecting all those prizes was just too much and I left dozens of them uncollected.
- It’s For a Good Cause. No matter how well we all do at this contest, the LAF is going to benefit. And when we fail, at least some good comes of it.
What I Don’t Like About This Idea
This challenge has problems, though. Here are the ones I see:
- Not Humiliating Enough. When you or I fail, it’s just not humiliating. I think I can rectify this by publishing a “Non-Losing Losers” list each month, listing everyone who failed in their goals.
- It Feels Too Good To Lose. This goes along with the first point. When you lose, it’s easy to think, “Well, that’s OK; I’m just donating to a good cause.” So there needs to be something else you (or I) give up when you miss your objective.
It’s this part — the penalty for failure — that I’m hoping you’ll give me some good ideas for. Although I’m definitely happy to have suggestions for other parts too. Like, what should the carrot be (currently, all incentives for this contest are definitely stick-like)?
Give me your suggestions, and we’ll nail this down. At the beginning of the year, we’ll start sign-up and get going.
The B7 from a couple years ago was a lot of fun, except when it was embarrassing. I’m expecting this will be no different.
Comments (39)
12.18.2008 | 2:43 pm
I sometimes wonder if Superman forgets that he has all the superpowers he has: flight, strength, speed, half a dozen kinds of “vision,” freeze breath, heat breath, really really good hearing, invulnerability, and great lung capacity.
Seriously, it must be confusing sometimes to know which superpower to use when he’s fighting crime? The X-Ray Vision and flight? Or maybe super speed, heat breath, and just a skosh of super strength?
And then, later, in the privacy of the Fortress of Solitude, I wonder if he smacks his super palm against his super forehead and exclaims, “heat vision! I forgot all about the heat vision! I could have solved the whole thing in half the time if I hadn’t forgotten about my heat vision!“
The reason I wonder this about Superman is because I am subject to exactly this malady. I have so many superpowers that I sometimes forget about them. Recently, for example, I have completely forgotten about one of my most obscure — but still exceptionally awesome — powers: the ability to select ridiculously good gifts.
But yesterday my gift-discernment superpower (an obscure but well-regarded power) manifested itself in a big way. I thought of two incredibly great gift ideas. And now I’m going to tell you about them, so you can take appropriate action.
Gift Idea 1: Something Every Cyclist Needs
I spent a big chunk of yesterday afternoon shopping for gifts for my kids. After a couple hours of this, I realized that I had arrived at an important point: I either needed to take a break from shopping or gouge my eyes out.
So I went to Home Depot. You know, just to hang out for a few minutes, browse the aisles. For fun. C’mon, you know you do the same thing sometimes.
Anyway, as soon as I went in, I saw something I immediately knew every cyclist in the world would want, and that — likely — very few would have. And it was only $8.00, making it an even better gift.
Behold:
Yep, 650 zipties, in 3 different sizes. When combined with a six-pack set of duct tape rolls, you are effectively giving the gift of the ability to fasten anything to anything in a more-or-less permanent fashion.
And that’s close to a superpower itself, when you think about it.
I know, I know. It’s not exactly the most aesthetically pleasing gift in the history of gifts. But I guarantee it’s one they’ll use. And the first time they need it, they will have a Class 3 Epiphany that you are the best gift-giver they have ever met.
Gift Idea 2: The Gift Every Computer Owner Wishes For But Can’t Afford
The fact that you’re reading this blog entry leads me to conclude that you have access to a computer. And the fact that you have access to a computer makes me suspect that you probably use a digital camera for your photos. And the fact that you have a computer and take digital pictures leads me to suspect that you probably wish you had some really awesome photo editing software.
You know, like Photoshop.
The thing is, though, Photoshop’s expensive. Like $699 expensive, which is very nearly $700 (but not quite, thanks to very clever marketing folks at Adobe). So you probably don’t have it.
But — starting right now and going through Tuesday — you have a chance to win a brand new copy of Photoshop CS4 (retail box, never opened, your choice of Windows or Mac), while at the same time donating money to the Lance Armstrong Foundation via my friend Bob’s Fundraising Page.
Check it out:
Yup, donate $5.00 on Bob’s page and you get a virtual raffle ticket toward the drawing Tuesday. And if you win and want the Windows version, I’ll ship it to you overnight so you get it by Christmas (if you want the Mac version or prefer Photoshop Extended you’ll have to wait a bit longer). The more you donate, the better your chances of winning. So click here and go donate at Bob’s page now.
Oh, and also it’s a good chance to do something good — you’re fighting cancer, even as you acquire the means to digitally remove your love handles (which I would never do). And Photoshop would make an awesome Christmas gift.
Though I wouldn’t blame you if you kept it for yourself.
Comments (31)
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