Having received books from concerned friends, I found myself re-reading Steinbeck's Cannery Row. When I was growing up in the Bay Area my family spent many spring breaks in Monterey and Pacific Grove playing in the tide pools and admiring the ocean . Father would fish on the beach while Mother and I wandered. Though the sardine canneries were not still operating, and it was the flush fifties and sixties and not the Depression, one could still see many of the things Steinbeck describes. More recently the waterfront has been dominated by the aquarium. It is harder to imagine Doc and Mack living there. Though none of us played golf, we always took an afternoon to drive the 17 Mile drive, admiring the expensive homes and golf courses, finishing up in Carmel with its gift shops and art galleries. None the less, the book brought me back.

Now I am deep in a spy novel, less socially significant but just as distracting.

This evening we spent with John(former Clinic administrator and CEO) and Shirley Houser getting caught up in their retirement experiences. Had a wonderful time on the deck at Rooster's, cool enough now due to a brisk wind.

Saturday we drove to Dayton to get out of the heat (ha) and out of the house. The drive was lovely with ripening grain and other less identifiable crops. The next day we went to pick peaches. Well, we actually just picked up peaches that had been picked that morning. This is something we have never done in our 30 years in the valley.

I have felt much improved since Saturday, day 12 of the chemo cycle. So far that improvement has been predictable, and the rest of the 21 days are much easier than the first 11. I hope that things continue in a similar way for the next 3 cycles of treatment.

Kay