exploring neighborhoods, Doug's status

Beautiful day from the get-go. Though I wanted to mark some more trail at Calvin Crest, I had committed to our small group meal after church. So I rode to church, then out to John and Donna's house, planning a general route from the bicycle commuter map. Ended up choosing streets that looked good and meandering out that way. Took me an hour to go from 114th to 168th but there was no time pressure and it was all good.

Saw this creative use of plastic milk jugs to create a skeleton.

Stop by Doug and Mary's on the way home. I heard from Paul that Doug was going in for more surgery in Nov but he actually had it last Tuesday. Doug was sleeping and I talked with Mary. Doug went to his doctor who fused his first broken neck back in '95. C3-7 are now fused. Looks like C5 and C6 were in bad shape and causing pain. Doug mentioned after the surgery that the tingling in his arms is less than before surgery. After 13 months of chronic pain from an endo at Manawa, Doug doesn't care about neck mobility, just having less pain. He is in a hard neck brace till the end of Nov. Pray for healing and a better quality of life for Doug and Mary than the past 13 months.