We're off! (Well, not quite yet.)

Okay, here's the deal. Megan Timothy (on left in yellow) and I are taking off for parts at least partially known to talk with people about brain injury / stroke / aphasia (that's Megan's gig) and living with cancer (my gig) - and to sell a few books along the way. One may ask why we're doing such a thing. My daughter-the-younger has asked this and challenged my sanity for the doing. She's not wrong for being concerned, but wrong for me. For what my life stands for.

The thing is, I've never lived my life within normal boundaries. I don't even know what "normal" means. I adjust as things come my way - good, bad, and sometimes downright ugly. More good than bad, I'd say. Well, until you get to about a year ago when things began to look fairly ugly.

That's when I came down with Shingles (for the second time in two years!) on top of my chemo treatments for Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia (rare bone marrow cancer that I've had in my body since 1999) that were already pretty much kicking my butt. Megan was here ostensively to work with me in editing her second book. She actually ended up being one of my primary caregivers, and was able to keep a close eye on me, keepin me fed and hydrated so Rick, my husband of 30-some years, could attend to his life outside our home. Don't know how I'd have waded through the worst of it without the two of them watching over me. Don't know how people who live alone do it - which is something I talk about when I meet with cancer support groups as part of my larger mission in my book promotions.

So, this Sunday, I take off at the butt-crack of dawn, heading for Amarillo where I'll pick up Megan, who's been in Texas on the first leg of her part of this book tour she and I are aiming at. Amarillo - I've heard that you turn left at the smell and stop when you step in it. Somebody local gave me that piece of navagational advice. Sorry, Amarillians - I didn't make it up, just reporting it.

From Amarillo, we head to beautiful Yukon, Oklahoma, then Oklahoma City, then Tulsa, then Kansas City, then...

Tomorrow I'll give you a peek at my traveling book-tour vehicle. Could use a van or a Mack truck, maybe, but my Toyota Corolla (yes, I've had all the requisite things fixed!) will have to do. She's nearly packed and my new laptop, Tosh, (short for Toshiba) is nearly ready with transferred files and setups and my crate of cd's (no, I do NOT have an MP3 player - yet!) is ready to get me down the road - oh, and a bag of Cheetos and lots of water.

So for now, that's the news not quite from the road yet.

NL