Biking nirvana

Sometimes you gotta take a break from physical therapy and helping Kate study for that environmental science class.
Sometimes you have to get on a bike.
My sister and I rode the first day of Cycle North Carolina's ride across the state on Sunday.
That's us on the Blue Ridge Parkway, just outside Blowing Rock, when we were still relatively fresh.
While we were huffing and puffing up the steeper ascents, Kate, Kirsten and Tim drove out to Linville Falls. The weather, which was dismally wet Saturday, cleared out beautifully for the ride.
One of these years I'm going to ride the whole week. But Tim had to get back to work Monday, and Kate's class met Tuesday. We're trying to figure out how to salvage the class. She failed the first big test, and the next one will have even more material covered even faster.

Oops...

OK, so blogs are supposed to be updated more than once a month. It's not like nothing's happened, but at the end of what are typically long days I'd rather veg out and read other people's blogs than work on my own. So from now on I'll sneak some time earlier in the day and post something -- anything.
Some interesting Independence kind of stuff happened in August. Like the day that Kate's brother Joe walked in the house and Kate called for him to come look. She was standing next to the couch, holding on so she wouldn't fall and have to get 12 stitches in her chin. Not that we have ever had to rush her to the emergency room before...
We also visited someone who has cerebral palsy and lives with two roommates in her own house. There's 24-hour care because all three young women need additional help. Now we are wondering if we could essentially create a small group home for Kate and a couple of friends.
Kate also started her first class at Wake Tech. She has classmates, an instructor, and a book that is weighed down with so many multi-syllable words that it's easy to sprain your tongue when you read it.
This is Labor Day weekend, and Kate wanted to know if she could celebrate by laying off the exercises for a day! I think that's a great idea.