Cazzie
June 3rd, 2010, 04:35
I have done two repaints, gone to VIR and saw the NASCAR cars test for Sonoma and Watkins Glen, yet I am so melancholy.
Last Sunday I received a call from the daughter of the closest cycling companion I ever had, Mike Soloman. Mike passed away last Saturday evening after a near five year battle with bone marrow cancer. He underwent two marrow transplants, the first putting his cancer in remission for three years. He lived a little over a year after his second.
The things I have done on a bicycle with this man. When one rides long tours with fellow cyclists, it is like a combat soldier, the other riders are your brothers. You sleep with them in tents, you eat with them, you battle the forces of nature with them, you get to know the man.
Mike was born in the Jewish borough of Queens, though he left the Jewish faith and became a Latter Day Saints (Morman). He never met a person he did not like. When someone met Mike, they met a new friend.
In 1987, we rode the Pacific Coast Highway the full distance in 10 days. In 1988, we rode across North Carolina and mapped out NC Bike Highway 4 for the NC Dept. of Transportation. In 1989 along with five compatriots, we rode from Seattle, WA to Clover, VA in 33 days (2 days rest), 27 of those 31 riding days comprising more than a 100 miles. Mike and I were the first two in VA and NC to amass 50 century rides (rides over 100 miles). In 1990, we joined two other riders in Clover, VA (home of one of the riders) and rode 213 miles to lower Virginia Beach, VA in one day to the sister's home of one of the riders and earned our Double-Century patches. More day rides when he lived locally and taught Physics at Danville Community College for over 25 years than I care to count.
After he was diagnosed, the fellow cyclist living in Clover, Roger Eudy, and I met Mike for three years (prior to last year) and rode back to Roger's house in Clover in two days.
I am driving up this evening to Mike and his wife Besty's home in Waynesboro and attending the family gathering. They consider me family, his daughter and son both call me Uncle Caz. With tears dwelling and building, I cannot attend the Memorial Service Friday. I must drive back and take my biological brother to Internal Medicine for his battle with the vicious C. It's tough when you get hit twice in such a short period of time, but I'm like the old Jew; get down, get back up again, it is the fighter's philosophy. God bless each and every one of you, it has been a sad week for Caz due to matters of the heart and no physical, financial, or situational problems of my own. It hurts people when one loses one so close.
Caz
Last Sunday I received a call from the daughter of the closest cycling companion I ever had, Mike Soloman. Mike passed away last Saturday evening after a near five year battle with bone marrow cancer. He underwent two marrow transplants, the first putting his cancer in remission for three years. He lived a little over a year after his second.
The things I have done on a bicycle with this man. When one rides long tours with fellow cyclists, it is like a combat soldier, the other riders are your brothers. You sleep with them in tents, you eat with them, you battle the forces of nature with them, you get to know the man.
Mike was born in the Jewish borough of Queens, though he left the Jewish faith and became a Latter Day Saints (Morman). He never met a person he did not like. When someone met Mike, they met a new friend.
In 1987, we rode the Pacific Coast Highway the full distance in 10 days. In 1988, we rode across North Carolina and mapped out NC Bike Highway 4 for the NC Dept. of Transportation. In 1989 along with five compatriots, we rode from Seattle, WA to Clover, VA in 33 days (2 days rest), 27 of those 31 riding days comprising more than a 100 miles. Mike and I were the first two in VA and NC to amass 50 century rides (rides over 100 miles). In 1990, we joined two other riders in Clover, VA (home of one of the riders) and rode 213 miles to lower Virginia Beach, VA in one day to the sister's home of one of the riders and earned our Double-Century patches. More day rides when he lived locally and taught Physics at Danville Community College for over 25 years than I care to count.
After he was diagnosed, the fellow cyclist living in Clover, Roger Eudy, and I met Mike for three years (prior to last year) and rode back to Roger's house in Clover in two days.
I am driving up this evening to Mike and his wife Besty's home in Waynesboro and attending the family gathering. They consider me family, his daughter and son both call me Uncle Caz. With tears dwelling and building, I cannot attend the Memorial Service Friday. I must drive back and take my biological brother to Internal Medicine for his battle with the vicious C. It's tough when you get hit twice in such a short period of time, but I'm like the old Jew; get down, get back up again, it is the fighter's philosophy. God bless each and every one of you, it has been a sad week for Caz due to matters of the heart and no physical, financial, or situational problems of my own. It hurts people when one loses one so close.
Caz