Things that sound good in theory

Before I get to the meat of the post, I thought I'd post one of my favorite pictures I've taken lately. It was Sunday morning's mountain bike excursion. If this doesn't look close to perfection to you, I suggest you need a new outlook on things!



Now for the rest of the story. I broke free from work a shade after 4 hell bent on making it down to PRC's last Ritual Ride of the year. I'd also made up my mind to head from the end of that ride down to Giff's in Valley Junction to meet the guys for tacos and beer. After that, I'd saunter my way back home for a shower and passing out in bed. It sounded like a great plan. Actually in most ways it was. However, I learned a good lesson that things don't always go together no matter how good they might be individually.

The Ritual Ride was good and 1 loop was plenty for this out of shape guy. I hooked up with Lou for an extra mile in Water Works on the way out which put us about a 1/2 mile behind the main pack as we hit the road. Of course it was no issue for him to bridge the gap, but it took me about half the lap before I could latch back on. We worked some hills and I got a chance to chat with Kelli about her mountain bike aspirations... I split off as we hit 63rd and made my way towards sweet refreshment in the form of cheap tacos and beer.

My gluttony got the best of me as I ordered 2 tacos and washed them down with a couple tall boys of Old Style. All told, I was still out of there for $10. I hung out with the muddy yet happy taco riders and sat in on the CITA meeting. At this point I was fat and happy, but I still had 8 miles to roll back home in the dark. We left as a group, but split up shortly after hitting Grand leaving me to wind my way home alone. No biggie as I was outfitted with a blinky and headlight.

After hitting the Grand hill and trying to keep the pace a little above a slog, my stomach and legs started to rebell. I eased my way on home which involved a couple more decent climbs, but thankfully some descent as well. Once home, I pretty much lapsed into a lactic coma as I collapsed on the couch for a bit. I headed to the showers where my dinner choices began to make me rethink my decision of going for a 1 to 1 ratio of tacos to beer. I opted to head to bed as quickly as possible to hopefully avoid any more discomfort by sleeping it off.

My lovely wife comes home and finds me in bed and decides to proposition me. As my grumblings hadn't passed quite yet, we opted for door number 2 which was to see if she could arouse me out of a sound sleep when she was ready to come to bed. Somewhere around the stroke of midnight, I was awakened in what can only be described as the best way possible. However, I was still suffering somewhat so I soldiered on the best I could. What's a guy to do?! After fulfilling my "obligation" I was back to bed.

So to recap- Ritual Riding- good, Tacos and Beer- good (in moderation), being woken up to perform sexual acrobatics at midnight- good. Toss everything together and mix them up and you've got a recipe for feeling out of it, seating through the night, and the expected result of eating tacos and drinking cheap beer... Not quite the perfect mix of activities, but I'd still rate the night a success.

Whirlwind weekend

What a wild ass weekend. It involved work, but in a different kind of way. We signed up a couple months ago to do a booth at the Women's expo at Hy-Vee hall with some friends of ours. We shared space with Kee's Camp and Morning Rain Massage. We set up on Friday night after I took off early from work to go home and load up. It was interesting to say the least considering we had 3 booths within a single space and also temped together a dressing room and spray taning station.

Saturday morning found us rushing back to the expo at 8 to finish setting up and wait for customers. We had pretty high hopes with forecasted visitors we thought we'd heard to be 17,000 or more. I'd say that was optimistic by roughly double or possibly even more. Add in that we also had to donate a $100+ prize pack to get our name on this treasure hunt type card that was supposed to draw more people to our booth that got printed without our name on it... and we'd be fighting hard to make our investment back. Being a Women's expo I felt like a duck out of water when it came to selling/pushing our product. I let Miranda take lead and was hoping just to fill orders and write up receipts. I talked to a few ladies all weekend put for the most part I was about useless in the sales department. I tried making up for it by doing some grunt work in helping set up and tear down various things for all 3 of the vendors, but that was about as good as I got.

Saturday ended ok with some decent sales, but roughly only half of what we needed for a break even day. We were pretty tired and starving so we headed out in search of some food. We floated a few high brow ideas such as Dos Rios, but ended up at one of our favorite Thai places in Des Moines called Cafe Fusion. They've got the best pad thai in my opinion and the rest of the menu isn't too shabby either. they're also cheap and hardly ever crowded. We enjoyed our meal until we were pretty well stuffed and headed home to drift off into a coma before repeating our performances again on Sunday.

The alarm went off a bit early for me on Sunday as I was roused to join in on a mountain bike ride with some of the guys. Breakfast at 6 bells and riding by 6:30 makes for an early start. I hustled around and was right on time to meet up. Unfortunately as is often the case, we didn't hop on the bikes until 7. We were greeted with a pretty spectacular view as we headed out on the trail. The sun was just rising through the fog and I couldn't resist.

My revelry was short lived as I heard the hissing of a flat. Luckily it was on a different Rick's bike. He stopped to change while we hit Denman's in reverse so he could ride it forward and meet us along the way. We dropped in and took a nice uptempo pace through the woods. There were a few spills that I managed to avoid and I stayed on the back of the pack for the most part. Not having ridden more than a handful of times over the past month definitely put me in an overdrive state for heart rate and I was feeling it just a bit. We turned back around and after a pile up right off the bat (again by others) I stuck to the pack again until we hit a particular log crossing.

I'm not quite sure how many times this particular crossing has slammed me to the ground, but it's more than times I've made it over. It comes across the trail at roughly a 60 degree angle so it makes it not only wider than normal, but also a weird approach angle to get the tires to bite on without slipping. Just as the last time, I ate shit trying to cross it. Ass over appetite with the bike making sure to whack me pretty good on the way down just so I knew I indeed crash landed. I jumped back up without surveying the injuries and started pedalling again. My knee and calf were smarting pretty good, but still functioning, so on I road.

At this point I got gapped so I just held steady to the end without any more fanfare and caught up to the pack as we made our way to Hillside. As soon as we hit Hillside, I knew I was in for it. My heart rate pegged in the high 180's and didn't waiver much until we finished our loops a half hour or so later. I was hurting, but I made all the climbs without walking or falling including climbing a pretty steep new piece that I'd only ridden down once in the past. Overall a great morning of riding with about 15 miles and 90 minutes under our belts.

After busting butt home and finding my wife in a compromisable state of mind... we showered and headed off to our second day at the expo. We made a couple quick sales and then nothing. Crowds were steady but overall down from Saturday. We sold a few more lotions and candles, but the only real sales came from the other ladies within our booth finding pieces of lingerie they couldn't live without. I know we didn't break even in regards to what we spent to show up. I'm also pretty doubtful that we'll really get any business from handing out our cards and info all weekend. I'm pretty disappointed to say the least. We're dangling preciously close to that point where it's time to cut and run or really dig ourselves into a big hole by going all out with a storefront. I'm just not sure which way to go in this type of situation. We're working on a business plan to see if it's even viable as a store, but who knows since the actual financial info has to be more or less fudged.

That's the weekend in a wrap.

Bummer

I'm bummed for Miranda. She is like me in that she doesn't seem to make many close friends. We've got a lot of people we're friends with, but can probably count on a single hand, the people we'd consider really close friends. As such, losing one always sucks. Miranda's closest friend is moving about 5 hours from here as her husband is making a career change. They were stuck here until their house sold and while we were secretly hoping it would never sell, they finally struck a deal on it a couple weeks ago. Part of that deal involved them being out in roughly 30 days so the hunt was on for them to find a new place. Again, we halfway hoped that wouldn't be the case, but alas, they found a new place and everything seems to be set in concrete.

It's going to be rough on Miranda as this is really her best girlfriend. They talk several times per week and almost always get together with our girls once a week as well. We all hang out a number of times throughout the year as well enjoying good food and drink. It's a good time and pretty laid back deal. They'll be missed for sure and I forsee at least a few road trips to Chi-town in the upcoming year. Actually, with us having another set of friends in that same relative area, it might work out well as we only get over there about once a year as is, so this might help that friendship as well. Its just a bum deal all around, but we wish them the best and hope it works to make their marriage stronger and lives better.

Down with the sickness

Can you catch a cold from the internets? I'm under the distinct impression it's a complete possibility. As such, I'm blaming my cold on this guy. He posted about being sick just over a week ago. I knew I shouldn't have read his blog, but I was compelled to. Of course, then I made it even worse by texting him to find out if he'd be at the Ales and Trails party this weekend. In retrospect, that was probably the final straw as sure enough, on my way home from Dubuque Thursday, I felt all the tell tale signs of disease coursing through my body.

Of course, this is all my conspiracy theory, but in reality, I'm guessing it's natures way of kicking my ass while I'm down... It was bound to happen sooner or later. A sudden shift in seasonal temps, long days sitting in an office surrounded by others with various germs, and not enough exercise are pretty prime recipes for catching a cold. I've tried hard to fend it off with a mix of over the counter remedies and herbal medecines. I switched it pretty quickly from a sinus based cold down into my chest, but that's about it thus far. At least I'm not really getting hammered at the moment, but its plenty to be annoying.

Big surprise, my weekend consisted of mostly work. I passed on hitting CITA's party at Whiterock this weekend in favor of working and recouping as much as possible. The pictures show a pretty good time, but I don't think I really saw any biking other than on hardpack. At least I didn't miss some sweet trail riding as I'd probably be kicking myself harder if that were the case. Sunday was down time hanging with Corley. She took a great nap and that let me watch some NASCAR which is finally back on broadcast TV plus snooze a bit myself.

Birthday thoughts

Thank you to Tom who interpreted Wednesday's post correctly and identified it was indeed my birthday. I got in all of my plans and had a pretty good overall day. Thinking back on it now, I gotta say I'm pretty lucky.

I had to work. So what, doesn't most everyone? I took off at my appointed time after logging about 9 hours. Can't complain too much there. I met up with some other guys for the taco ride at Rassy's. I took off at 6 and the rest of the group apparently waited another few minutes for others. Oh well, that put me into Denman's on my own and it was perfect. I just enjoyed the solitude and peace. I rode easy and played in the mud a bit. Other than a pesky log crossing that bit me, Denman's was uneventful.

I headed over to Hillside to round out the night and just past the top of the hill I had a flat. I guess you gotta have one every now and then. The downside was I spent 15 minutes fighting the tire to get it off the rim. Road tires are much easier! I did get it fixed and finished out my lap of Hillside on my own with some good fun and fast downhilling. I made my way back through to the Dirty Express and had it in my head that I really wanted to clear that dirt ledge that's formed where the trail washed out. I chickened out last time and then realized my bottom bracket would clear. Well, I got both wheels up on the trail and then promptly fell over and whacked myself pretty good with the bike.

From there it was off to the races. I had to meet my blushing bride at Cafe Su for dinner. Now I was pretty mud covered and dirty at this point. I broke out the baby wipes once I reached the truck and cleaned up any parts that would be exposed plus the layer of sweat I'd worked up. Everything else was covered up by street clothes. We ate way too much dinner and gorged ourselves further with desert before rolling home. A bit of TV, a shower to clean off the grime and I was off to bed feeling pretty content with the day. Sometime later I was even roused out of my slumber and then aroused out of my slumber if you get my drift to close out a pretty damn good day.

My day

My pledge today is to be off work by 4, to be on my bike in some way/shape/form for at least an hour tonight (hopefully on a dirty taco ride), and to have dinner with my beautiful bride after the ride. As the song goes, I'm "another year older and deeper in debt." I hope to see some of you guys out there tonight.

It's better than the alternative

I can't count how many times I've heard this saying lately. I wonder if it's just coming back around as a fad or if it's becuase people don't want to say that it sucks to be you, or what. While I think there's definitely some truth to the fact that it's better to be busy and gainfully employed, I think there's such a thing as being too damn busy.

I've been briefly unemployed. While I like to say it was a mutual parting of ways, the truth was I was fired. I was actually releived to be rid of that job though so I guess that might not be the greatest of examples. However, the circumstances I faced were still the same as most anyone else, I had a house to pay for, a car with a note, various other things to support like eating, and just had life to deal with. Funny, I had a new job in less than a week and even though it was temporary until I could find something that was really more towards my final plan, it was work and I had a paycheck coming in.

I guess I really don't have a point other than if I hear one more time that it's better than the alternative, I might just fucking scream. In case you can't tell, today has sucked pretty much from the time the phone started ringing this morning.

It was a weekend..

Well, it was at least a weekend. Of course, weekend typically means that the work week has ended and you're free to pursue extracurricular activities. While, I did get some of those fun times in this weekend, it still didn't mean that I left work. Saturday and Sunday found me sitting behind the desk for at least a few hours each day. Mercifully, I couldn't spend all day here due to other commitments.

Saturday afternoon found me putting Corley down for a nap and then dropping her by grandma's house where she'd be spending the night. After that, I met my hot wife back at home where we got ready to head to the Rassy team party. It was a blast enjoying the great people that make up the various teams that Rasmussen's sponsors. There's the triathletes, mountain bikers, roadies, and those that span multiple designations. All of them came together for a great time hosted by some amazing people Chris and Collier Schofield. Big hats off to them for providing a great party place at one of the few places in Des Moines that I've long wanted to check out.

I spent a good part of Saturday night debating about going to the time trial at the Science Center on Sunday and had pretty much talked myself out of it. Somewhere in the wee hours of Sunday AM as the alarm was ringing 6 bells, I decided to sleep in a bit, try to get a bit of action, and see if I had any legs left under me. For those keeping score, I hit 3 for 3. Alas, on the last count, I definitely did NOT have any legs yesterday. 2 weeks off the bike tends to do that to a guy. As we gathered for the race, I went out for a pre-ride of the course and felt myself getting winded even at a relaxed pace. That's not a good sign. As I lined up, my heart rate was sitting at 140 before even turning a pedal. That's an even worse sign. Ahh well, I had my dues paid and was there to have fun. I squeaked out a slow start on the pavement and was easily passed by the guy starting a minute behind me just as we started some climbing in the rose garden area. I pulled off and slowed so he could fly by. I figured why bother holding anyone up at this point.

I hit rollercoaster and was doing better by this point only to find the William's from eastern Iowa coming back up the trail as they were lost having not ridden here before and not pre-riding the course. They hopped in behind me and quickly passed me as I managed to fall over as I spun out climbing the switchback just after the creek crossings, which I at least cleaned easily. Robin was gone after that, but I kept Kyle in my sight most of the way through Hillside where I actually caught him. I guess I had the advantage of having ridden here before as I was bombing the downhills pretty well and he was getting me on the climbs. He pulled off to let me pass so I took off and hit it. That was a mistake as I quickly ran out of steam and just pulled off so Kyle could get back by and I wouldn't slow him any. I eased on through the uphills and finally hit the pavement downhill to the finish.

I haven't quite figured out where this obsession comes from, but I apparently love flying down pavement on my mountain bike. I tend to get nervous on my road bike, but with some wide tires under me, I'm damn near fearless. This was no exception as I came flying through the crowd and then hammered the brakes including a decent stoppie that brought some cheers from the crowd. I found out later that they classed the beginners in with the sport class since there were only 3 of us. I managed a 2 second better time than Kurt who I've been trading back and forth with since my Boone race debut putting me at 2-1 for wins. However, looking at the standings this morning, my time was good enough to put me in 3rd for the sport class once they bumped me up! Woohoo. Not bad for feeling like crap for half the ride and enjoying the flow the other half.

The rest of Sunday consisted of more work. Or in the words of Scott Sumpter, "you know it's Sunday?!" Yes, I'm painfully aware of that Scott... I did pick up Corley and we enjoyed some afternoon time playing, doing dinner, and bath time before I introduced her to Sunday night football. Heh, she got a kick out of it. Now it's time to hit it hard for another week, but at least I signed up for Ales and Trails this weekend.

Why?

That's the question that struck me last night as I was standing in the office having a bitch fest with a fellow coworker at the stroke of 7 at night. Considering I'd been in the office since 6 that morning and figured I should put in another half or full hour, I considered it a valid question. It stuck with me through the night, haunted my dreams a bit, and even was pondered in the shower this morning. Why do I do what I do? Who am I doing it for? What's my end goal?

I used to think I did it for the money and all that it would buy. That's an easy, shallow, and somewhat fulfilling answer. But, in reality, it's not anywhere near why I really do it. It struck me this morning. I do what I do for my family. I do it so we can live a life that is as fulfilling as we can make it and hopefully give our daughter a great start to life. However, there must be balance. I'm realizing that the balance is quickly tipping into the wrong direction lately. While I'm not just out after money, I've worked myself into a spot where work requires so much of me that I can't give what I want or need to my family. My goal at work right now is to leave early enough that I can see Corley for a few minutes before she has to go to bed. Her bed time is at 8. That just sucks.

So, it's important for me to at least put down why I'm doing what I'm doing. I need to see that in the end it will be worth it. My family is always going to be worth it. It doesn't mean that I can't resent having to do it in the way that I'm currently doing it though. I'll make it, but don't expect me to be happy about it and I hope I won't carry too much bitterness after I get done.

Long days in the saddle equal a big ass

Apparently long days of driving, eating, and repeating, tend to expand ones ass at an abnormally fast rate. After our gravel hundy on the 24th I was weighing in at a relatively svelte 157 and change. I noticed after our road trip, my gut seemed to have a bit more hang than usual so I hopped on the scale to double check. Yup, I put on 8 pounds in roughly 8 days. Ouch... Long days at work and eating out multiple meals a day probably don't help out much either. Thankfully I'm nearing a break in the action with only another 6 or so weeks left to go.

The road trip was in all a pretty good time. Or at least as good a time as can be had when you pile 1550 miles of driving into 5 days with most of it coming over 2 days. I left early on Thursday morning and pointed southwest until I hit St Louis.




I made just over an hour stop to have some lunch with one of my car buddies I hadn't seen forever. We had a nice time catching up over some food and beverages and I had to hit the road again. I hit a few oddball back roads around Memphis as mapquest took me down some interesting roads to get to where the ladies were staying. I arrived about 4:45 and was ecstatic to see the girls. Aside from being overly joyed to see them, both Miranda and I's hormones were raging away as soon as we touched. Amazing what nearly two weeks away will do for needing some intimacy with the one you love.

We put our affection on ice as much as possible and headed down to Beale Street for some dinner and sightseeing. We grabbed some great barbecue at BB King's place on Beale. They had some live blues going on and we all had a great time with Corley bopping along in her seat to the music. We took a stroll up and down Beale and briefly contemplated a horse drawn carriage ride, but it took a half hour and we were pushing bedtime for Corley as it were. We hit the sack relatively early for some well earned nooky time along with an early morning wake up that had us out the door at 7:30 Friday.




We hit Little Rock around 1 on Friday and made our way over to visit our friends. This is the same friend that was recently diagnosed with brain tumors/cancer. It was their little one's nap time as well by the time we arrived so we headed on over to his parent's place where we'd be staying for a few days and put Corley down for a nap as well. We made sure to put our time to good use as well and that even included some napping...

Friday night we were treated to a visit to see their daughter perform at her church both in a band and in a short drama. Now most of you know I'm not a particularly religious person, but the drama they put on was about the typical trials the teens deal with today and was pretty powerful. It was very well put on by the kids. We crashed pretty hard Friday night and got up on Saturday ready to attack the day. Saturday morning we actually just hung around mostly and let Corley play with some of the cousins who came to visit. Just a quick side note about this family- we stayed with the parents and our friend is married to one of the sons. In total they have 3 kids and 2 of the 3 live within a half mile and the 3rd isn't much past that so all the kids, grandkids, etc are always getting together and it's just an awesome show of what a family can be.

Saturday afternoon we partied. It was for our friend's son celebrating his 2nd birthday and on top of that it turned into a surprise party for our friend as well. She was completely caught off guard, but enjoyed everyone's company. We all had a blast and though it thoroughly wore her out, our friend was in great spirits. On Sunday we headed over to visit the Little Rock Zoo.



Both our friends work there, but she wasn't feeling well enough to visit with us. It's too bad as we get basically an all access pass when they go with and we can into certain pens with the animals. The zoo was still fun and they've done a ton of work to make it better since we had last visited 3 years ago. We dropped by their house in the afternoon for dinner and to let Corley play with their son. We hung out and said our goodbyes so we could get packed and ready to roll back home.

Monday was just a long as slog all the way home. The scenery was much nicer through northern Arkansas and southern Missouri than anything rolling down to Memphis, but it was still a long haul. Corley did relatively well considering she had to spend over 9 hours strapped into a car seat. I'm sure that's pretty torturous when you're two and a half and full of energy. We made the best of it by stopping and letting her get out as we filled up for gas or grabbed a meal.

Road trippin

Road trippin, originally uploaded by Buckshot77.

Road trip to Memphis today to pick up the girls. We're headed to Little Rock tomorrow. Only 600 miles on the clock for today.

The hundy man can

Sunday marked my 4th gravel century of the year, affectionately nicknamed "The dirty hundy". We had a small, but dedicated crew on hand for this installment, Steve "Mechanical" Fuller, Scott "Bike Iowa" Sumpter, Tom "Griz" Anderson, and myself "Buckshot". At least we all had some interesting nicknames. Although, I must profess I coined Fuller's name just on this ride due to his seemingly endless mechanicals that while they don't necessarily sideline him, they definitely make his rides interesting to say the least.

We rolled out from Steve's house at pretty much 7 sharp. It was just cool enough that I was happy to have arm warmers thrown on and breifly thought my full finger gloves wouldn't have been a bad idea either. We met Tom just a couple miles outside of town as he rolled up from his place. While we weren't killing it by any means in the morning, we kept a nice strong pace going along. I liked the idea of going without a route, which was our plan, but in reality, to truly get a hundred miles in and make a good time of it, I think a little more planning might be better.





Our adventure racing for the day came shortly after our breakfast stop. We turned onto a road with a large "Road Closed to through traffic" sign. Hmm, since we're not typically considered traffic by most motorists, I guess the sign doesn't apply to us.



At the bottom of a decent hill, we found a bridge under construction. Well, from where we were standing it looked like they had the deck boards layed out so we headed out across. Funny, the deck stopped about halfway across leaving us to cross exposed girders. At least we had a steel cable to keep us upright and in reality it added quite a bit of fun to the ride.



About 25 miles in we made a quick Casey's stop for a donut and a quick hop off the bike and then we were off again. We rolled on towards Lynden where we were thinking of grabbing some food for lunch and quickly realized there wasn't anything to be had. Panora seemed like a good option and was only 6 miles by the Racoon River Valley Trail. We somehow streched it into 10+ miles of gravel with some sketchy descending on a highway shoulder and a nasty hill climb up the other side. It was this hill climb that I broke my self induced suffering of planning to big ring it all day. After roughly a half mile in the middle ring, I hopped back into it and kept it the rest of the day. It actually worked pretty well on the hills as it forced me to work up them to keep my cadence at a certain level and mostly put me up in front of the rest of the group.

By the time we rolled into Panora and hit PJ's for lunch I was due. Luckily? there was a pretty hefty crowd in line and we spent over an hour basking in the shade enjoying a nice breeze. Apparently the burgers came back to haunt Scott and Tom, but Steve and I really didn't have any problems. After lunch I felt pretty good for about 10 miles and then the long term effects started setting in.



I was really getting down on power and hurting even though I rolled off the front of the group. I was riding my own pace, but still felt pretty slow. Tom apparently felt even worse and sent the other two ahead while I waited at the next turn for them. After seemingly forever we rolled into Adel with about 80 miles on the clock. We spent some time here soaking in some rest and shade in the city park while Tom rolled back up to meet us.



We criss crossed highway 6 to make sure we had enough miles of gravel to qualify the ride and then hopped on the bike trail to get Scott back in time for his debut on Kim West's radio show. We made one more breif stop by Tom's place we headed back to Steve's. Tom followed us for a bit to get the rest of his miles in for the day and we cleared 100 on the way to Steve's. All in all it was a good day in the saddle, but I was really feeling the effects of it. I am hoping I'll have some time next year to not only work on my short, hard efforts, but to also expand my long distance riding as well.

Ignorance is...

Bliss? Actually, I'm beginning to this ignorance is really just ignorance. After all the hullaballoo last week with Miranda's dad passing away from a combination of lung cancer and pneumonia, you'd think it might have some impact on his relatives. According to my wife who is now staying with some of those relatives, it was hard to choose a place to stay once their hotel time ran out. The reason being, everyone smokes!

James was a lifelong smoker and didn't escape the clutches of cancer so you can't really say it was a surprise. However, you'd think those around him might do well to recognize that maybe the grim reaper isn't hiding too far around the bend considering he was just shy of 50 when he passed. Add in the biggest insult to it in the fact that his son (Miranda's half brother) and his wife are expecting and both still smoke like crazy. They visited us early this year and had promised emphatically that they'd both be going cold turkey as soon as they found out they were pregnant. OK, fine, so how come at 6 months along you're still smelling like an ash tray and smoking like a fiend? Some people.

In all actuality, I could care less if you want to smoke, but I certainly can think you're a little unwise for doing so. I guess I'd have thought that Jame's death might have hit a little closer to home for them, but I'd be wrong. Ahh well. Ignorance is just ignorance.

Memory lane

Part of my night was spent looking through our wedding pictures to email down to Miranda. She wanted some of her dad and brother at our wedding to print off for the memorial service being held today.

We've been married 8 years. Wow, the things that have changed in that relatively short period of time. I saw so many faces of people that we've fallen out of touch with. Some by our choice, some by their choice, and some by happenstance. What's harder to swallow is that there were a number of people in there that had passed on since then. I can think of at least 3 just off the top of my head. Looking back, I'm really glad we had all the people we did to celebrate with us. Sure, I've got a few more friends now that would have been awesome to party with, but for the most part, I'm pretty happy about who we shared that experience with.

One particular oddity is our wedding partner. We both chose people that we'd been friends with a reasonable amount of time and felt like we would continue on as good friends with. We had 6 people as attendants. All 6 have either fallen out of touch completely or we talk to maybe a few times a year. Strange in my book for sure.

Something else that struck me was how people changed in the past 8 years. Take my parents for example. I know my mom made a concerted effort to lose some weight for the wedding and she looks good in the pictures. I'd hazard a guess that an average of 10+ pounds has been added on per year since then. I'm worried about her for sure. My dad looks great in the pictures. He has a sparkle in his eye and looks like he feels good. Some pretty serious accidents have changed his life since and I'm sure he struggles daily just to get through without too much pain and it's really taken a toll. I'm worried about him too. From there you get into other family and it seems a number have gained weight since. I know I've really got some hair loss going on which sucks.

Back when we got married, our plan was to celebrate our anniversary every year by digging out our pictures and savoring the memories. We have only done this a couple of times. I'm starting to think we should pick that back up before those memories fade out. Anyone else out there strive to hang on to memories of some of the best times of your life?

Bummed

The inevitable happened. Miranda's dad passed on this morning. While I don't feel like we truly knew him that well as he was only involved in her life for the past 10 years (he and her mom divorced when she was 2 and he stayed out of her life), I know she'll still mourn and miss him. He is the first person I've known personally in my adult life to pass on from cancer. In his case, it goes to show, that you really can't reckon with the odds of being a lifelong smoker and getting lung cancer. I'm glad I kicked that habit long, long ago.

I guess I'm bummed for a number of reasons. I feel bad that my wife lost someone close to her. I feel bad that I'm not there with her and provide a shoulder to lean on. I feel bad that our daughter won't have a chance to know one of her grandpas.

There are at least a few things I'm happy about. I'm glad that Miranda's mom was able to go with her and Corley. I'm sure it helps a lot to have her there. I'm happy that they got down there in time on Tuesday to spend some time with him while he was conscious. I'm happy that Corley and he were able to meet and exchange words whether or not she'll ever remember it.

I'm left wondering a few things as well. I wonder if we'll stay in touch with that side of the family now that our direct link is gone. I wonder what effect this will have on Miranda. I wonder how much and when we'll tell Corley about her grandpa.

Seventeen

Nothing really significant about this number with the exception of it's the number of hours I spent on the clock yesterday. Not too shabby other than being a salaried position means I get paid for a whopping 8 of those hours. You can definitely bet, I'll be mentally tracking them for flex time repayment though. Of course that's not the whole story as we were up at 3:45 yesterday in the AM to get Miranda, Corley, and Miranda's mom off to the airport to hit the flight to Memphis. They made it down just fine and miraculously, everything that was booked online seemed to go off without much of a hitch at all.

Corley was able to actually get back into the ICU for a short time to visit her grandpa. She'd never met him before and we really felt it needed to happen since this will probably be the only chance she'll ever get whether she remembers it or not. We were really worried she wouldn't be let back since the rule is you have to be 14 or older to be in the ICU, but some serious talking to the nurses got her a free pass for a little bit. I'm sure they're well aware of the situation too...

It still looks like I'll be headed off to pick them up at the end of next week. While I used to love road tripping, I'm not sure I'm looking forward to 10 hours on the road to pick up what will probably be a pretty somber wife and daughter. I'll probably be answering phone calls most of the time anyway as the jobsite is really heating up with things to start putting in place.

Upside down

Well, that's how things in my world were turned last night anyway. As I talked about last week, we got the news that one of my best friends was handed a nasty diagnosis. While they still don't have the pathology back, she's doing a great job of being a fighter and vowing to do whatever it takes. She makes me proud.

On to last night. I'm just finishing up in the shower since I decided to ride to work and then out to meet Miranda and Corley for dinner in Johnston before heading home. The phone rings and we're wondering who would be calling at 8:30 considering everyone who knows us is well aware that Corley is supposed to be in bed by then. That could only leave a wrong number or bad news. Bad news never gives a crap when it calls.

Miranda's biological dad in Tennessee hasn't been doing well. He was slapped with a lung cancer diagnosis early this year. He's been through his chemo and other treatments and seemed to be slightly on the mend. Well, we hadn't talked to him for a couple weeks and apparently he's not been doing as well as we thought. Now he's in the hospital with what appears to be Pneumonia and to top it off, it looks like there are some more masses showing up on scans they're running. Considering his all ready weakened state, and that he's a lifelong smoker, we're not expecting much of an outcome. We were planning a visit along with a stop to see our other friend in October since things will calm down at work for me. Now it's something of a race against time.

Considering Corley has never met this grandpa, we figured it's now or never. So late into the night plans were laid, plane tickets were bought, and a trip was formed. Miranda and Corley are headed out early tomorrow while I stay behind and try to get as much work through the pipe as possible in the next week and a half. Then, if the plan doesn't change, I'll be driving down to Tennessee to meet up with them before we swing back through Arkansas for a couple days to see our other friends. Not really the best timing for everything, but then again when is it?

Breaking the barrier

I rode my bike into work today. Wait, today's a Sunday. Yup, that's right, working another Sunday. The sad thing is, it's partially of my own accord. Sure, I'm busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest, but I spend too much of my day to day time at work fucking off and reading the internets. I'm starting to suspect I may have a touch of an addiction problem. No, seriously. I chide myself pretty hard for doing it, yet I have a real problem stopping to actually get started on work stuff.

Such is life. In any case, I finally broke a barrier that had alluded me to date. I've long been looking for that magical under 30 minute commute time. The weather was perfect, there was a lack of traffic, and I felt pretty good, so I hit it. I really didn't feel like I killed myself on the way in by any means, but I kept a nice steady working pace that put me in to work about 20 seconds under the magic 30 minute mark. I was pretty surprised when I checked the stats on my garmin to see I'd finally done it. What's even more interesting is that other than some mountain biking and a good hard ride on Monday night, I really haven't done anything remotely like training for months. I'm glad I can maintain at least some good aerobic fitness during my time off even if it's not really race readiness.

I'm really looking forward to October. I figure by then, things will have calmed down enough that I can really think about getting away on vacation for a bit. I'm tossing around the idea of joining Squirrel to go up to Gnome Fest in a couple weeks. It sounds like fun even though I have no idea what it's necessarily all about. I could definitely use a weekend off by myself to decompress and let my hair down. I just don't know if it's the best idea to take it right now... Anyone else been up to the fest?

The fair

As required by all true Iowegian's, we dutifully made our way to the State Fair on Wednesday afternoon. We waited to hit the half price after 5 deal so we could at least save the rest of our money for overpriced food. Just inside the main gate on Grand we were visually assaulted by a new food vendor called "Butcher Boy's" or something along those lines with a rather large and garish stand. Now to call something garish at the fair when flanked by typically equal displays of disproportionate enthusiasm is really something. Yet, these guys definitely pulled out all the stops. Unable to resist the charms of a bright new food vendor, our quartet wandered over to the stand and proceeded to order a couple steak sammiches along with a chicken one as well. Being the glutton that I am, I loaded mine to the hilt with pretty much every condiment and topping available. My cohorts showed a bit more restraint and chose more delicately. Now, maybe I was just damn hungry, but I thought even for the $7 entry fee, it was a pretty decent sandwich especially considering being at the fair. Miranda and my mom disagreed to the quality and both left a fair amount uneaten, ah well, their loss.

After finding a place to finish off the meals, I went in search of something else to quench my food lust. I opted for a couple of crab rangoon which was definitely a new adventure for me in fair food. They actually were pretty kick ass and I even managed to share. Once we'd eaten our fill, it was off to find something for Corley to do. Apparently, Miranda had heard about an activity for the kids called little hands on the farm. I have to admit, I was pretty skeptical about this one sucking ass, but thankfully I was wrong. Corley had a blast going through the various stations in her little smock and acting like she was a regular joe farmer.









She even earned some "money" for her hard work which she was able to turn in at the store before leaving and bought some animal crackers. Funny enough as we looked around for something good for her to spend her money on, we were surrounded by a sea of junk food. And we wonder why Americans have a problem with obesity...

After the farm journey we wandered through the animal center and got to watch a number of newborn farm animals including some just hatched chicks from Ostriches and Chickens. Pretty cool. It was now time for a little more food and a quick break for the feet so we headed up to catch the opening few songs of the Jason Brown free concert. Corley was a hit with the older couple seated in front of us as she danced and twirled to the music. Our last stop for the night was to hit the photo exhibit. This is probably the only real reason I hit the fair every year. I love checking out all the cool pictures people take and are on display. If you've never seen them, make sure to get up to the cultural building on top of the hill and check them out.

Now we walk. We always get dropped off at the gate or within a block or two by Miranda's parents and then walk back to their place roughly 6 blocks away when we're done. Typically we spend a lot more time at the fair so the walk is something of a death trudge, but with a short night and beautiful weather, it was actually damn nice this year. What a great way to kill off an evening.

Some days it pays to work here

This is my boss' new toy. He tired of his Porsche so he sold it a month or so back and has been on the prowl for a new car. Luckily, I'm one of the few car guys in the office so he's been checking over his choices with me. I wasn't quite sold on this particular car, but he had to have it.

As I was on my way out to run a couple pieces of material to a jobsite this morning on the scoot, I asked him if he'd brought it in today as I hadn't seen it yet. The answer was, here are the keys and let me tell you how to run the paddle shifter. See, it does occasionally pay to work here. Wow, that car is fun. I'm almost glad I can't afford something like that as it will go from zero to arrest me in no time flat. I only squawked the tires a couple times as the traction control was on and I didn't take the time to play with the sport setting to check out the super fast shifting options. Definitely a fun toy, but man, you still can't take it out on a track day without putting in a roll bar which is the main reason I was trying to talk him into something different.

Some creative writing

I've been thinking about posting some of my misc writing that I've done over the years. For the most part, this stuff is pretty personal and related to things that are happening in my life when I write them. I've got one that as you can see is pretty pissed off. For some reason, the mood strikes me as a good time to post it. Enjoy or not, it's up to you. Let me know if you want to see anything else.

Rage 9/18/02

A rage burning in the night seeking the heat wanting to fight. I hate the truth for it is damming bring the earth down upon my ears, shattering the peace and making me cease. You don’t need to bother and I don’t need to be, could there any truer words be? It doesn’t make a difference to you if I’m live or dead you all ready damned me to hell breaking my heart making me bleed red. The hatred starts to rise bringing with it all the flames of the past and the fires of burned desires. You can’t fathom the pain beating my head in vain, I hurt the one who loves me most and it isn’t you. I am dead and live not living but merely surviving. There is an empty soul in front of you, floating without value, living without cause. More pain than anyone deserves only earned by that who loves most deeply. Hatred spawned of love, pain born of caring, no more is this world worth the sharing. Rip into my flesh and kill me inside burning with rage and the anger to hide. You’ve beat me into submission, no longer on a mission I now hate to think what might have been. Rage, it’s cage, spewing my guts upon the stage. You feed the fire make hatred my desire for you I rage.

Cranking one out in anger

Man, yesterday just hit me like a load. By the end of the day I wanted nothing more than to wear my ass out on the bike. I headed back to my roots and hit up the Monday night Bike World ride. This was one of my staples when I started riding last year. It's always a fun ride and the pace is usually pretty mellow. With that in mind I grabbed the cross bike so I could ensure some good work while still keeping a nice pace with the group. As it turns out, I brought a knife to a gun fight.

We took off at 6 with 3 guys on road bikes and me. Tom and Courtney were the usual suspects that I typically can keep pace with pretty readily on the road bike and we had a new guy from Drake named Chris (I think) that turned out to be a strong rider as well. We blasted down the trail out to the mile long bridge and then took turns pulling a paceline. We rerouted and headed north and west to Granger before turning down to catch the Raccoon River Trail in Waukee and bringing that back towards Des Moines. I was feeling good for most of the ride, but definitely working hard to keep up with the group and sitting in a little more than the others.

As we made the turn towards Waukee, there was a single biker about a 1/2 mile up the road from us. We turned up the screws a bit and slowly started reeling him in. After close to 5 miles we finally caught and passed him outside of Waukee. He seemed surprised by a group of guys in a straggly paceline included a cross bike considering he was riding his aero bars and had on a Copper Creek Tri jersey. Coming into Waukee I finally cracked and fell off the back at the town sprint. Mercifully, they let up and I strung onto the back once more.

We slowed the pace down considerably and I weeble wobbled my way to Rock Bottom where it was time for a beer. Not a moment too soon if I say so myself. After refreshing on the beer, Chris and I headed back towards the shop since I had parked there and he'd ridden over from Drake. Tom and Courtney stayed to enjoy their spoils of burgers and sides and another beer or two. We rolled back in the dark and I was enjoying the evening air even though I was completely gassed. My legs were protesting the hills, but I still kept turning them over at a decent pace. Almost 50 miles for a weeknight ride on a cross bike definitely had me worn out and my mind was blank. Just how I wanted it.

IMBCS #7 Lake Ahquabi "Mob the Quab"

Sunday rolled around too damn early as I was still trying to recoup from a bit of a late night at the Knoxville Nationals. Actually, it was a really early night for that particular venue considering I was home and in bed by 12:30. In any case, Sunday was forecast to be a near perfect day for a race. A high of around 80, sunny, and perfect. For once the forecasters were right. It was a perfect day for a race.

I loaded my plethora of gear as I prefer to go prepared for anything rather than nothing. I rolled in and was signed up and ready for my pre-ride by 10:45. I got just a bit of flack signing up for the beginner's class again. I was really torn about what to sign up for as I wanted to ride more than a lap, but at the same time I wasn't ready to step up to the big kid's table and ride with the sport guys. I'm sure I could have held my own and finished just fine, but the reality is, I'm a beginner, so why not enjoy the only time I'll ever be classed as such. I headed out with my buddy Keith for the pre-ride.

Almost as soon as the pedals started turning, I knew it was going to be a struggle to get any kind of power out of my legs. Granted, I hadn't chased down an gels or anything other than a Clif bar for breakfast, but still, a severe lack of training does not make a bike racer. As Keith rode pretty effortlessly along, I bungeed back and forth keeping contact with him, but working a little harder than I wanted to just to keep up. There were a couple new climbs that we hadn't done on the Wednesday ride since the course hadn't been marked and a section of ups and downs in the last mile that were surely going to suck some power out of you right at the end. The best addition though was the screaming asphalt downhill at the very end that shot you out towards the finish line near 30 mph.

The pre-ride was done, the other classes were off and one of our group of beginners (2 ladies and 3 guys) made a bet for the first person to pass a sport rider would earn themselves a quick $5. Then we were off 2 minutes down from the sport riders and 7 minutes behind the experts. I hit the trail in 3rd place just trying to keep my head in the game early and not go out too hard. The leader was new to strictly mountain biking, but was an adventure racer. He had some strength and speed on the flat easy terrain, but myself and Kurt passed him pretty handily on the first rough downhill. The downhills were definitely rough as evidenced by the amount of water bottles distributed along the side of the trail.

A couple miles into the lap I slowly passed Kurt and he latched onto my wheel as I'd been riding his since the start. Considering he beat me last week, I was wondering if I'd have enough gas to stay in front. I slowly eked out a gap on the second big climb of the day which was a steep gravel and shale covered climb that was fun for at least one lap. I kept pushing my pace since I knew he wasn't far behind and tried to stay mindful of my heart rate. While I didn't spend as much time above 190 this race as in Boone, I still kept it hovering in the mid 180's for the entire lap.

The double track was nice and flowy allowing for passing with ease. A simple "on your left" was really all that was needed to pass people. Only one slight miscue found me digging myself out of the bushes. Strangely enough, it was on an easy spot. I went to cross a gravel wash at the bottom of the railroad tie hill and my front tire washed out sending me through the boundary tape and into the bushes. I jumped back up trying not to lose much time, but now I was at the bottom of a hill with no momentum so only one thing to do and that was run up the hill. I used to think I would be faster running some spots than riding, but now I'm not quite so sure as it really sucked running that hill. Now we hit the quick hitting ups and downs on the course as we'd climb part way up the hill before descending almost to lake level before turning right back up. A few of these and then we climbed to the top of the park to hit the screaming descent on the asphalt trail that was almost as rough as the doubletrack. I let out a big whoop all the way down the hill as I was having a blast and crossed the line first in the beginner's category.

While I was happy with the result, I got just a minor bit of flack for running as a beginner after all was said and done. I guess as Brian said, I may have taken to it like a duck to water, but in all the fact is, I've been riding bikes for a year and a half, and mountain bikes for 8 months. Now I'm not sure if it smarted that they got passed by a beginner that had a 2 minute start deficit (hey it was easy for me to go all out since I only had 1 lap to run) or what, but it's not like I'm out there scoring money for placing in the beginners class. Shoot, at Boone we didn't even have prizes, but I still had a great time. We all have to start somewhere, but I guess I don't see what's so wrong with keeping myself in check for a couple races and gaining some more skills so I don't run into issues when I move up. Personally, I'd rather not fall off my bike and hold someone else up or worse yet, have someone get hurt because of a bad move on my part.

What do you in the blog reading world think? Should I stay beginner for another race or two (all that's left if I can even make it to the races) or should I move up to sport now just to say I did it?

Just a big fuck you

Wow, I was all jacked up to write some fun filled words about this weekend. I had a great weekend even if it was jam packed with activity. Maybe I'll write up something separate about that later. I came in this morning and was perusing my favorite sites before starting to clean up my plethora of emails sitting here in my inbox. I finally got to the emails and noticed I had a couple from one of my friends. Hmm, a bit strange considering she usually only emails me a single picture or humorous story type thing once in a while.

I opened the first email and my stomach did a fucking backflip. Pretty much a couple words summed up the entire email: hospital, brain, tumors. Yup, the one friend I actually talk to and keep up with from high school has fucking tumors on her brain. Most likely they're cancerous, they're telling her they're inoperable, and oh ya, they've got a 2 year old little boy. I can't imagine what they're going through and I wish I could do something to help. At this point, all I can do is offer up my thoughts and wait to see if there's anything I can do.

We were all ready planning to visit them this fall, but now the trip takes on an unnecessary sense of urgency and who knows if she'll even be up for company at that point. Makes all my bitching about work and typical little life things in general seem pretty fucking weak at this point. Sorry about all the swearing in this post, but it's summing up how pissed I am about this. Bad shit happens to good people and man does it suck!

Ahquabi pre-ride

Hopefully I'm not giving away any trade secrets for the upcoming race weekend, but Brian and I went down to pre-ride the trails at Ahquabi last night. He had ridden down there a number of times so I let him be my indian scout. Add in that work was dragging me down and I needed to turn some pedals in anger and all was good.

We didn't hit the course until close to 7 and since there were no markings really up yet, we just had the base description to go by on figuring out where the course might go. Since we parked up top, we got to hit a wickedly fun little descent that has railroad ties laid across it to form "steps". It's also covered with fine gravel and a wash down one side to add some interest. Once we hit the bottom loop around the lake it was awesome wide double track with small little rollers up and down. Across the first bridge is a nice little steep power climb that isn't too technical other than just being steep. I rolled slowly up it the first lap and didn't have too many issues. There are a couple mudholes of no real concern on the back part of the course. Just enough to flip some stuff up on you at speed. On the back side there are a couple of really fun little descents as well. Once we got to the campground, we weren't sure where the trail was going to go as there is supposed to be some looping around the catch basins. We rode that area, but nothing of much consequence was up there.

For the second lap I wanted to up the pace and see what kind of flow I could get going. The wide paths really inspire some fast riding, but there are a few turns that you could easily get in over your head due to various washes and sandy spots. about the most technical thing you have to worry about is washes and ruts sporadically spread through the course. Other than that it's a fast fast track. Sure, it's not true singletrack in the middle of the woods, but it's definitely fun in it's own way.

There are a couple miscellaneous climbs that could be thrown in depending on the final routing, but still nothing like what I experienced on the beginner portion of Boone. Unless it happens to rain which would change things up pretty good, I'd hope for expert at 4 laps, sport 3 laps, and 2 laps for us beginners. Hopefully I'll see a few of you on Sunday.

The scooter diet

I've found an unexpected bonus while riding my scooter on a regular basis. I've actually been able to ride quite a bit in the past 2 weeks which has been nice. I'm over 500 miles in the month since I bought it.

The unexpected bonus is that about 75% of the drive-thru order sensors apparently don't pick up enough of my bike to trip the alert. So, I set at the order sign yelling at the speaker like a moron. Apparently those things are only turned on when the buzzer goes off inside and I haven't had one come on yet, but I still retain hope! In any case, for the most part, I just drive off in disgust and figure I'll get my meal elsewhere which means at home or eating the food I actually brought to work. As it's mostly more nutritious and less fatty than the drive-thru stuff, I'm eating a bit healthier. See, double bonus. Try the scooter diet.

Weekend recovery

After 2 weeks without a full day off work, I took my medecine this weekend and made sure to play hard. Maybe a bit too hard. I'm just not feeling it at all today. It's damn near lunch and I haven't accomplished much except sitting here looking like I'm doing something. Ahh well, maybe I'll get my mid-afternoon boost and kick some ass yet before heading home.

Of course I spent the day at the races yesterday as you can read all about in the post directly below this one. Rewind to Friday and I decided to take advantage of some time and ride my bike to work. After work, I headed out to meet Miranda at some friend's house in Indianola. A scant 31 miles later and I was there. At least I had a change of clothes though as I'm sure I wouldn't have been too pleasant to be around had I remained in my bike clothes. We whiled away the evening with some burgers, beers, balloons, and watching the kids chase each other around their massive swingset. Good times indeed. Unfortunately it seems these friends might be moving back to Chicagoland in the relatively near future. We'll be sad to see them go for sure.

Saturday was a bit of a mad dash around as we were to meet some friends out at Adventureland for a day of fun in the sun. I was up and about early having to run and grab some new tires for the bike to try on Sunday and to get a much needed haircut. As per our standard operating procedure, we were about a half hour late getting on the road.

I'm ready to go daddy!



Adventureland was absolutely boiling with people. We made the best of it hitting as many rides as we could with Corley before she was to be picked up for a night at Grandmas. She had a blast and in turn, we had a lot of fun taking her. It's still hard to justify $62 for the two of us to get in the gate, so we'll be doing some thinking about it next year and hopefully score some discounted tickets. After we dropped Corley with Grandma (we literally handed her over the security fence in the parking lot!) we met up with our friends and their boys. We hung out doing a few rides the rest of the afternoon and then we boogied early leaving them to close down the park.

Back home we had a little time to ourselves and did what all good couples should be doing when they find themselves in that situation. Connections were made and smiles were popping all around ;) After we cleaned up and tidied the house a bit, we buzzed off to a nice relaxed dinner at our favorite restaurant- Mezzodis. Our friends came back from the park around 9 as they were staying the night to hit up the mountain bike race the next day as well. He and I thrashed on our bikes till about 10, we shot the breeze until 11 and then it was off to bed again.

I need a weekend to recoup from my weekend!

Boone or how I learned to climb

7 oaks rec area in Boone seems to be the one course in Iowa that is spoken about in hushed tones. You here whispers of it in dark corners and people tend to be at a lack of words when you try to directly question them about it. The moons aligned this weekend and I was able to take some time to find my way to Boone for my first mountain bike race.

With the perfect storm of my lack of training, the fact that Boone seems to be regarded as extremely difficult, and my first off road race, I decided beginner was the way to go. Call me a sandbagger if you will, but we all have to start somewhere. I pre-rode about 80% of the course and realized that even on the beginner loop, I was going to be in for some hard work. Talking over with the race organizer's, it was a question of whether we should do 2 or 3 laps and I felt to get our money's worth we should do 3 since the pre-ride took less than 20 minutes.

6 of us towed the line for a sprint up the gravel road and into the singletrack before hitting a pretty gnarly and rutted descent before we made a 180 to start the real portion of the beginner loop. Apparently all the gravel riding this winter paid off as I drilled it from the start and made it to the singletrack with a small gap on the rest of the field. Coming into the section I pre-rode, I felt a little more confident and kept my pace high. I cleared all but one obstacle on the first lap and came out with somewhere around a 30-45 second lead over 2nd place. I may have went out a shade too hard as I was starting to feel it coming into the 2nd lap.





I unravelled on this lap. I was just gassed enough that I could make it up to the obstacles, but not clean them. I fell, I flipped and I rolled somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 or 6 times on this lap. I lost my entire lead and let two guys by. Damn. By the end of the lap, I had caught back and passed one of the guys, but the leader was now long gone. Towards the end of the lap I started feeling some pinching in my left shoe. I wasn't sure what it was and it didn't feel very good, but what can you do? I kept the pace as pushed as I could and was starting to regret that I had voiced my opinion that we needed to do 3 laps.




By the start of the 3rd lap, I was in 2nd, but not by much. I had one guy breathing down my neck and I wasn't sure how many more were behind him. I knew I didn't have much left in the tank so I decided early on that I'd be much quicker jumping off the bike and running the obstacles I knew I would have trouble cleaning versus trying them and falling. This would be what saved my goose. I was faster than the guy behind me on the riding portions and he was having to run the same areas I was so I wasn't losing ground. I finally put some time back in the bank and just focused on drilling the rest of the lap without hammering a tree or any other equally gnarly fates that you might find at 7 Oaks. All in all I made it to the finish line in 2nd place and I think less than a minute behind the first place rider.




Some fun facts and stats for just the beginner portion of the ride can be found here. Probably my favorite stat is that I reset my max heart rate to 197. On the final lap I was way beyond gone and heard my computer beeping at me. I looked down to see it wasn't just my head telling me that I was about to go beyond the point of no return. My previous best was 195 BPM and I had set my max at 196 figuring that was a pretty safe figure. Now I just need to figure out how I can get those numbers down to more manageable levels. Any tips?

Alas, with mountain biking, podiums apparently are shunned as we gathered around to here the awards. A number of the death squad members had a pretty good day. They rolled all the way through the expert, single speed, and sport classes, but nary a mention was made about the beginners. Hey, I know we're the little guys, but a shade of recognition would have been cool. All in all a good day to race.

Oh, and about the title, I still don't know how to climb... I just happened to get a lot more practice at it today.

Sweat Fest

It was a good day to sweat. I hit the taco ride again last night in hopes that I might shock my legs into at least being a little more understanding of the suffering I plan to put them through on Sunday in Boone. Everyone keeps talking of the horrors of all the climbing at Boone. Having never ridden there (yet), I'm pretty stoked to see all the suffering. Supposedly the beginner course is in some of the flatter sections so it won't be so bad.

I did pick up a nice compliment last night as 4 of us hearty souls enjoyed our tacos and Old Style. Something was mentioned about Boone not being for beginners or some such along those lines and I mentioned that I just started mountain biking last fall. The reply was the equivalent of you've got some natural talent then. Considering we'd just spent most of an hour touring hillside up and down several times, I felt pretty good about the comment. Of course my heart rate said a little differently considering I don't think I saw under 180 BPM while running around the loops. Chasing Andy was a lot of fun as well even though he just showed us his ass while cruising along on his single speed.

Flooding was striking again with all the rain we received earlier this week. The creek had backed up flooding out the connector trail so we had to ride the tracks. Before we even got there we ran through some pretty deep water and splashed through the mud. It definitely reminded me that I need to check out a different set of treads on my bike. The Michelin dry series that came on it are decent enough when it's dry, but I have to lower the pressure to about 20 pounds just to feel like I've got any traction. At that pressue they're squirrely in the corners and I keep thinking they're flat when I have to put any power down.

Hopefully I see a few of you in Boone on Sunday. Look for the fat boy in the Rassy's kit riding the beginner loop!

Snooze

Lack of motivation sucks. I rolled home around 9:30 last night due to my motorcycle class I'm taking at DMACC. As I put the scoot away, I thought how nice it would be to ride my bike in this morning. I even told my wife I was planning on riding in. Fucking snooze button. I couldn't drag my sorry ass out of bed to do anything more than punch the button on top of the clock and shoot straight back to the sweet sheets. The snoozaholic wins again.

On the plus side, I have my choice of rides tonight. Tacos or Ritual? I'll probably hit tacos tonight as I need some time on the mountain bike. For some reason I decided to commit to my lunacy and will be riding the IMBCS race up in Boone this weekend. Granted, I'm whipping out my wuss card and only running the beginner race, but it should still be a good time.

Today is new computer day at work! I'm pretty stoked. I all ready installed my new 22" widescreen monitor on Monday. I'm thinking I need one of those rollin on 22's set of numbers you see on all the pimped out rides. Dude, I'm getting a Dell. Considering my current tower is roughly 5 years old, I can't wait to see how quick the new machine is. On top of that, it might actually have a functioning drive and a fan that doesn't sound like it's about to saw my case in half... But I digress, it's new computer day and I'm almost as stoked as new bike day.

Enjoy the day and maybe I'll see a few of you out riding tonight.

It could've sucked more

The weekend wasn't total junk. For sure working both days and realizing I'll have roughly 12 days in a row without a complete day off definitely sucks. However, it was definitely tempered by some good times Saturday evening and Sunday.

We broke out the tandem and used it just like we'd always intended. We loaded up everyone and everything at the house and put the road train on the road. The plan was to hit Waterworks park and do a nice little picnic dinner and feed some old ass bread to the geese.


I know, I know, there are signs all over the park not to feed the geese, but how could you possibly deny such a sweet little 2 year old?!


We even took a picture of our goofy selves. Heh, the pain wasn't there yet as it's pretty much all downhill to the park...


The suffering began on the way home as we rode back through McRea park which is home to a nice 7-11% grade hill that rises about 100' total. We had 1 gear left as we grunted to the top. Not too shabby for hauling a loaded trailer and having a stoker with under 100 miles this year.

Sunday I was back for more at work. At least this time i only put in about 4 hours, but the office was completely void of life so I got even more work done. I think I can see a pinprick of light at the end of the tunnel so I'm hoping it keeps growing. I've got a pretty buried week trying to start this job moving forward with less lurching and stopping than has been going on. I headed out at noon so I could get time to mow before Corley went down for a nap. The poor yard had been neglected for just about 3 weeks and was in major need of a haircut. I ended up raising the deck all the way up just to get it mowed. Of course it doesn't help when the mower isn't running quite right either...

Sunday afternoon was me and the little one once she woke up. We spent a good half hour snuggling with her sleeping on my chest. Man, I miss that! We hauled a huge load of cans and bottles down to turn in using the Bianchi and her trailer. The sky was turning pretty ugly as we left home so we beat feet down there and back. A couple blocks from home the sprinkling started, but we managed to stay mostly dry. Much to my dismay and Corley's anguish, the parks were now out of the afternoon plans. We made the best of it playing inside and watching the rain come down in sheets.

On to the start of another busy week. I start my motorcycle class this week so I can hopefully get my actual motorcycle license and be legal to ride the scooter. Shhh, don't tell anyone! We've got balloons on Wednesday, friends all weekend, and possibly a mountain bike race on Sunday. Jam packed I tell ya.

Plop Plop fizz fizz

Man what a week. The bad news is things will probably increase in intensity for at least another month before the bottom starts to drop out. I sit here at work on a Saturday knowing full well I'll not be able to complete as much as I need to today, so I'll be in tomorrow as well. I'd much rather not be here, but such is life.

Tuesday was a trip to the casino project. A 6 hour round trip and 9 hours of work makes for a long day out. I got some good things done and avoided being on site during the owner's review happening the following day. Of course I still didn't totally avoid it as I was called a number of times on Wednesday and Thursday to review questions or comments from the owner on our work. At least now things are a bit lined out and I can hopefully make some headway in lieu of feeling like I'm just spinning my wheels.

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. During my road trip, as often is the case, nature called. A combination of my typical morning routine being altered and a coffee from QT had the peristaltic action working it's mojo on my lower half. I veered off to the last rest stop before my turn off the main interstate to lighten the load so to speak. Now I have no real issues with using public facilities. I know there are a number of people out there that would rather die than have to use a truck stop or random public toilet to do their business, but I'm not one of those. As long as I can wipe the seat off first, I'm good to go. However, I may be changing that decision soon enough.

After popping into the restroom, I discovered the handicap stall to still be open as the other stall was in use. I had just sat down and for some reason was pondering how people can possibly even think about sexual rendezvous in such a place when I heard something. My brain refused to register it the first time or two, but slowly, the noise sank in. The stall next to me was grunting and groaning ever so slightly. OK, well, maybe he was working hard. Wait just a damn minute, now those grunts started having the sexual edge to them. OK, just what in the bloody hell is happening in the stall next to me. Am I about to be propositioned ala the foot tapping incident of Larry Craig or is the guy next door simply enjoying himself too damn much?! The noises now began increasing in volume with a few bits of dialogue including an "oh god" in there and finally hit crescendo with what I can only describe as the noise you hear on the alka selzer commercial. After the kids had been dropped off at the pool, I shit you not, the next words I hear were, "oh, that was good." Check please! I'm flailing about getting out of there as quick as I can and luckily make it before the next stall opened up.

OK, that's a chapter I can now check off in my life. Hope you enjoyed it too. Fucking weird! Wednesday was an early day just to ensure I could get a bike ride in. I headed down for the Ritual Ride. It was definitely a light showing with a vast number of people hitting Ragbrai this week. I think we had about 8-10 people total which is vastly short of the usual 25-50. We rolled out and kept the pace pretty chill until we passed 63rd and it was time to go. I tried rolling off the front, but was still flanked pretty well until I made a crossing that the other riders were just far enough behind on that they waited for the traffic to clear. Eventually, Nathan caught up to me being the racer that he is and did it on his fixie to boot. We rolled together for a couple miles until we hit that last big hill on the loop and he dropped back to find his girlfriend. I kept on the gas and ran another loop to see how hard I could push. I did ok, but not great which is pretty consistent with my lack of training. I headed home and broke out the mower to start attacking the jungle that has become my yard. 2+ weeks of not mowing tends to do that to a yard, ya know?

Thursday night we headed out to look at some commercial property that Miranda has been looking at. A couple guys representing the realty agency met us to show the properties. Nothing very special, but it was good for us to see what the market and cost is like so we can put those numbers into our business plan. Did I mention that we're seriously thinking of opening a local shop? We're starting to get some product out with a few local businesses and have had a good response thus far so we're thinking seriously of putting together an actual storefront. Just another stress at this point, but Miranda is doing a good job of taking the lead and bulldogging things. After the spaces, it was time for dinner. We headed to A-Dong's for some good cuisine and I tried a Vietnamese import beer.



Very light without a ton of flavor, but as it warmed up, it actually had some hints of wine taste to it. Very interesting. In an ice cold state, you could probably slam a 6'er of these and barely notice it until the alcohol set in.

I finally took the scooter out for a longer ride last night just to clear my head. I toured through Water Works park until I came back to the couple sections that were still closed. After that I putted through some neighborhoods that I'd never been in in the adjacent streets to the park. Mostly commercial/industrial, but a few housing areas sprinkled in. We took the night really easy and ended with a quick soak in the hot tub. Not a bad way to start a weekend, but then again, this isn't the weekend I want either.

There you go, all caught up on the lack of excitement in my life. Enjoy.

My scooter hauls

Literally and figuratively now that I have my new saddlebags on. My cycle shop ordered a set of bags from Prima for me and last I'd heard it was a 4-6 week back order. I was a bit disappointed, but that was soon shelved when I got a call back less than a week later saying the bags had come in. I scooted over there Friday on lunch to pick them up. Pretty sweet bags overall.


It didn't take me long to get tired of lugging drawings and misc work back and forth in a back pack. Granted, I never hauled half as much as what I did this morning, but it still wasn't my favorite thing to do. Since I'd driven the truck the past 3 days for various reasons, I was determined to ride in this morning. The only problem was I had a jobsite visit yesterday so I had a plethora of drawings with me. I guess it's time to see how much stuff these bags can handle.

Left side looks a bit full:


Right side does too:


Just how much did I have in there?:


All told it's about 40 pounds of drawings including a bunch of 11x17 paper and a couple half scale blueprints. Surprisingly, I didn't notice any ill effects on the handling or oomph, but did notice it actually rode a bitter more smoothly over the bumps with the added weight. The bags were a bit tricky to mount as there were no instructions and a pretty generalized picture on the box to go by. I'll probably play around a bit more with the mounting overall, but I'm pretty happy with them. The bags came with shoulder straps, rain covers, and some extra mounting bungees and straps. Retail list was $139.99, but I got a discount from the shop since I'd just bought my scooter. I picked up the helmet in the picture as well. I still like the open face better, but this will be nice in the wet or cold since I'm not planning to add a windshield.

Leg breaker weekend

Ahh, the weekend. The time for rest, relaxation, and breaking legs? That was the recipe for Saturday morning. Only an endurance pace ride for Pete, Lou, Pig, and a couple other boys in black but that meant I was in for some hurt. I haven't had nearly enough time on the bike lately, but signed on anyway. Damn boys, I know you like to go early, but a 5:45 start time from the west side means a 4:30 wake up call for me. I rolled my bleary eyed ass out of bed and got everything ready to roll. I was greeted by a foggy and humid morning rolling in.

The original call was for 80 miles on the Winterset loop, but I was only planning to hang as long as I could and then limp it back home on empty. We actually rolled out a bit of a different route heading the reverse of how I typically ride it. We rolled through Orilla, down to Norwalk, and then through Martensdale. I hung pretty well into Martensdale and then it was discussed to shorten the ride to St Mary's and back. Somewhere around this point Lou made the comment that at the front of the pace line we should be drilling it since we were able to recover in the draft. I laughed out loud at that one considering my heart rate was averaging 170-175 in the draft and 180+ up front. We hit the first big roller south of Martensdale and I popped half way up running the heart rate to 190. I'd been pushing hard enough long enough that I didn't push on through and fell off the back quickly. I hit one more roller headed south and turned for home figuring they'd catch me somewhere around the edge of town.

As I turned I checked my average speed and made a mental note to try to stay on the gas and keep my pace up. I rolled in through town and headed back to the parking lot. It was a zoo with everyone loading up for the spectacle that is Ragbrai. Luckily I had enough forethought to park at the far end of the lot so I was out of the way enough to get out easily. Micah showed back up about 10 minutes after I got there and let me know the others stopped for coffee downtown. I headed out to go meet them. As we headed out from coffee, Lou offered up the second half of his cup since he was still on 2 wheels and I was headed home. Not one to let a good cup go to waste, I took it home. Damn! I'm not sure what his order was, but I was like a squirrel on crack when I got home!!

The rest of the weekend was pretty nice as well. We got a little family time in along with some house cleaning for the afternoon and then dropped little one off at Grandma's. We hit a nice dinner at Latin King before we headed out in search of some commercial property. We're seriously thinking of opening a storefront for our lingerie business. Things are starting to move for us locally with our product getting put out in a few locations, so it's time to think about doing some of our own sales.

We headed down to the science center after that to catch Dark Night in IMAX. The movie kicked some serious ass, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend seeing it in IMAX. There's just too much sensory input and while it can be processed, it isn't the same as being able to catch it all on a regular screen. Definitely check out the movie either way.

I actually slept in a bit this morning since Corley spent the night with grandma. I hit work for a few hours and tried to get some stuff done. I wasn't alone in my Sunday slave labor. I picked up Corley after her nap and decided we'd go do some playing this afternoon. Squirrel apparently still has his text ring tone shut off and I didn't hear back from them so we headed out on our own. I hooked the trailer up to the Bianchi for the first time. We rolled to the grocery store to pick up a few frosty adult refreshments and some treats for later as well. After dinner, we took another short ride up to the park.



Corley LOVES to swing. She'll tell you that's what she wants to do if you ever give her an option to go do something. We swung and did the slides for a while and headed back to the house. I took a little bit of a detour to get some hills in dragging the trailer. Talk about a leg breaker! Nothing like dragging an extra 40 pounds up a hill with you.



It was a good thing I took that long way home. My first real freegan find while riding. There was a nice shiny Craftsman wrench with a ratchet box end. Sweet! Another block to home and it was time to wind the weekend down. Hopefully this week will bring some sanity back to work. I'm headed to the job site on Tuesday and while things don't seem too over the top right this second, I'll be holding my breath until I head home on Tuesday night. I might try to sneak in a ride up there with one of the owner's reps who happens to be a triathlete.

Tacos and beer

Some may say titties and beer are the best things on earth and while I may not necessarily disagree, I submit humbly that tacos and beer when enjoyed in the company of buddies is a pretty damn good alternative. Enjoy a little Frank Zappa on your Friday.



I got out for my only ride in a week on Wednesday night. A perfect excuse to bail on work early once this week found me rolling out around 3:30 in the afternoon. After a little tweaking at the chiropractor I headed home to load up the truck and bike for the taco ride at Rassy's. An interesting roll out led to a pretty heated exchange between Hanser and a pissed off idiot motorist. While the rest of us cut through some parking lots to head over to the levee, Hanser played the good guy and road perfectly legally through the streets. Sadly enough, he damn near got ran over by some idiot.

We rolled down the levee trail to the dirty connector.


Once on the dirty connector, it was pretty easy to see all the damage that the water had caused. Amazing how the holes can be dug by seemingly gentle water. Sections of the connector are pretty rough right now, but it is at least rideable. We headed over to Hillside for some laps. I rolled one lap and headed back for part of another since everyone else was still up there when I rolled in the parking lot. I need someone to lead me through there sometime to figure out the supposed flow since all the trails criss cross around and I typically take a wrong turn or two.

After hillside it was time for a lap of roller coaster. I was a bit nervous since there were supposedly even more roots and washes exposed now. There were plenty before, but luckily I really didn't notice the new stuff to be any more technical. A group of us rolled through, but had to stop for a man down.



The guy on the far left was riding the trails for the first time and got thrown off line going across one of the bridges on roller coaster. He looked pretty good for going headlong into a 6 foot deep ditch... Only a few scrapes and cuts, but he finished the ride out with us. Good going man! We met the group back down at the parking lot where everyone was pretty much ready to head down for grub. Sammy and I took off for one more lap of roller coaster and I had my fall for the day. There's one log to cross up top and I thought I had it until I stuck my damn chain ring into the side of it. I didn't think it was quite that tall. No big deal, but I tweaked my should when I put both hands down to break my fall.

It was Old Style time now. We headed for the bar. I'm not sure what's up with the look in this pic, but I think I was flirting with Squirrel's camera... Damn, that was only after 1 beer.



Tacos were good as always, but I paid for it after searing the top of my mouth on the first bite. Damn, burned the shit out of the roof of my mouth to the point I had skin peeling off by the time we left the bar. A couple more days and I'll be good to go. Here's to hoping I'll make it out to do something on the bike this weekend. Work still sucks so I'll be there at least part of the weekend. Saturday night the little one is staying with grandma so we're hitting The Dark Night in IMAX. I'm pretty stoked about that! Enjoy the weekend.