Back to work

Well, I sit here back in at work on a Sunday. Just gotta love it I tell ya. At least yesterday I got to play and enjoy life for a bit. CITA put out the call for volunteers to do a work day at the center trails. Being that I missed all the previous days this year due to one reason or the other, I was determined to be there for this one. My back was still giving me some fits so I cancelled out on going for a ride before hand, but still made it down to the parking lot about 10 minutes late. Holy crap, there were a ton of kids down there and a pretty good number of other CITA volunteers. Some counts say more than 60 people in all.
Kids

Hard cores

Pics stolen from Justin
With my back acting up, I knew I'd be in no shape to swing an axe, rake, or do any other repetive type motion so I dug into bridge building. We managed to put together 5 bridges including setting 3 of them by the time we called it quits around 2. The volunteers had made some new track and cleared many other areas. I brought my bike in wishful hope that I might be able to ride. After the day was done, I still wanted to ride, but my body said it was time for beer and food so I listened. After stopping by Rassys to drop some of the materials off and returning the borrowed trailer, Sammy, Squirrel and I hit up El Ray for some killer burritos.

I made it home about 4 and was watching the weather try to decide if it was going to rain or not. I really wanted to get down to the arts festival to enjoy some well deserved family time. About 5 we made the call to take whatever the weather was going to dish out and head down. As luck would have it, it was the right call. The weather definitely had the crowds down just a bit making the vent even better with no massive lines for the kids stuff and enough space that you weren't always running into people.

Corley got to dance:


We did some spin art:


A good way to kill off a Saturday. I'm here for a couple more hours and then it's daddy and Corley time for just a bit. I am actually going to be on the radio with Kim West this afternoon to discuss kid's and child safety on bikes. Stemming from this incident a couple weeks back, I thought it might be a good topic to hash out on the show. Apparently Kim agreed and decided to invite me in to discuss. I'm a bit nervous, but it should be fun too. Then back to pick up Corley from Grandma for a couple hours until bedtime. Rinse and repeat for tomorrow.

FYI- I still haven't gotten on my damn bike yet so it's officially been a week now. I'm hoping this week brings some relief and I can ride in at least a couple times.

Rain and pain

Wow, from driving home in sideways rain last night to seeing several cars in flooded out streets over lunch, it's been a while since I can remember seeing it rain that hard. Hopefully most of you are staying dry. I brought my bike in to work today (on the rack) since I had way too much work with me to possibly ride. So my bike got the chance for repeated washings as the storms moved through. At least it will wash off some of the leftover road grime from Saturday's race. I should probably think about tearing it down and lubing things again though. I'm not sure if Race like a girl will still happen tonight or not.

I'm actually hoping it gets cancelled out for personal reasons. You see, I woke up this morning and felt pretty good. Considering the hours I've put in this week topped off by 6 hours of driving yetserday, I was actually pretty chipper. That was until I bent over to pick something up. I have no idea what in the hell happened, but now I'm stuck with a pain in the small of by back that radiates down my right leg. I'm sure I've pinched some nerve in there, but damn, I didn't even do anything or lift anything over 10 lbs. So, I'm back to hoping RLAG is cancelled so I don't have to struggle with my inner demons telling me to pop a couple tylenol and go for it. Considering I haven't been able to get on a bike since Sunday morning, those demons are screaming pretty loudly.

The flip side is that if I hold off on riding, I might be in better shape to try and help CITA do some work at the center trails on Saturday. I'm hoping I get to do both, but we'll see at this point. I just wish I knew what caused the change in my back. In the mean time, don't forget about the arts festival this weekend in the western gateway park. It should be a great time and it sounds like the weekend weather is going to be killer.