New Look for the TV Room

Well, what do you think? It's finished and it's hanging up on the wall over the couch. That's Jonnene there watching the TV....she's watching NCIS and I can't blame her....good show! Since this picture was taken we've repainted that wall in a lighter color, sort of a creme d'mint or something like that. I think it's interesting and makes the room look different, matching the furniture and really setting the painting off.

The painting is based on an existing work we came across and liked. My canvas is 4x4 square as opposed to the other's rectangle format and I adjusted the work to fit. I added my own touch to it and changed some things around, especially a different look to the background which I made more mottled and textured. It's supposed to reflect the red dirt of the outback in Australia. The kangaroos are supposed to be going to the future or something like that and you can see where I put the mountains in the corners to say that the 'roos are hopping in a valley. I like how it came out and I'm going to try a few more in the months to come.

Here's a detail of one of the kangaroos:

Here Comes the Sun

After several weeks of semi-continuous rain, the sun came out over the weekend and it was definitely welcomed. Normally I like rain....it makes me sleep better, I like the look of the sky (but only as a change of pace from clear skies), and we can turn off our lawn sprinklers to help lower our water bill. But the recent downpours and storms were getting ridiculous. And last Thursday's storms with tornadoes tossed for good measure were the grand finale and frustration. A guy I know, who's also a graphic designer and artist here, was nearly killed when the 100-foot tall and 12-ton steeple on the downtown First Methodist Church was blown over by high winds onto his new Lexus, crushing it and leaving him with severe injuries. Fortunately, Michael will survive, minus an amputated (by surgery) right ring finger, but will have to deal with a couple of surguries and a body cast for a while. His sister-in-law, Paula, said that his new nickname should be "Steeplechaser" but I think it should be "Steeplecatcher". Here's a LINK to the most recent news plus you can find some links to photos of the steeple/car collision.

We got our share of water around here...literally, around here. Our carport and back patio had about 2" of water during the worst of the rains. There had been so much rainfall during the previous weeks that the ground was totally saturated and couldn't absorb any more water. Fortunately our front yard is lower and all the water could run off around the sides of the house and go to the street but I still had to put some bricks and boards out from the back door so we could get to our cars without getting our feet soaked!

What's been and going to happen

• Ran in the rain this past Monday morning. It was sprinkling a bit heavy and there was more rain coming according to the radar so I told Jonnene I better get out now since rain was predicted for the next two days. So I got in 3 miles, got a light rain in the first mile and not much at all the rest of the run. About a half hour after I finished the bottom fell out.

• We're going to Dallas and the surrounding area three times in November in a two-week period. First we have to go to the immigration offices there on the 10th so Jonnene can apply for her permanent green card...a nice day trip. Then three days later we go back to Fort Worth with some of my Centenary kids to participate in the Bronda's Duathlon at the Texas Motor Speedway. I might have as many as 8 kids racing, some doing their first ever multi-sport event. I'm doing it because I need one more race in 2009 to be ranked in my age group in the region (part of why I'm running). THEN we go back to Dallas the day before Thanksgiving so we can fly out to California to see relatives for the holidays. That's a lot of back-and-forth on I-20!

• Last Thursday we went to one of our local theaters to see "Race Across the Sky", a film about the 2009 Leadville 100. It's a 100-mile out-and-back mountain bike race in Leadville, Colorado that starts at 10,200 feet in elevation with the halfway mark at the top of Columbine Mountain at 12.500. Lance Armstrong won the race this time but the real reason we wanted to see the movie (a one-time showing, BTW) was that two of our local racers also did the event. Mat Davis finished 22nd overall (973 finishers out of 1400 starters) and David Potter got 60 miles into the race before he had to retire due to mechanical problems. We managed to catch a few glimpses of both of them in the movie where we had 150 in attendance. It was a lot of fun. Besides, it was raining outside and a movie was a good idea! There's supposed to be an encore showing on November 12th...check your local movie house for times.

Getting ready to watch the movie. Jonnene is at the far right.

Beverly, Heather, and Jason are ready for the movie to start!

That's Some High Water!

With all the rain we've had over the last month...I think I remember reading that we've had some kind of rain for 32 of the last 40 days...and now the area lakes, rivers, and other bodies of water are rising, although the local Red River is finally starting to go down a bit. Over in my hometown of Minden, about 30 miles east of Shreveport, the Dorcheat Bayou has really been on the rise.

A friend sent me these pictures, taken by Jimmy Juckett, earlier today. The building in these pictures is the Dorcheat Seafood & Grill restaurant (known as Bayou Inn to the locals) and it is totally surrounded and cut off from nearby Highway 80 at the upper right in the photo below:

I've eaten here many times and it's special to me in that it's where I introduced Jonnene to my old high school buddies, Kent and Steve, back in early 2006 before we got married. The last time we were there, Jonnene and I drove around the back of the building, now under water, to look for a parking space!

This view is looking roughly to the southwest. The bridge at the bottom was closed probably over 20 years ago and doesn't go anywhere now. The access road to the highway is at the top of the picture. It looks like some of the buildings to the south and west sides most likely have water in them but I think the main restaurant kitchen and dining room areas are okay.

Sunday and Sore Muscles

We spent some time out in the yard today and we're both sorta sore and stiff. I spent a lot of time digging and moving dirt from behind the old beat-up storage shed to around the front yard, about 5 wheelbarrows full to enrich some of the barren spots out there. Jonnene did a lot of raking leaves and cleaning up in the back yard and patio. We're trying to rake up leaves every so often so we don't have a huge pile in another month or so when the trees finally give up and let go all the leaves still clinging to the branches. Many of them are still green but they won't be for long.

Of course, this is not the only reason we're sore this weekend. Yesterday we did the annual Autumn Breeze runs here in Shreveport. I did the 10K (6.2 miles) run again while Jonnene tested out her knee in the 5K. Her run actually went pretty good for the first two miles before her knee started flaring up to a point where she walked/hobbled the last 1/2 to 3/4 mile of the course to the finish. She ended up getting third in her age group, beaten out of second place by only two seconds! The girl passed her in the last 25 meters but there wasn't much Jonnene could do about it since she was limping along and that meant no sprint at the end! But overall her time was pretty good considering the conditions and she's happy to have been able to do the whole thing.

Like I said, I did the longer race and my plan, like last year, was to finish under 50 minutes since I hadn't done as much road work as I would like. The rains we've had the last two weeks have really put a damper in my training (I don't like running in the rain ONLY because I have one pair of running shoes and it takes quite a while to dry them afterwards). I did this course in 44:47 in 2007...different course last year at 45:13...and I thought I'd just enjoy the run and use it as a training race. There were about 250 entered in the 10K and I worked my way up to the front for the start and off we went. BTW, the weather for this run was fantastic! I felt like I was loping along but surprised I was passing as many people as I was, then I found out why. By the two mile mark I saw my time was 14:02 which works out to a 7-minute mile. I train at about 8-minute miles so I was a little concerned when I saw that time. Halfway thru I was down to a 7:18 mile average but picked it up again the next two miles. But the last mile I was having a tougher time of it and about 7-8 runners passed me during that time. Still, I ended up with a 44:53 and I was happy with that. It placed me 31st overall and 2nd in my 50-54 age group. That'll motivate me for the duathlon in Fort Worth next month.

Finishing up my race with a 44:53 over ten kilometers.

Afer the races: Jonnene holds me up before I fall over!

We went out to eat and see a movie at the Louisiana Boardwalk Saturday night. Ate at Copeland's Cheesecake Bistro and I had enough fried catfish left over for lunch today....yummmm! Then we went to see "Where the Wild Things Are" at the multi-plex there. I've never read the book but I do recall seeing the amazing illustrations that went with it so I was interested to see how the movie would treat the "monsters". Overall I liked the film, I identified with much of it, and the monsters were as amazing as the book's illustrations. I was overall pleased with the look of the film. The story drove me nuts a few times since the book is not that long at all and a storyline had to be put together. Everything is seen thru the boy's imagination and it follows the logic of a child, which can be a little infuriating for many adults. It's darker than I would have wanted the film to be and a little cruel in some places but it's still a wonder to watch and the music score is so different and attractive to listen to, fully fitting the mood of the story. You begin to see that the monsters are just extensions of Max's personality and he realizes where he has gone wrong in how he treats his family.

Max, the little boy, roams the desert with Carole during his adventure.

Work has picked up even more lately and I'm quite surprised. Everything happens in bunches! I spent time in a conference call with some folks in Wisconsin about a helicopter paint scheme they were working with. I gave advice and I think I actually sounded like I knew what I was talking about. Seriously, I wonder sometimes if I really know anything at all about this business! I also have some drawings of a surgical drape system to get out by Tuesday for a surgeon at a local hospital that he wants to manufacture. Then I've got a logo design to do and another T-shirt thing to draw up. Plus a couple of pencil illustrations for somebody. Hey, it's money but I thought my free-lance workload was going to be dwindling by now...apparently not...not yet anyway.

It's Friday, Call the Kids In!

I heard a good line on Fox and Friends this morning during an interview of Mitch Albom who had a new book coming out. I'm paraphrasing here, but Mitch was relating a story about talking to someone who was dying or dying soon, and the man said he hoped Mitch would live many more years. "Why is that?" Mitch asked him. The man said, "So that when we're both in heaven we'll have much more to talk about."

So President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize....are you kidding me? Chris Wallace of FoxNews said he was as surprised as anyone based on the Bamster's notable lack of achievement so far in office. But he stated that he could only come up with one real reason that he won: he wasn't George W. Bush. And he's right....that's the only reason that makes real sense to me, too. The Nobel Committee made it no secret that they didn't like Bush over the last 8 years, so they'd jab him by awarding the Peace Prize to people like past prez Jimmy Carter (who never has anything good to say about Israel) and Al Gore (for promoting the global warming hoax). The Nobel Peace Prize is quickly losing its credibility and stature....sometimes they get it right but more and more they're getting good at making political statements instead. And Obama is going to be on television...AGAIN!....this morning to talk about the prize he "won".

UPDATE: Found out that the deadline for nominations to this year's Nobel Peace Prize was February 1st. Obama had been in office for about 11 days at that time. Makes ya think, don't it?


Back at the homestead, Jonnene and I are talking about getting a new dog and a companion for Sophie. I think we're ready for it and Sophie looks lonely sometimes. She had Farley in her company for more than two years and she kinda got used to having another dog around. In the six months since Farley passed it's possible that Sophie doesn't remember Farley in the same way we do...she doesn't miss him but knows something is missing. I still have days when he occupies my mind and my heart, and he'll never be forgotten. I've been ready for a new dog for some time now. It won't be a replacement for Farley, it'll be a new life in the house and something to keep Sophie on her toes and active. She's getting older, 11 years now, and is starting to slow down a bit yet still chases squirrels in the back yard with reckless abandon. It'll be good for her to have another pal. We'll start looking around soon although we could get a new pet the way I've gotten ALL my animals...by accident! That wouldn't surprise me. The photo shows Jonnene being greeted by Sophie and Farley when she got home from work or from running errands, which was an everyday occurrence with great fanfare and happiness by the dogs. I think Jonnene misses that...I do, too. This is at the old house in Bossier.

Mid-Week

Yesterday I stopped by Willis-Knighton hospital to check on my step-dad, Jim, who's been having an issue with congestive heart failure. He checked in on Monday with shortness of breathe and now he's on meds to relieve the fluid buildup in his lungs. He feels much better now and hopes to be home by today. But now he and Mom have to pay attention to their diets...REAL attention this time...and get some exercise in, too. Sucks getting older, that's for sure. When you can't eat what you want, wow.....

This morning's ride was similar to Tuesday's: lots of fog but not as much this time. Still foggy enough to cut the ride short again though we used a different route this time. We all have lights (Jonnene debuted her new front light this morning...it's bright!) but this fog really cuts down on the effectiveness. There were nine of us out there and it was a good ride.

Free-lance work really has increased the last couple of weeks. Finished up a couple of jobs this week but still have about four others to work on. The most interesting is doing the layout for the menu board on the drive-thru for a locally owned chicken dinner place. The job started out slow but it's picking up now and I might have a rendering to look at by this afternoon. I also have a logo, a T-shirt design, and some helicopter stuff going on, too.

I haven't had much of a chance in the last week or so to do more on the "aboriginal" painting I started a few weeks ago. It's coming along pretty good...maybe I'll make some progress on it today?

...dot....dot....dot.....dot.....dot....

Still Cloudy

This morning I went out for the weekly Wednesday Run at 5:45 am. It's a small group that I joined up with last year with just four of us running about 4 miles from a tennis club near my house. The group has been doing this for years and it always seems to consist of four people because some drop out and others come in...I think Matt and Jeff are original members. When I joined in, Rex had been doing this for a couple of years but had to drop out due to a recurring knee problem and we hope he'll rejoin us someday. Mike is the newest guy to run with us, joining in last spring. It's more social than training and our pace hovers in the 9:30/mile range where we catch up on city politics, youth soccer, and things in general. It was just Jeff, Mike, and I out there today since Matt is dealing with some plantar fasciitis and may be able to join us in a few weeks.

Jonnene and I stayed home last night instead of venturing out to ride. It wasn't raining but the possibility existed. Besides, I didn't really want to go out for a ride and have to clean the bikes afterward. Yeah, it's easy to tell the season is winding down although I still have some goals to look forward to. We got something to eat and watched NCIS and Dancing With The Stars...during commercials I would switch over to watch a bit of the Troy-Middle Tennessee football game on ESPN. ULM has to play those schools later and I wanted to get a look at them.

Lite Tuesday

It's been hard to get motivated to update my blog the last couple of months. When something interesting has or had happened, I've allowed a few days to pass before I even think about writing about in the blog. By then I've lost interest or forgotten certain details that make it hard to take the time to enter a story. So I'm going to try to write something every morning soon after I get up about the day before. I'm not doing that right now because it's Tuesday evening and I must procrastinate no longer.

I haven't gone over to the new laptop yet, still cranking out work and such on the old Mac Gee-fur (G4). I'm going to take a weekend...maybe one of the next two...and move everything over to the new machine and put the old one away, probably to be sold on eBay although I could use it as an internet server to host websites that I might create. But that's dumb because I don't do anything on the web except surf it. I haven't made the first website but I'm not adverse to giving it a go someday soon. I'll most likely donate it or sell it. I'll take the LCD monitor that's connected to it and make it part of the new setup...having two screens to work off of is COOL. The big deal will be getting my email and such transferred over, and that'll require connecting the two computers directly via FireWire cable. Might get my computer guy to do that if I don't/can't figure it out.

It's rained a bit today and has been overall dreary outside. There were a few spits of sunshine around noon but that's gone now. Rode with the 5:50 group this morning and there was fog everywhere. We ended up cutting the ride short...I got 17 miles instead of 21...and taking a few side roads so we wouldn't be dealing with traffic. You just couldn't see that much beyond 150 meters even with our blinky lights.

The Wife's birthday was Sunday but we did most of our celebrating the day before. Took her out to dinner, got her a nice present...yeah, it was expensive. She's worth every penny. I appreciate so much that she has let me be a part of her life for another year. I love you, Jonnene.

Painting again

Here's my reintroduction to painting...I've only just started it....a reproduction of another painting featuring Aboriginal themes on a 4x4 piece of masonite that's going to hang in our TV room over the couch. It's based on another painting but I'll be adding my own style to it. There's already about 650 "dots" painted on the opposing corners and I've got lots more to add. When it's done, I'll post the finished product. I need to add another layer of reddish glaze over the center part and some texture, then I'll add some symbols. Should look good when I'm done. Then it's on to some other works.

I'm kinda proud of the photo because I took it with my cell phone. Then I paired up the phone to my laptop via Bluetooth and successfully transmitted the image to the computer!

Tomorrow Jonnene and I will be riding in the Seize The Road bike tour promoted by the Epilepsy Foundation here in Shreveport. I haven't been riding much the last couple of weeks due to rain and a lack of enthusiasm on my part. I might do the long ride of 60 miles but I'll make that final decision at the start line. I don't have a lot of endurance in my legs right now....I could do the 60 miles but it'll most likely be slower than I'm used to. Might ride with Jonnene and just enjoy the scenery if we go shorter.

You're a Racist! Maybe.....

I lifted the following from the commentary by Greg Gutfeld, his "Gregalogue" as he calls it. He hosts a VERY late night talk show called Redeye on FoxNews and a website called The Dailey Gut ("a handkerchief of hard news soaked in a sneeze of hard thought snot"). Both feature comedy with a political edge that hits the truth more often than most think. He just about always ends his rants with "And if you disagree with me...." with the appropriate finish. So enjoy. Thank me later.

MONDAY'S GREGALOGUE: AVERSIVE RACISM

So after witnessing the waves of antipathy across the country toward President Obama`s policies, New York Times writer Charles Blow introduces his readers to the term, "aversive racism." It`s a sinister kind of prejudice, Charles explains, that reveals itself in disagreements based on factors "other than race."

A simpler definition of aversive racism?

If you say it`s not about race, then it's really about race.

See: if you're against socialized medicine, it's really because our President, who's for it, is black. If you're against the redistribution of wealth because it goes against your own beliefs in free markets and individual achievement - it's because Obama is black. If you've done a lot of research on global warming, and decided it's hypothetical hooey - that belief is now racist, since Obama buys into climate change hysteria.

Isn`t it awesome how everything you believe in, is now just proof you`re a bigot!

That`s why aversive racism might be the greatest invention ever for the left, because it exempts them defending their own screwy beliefs. If you disagree with any worn out or destructive progressive idea - then you must be a hood-wearing hater. It`s the low-down trick to end all low-down tricks, and it gives the left what it so desperately needs: immunity for their reviled beliefs.

As a rightie, I don`t see color – a black liberal and a white liberal are all just liberals. But it's different on the left. Progressives hate conservatives, but they hate black conservatives more. They hate right wingers, but they hate Hispanic right wingers more. They hate Republicans, but they hate female Republicans more. This intolerance is directed purely at people different from themselves, reflecting the reverse of aversive racism: real racism.

And if you disagree with me, then you`re most definitely a racist.

Rain...rain....rain.....

Okay, so I'm over at one of our local bike shops this afternoon getting some chain lube and a couple of those oh-so-tasty PowerBar smoothie-style energy bars (I just love 'em). I'm talking to mechanic Andy about having to get a crown put on one of my molars next week (remember that?). Somehow the conversation morphed over to tattoos and piercings with Andy talking about how he got his nipples pierced....how the second one isn't as bad as the first one but you still lift up out of the chair noticeably holding your breath as you contemplate whether to pass out or not. He's got ear and tongue piercings, too, but refuses to get his privates pierced. "That's crazy," he says. Shop owner Ian says, "Yeah, when you pee it goes all over the place thru all those holes." "No, it doesn't. Don't talk like that," Andy answers back with a grimace. Andy also boasts that he's never cried due to the pain while getting his tattoos but he has thought about it more than once. Andy's a character...he's weird but you can't help but like him. He's fun to talk to and is a good bike mechanic, too.

Yesterday was my Mom's and step-father Jim's 25th wedding anniversary. I forgot all about it even though it was on the calendar. Maybe I should look at the calendar more often? Congrats, folks...Jonnene and I only have 21 1/2 years to catch up to ya.

Last night was the usual Tuesday Night Worlds and I thought that maybe the pace would be easy since most of the guys had done the district road race championships in Natchez over the weekend. I didn't go because I wasn't trained up enough for it...it would have been a waste of time for me. I was hoping to hang in for a while, expect to get dropped and go on with my own ride. We zoomed down Ellerbe Road and my thighs were screaming at me since I didn't get any kind of chance to warm up. Down the big hill we go and onto the flat lands. Finally I have to take my turn at the front and I moved up the right side at an unexpected 33 mph, pulled for about 20 seconds and move over to let the next guy through. The pain in my thighs didn't allow me to catch on to the back of the pack and the group pulled away from me. I'm still going 30 mph and I can't hang on! Okay, I'll just do the ride route, get the miles in....but I was still going around 25-26 mph by myself so I decided to keep that up as long as I could. In about 4 miles I caught up to Joe and Seth who had also fallen off but they weren't going slow by any stretch. It took me a while to catch on after I first saw them, then the three of us team-trialed for the next 12 miles, finally catching Tim who had been worked over by the rest of the group far ahead. Including the slow cool-down I still averaged about 21 mph for the 30 miles we rode. I'm always getting surprised about myself on these rides.....

I got my laptop improved over the weekend. A guy I know in the local computing circles loaded my baby with the latest graphics software and updates to existing software. I'm still working with it and actually uploaded video from our video camera last night! Now I've got to figure out the program that lets me edit the footage and make it easier to view and dub onto a DVD disc. This is going to be fun.

September 11th

I had Fox and Friends on as was (is) my habit and was shaving when I heard something about a plane hitting one of the towers and thought, "Somebody's going to be in trouble", already sure there had been some deaths. Then, all shaved and clean, I came into the living room to see what was going on when I saw the second plane shoot in from the right side of the screen into the other tower. I thought, "That was on purpose." And I sat on my coffee table staring at the TV for the next two hours. I work at home and I never made it to my drawing table all day because I felt sick.

Hard to believe it's been eight years. I've never forgotten.

I took my shiny new MacBook Pro laptop over to Dan this morning to get it formatted and loaded with new software, to make it the working and pleasure machine I want it to be. Should get it back Monday. Then I have to think about getting an external hard drive to put extra files like photos and video, plus as a backup to my work files. Right now I put things on thumb-drives or a CD, which is nice but puts my files all over the place. I'd like to get a much larger flat-screen monitor, too, but that won't happen soon.

I started running a little more than two weeks ago and have piled up about 28 miles so far with a 5-miler being the longest. I might be getting back into it a little too quick but I'll keep an eye on the miles and bring it back a bit. I'm trying to prep myself for a duathlon in Fort Worth in mid-November so I have plenty of time to get back into the groove. I might even take some time off the bike in mid-October. The legs have been tired lately and I'm skipping the district road races in Natchez this weekend. It would have been a waste of time and an unnecessary self-beatdown which I don't need.

Things Going On

There won't be that much to say here...just trying to post something!

We took my niece Holley out to eat tonight to get her out of the dorm. Went over to Burger King, the first time I've been to one in forever, same for Jonnene (she's not a big fan of the fast food hamburger places, especially McDonald's). It was okay but not enough to make me come back on my own...as Jonnene said, my tastes have "matured" and I've gotten used to a higher quality of food stuff. Plus, it took so long for BK to prepare that we would have gotten our food faster at most higher-end restaurants!

My legs are sorta tired. After having such a great ride on Tuesday night....felt strong, went fast...the ride last night was a chore for me. Team LaS'port had shown up en masse to do a ride from a bike shop in Bossier City as a show of support for a ride the shop sponsors. Actually, it was a lot of fun. Russ told me the details of his 3rd place finish at the Hotter'n'Hell Pro-Cat.1-2 100-mile road race last weekend and the reaction of the pack to his silver-studded racing shorts. His wife had attached the shiny studs to the shorts the week before. The ride was all flat with a stout wind in our face in both directions...really! It was only 28 miles or so but my legs felt tired and I had to push them at the fast pace we were going. It wasn't a problem to keep up but I wasn't cruising like I wanted to. This morning I woke up with the intention of getting a run in but the legs didn't share that thought at all. I skipped the run and decided to let the legs have a rest day. I'll do a 4-5 mile run Saturday morning without a bike ride, just to change up the routine a bit.

The Labor Day holiday is coming up and I'm going to try to get a few things done. One is figure out how to load footage from our video camera to my new laptop and edit it. There may be a long learning curve here...or not...but I need to see how I can put all our video on DVD's. It would be nice to finally figure that out. The software on the MacBook should be up to the task, it all depends on the operator. I hope to paint the closet in the bike room and, speaking of painting, I might actually begin that big painting for the den. It's supposed to be a reproduction of an aboriginal work (haven't really worked that out yet). Lots of orange, yellow, and black with some other colors worked in, and I hope I can finish it in a couple of weeks once I start!

Happenings

Well, I have to get a crown put on a molar later this month. Yesterday at lunch I was chomping down on a pepperoni calzone and I felt this "crack" in the backside of my mouth, kinda like when you bite down on something hard and it jars you a bit when it happens. Only this time, I felt something give and realized part of a tooth was missing. I spit out the food I had in my mouth because I didn't want to swallow anything I shouldn't and found the piece....yeah, it was a piece of tooth alright. In a calm panic, I found the number for my dentist and called, asking if I could get in for a quick look-see. After some insistence, the girl on the phone said to come on by and Suzanne, my dentist, will take a look. I've known Suzanne on a social level before she became my dentist a few years ago so, yeah, I hoped that would get me in quicker! I felt no pain...a good sign...and she took a look. The tooth was in sorry shape to make any repairs (brush your teeth when you're young, boys and girls!) and a crown was the only way to fix things. So she put a temporary patch on the tooth and I'll come back in three weeks to get this crown thing started. Oh, joy.

Sad news from my connections with Centenary College. David Womack collapsed and died on Saturday while playing golf. He was Dean of Students at Centenary and 49 years old. I had gotten to know him thru a few meetings regarding our cycling club and I can tell you that I liked the man right off the bat. He loved to laugh and cared very much about the students at Centenary. When I first met him last May, he told me he was going to Australia and New Zealand with the Centenary Choir. Of course, I had to tell him that my wife was Australian and I gave him a lot of tips for the trip (at this link you'll see a few shots of David on the slide show), the biggest one being that he bring a jacket since it was almost winter down there (he was glad he did!). I saw him after he got back at a student gathering in June and he said he loved the trip and thanked me for the advice. He also asked how Jonnene was doing and that he would love to meet her sometime and learn more about Oz. That was the last time I actually saw him although we did exchange some emails on items about the cycling club and students. The last time we had contact was August 20th when he sent me an email about something I had asked him to do for me:

Hi Alan!

No problem, consider it done.

David

Pretty simple message but it said a lot about him in five words. It's a big loss for Centenary College and a lot of people will miss him and his smiling face. This LINK goes to a video Christmas message he gave to the students and you can see how he liked having fun and enjoying life.

Saturday....again

Jonnene and I with my Grandma!

Jonnene has to work this weekend so it's up to me to have all the fun. Highlight of the day was having lunch with my grandmother at a Chinese buffet restaurant she likes so that we could celebrate her birthday (which was Thursday). We had a card for her and I think I can say that she enjoyed seeing us. Mom and Jim were there as well and it looks like we all pretty well stuffed ourselves! Jonnene's work day ended very early so she could join us.

Earlier I had gone riding with Mack's group into the country north of town. Mack's rides are these little informal affairs that usually have anywhere from 6 to 10 people show up (although he's had up to 25 before) and we roughly follow whatever route he's come up with. His Saturday rides are the harder ones with a lot of distance thrown in, followed by his Sunday rides that are very easy paced but last 3-4 hours. Some of the hard-core racers will sometimes show up for the good company and the relaxed pace. I guess it reminds them of why it's fun to ride a bike. So, anyway, we rode this morning in good temps and virtually no wind, and there were only seven of us including a guy who was in town from New Orleans. Warren and I had to turn back early...he had to go to work and I had the lunch with my grandma, so we got in a bit over 50 miles. The rest of the group most likely did 60-70 when it was all said and done. My legs are really sore and achy right now so I don't know if I'll get out to ride Sunday or not. All my time trial training over the last two months consisted of shorter rides so going fifty was a stretch. But I had fun so it's all good.

I guarantee I'll sleep very soundly tonight......

The Office

Here's the improved layout of my working space. I'm going to try to keep it neater from now on and keep all the paper that's more than 6 months old filed away or thrown out!

And my new graphics and internet tool: the MacBook Pro 13! It's shown with some extras, the wireless mouse and the extra keyboard. The keyboard is for here at home and will be left here if I take the laptop with me anywhere. The mouse will go with the computer on trips 'cause I don't always want to use the track pad to make the cursor dance around. Can't wait to start using it on a regular basis....only need to get some software loaded and get the wireless internet access set up.

This is really cool...the keyboard lights up in low light!

I got in my second run this week, just an easy 2-miler at barely a 8:30 pace. The legs feel it but I'm not surprised at all. Tomorrow is a long bike ride then home again to treat Grandma to lunch for her birthday. We're taking her to a Chinese buffet-style restaurant she likes.

It's Thursday

Today is my grandmother's 97th birthday! You go, Grandma! Looking forward to your 98th...might as well see 2010, right?

My MacBook Pro came in yesterday and it is AWESOME!! I spent the day getting my work area reorganized to make it easier to work in and make it just a little neater. Today I got the MacBook set up to use the wireless mouse I got along with the separate keyboard for desk work. It has its own cooling stand with a little fan that blows against the bottom of it. I even have a cover over it to keep the dust off, at least for now. It looks so nice. Now I have to get some graphics software added, learn all the little tricks (the tracking pad can do a lot of things according to the manual), and get it hooked up to the internet. I'll still use the G4 for a while, maybe a long while, and eventually donate it or find another use for it. Later I'll post pictures of the little fella and the new work area.

Tonight's ride went much better than Tuesday's. On Tuesday my legs weren't up to snuff, still feeling the efforts from Sunday's time trial. Our team started out and soon Stan rode up alongside, telling me how I kicked butt at the ride on Thursday the week before (and I did pretty good that evening). I told him, thanks, but I didn't think that was going to happen tonight...and it didn't. About four miles in, while cruising at 28 mph, my legs were hurting and I pulled out of the pack and eeked it down to the crossroads with Elka at a much slower pace. Then I turned around to go back to the parking lot and home. Only put in 12 miles but I've done this enough to know that if it's not working then don't push it. It wasn't working....

But tonight I did way better, pretty much normal, real fast but staying with the pack. There was a crash when one of the triathletes touched wheels with another rider and hit the pavement pretty hard. The lucky thing was that a car had just passed us a couple of seconds earlier right where Seth hit the deck. If we had been going just a smidgen faster he could have landed in the path of that car! He got up, dusted himself off, and we headed back down the road. He's going to be quite sore tomorrow but, hey, at least his bike's okay!

In between these two days I did my first run since July 4th at FireCracker. I rejoined the weekly Wednesday morning run with Matt, Jeff, and Mike, and doesn't it make sense that my first run in seven weeks should go for four-and-a-half miles? Thank goodness these guys go at an easy pace but an easy pace also pounds your joints more, and I felt those joints getting out of bed this morning! My run tomorrow will be a lot shorter and a lot faster. I'm going to be working to get back in shape for one or two duathlons late this fall.

Dreams and Time Trials

Saturday night I had a dream about Farley. Every few months I have what I call a super-realistic "hi-definition" dream...one that is so real and so defined that it becomes as good as a memory of a real event. The thing is that I know it's a dream when it's happening and I allow myself to let it go on. I know what it feels like to lift up off the ground and fly. I remember the last time I saw my first cat, Toulouse, about 6 years after I really last saw him in 2001. I can describe details, conversations, and what I saw as if it really happened. It's weird but it doesn't happen often. Well, anyway, I saw Farley and we were in the kitchen of my other house in Bossier City. I could see the cabinets, the brown floor, and the table. It was night so the lights were on. Farley was walking around the floor, wagging his tail, and he looked like he had just had a bath. His fur was shiny and clean, and it felt good to pet him and run my hands thru his coat. He was walking around like he always did in the last years of his life but you could tell there was no burden in his gait. He was sauntering because he wanted to. He was happy. Early on I noticed that he didn't have his red collar on and I commented to him that, oh, yeah, your collar's at the other house hanging up in the laundry room with the green leash. But this dream only lasted a couple of minutes in dream-time, not as long as my usual "real" dreams last. But I got to see him again and I woke up in the dark with tears in my eyes. I still and will always miss him.

Anyway, we were in LaPlace, Louisiana...just a few miles west of New Orleans for the LA/MISS Time Trial Championships. Jonnene and I were participating. It was my last chance this year to either break an hour or set a personal best for the 40 kilometer distance. I could tell that I wasn't really sure I could do it. I was starting to feel the wear and tear of riding a bike all year and wondering if I was at the brink of burn-out. But I was still interested in doing this race so maybe....

Jonnene had a good ride, finishing second in the Women's Cat. 4's and getting a medal. She averaged 21 mph for the whole distance and getting a 1:10:56 time which was only 24 seconds slower than her best time in Texas just two weeks ago.

The problem this day was a 5-10 mph wind coming out of the NNE and the outbound part of the course just happened to go north and slowly curve to the northeast. Now this means a nice tailwind on the way back but you can only take advantage of that if you haven't worn yourself out on the way to the turn-around fighting that wind. So I started off after an inadequate 25-minute warmup. I wasn't 300 meters down the road when I saw Jonnene coming back in (she had started 70 minutes before I did) and I gave her a shout to keep it up. Then I got back to trying to go 12.4 miles down the road into the wind as fast as I could. I averaged about 22 mph the whole way and reached the turn-around at the 33:37 mark...way slow for my tastes but I couldn't do anything about it. I was amazed at how many of the guys working the turn knew my name as they shouted it out when I came by them. That was nice! But I was too busy riding my race to really look at them and see who they were.

The tailwind was sweet though. I averaged 26 mph and should have been faster but I was tired. I finished the second half in 28:49, my fastest 20K ever. I didn't break an hour but I did come within 25 seconds of my record with a 1:02:26 time (a 23.83 mph average) and a fourth place in the Men's Category 3 group. I was fairly happy with the effort and it actually energizes me for next year. The bike worked well but I'm going to make a few improvements over the winter, mostly in the gearing and maybe the aerobars. We'll see.

So here's some pictures of our race and other stuff. Enjoy.

Jonnene warms up before her start at 8:32 am.

Books are good for many things, especially holding up front wheels when the bike's on a trainer.
The medical books are the best, I hear.

These two dogs spent a lot of time playing and running. We had to make sure that no alligators would jump up and get them! We were also told to watch for gators on the road when we were riding! Doesn't happen often but it could.

Here's Jonnene in the start house getting ready to go be a bike racer.

With only a few more meters to go, I'm trying to go as fast as I can. But I was very tired and crossed the line at only 25 mph.

One of my teammates, Don Young, and I discuss our rides after we finished. Generally we weren't that happy with our efforts but there was some good we could find to apply to next year.

I just thought this was funny

Overview:	Mr. James enjoys the success of his business book that flopped in the states but became a best seller in Japan.

Mr. James: "The original title of this book was 'Jimmy James, Capitalist Lion Tamer' but I see now that it's... 'Jimmy James, Macho Business Donkey Wrestler'... you know what it is... I had the book translated in to Japanese then back in again into English. Macho Business Donkey Wrestler... well there you go... it's got kind of a ring to it don't it? Anyway, I wanted to read from chapter three... which is the story of my first rise to financial prominence... I had a small house of brokerage on Wall Street... many days no business come to my hut... my hut... but Jimmy has fear? A thousand times no. I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey strong bowels were girded with strength like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo... dung. ...Glorious sunset of my heart was fading. Soon the super karate monkey death car would park in my space. But Jimmy has fancy plans... and pants to match. The monkey clown horrible karate round and yummy like cute small baby chick would beat the donkey."