Too-too-Tuesday

Got up early again to make the morning ride and it was a faster than expected affair. I had to put out some effort early on to keep up (I'm not in the shape now that I was in only a month ago) but I managed all right. There were times we were pushing 26 mph for quite a distance and usually hovered in the 23-24 mph range. Admittedly, when I took my pull I kept it in the 22 mph range to give my legs a chance to rest with the lack of road riding I've done.

The rest of the day was uneventful. It's Halloween so I kept my cat, Taz, inside....he's a black cat and I didn't want him wandering around outside on this night of all nights. He's not happy about it but, sorry, kitty!! I'm about to wrap up a couple of jobs and will meet a new client on a small newspaper ad on Wednesday. I also finished up the process of increasing my life insurance with Jonnene as the main beneficiary (she is my wife, so maybe she should be, huh?) and to make sure she is able to take care of things if life doesn't go the way I'm hoping!

Two years ago at this time, Jonnene and I began what has become a beautiful relationship. Of course, at that time we didn't know where it would go. We were quite aware of the difficulties of being on opposite sides of the world and yet we managed to trudge through it and determine that we wanted to be together. The amazing part has been how positive we are about the whole thing. I think that after what we've gone through the last two years, we can handle the rest of our lives just fine.

Your voice in my ear,
Your face in my dreams,
Your love in my life....
It's all like heaven to me.

Back on the bike!

After a two-month layoff I made an appearance at the 6 o'clock Ride this morning. The thing to remember is that the ride actually starts at 5:50 am every weekday morning in the Highland neighborhood in Shreveport, heads towards downtown, then it's a fast pace for 1 1/2 laps of the Fant Parkway. This ride has been going on for nearly 20 years and there's a handful of the original guys still doing it. I've done it off-and-on in the past but started doing it pretty regularly between May and August of this year, which would give me between 40 and 80 extra miles during the week. I ride from my house in Bossier City, riding over the Texas Street Bridge, and meet the guys in downtown. I average about 21 miles in distance in about an hour's time including the cool down so that's not bad. Speeds on the Parkway average in the 22-24 mph range though sometimes it can get pretty spritely out there! Except for me and Marcus, the other guys aren't bike racers (they sometimes do triathlons) but they can push it pretty good.

This morning the temperature was 54F with a steady breeze so I put on some extra clothing and headed out. I have to leave my house at 5:45 am to ensure that I meet the gang downtown on time....and they're always on time! At 5:50 in Highland, they go and they don't wait for anyone! There were 8 of us and the pace wasn't difficult, but I hadn't been riding that much on my road bike since the Monroe races a month ago so I had to convince the legs do their job. With the time change it was nice to see it get light halfway thru the ride and it was nice heading back home. As long as the temps don't go below 50F (I've become a wimp in my old age!), I'll try to get back out doing this ride again. I also have to run more since the Louisiana Trails half-marathon trail run is in three weeks!

Just as well I do all this because I've been feeling fat! And I gotta look good for Jonnene when I see her!

Doin' the Dooley Du

Did the duathlon yesterday! It was the Dooley Gouley Du over in Monroe, Louisiana, held at the Forsythe Park boat launch area where there's a really nice mountain bike trail, picnic tables and a slow lazy Ouachita River to stare at while you contemplate life, the universe, and everything. Remember that line from the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"?

I got first in my age group and ninth overall, but the field was quite small...about 15-20, don't know exactly. It was a well run race and everyone raced as hard as they could. I was 7th at the end of the first 2.5-mile run but had to give way to two guys behind me who were better mountain bike riders. All I would do was slow them down and that'd be rude, so when they got close enough I would move over to let them through. I almost caught the 8th place guy in the last 400 meters of the last 2.5-mile run....actually I did catch him but couldn't overtake him. When I first saw him on the run, he was at least a quarter mile ahead of me and I thought I didn't have a chance to make up ground. But he kept getting closer and I suspected he was taking short quick steps since he was tired. So I increased my pace a bit and lengthened my stride a bit more. When I caught him I was just off his shoulder and he began to pick up the pace once he heard me running with him. I thought about making a move at 200 meters but the effort to catch in the first place took a lot out of me so I couldn't challenge him on the finish. I let him have it and he was not in my age group anyway (he was about 20 years younger!). I did take one tumble off the bike but it wasn't bad at all. The trail is quite technical and it's amazing what the folks there have done with such a small space to work with. This race deserves to grow and hopefully there'll be more participants next year.

Got home, cleaned Justin's mountain bike so it'll be nice when I return it tomorrow, and got some thing done around the house. ULM lost tonight 44-10 but considering it was to the 13th-ranked Arkansas Razorbacks, I can't be too upset!

Funroe

Just a quick update for anyone who cares.....

Put in a 3-mile run last night and the legs felt fine. I could tell I hadn't done anything in 5 days but that's what happens when your quads are seized up during that time! I head off to Monroe in the morning for the Dooley Du off-road duathlon. That's a 2.5 mile run, 10-mile mountain bike ride, and another 2.5 mile run. Just about everything will be on trails through a wooded section near Forsythe Park in Monroe next to the Ouachita River. Despite all the rain we've gotten this week, the early trail condition reports say that everything is in pretty good shape but I'll bet there's a few nasty spots here and there. I've gathered all my gear and since I don't have to leave untll 8 am latest, I'll pack in the morning. The race begins at 11 am and it'll be a laugh-riot for anyone who watches me. I'm also taking several towels to clean up with because I'm sure I'll be filthy after it's all said and done. I'll describe the whole disaster in detail tomorrow.

Not much else has been happening around here. Did some work, ran some errands, and took care of bidness. Oh, I got my hair cut today so I can start the process of looking good for my sweetie when I see her in about 23 days. It's fun preparing for a trip and working out the logistics so things go smoothly, or smoothly enough allowing for the unforeseen. But the unexpected is sometimes what makes the going great.

Mo' Happenin'

More updates on getting Jonnene here to the States. Our lawyer has received her copy of the packet from the U.S. Embassy in Sydney, which means Jonnene will be getting her packet in the next couple of days, if not already. The packet has forms that need to be completed, info on obtaining police certificates, and scheduling an appointment for a medical exam. It's a lot of things to do but if you want to do it right then it's what you have to do. Hopefully, the interview will be scheduled soon, too.

On one of the entertainment TV shows tonight, there was a segment on celebrity weddings in other places, like other countries....in huge churches and mansions and castles. The story was probably spurred on by the TomKat (Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes) wedding that will happen next month in Italy. A friend of mine was married in Italy last June and that was an adventure unto itself, but she and her husband are glad they did it. It was small with immediate family members present in a small chapel that maybe held 20-24 people. I'm not advocating that everyone do weddings in other countries. It's not cheap to do, and it's inconvenient for family members unless you have the capacity to fly them all in for the ceremony. There's nothing wrong with a wedding in the church you grew up in, or at the house of a dear friend, or out in a field near town. In fact, it's probably better than Paris in the long run.

Jonnene's and my wedding....was better than anything TomKat can come up with. The only drawback was not having more family and friends able to come to Perth, Western Australia to attend. Then it would have been more perfect than it already was. For my friends back home it was a wedding in a far-away place (well, that's true) that is a magical place (and it is). For my bride, it was a wedding at her cousin's house with her family and friends present....maybe not exotic but it was exactly what she wanted and it couldn't have been a better day. A morning shower with dark clouds that opened up into sunshine with a clear blue sky before the outdoor ceremony. Birds flying all over the place and good people all around. I could go on about it but I'll save those memories for other times. Let just say that if I could plan a wedding again, I doubt I'd change much about what we already did. That's how you judge your wedding and that's what makes it perfect. We had a good start in the blocks and now the journey begins.

When Jonnene comes to the States for real, we're going to have our own "party" for everyone who couldn't make the long trek halfway around the world and let them celebrate our union with us. Maybe we'll have two: one for family and one for friends....don't know. We'll figure it out and it'll be fun and it'll be wonderful and we'll be with people who mean a lot to us.

Eatin'

Tonight was my almost monthly supper with two of my best friends from high school, Steve and Kent. I think that it's great we get together and enjoy each other's company after all this time. I've known both of them since our elementary school days at E. S. Richardson in Minden...that would make it almost 45 years?! At least we're still good-looking! Usually we catch up on what we've been doing lately, how our families are, things we used to do in school, and discussions of the events of the day. Maybe other stuff if we feel like it. They still live in Minden but tonight they came over to Bossier City where we ate at Ruby Tuesday's....my turkey burger was fantastic! Seriously.....no lie.

The food was also good at my local ad club's luncheon earlier today at the Petroleum Club. Our speaker was good, too. He's originally from Shreveport but moved to Los Angeles many years ago to be an actor, which he did for a few years. But then he got involved in writing and producing, and now is one of the big players in Hollywood where he's done a number of films and TV shows, has filmed all over the world, and has one or two Emmys on his shelf. Anyway, he's looking to bring the industry to Shreveport where he's already started a production company here, Caddo Street Studios or something like that. Currently he has three films and five TV productions in the works with some projects he wants to do here. I'd like to see if I could get involved with that if at all possible. I'll have to make one or two calls tomorrow to see what I can find out.

Picked up a couple of jobs today, one is a couple of T-shirts designs and another is an ad for a local massage therapist. The neat thing about being a free-lancer is that you never know what the next job will be and where it'll go. And how one job will be completely different from your next job. I've been able to go places that most people don't normally go, meet some interesting people, and get paid for it. On the other hand, I've also met some incredibly horrid people and have had the jobs from hell (we all get those at some point in our lives eventually). But the good outweighs the bad and I'm thankful to eck out some kind of living from what I majored in at college!

"I always liked a cool quote"

"If there are no dogs in heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."
-- Will Rogers

The post heading is also a quote....from Gary, a character in the long ago TV series "Thirtysomething".

Da Quads! Da Quads!

For once, my vision of the future came true...the quadriceps on both legs are killing me today!! That 100+ squats I did at the Autumn Breeze run and riding a mountain bike with no clip-in pedals made it difficult to walk away from my bed when I got up this morning. The only saving grace from the pain was a call from my sweetie in the Land Down Under. While talking to her, I stumbled about the house to feed the animals, holding my thoughts every time I had to bend my legs at the knees.

I finished prepping the house for the "bombing" of the pests in the kitchen and bathroom. I sent the pets outside and put my riding gear in the truck, fired up the bombs, and left for the Stoner trails. I had two hours to kill while the insects in my house were being killed. Rode about an hour on the trails and my legs tolerated it all pretty well. I found some trails I'd never seen before, including a brand new one that still had all the evidence of the work that had been done to create it, with new soft dirt and freshly cleared out areas....very well done. I took two really good spills on that trail when the front wheel dug into that soft dirt. One was a straight fall to the right that took me by surprise...didn't even know I was going down until I was halfway there! The second I saw coming about a second before it happened, fell to my right again...downhill! That meant I was falling a bit further and a bit harder. Thanks goodness I was landing on the ground and not asphalt (been there, done that...many times), but I fell into a pile of dry branches and sticks that had been washed together. That wasn't so bad until I felt a stick dig into the top of my head, finding its way thru the air-vent slots in my helmet. That hurt a lot and put a nice slice into my skull...not bad though, thank goodness there was nothing important up there to damage. I also got a few dings and nicks in my legs and hip but that's mountain biking. You don't get away clean if you do it right.

Did a very short run afterwards and my legs really screamed at me then. When I was riding, I met this guy, Leonard, out on the trail while he was riding out there. I knew who he was but had never really met him before. He's a very active MTB rider and artist here in Shreveport. About a year ago (?) he and his wife, Donna, were riding the trails out in Bodcau, northeast of Bossier City. While they were riding with another couple, Donna fell off her bike on a flat stretch of the trail and died. She had suffered an aneurism in her brain and that was it. I had met Donna a number of years ago at a party, thought she was cute but then I found out she was married and left it at that. She was also an artist and very involved in children's issues in Shreveport. Leonard was not at the party that night and now I finally meet him on a trail by the Red River. I was surprised to find out he knew who I was since we had never formally met before. But, then, we do have a number of mutual friends. If you go over to River Cities Cycling & Fitness, you can see the fantastic window bar guards Leonard designed and made for the shop. They have a bicycle theme yet keep anyone from breaking into the shop through the main windows. They're really wonderful.

On a separate note, I really wanted to rant about a tragedy here in Shreveport-Bossier City last Friday night. Three young ladies, two age 16 and one age 15, were killed in a single vehicle accident on Interstate 49 south of here while going to a football game their high school was playing at. There were two survivors, both 16 and sitting in the front seats of the Chevy Tahoe they were traveling down in. First off, this is a terrible tragedy and I feel for all the families involved....this is so horrible to have such a thing happen. Apparently it was driver error, over-correcting after drifting off the highway which resulted in a violent tumble of the vehicle, and as one official said, the amount of driving experience for a 16-year-old is practically non-existent. My rant is mostly aimed at the air, not at the parents of these girls...they feel bad enough. Why are kids of this age (15-16 years old) allowed to drive out of town in a huge vehicle with no parents present to a night-time event? Somehow, five sets of parents thought this was an okay thing to do. FIVE sets of parents!! What were they thinking? I know I might sound harsh but I won't change my mind on this. There's no way, if I was a parent, that I would have allowed this....no way. This just makes me angry to think that this happened in the first place. There's no such thing as a "mature-acting and responsible" 16-year-old driving a car with four of her friends inside....they mean well but they're not adults yet, by any stretch of the imagination. Okay, I'm done....like I said, it just makes me angry and that's my problem. The families have their own situations to deal with and I am sorry for their losses.

Here's a link to the story:
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061022/NEWS01/610220316

Are my legs gonna be sore!

Woke up this morning and decided on the spur of the moment to help out at the Autumn Breeze 5K and 10K runs....do the volunteer thing to give back to the sport, y'know? So I loaded the MTB in the back of the truck and drove out to the Baptist church where the run starts and ends. Afterwards, my plans were to work out a ride on that mountain bike and see how much I suck at it. Then much later go to Monroe for the football game.

So I get to the race site, dressed out in my cold winter Team LaS'port garb ('cause it is kinda chilly) and asked Justin where he could use me as a volunteer. He puts me at the finish line with three other kids and our job is to remove the timing chips attached by a thin zip-tie from the shoes of the runners after they cross the finish line. We each have nail clippers to do the job and they work rather well. There end up being about 450 finishers across that line that we squat down to remove the chips from. That really means I did about 100 (plus or minus) squats using my own weight so I got a heck of a workout! I didn't really think about it until nearly everyone crossed the line....I had been bouncing up and down to remove the chips (with no problems) and I suddenly thought about how sore my legs were going to be on Sunday!

After getting some yummy gumbo at the race, I drove over to Stoner to get my mountain bike legs. I rode almost 50 minutes on the trails, mostly on the easier ones, and my legs will be sore for sure. The pedals were just plain ones so my quads did most of the work this time. Tomorrow when I go out, I'll switch out a pair of Looks (cleated pedals) on the bike and use my road shoes to see how that pans out. At least I should get more power out of the pedals, especially on the backstrokes. I only hit one tree with the handlebars and ducked around several more!

The ULM Warhawks lost again, to Middle Tennessee, 35-21. We lead at halftime 21-14 but couldn't put it together in the second half. We looked really good in the second quarter when we scored three touchdowns....couldn't be stopped. So I don't know what happened later in the game. Anyway, MT came back to take the lead and that's all she wrote. Sat with Lisa, who did the VO2 max test for me earlier this week, and her husband, Lane, in the upper deck of the east side stands at Malone Stadium. She was keeping up with the splits of two friends of hers who were doing the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii today via her handy-dandy cell phone! Both were doing fine but their times were probably not what they were hoping for. The supposedly faster of the two had an 18 mph average on the 112-mile bike portion and that probably should have been a bit faster. Don't know how it ended up.

Got a message from my sweetie today and she's going to call me in the morning (evening, her time). I've replayed the message several times now and it really just tugs at my heart because it's so sweet. I love her and miss her a lot....can't wait to see her in about 30 days. Keep the Kleenex ready!!!

Friday Night Something

Went back out to the trails at Stoner for a nice run. There's a section that follows the river for about 8/10th's of a mile one way, and I always start my runs going out-and-back on that trail to get an idea of how I'm feeling for the rest of the run. I guess I was doing okay as I cut a full minute off my time on that particular jaunt. Ended up doing about 35 minutes...probably feel it in the morning! After all, I ain't no kid! Act like one but ain't one.

Borrowed a mountain bike from this guy tonight to use at an off-road duathlon in Monroe next weekend. Since I ride MTB's about as much as I play ice hockey, this should be grand! In fact, now as I think about it, the last time I rode a mountain bike was at this same duathlon in 2002! Oh, yeah, this will be ugly. I'll try to practice on the bike a few times before I go to the race but I don't know if it'll help much outside of getting familiar with how the gears work. When you've spent most of your time on road bikes as I have, the other kind of ride can be very foreign and you feel quite spastic out on a trail in the woods. Some day I'll get one of my own for off-season riding.

Most of the day was kinda slow. Tomorrow I'll leave late in the day for Monroe to see the ULM vs. Middle Tennessee football game (hope it works in favor of my guys). While I'm gone, I'm going to "bomb" the house to reduce the vast roach population that grew over the summer. I wonder what I'll come home to?

What we're supposed to be

It is said that, when asked what sort of government the Founders had created, Benjamin Franklin replied that they had given us "A Republic....if you can keep it."

Always remember that the United States is a representative republic, should you be asked that on a pop quiz or a game show. It's a style of democracy but not in its pure form. Look up democracy and republic in the dictionary and you'll see what I mean.

And that's today's lesson in American Government! :)

Taking the Test

What can wipe you out in just under 15 minutes? Your typical VO2 Max test! I went over to ULM (Monroe, Louisiana) today to take the torture test that Lisa was supervising. Filled out all the needed paperwork, then had to submit to having my body fat measured (yea, that was a joy), then I had to do several breathing exercises to get a base measurement for what I was breathing in and out as far as gases were concerned. A lot of it I don't understand but I'm sure there's a reason for most of it.

Then it was on my bike (attached to a stationary trainer) with sensors all over my chest and a mask over my lower face with a breathing tube on the front to catch all that needed to be measured. A simple warmup of 8-9 minutes at a 90 rpm candence, then I was off to the races! I started in a 53x21 gear at 90 rpm and had to shift down to a harder gear every 3 minutes while maintaining that 90-count beat. Of course, it got harder as I went along. Lisa, along with Bert who was hanging out to watch me suffer, kept encouraging me to keep at it, to maintain my cadence and push through. Finally, at 13 minutes, 9 seconds, I had to stop....couldn't push it at that rate anymore and I was sweating up a storm!

The numbers weren't bad at all. The average guy at my height, weight, and AGE would have a VO2 max (mL/kg/min) of 35.2 and my rate was 52.6. I bet I could have done better but I had never taken this test before and didn't know what to expect. My max heart rate was 181 with my AT rate at 161...that means when I go out to do a "fat burning" ride, I need to keep my heart rate below 161 for 2-3 hours and I should offset what I ate the day before! My heart rate stayed at steady rate throughout the test after I reached AT, hovering between 161 and 172 no matter how hard I worked. I hit 181 at the very end. I got copies of all the test papers but I can't read most of them...but I can roughly figure out what some of it means. I'm going to go again in a couple of weeks to get my VO2 max on the running treadmill. Should be fun.

On the way to Monroe, I stopped in Homer to take some pictures for my friend, Steve, a high school buddy. He wants new pics for his website of his office building now that it's finally done. The whole place, a 1920's-era building in downtown Homer, was redone from the outside walls inward and it looks great. The second floor is still gutted out with Steve's stationary bike and weights up there for when he works out during lunch. The bottom floor is all offices and stuff. What's really neat is the shower/bathroom in the back! Go work out, run, whatever, and you can get cleaned up before the next client shows up!

Prepping

I'm getting more upbeat about my trip to Oz to see the wife. I'm already picking out the clothes I'll take with me, collecting email addresses/contact info, and talking to Jonnene about what I'll be bringing back of hers in a separate duffle bag on my return. I'll be taking less than I ever have before...part of that is having a better idea of what I need plus since it'll be about summertime in Oz, I won't need the warmer clothes I've normally packed when I've been there during the months of April, May, or June. My short stay in Melbourne is getting its fair share of research, too...I've already located an ice cream place called "Trampoline" on Brunswick Street in downtown that got great reviews over on the Lonely Planet travel forum. I know downtown Melbourne well enough now that I can get to where I want pretty quickly, so I should be able to do everything I'm planning on. I'll have up to 5 hours to spend there and that should do the job. I'm going to use a bicycle messenger bag (with backpack straps) for my carry-on...it's half the size of my regular daypack and should be able to handle whatever I'm allowed to carry on the plane.

And that's also part of the research, keeping up to date on what passengers can carry on aircraft now. Currently it's under 3 oz. for any liquids or gels. You can carry aboard liquids like water or drinks if you purchase them from any airport shops past security. Qantas provides a toothbrush and paste on its overseas flights, so I'll just carry the usual washcloth and spare underwear in my bag along with a book and other entertainment. The cell phone goes but it'll be useless after we leave Los Angeles...it's mostly for checking in when I'm in Dallas and L.A, and the return.

Jonnene turned in her notice at work and should be gainfully unemployed by November 10th. She'll have time to prepare for coming to the States and she'll have time for ME when I get there! Sorry to go like this but this journey is really taking up a lot of my thoughts and I still have 33 days to go!

Rain

It rained all last night and most of today....first real rain since July. It was good for around here, but don't tell the folks in Houston. They had to deal with floods from that same weather system.

I had a slow day today, partly because of the rain. Worked on a couple of jobs, mostly just tweaking them...I'm ready to get them to press and over with! I have a couple of others to work on tomorrow but I need to get busier before I leave for Oz. I'm thinking of reinventing my artwork business for next year and I have some ideas I need to flesh out....I might start using my computer less if it should work out. That'd be just fine with me!

Waiting for the rain.....

The Weather Channel sez we're getting rain for the next 24 hours and we need it! Keep your fingers/toes/eyes crossed that they bees telling the truth.

I ran four miles this morning and kept to the speedier times again. Remember I said I seemed stuck at 8 minutes/mile? My average today was 7:43 per! Not great enough but it feels like I'm running thru some walls....finally. Rest of the day has spent working on my junk room which has spread into my bedroom and the living room closet. It's hard to contain the fallout to just one room sometimes!

Nice day and it starts with a phone call the night before

Last night as I was about to hit the sack, I got a call from Jonnene. A perfect way to end my day! She had finished doing a 30K (18 miles) bike ride and a pilates class, and was just relaxing after getting home. She is 13 hours ahead of me so it was getting close to lunch time on Saturday for her. A lot of the call ended up being about some of the things we need to do in preparing for her eventual arrival here in the States. She is going to give notice at work this coming week for her final four weeks employment which will let her prepare for everything that's coming up. But the main thing was just talking to her and hearing her voice. I'll be glad when I can talk to her in the evenings in person! I miss her a lot.

Only 36 days until I see her in the Perth Airport!!

Rolled out this morning for my first bike ride in a week and my lungs were still somewhat congested. But it wasn't bad, we did what could be called an easy, short ride for 30 miles, averaging 20.3 mph. My lungs and legs could feel it but I did alright. I didn't miss any pulls but I'm glad the pace wasn't too intense. The big dogs weren't there and that helped. The temps started out at 50 degrees F and got warmer, so the ride was actually quite pleasant. Got home, showered, and spent the remainder of the day monitoring the ULM football game on the computer, as well as raking, mowing and edging the front yard this afternoon. With the cooler weather coming in, the yard work will start to be less and less of a concern.

I'm washing the whites now and will spend some time trying to start a clean-out of my "junk room". There's so many things I need to do with this house before Jonnene gets here. I'm doing a bit at a time and eventually it should get done by year's end...I just need to be able to let go of things I don't really need! Either throw those things away or sell them! Selling sounds good....where's that eBay web address?

19

Another heartbreaker by my ULM Warhawks....a loss to Troy 24-19. This is the third time we've scored 19 points in a game this season....we made the same points in identical 21-19 losses to Kansas and Florida Atlantic. All in all, we weren't expecting a great season this year. We were looking to 2007 to be the year we make some noise. We're playing a lot of freshmen and sophomores, and they're all talented. They just need some experience. But we've lost four games by 5, 4, 2, and 2 points, and that can wear on you, whether you're a fan or a player...to be that close to having a winning record!

Faster.....

Some things I don't understand....actually, there's a lot of things I don't understand but I don't have time or desire to discuss all that right now. No, this is about my short run this evening. I only did two miles 'cause I had been sick for about two days mid-week and hadn't done any aerobic activity since Monday. Now my running has been stuck at an 8-minute-mile rut and I hadn't seemed to be able to get any faster. Eight minutes is slow for me but it had gotten comfortable to go at that pace and that's not a good thing. So I go out to the running path on the Bossier City side of the Red River with the intention of an easy pace. When I turned around at the one-mile mark, I looked at my Timex and it says 7:29.....7:29? I didn't feel like I had run any faster than before, so I kept it up on the return and my total time for the two miles ended up at 14:49...my second mile was 10 seconds faster than the first. Obviously, being sick and bed-ridden makes you faster!

Tomorrow will be a bike ride, maybe 2-3 hours worth at a moderate pace, then a long run (5 miles?) on Sunday. It's good to feel human again. The nose is clear and the legs are newly shaved.

Go see "The Guardian" with Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher...about 80% of it was filmed in Shreveport. The Coast Guard training pool is actually the pool at LSU-Shreveport. All the close-up ocean scenes were done in a wave pool put together near Minden and it's the largest wave pool ever constructed (it's been saved for use in other movie projects). The movie has a number of cliches' and reminds you of one or two other movies but I felt this one was way better done than any of those other movies it may remind you of....really, it is better as far I'm concerned. Other locales used in the film were Barksdale Air Force Base, Superior Steakhouse, and James Burton's bar in Shreve Square that is changed to "Maggie's Hangar". When you see the establishing shot for Maggie's, take a quick look to the left and you'll see a red canopy with a logo that says Freddie Mack's....that's MY logo! I did that a few years ago and now it's in a movie. Cool.

When the movie was filmed here last November thru January, some of the cast and crew came out to participate in a duathlon our local multi-sport club put on. You can see the pics at http://www.pbase.com/johnchase/guardian and it was fun to have them there. Some even showed up at a party we held a week later.

Closer......

Got a letter in the mail today from the Bureau of Consular Affairs letting me know that Jonnene's petition for a visa will be forwarded to the US Consulate in Sydney within a week. Her I-129F visa petition had been approved a few weeks ago and she will have to travel to Sydney to be interviewed at the consulate (don't know when yet). It's another step completed in getting her over here as a LEGAL immigrant! All she needs is that K3 visa to be issued and we can begin the real process of finishing all that packing and making arrangements for the trip over the "really big" pond to the States. Then we can really be a married couple and celebrate/suffer all that comes with it.

I am excited but I'm being very cool about it......no worries, mate.

I feel so much better today! Still not 100% but I'm of a better attitude. I'm going to skip the ride tonight since it's around 52 degrees F outside and windy, and that would not be good while getting over a bit o' sickness. Save it for a short run tomorrow and a long ride on Saturday.

There hasn't been a day when money didn't get in my way.....

Yay, I'm feeling better! But still dragging....I'm hoping that I'll feel like a hundred bucks on Thursday. One thing for sure, I've rarely lost any appetite when I get sick! I can still eat no matter how close to death I might feel!

I reserved my flights between Melbourne and Perth today on the Qantas website using my Qantas miles. The surprise was that I was charged for taxes and airport fees that were applied to the tickets! I've used frequent flyer miles before on American Airlines and all costs and fees were covered by the miles, no extra cost added on. So this took me by surprise when I saw AU$124 pop up and to what credit card I wanted to put it on. With the conversion, it comes out to US$92 but it was the principle of the thing. Accumulated miles should be covering all costs, not just the cost of flying. Granted, $92 ain't bad for flying across Australia (about the width of the USA) two times but, hey, y'know?

I'll get to spend about 8 hours in Melbourne, so I'll be taking the SkyBus from the airport to downtown "Mel-bun" and spend some time walking around, including a trek to the Victoria Market to do some Christmas shopping and maybe hit the South Bank for lunch and a black-white (coffee). Then go thru some of the pedestrian malls before returning to the airport. After leaving Melbourne, I'll have a one-hour stopover in Adelaide before continuing to Perth. I could have gotten a 3-hour stopover in Adelaide, with the thought of seeing a friend who lives there...hoping he could drive out to pick me up, we'd get a quick meal and then he'd return me to the airport. But he found out that his work will require him to be out of town that week so, in that case, there's no reason for me to stay any longer than I have to. He'll be in the States in April so I'll catch up with him then. Adelaide has rebuilt their airport since I was last there in June, 2005 and I'll be interested to see how the place looks.

If Your Nose Runs.....

.....and your feet smell, you're built upside down.

I love to say that phrase even when it doesn't apply to anything. Unfortunately it applies in this case....I've been sick since lunch on Tuesday with some flu-like symtoms which make it hard to concentrate on anything. I manage to get out three newspaper ads before I put myself to bed and I have stayed there ever since. I feel better this morning but still have watery eyes and runny/stopped up sinuses....and the edges of my nose are sore from all the rubbing with kleenex!

I was supposed to go to ULM on Thursday to take a VO2 max test that Lisa is conducting, but I'm going to see if I can postpone that until I feel better. I would think the results could be a bit skewwed if I took it while recovering from being sick. Just as well....Bert said that Lisa would put the woooooood to me on that test and turn me into a helpless, weak girly-man. I'm thinking I'll do the treadmill instead of the bike to see if I can do a dramatic collapse during that 15-minute torture test. I'm also supposed to get measured for my body fat ratio (HUGE, I'm sure) using water displacement. I better bring goggles.

Gettin' expensive

The cost to go to Oz is creeping up each day as it gets closer to the holiday/vacation/summer season (yep, it's almost summer Down Under!). If I bought a ticket from Longview, Texas to Melbourne today, it would be $200 to $430 more than it was when I got my air fare last week. The new law in AlanWorld is to always get your ticket to Australia two months or more ahead of time...remembering that the fares change daily and sometimes it's a crap shoot to get the best deal. It's about $130 cheaper on average to fly out of Longview than out of Shreveport! And the two places are only 45 minutes apart! Go figure.

I managed to get out for a run on the trail at the Stoner Boat Launch during lunch, knocking out about 30 minutes in the woods running along the maze of trails along the Red River. I estimated that I got around three-and-a-half miles and it was a lot easier than when I did it last week....I'm just gettin' in shape!! My bike racing team had a meeting tonight to get ready for next year and the racing season that's coming. New uniforms, money discussions, and schedules took up most of the time. I'm done with racing for 2006 and will wind down my riding until I leave on my trip. Then it's off the bike for about 3 weeks before I have to deal with the cold winters of Louisiana....and they can be very cold!

Made some progress on a couple of jobs I have on hand. Hopefully I'll get them finished in the next day or two...I could certainly use the money! Free-lancing in Shreveport-Bossier City is a feast-or-famine kind of thing. Right now I'm teetering on the fence. Not the first time I've done that in the 21 years I've been doing this but it gets more tiresome as I get older. I hope to someday start doing my own artwork to sell instead of relying on agencies and individual clients for work. Of course, the sooner I do that, the better off I'll be. So I better get started, eh? Daddy needs spending money for his trip!

Finally...a start

Well, I've only had this blog for a few months and had yet to post anything on it. So I guess it's time I do so. I plan to use this blog to record my fourth trip to Australia to see my bride, Jonnene. We've been married over five months but have spent only the first eight days together before I had to return to the States. In the meantime we've been dealing with the immigration paperwork to get her here by the end of this year, hopefully. It's coming along, although slowly. We did get approval for her temporary visa to allow her to visit while the permanent residency visa is being processed. However, it still takes a few weeks to push the paperwork through to the US consulate in Sydney.

Anyway, I'm leaving Sunday, 19 November....the day after I'm supposed to do a 1/2 trail marathon (12.4 miles) in an event called the Louisiana Trails Run near Shreveport. I'll probably need all the flight time to rest my legs after that! I did it a couple of years ago and I survived okay. It was actually quite fun but exhausting, too. Covered the distance in 2:18 on muddy trails through pine forests under dark cloudy skies....I loved it! I will return from "Oz" on Monday, 4 December. Like I said, my intent is to keep a record of the trip, including the run-up, to see the woman I love and spend some quality time with her. I'll also get to spend some time getting to know her family better and vice-versa.

So that's it for now....I'll post when I can and include pics, too!