Life is Never Normal at This Time of Year(s)

Michael Crichton said it better about global warming than I ever could. Check it out if you have 20 minutes to read what he had to say about it....and pay attention 'cause it gets pretty deep in some places.

I took the Guru out on the road yesterday. It was the first time it has been outside in over three months and it behaved like a champ. I didn't get on the aerobars until I was about four miles out so I could get used to the bike's sensitive steering again. After a brief 15 miles, I was riding it like I'd never been gone. I had to get Scooter to take a look at the headset earlier since I was having problems tightening it up after putting a shorter stem on the handlebars.

Today I made a visit to a local podiatrist to get a look-see at my right foot and my left ankle. As to the ankle, we both agreed to give running a rest for a while after the duathlon this Saturday and see how it responds to lots of rest. He thinks it's probably a couple of deep tendons that have been aggrevated but if things don't improve after the rest we'll do an MRI and see what we can see. Regarding the right foot, he confirmed the tailor's bunion I have and, after looking at the x-rays, he commented that the fifth metatarsal bone under the little toe was definitely flared out too far to the right which makes my foot look wider. But he was really interested in the fourth metatarsal which was also flaring out with the other one. He had heard of the condition but had really never seen one! He talked about it a lot. Surgery is an option (as was leaving it alone) but it'd require me to be on crutches for 5-6 weeks because I wouldn't be able to put weight on those small bones. But he wasn't recommending surgery, at least not for now....he admitted that he'd be hard-pressed to make a decision either way. He told me to that it's probably better to do nothing right now since I'm still an active person and that maybe this is something we'll deal with when I'm in my late 60's and not as active...unless the foot decides to make a case for surgery earlier than that. But it looks like surgery on my right dawg will happen some day. Just like I believe surgery on my left shoulder...1997 bike crash....will happen some day. But not today!

After three weeks of long daylight while we were in Australia, we're still struggling to get used to these days of shorter daylight back in Louisiana. Trying to wake up in the morning while it's pitch-dark outside is really tough!

It's a busy week for me. I'm trying to take care of uniform issues for the bike club, the college club, and the triathlon club. I also picked up a new art job...yes, I'm still doing the free-lance thing even though I'm slowly weaning myself away from it. I won't be renewing my membership to the local ad club and won't be entering anything in the Addy Awards this year.

Wind...yah.....

Lots of wind today, in the 20-38 mph range all day today. I didn't bother to ride since I didn't need to get knocked around on the wet roads by that wind. So I spent 48 minutes on the wind trainer out on the back patio just spinning away to the tunes on the Nano and let the wind be my natural fan to cool me off. It was only 48 minutes because my back tire went flat and I didn't feel like fixing it. Save that for later. Jonnene went off for a short run and her knee got aggrevated just a bit...she's really getting tired of that.

Saw "BOLT" tonight at the theater and it was a fun movie to watch. We have a guy on our bike racing team who goes by that nickname and when the movie came out we told everyone it was all about our Bolt's life story. Funny thing...he doesn't look anything like the Bolt in the movie.....

Recovery

Jonnene had to work today. I met her for lunch and she's part of a small staff working the day after Christmas. She's had a full day already. I worked on the new carport door, painting it and applying chalking wherever it was needed. Still more to go...doors take up a lot of time if you want them done right. I want it done right.

We had rain overnight which makes me even less trustful of the meteorologists now. They said no rain until Friday afternoon. Instead we get rain early in the morning with plenty of humidity (the carport floor is sweating like crazy) and no rain is forecasted for the afternoon. Storms are moving in Saturday but we already knew that. These guys can't predict weather 24 hours from now, yet we're supposed to believe them when they say the earth is set to undergo drastic human-caused climate change in 10-20 years? Don't you ever believe it. I don't and won't. Nobody's shown me why I should.

Because of the wet weather I bailed on doing a bike ride. I had no desire to go slip-sliding across the roads and to wash my bike again so soon after the last time I hosed it down. I did a run instead and knocked off practically a full minute from my time a week ago. I still feel like I'm running too slow but the clock don't lie and my distance is accurate. The Dustbuster Duathlon is 8 days from now and I'm sure I'll turn in an ugly performance but it'll be a good workout at the least. I just need some outdoor bike time!

Merry, Merry, Merry

We survived Christmas 2008, the first in our new house. We had the immediate family over which included the Mom and step-Dad, the Dad and step-Mom, the Brother and his family minus a niece and husband up in Colorado plus a boyfriend of another niece. We worked to make the house look nice and we did a good job. The tree looks fabulous with the combination of our ornaments (first time we've been able to merge our Christmas stuff) along with some ornaments we brought back from Australia. Some of my stuff hasn't been used in 15+ years and it was good to see it out making the season bright once again.

After all the food I've consumed over the past 36 hours, I have vowed to eat nothing more until New Year's. It's time to get into shape again for the racing season coming up and a duathlon race in nine days. Well, maybe I'll have some fudge.....

A Sorta Recap (Part Two)

I did my first outdoor bike ride in four weeks last Saturday. The ride itself wasn't bad...got in 37 miles and kept the pace sane. However, with all the crappy weather we've been having...spotty rain, high humidity, weird temperature changes...the roads were wet and well-traveled by trucks hauling dirt and water tanks from the local oil & gas wells, tracking lots of mud on the asphalt. In other words, we got DIRTY!! When I was done, I had a nice coating of this green-brown mud/dirt all over my Bradley and some of it on me, too. Yep, got to use the garden hose on the bike when I got home. Back to the ride: the first 4-5 miles felt a tad uncomfortable since I realized I had too much air in the tires for the wet roads, so the bike felt a little skittish plus I had forgotten how sensitive the Bradley's steering was. But after that I had my handling skills back and I was cruising like the old pro that I am. It was just that thing of dodging all the "rooster tails" that were coming off the bikes in front of me.

Jonnene and I put in an easy one hour ride on the afternoon of Christmas Eve. It gave us a break from all the things we were doing to prepare for Christmas Day and having all the immediate relatives come over for our first Christmas in the new house.

Anyway, back to the Aussie trip before I forget everything...

OZ Factoid (for those who've never been to Oz): When you get into a "lift" (elevator) in a multi-story building in Australia...from street level...you will be on the "ground" floor, not the "first" floor, as you would be here in the States. The buttons start with a G instead of a 1. The first floor is above you...where the second floor usually appears in the States.

Our flights from Los Angeles to Alexandria were pretty much uneventful. Since we arrived at LAX a couple of hours later than we were supposed to, that meant we only had to hang around the airport for less than three hours before our flight to Houston. I'm all about spending less time in airports by this point in our travels! Weather was still moody...cloudy, rain in places, just dreary overall...heck of a thing to return to after all of the mostly pleasant weather in Perth. Our flight from Houston to Alexandria was QUICK! We had only 9 or 10 people on our little Embraer jet and the pilot announced that we would be there in 30 minutes! Sure enough, we could feel the tiny jet gaining altitude for the first 15 minutes, then you could feel the plane pitch over and we headed downhill the rest of the way. My brother and one of the nieces met us and drove us to their house where we spent the night before driving home. It was fantastice to lay down in a horizontal position to go to sleep! We hadn't done that the previous 36 hours and I would have to recommend this to everybody...if you haven't slept lying down before, try it, you'll like it.

After we got home on Sunday morning, we unpacked everything and began delivering souvenirs. We tried to get back to normal as soon as we could but we were dragging for the first couple of days. Jonnene had to go to work on Monday and I had plenty of errands to run and things to catch up on. It felt like I was going non-stop on Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday morning I went down to see the senior project presentation of the high school student I had been mentoring the last three months and, outside of some obvious nervousness, he did a great job and I think he got good marks for his efforts. I was proud of him...maybe the experience will be a positive mark on his life and give him some needed confidence. It'll be interesting to see how the next few years of his life goes.

A Sorta Recap (Part One)

This was our last view looking west over the Pacific Ocean as we came home from Australia. The sun was setting about four hours after we left Melbourne and wouldn't be up again until we were about 2-3 hours from Los Angeles. We breezed through customs and immigration...that was good.

We finally got out of Melbourne about 2pm Saturday afternoon, about two hours later than we were supposed to, which meant we had to hang out at the airport for about nine hours! Jonnene and I found an empty gate in the international terminal to hide out in where we laid out on the benches and got a few bits of shuteye. We had arrived about 5 am on the red-eye from Perth which we both agreed we'd never do again (this was my fifth time). From now on, if we go west-to-east across the country, we'll fly into the east coast the day before and spend the night. THEN fly out!

Early Saturday morning in Melbourne and I'm shooting pictures of wet airplanes.

Here's what I got...not too bad, huh?

It was raining in Melbourne when we arrived, reminding us of how it was raining when we arrived in Perth only 18 days before. It was just gray outside and we decided to forego a trip to downtown. We'd just get wet and we didn't need that before a 14-hour plane ride to the States. The Melbourne airport is pretty much barren at that early time of the morning but around 8-9 am it gets busy, with plenty of Asian travelers standing in these incredibly long buzzing lines that wind around the front area of the international terminal to the counters for the various Asian airlines that operate there. Now, there's plenty of other travelers, too, by that time but the Asian folks are the ones you can't help but notice. They're trying their best to carry everything they can onto the plane as carry-on luggage...which they can't. We saw one guy with a cart full of cardboard boxes of various sizes trying to wheel it through the doors into immigration and being told he had too much stuff (apparently, they like to buy lots of things when they travel). He'd have to find a way to reduce the load to a simple carry-on bag! Good luck!

Jonnene and I came into immigration carrying one full carry-on bag each. The guy weighing everything told her that her bag was about 3 kilos too heavy while mine was around 3 kilos under the limit. So he allowed us to switch items from hers to mine and in we went! The official was constantly turning away most of the Asians because their bags/boxes were just too much....lots of complaining going on but we kept walking. We found it funny that we had to switch stuff around in our bags but we were still carrying the same weight onto the plane.

We're Back!

Yeah, yeah, we're in. We're tired. We're going to bed. I'll do an updated post real soon.

Glad to be home...had a great time. We're trying to distribute the souvenirs.

Not Having Fun Yet

Well, we made it to Melbourne, really tired and worn out. Now we're dealing with delays in our Qantas flight to LAX. It's already been delayed about two hours due to cleaning and prepping the aircraft. That'll make close to nine hours we've been here! The weather has been raining and lousy so we didn't make it to downtown...didn't want to get rained on while walking around.

Well, we'll see what happens. We're supposed to take off in another hour......

Nearly Time to GO!

Well, it's about 6 hours or so before we head off to the Perth airport for our return trip to the States. Jonnene and I have spent most of the afternoon trying to fit everything into our bags and make the weight requirements for travel on dem big aeroplanes. International travel allows us 70 pounds per piece of check-in luggage while US domestic air only allows 50 pounds per piece. That can leave you with a problem...mainly that 50 pounds is our limit no matter what. So we have carefully packed and weighed our bags over and over. Then we checked the rules for both Qantas and Continental regarding luggage restrictions and limits. Here what we came up with:

We're going to bring an extra check-in bag, one of Jonnene's that she left here a couple of years ago. Basically, we're going to be over the 50 lb per bag limit with the two bags we have now, plus all the stuff crammed into our carry-on bags. What to do? There's no problem with the Perth to Los Angeles flights since they allow up to 70 lb per bag and two bags per person (the rule's changed but after we had already bought our tickets, so we're gold). But on the LAX to Alexandria flights we'd be charged $50 per overweight bag...$100 total...not good. But on those domestic flights, we'd be charged $25 for an extra bag. Hmmmmmm. We decided to bring the extra bag and save $75 while relieving the weight of our other bags. Yeah, it's more to carry but we're bringing a lot of stuff back. Things like the tons of souvenirs we got for ourselves and others, things that Jonnene had to leave behind when she moved here 23 months ago. A couple of wedding gifts, bike carrier towers that'll fit her Rav-4 (score!), things like that.

We also had some clothes with us that we never wore....and that was after we had culled down the clothes we thought we'd need before we left! But I now have more clothes to pack since I bought some items to deal with the cooler weather here that we weren't expecting. Anyway, the next trip we'll bring even less clothing with us as long as we have washing facilities somewhere to use. We could get down to 20 pounds a bag...and maybe on just one bag...if we do it right!

Another bonus for the return trip....the weather in Louisiana this weekend will be almost like what it's been in Perth this past week, nice and warmer. They've had snow in Louisiana this week and it's been freezing but it'll change as we return so that'll be nice.

Yeah, the last few days have been a rush. Thursday was probably our busiest. Errands to run that morning, lunch with Steph and Tim (she sang at our wedding), met a friend of Jonnene's, Elena, for a half hour at a nearby mall, picked up nephew AJ from school and took him to Raelene's house, dropped in on Jonnene's old next-door neighbor Shirley, and then buzzed over to see Brett and cousin Kim for the evening before woofing down a quicky Red Rooster meal for me! Today we went to a pilates class at 6 in the morning (I'll feel that by tomorrow), had breakfast with some of the triathlon group, ran errands, and now packing. Later we'll see Christine and Eddy...Christine and Jonnene used to walk their dogs together...and their dog, Ben, then we'll have the family over at Raelene's for a good-bye dinner before we head off for the airport.

What do you think? Busy enough? I'll try to post again when we get to Melbourne tomorrow morning.

Hectic

It's Wednesday night, about 48 hours before we leave Perth on our way back to the States. It's hard to believe all this time has gone by so quickly...or at least it seems quickly now. We arrived here on the 24th of November and we had more than two-and-a-half weeks to spend here, plenty of time to get things done. Now we're short-timing it and trying to get what's left on the list accomplished. Right now it's mostly getting to see remaining friends and family here and we're managing to see many of them. But it's getting tight!

For instance, we had lunch today with Christine and Eddy. I first met Christine during my first visit to Oz in 2003 where she and Jonnene would walk each other's dogs together at the park oval nearly every evening. Christine's dog, Ben, a border collie, and Jonnene's dog, Sophie, were running mates until Sophie came to the States with Jonnene 22 months ago. In fact, we were told that whenever Ben goes by Jonnene's old house, he still turns into the driveway expecting to see Sophie and go into the house. Anyway, we knew we had to see Christine at some point during the trip and it was great to see her and the new guy in her life. We liked Eddy. He seems to be good for her. And we're going to see them again for a little bit late Friday afternoon and see Ben. He's had both hips replaced and he's not doing so good, so we wanted to see him again since we weren't sure he'd be around the next time we're in town. I'm looking forward to seeing him.

Then we hit the downtown area for more souvenir shopping and it wasn't much at all. We did a lot of it the first couple of days we were here so now it's finishing up those last couple of names on the list. This will be the last time we, of our own volition, will get souvenirs for everyone back home. On our future trips to Australia (and probably anywhere else from now on) we'll only get souvenirs for those who specifically ask for them. If they don't ask, they get nothing! I think we're down to only two or three folks to get something for, and we'll get that job done.

Tonight we ate at a Vietnamese restaurant called Anna's in the Leederville section of town with some of the group from the Revolution Pilates studio where Jonnene had learned to become a pilates instructor. She's already had three sessions there since we arrived, including a semi-private this morning with Neil, the studio's owner. Anyway, we met up with Neil, Tristen (also an instructor) with his wife Sonja, and another instructor Julie. It was a fun dinner as we ordered up our meals and placed them all in the center of the table where we picked up servings from each of the plates for ourselves. There was chicken (three types), fish, vegetables (which I didn't touch), and something else I don't remember. The sauces in the dishes were amazing and, as I like to say, dem boys was tasty. Plus all the personalities made the dinner funny as well as some interesting conversation. Definitely a good way to top the day.

A Sunrise in Perth

Perth has a lot of bike riders. It's true. We got up early this morning to see the sun come up over the Swan River from the vantage point of Kings Park. We had some clouds this time so it made for some great picture takin'. In the meantime there were numerous bike riders in groups and alone riding all over the place. Some were training, some were getting their exercise in, and others were out for the air and the view. And there were a lot of runners, too. Made me feel like I had been slacking. Thing is, I'm using this trip to slack on purpose! Now I want to get back to riding and running again!

The city skyline of Perth, Western Australia...around 5:45 am on Tuesday morning. Our last Tuesday in-country before we head back to the USA.

As the sun rises, the first passenger plane of the day leaves Perth's airport for some place out there over the horizon.

The Wife walks among the karri trees in Kings Park to get a better camera shot of the sunrise.

The ANZAC War Memorial at Kings Park as the sun rises. Normally there are many flowers growing around the pool with the eternal flame but we caught the park between re-plantings. It was still a beautiful and powerfully silent place to be. On ANZAC Day this area is covered with people who are here to remember Australia's war heros and to honor their military living and dead. Much like America's Fourth of July but I think, as a whole, the Aussies are much more reverent about their holiday.

A Saturday Sunset

I'll have to admit, the cool thing about living on the west coast of Australia is that you get some great sunsets. I've seen good ones every time I've been there. Last night (Saturday) Jonnene and I headed down to Scarborough Beach to enjoy the sights and watch the end of the day.

Walking along Scarborough Beach we got blasted by a strong wind that blew sand into our shoes and against our bare legs like a sandblaster. All the shells near the surface of the sand were exposed and there were plenty of them all around us.

This was cool to watch. A number of wind surfers and kite surfers out on the water...cold water, I might add since all of them were wearing wetsuits. We saw several of the kite surfer guys take off into the air when they got a good gust of wind and travel a couple of hundred meters. Some of them got about 30 feet into the air!

The sun went down directly over Rottnest Island, about 12 miles west off the coast from Perth.

After the sun disappeared from the horizon you could clearly see the outline of Rottnest Island in the distance. You can see the silhouettes of the buildings and the lighthouses.
Just spectacular.

More Pretty Pictures

Just got back from the Kalamunda Markets (above, Jonnene at far right) east of Perth. These markets are higher-end flea markets held the first Saturday of each month up in the small town of...you guessed it...Kalamunda! Lots of items for sale: jewelry, pottery, wood products, clothing, trinkets, gimmicks, you name it. There's quality stuff here and we did a little bit of damage there for sure. Jonnene's sister-in-law, Olga, came with us along with her parents, Galena and Alexander, in town for a few weeks from Russia. There was a bit of a language barrier but I like them.

Here's a couple of shots from our trip down to the southwest coast earlier this week:

From Elephant Rocks...you can see from the shapes why this formation of rocks is called what it is. Here's some spreading foam between some of the rocks after a big wave blew through.

Also at Elephant Rocks...lots of cracks in the formations that revealed this tinge of orange stone.
As with most of the photos in this blog, if you single-click on the image a bigger version will pop up in another window.

That's $1,020 in USA Dollars!

Saw this in a shop window when we were down in Busselton. Just one of the many things to do with the Ironman Triathlon that we saw.

And this is a good triathlon bike, too!

Pictures and Stories #1

Sorry about the delay! I'm just going to post some photos with copy below each one. That might be easier than typing up something and then placing the pics to fit.

Jonnene crosses the finish line at the triathlon she did in Perth last Sunday morning. It was a cold morning (this has been unexpected for me since it's supposed to be summer!) and I didn't envy The Wife having to go into that water for the 400-meter swim in the bay. Fortunately, the current was with the participants and most would have personal records for the distance when it was over. She didn't take any warmups, just handed her sweater to me and entered the water with the rest of the wave of females. She came out of the swim about 2/3's of the way back, running about 100 meters to the transition area to change for the bike which was a 4-lap 16-mile ride along the shoreline which included a big hill each lap. Her front derailleur got stuck in the big chainring, making the climb harder, but each lap got faster and she passed a lot of other competitors. Into the run Jonnene had a good start on the 4 kilometer distance with 2 laps of 2 kilometers each, but going into the second lap her right knee started hurting. We were hoping that wouldn't happen but we suspected pushing that big chainring on the bike might have aggrevated it. A projected 24-minute run turned into 29 minutes which dropped her to 13th in her age group at the finish (could have gotten 7th if the knee had behaved). However, she got 75th overall among the 300-odd participants for the sprint distance!


Monday thru Wednesday we took a road trip to southwest Australia, down to Peaceful Bay, which is between the towns (shires) of Walpole and Denmark. We stayed at a beach cabin that belonged to a business partner of Jonnene's brother, David. David and his family would be coming down on Wednesday to stay through Friday and we'd trade keys with him. It was a really nice place to hang out though a bit rustic and spartan. I had to light up a fire in an old water tank (see the above photo) to heat up water for showers and other things you might need hot water for! This also meant I had to split firewood, something I hadn't done in years. By the end of the stay I had remembered how to split wood...I actually did a pretty good job of it...and was able to start the fire using only one match. Once you had the water heated, it would stay that way for almost a full day before you had to re-start a fire again. I knew those old Boy Scout skills would come back to help me someday.


Here's a Big Red (kangaroo) we spotted early on our last morning in Peaceful Bay. We were in the car at the time and we slowly followed him as I tried to get a good photo. He finally disappeared into the shrub to the left. We had also spotted a group of three kangaroos the day before in a pathway near the cabin, as well as seeing a wallabie (small version of a kangaroo) during a visit to some of the sights in the area.


One of the reasons we were up so early Wednesday morning was that we wanted to see the sunrise over the bay but no luck. It was cloudy with some spotty rain. But we went to the beach anyway to see what we could see. I got a good picture (above) and we could see some rosy areas in the clouds but no sun. It was still beautiful out there, with a fishing boat in the distance and the waves coming in.


Coming back to Perth, we stopped in Busselton where we had to make a visit to see the jetty, shown above. We got a chance to visit with Jonnene's cousin, Sally, who had a break with the kids in school and her husband, Cam, at work. It was quite windy with lots of small waves breaking on the beach.


One of the reasons we stopped in Busselton was to check out the Ironman Village where we spotted the unassembled finish line for the Western Australia Ironman Triathlon being held on Sunday, December 7th. We took in the Asics and Jaggad stores that were already set up in the expo tent where the expo itself would open up the next day. And, yes, we bought lots of Ironman gear mostly for friends back home although we did get one or two things for ourselves! It was fascinating to see all the huge circus-sized tents on the grounds and see the transition area for a genuine Ironman event. Too bad we'll have to miss it Sunday but we've got a week left in our trip and many things to do in that time.

Back in a couple

It's Monday morning and we're off to Peaceful Bay for a couple of days. The place is located between Denmark and Walpole on the bottom coast of southwest Australia...look way west of Albany if you use Google Maps. We should be back by Wednesday night and I can update this blog properly.

Yesterday was the big Christmas family reunion with 68 in attendance. Lots of snags (sausages) to munch on and lots of people to talk to. I was asked by several folks about the economic situation in America and what the hell are we doing? I could say that the guys in Congress who caused the problem are the same ones who are trying to fix it...so I'm not so optimistic in the short term.

Here's a look at the spread on the barby. Enjoy.

Finally See It

We saw "Australia" last night and it would be safe to say we liked it. Brandon Walters, the kid who plays the Aboriginal boy, Nullah...the "creamy"....pretty much steals the show from mainliner stars Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman though they do pretty well themselves. It lasted 2.5 hours but it didn't feel that long, however, we had to put up with a long pre-show screening of ads and movies to come. We didn't leave the movie house until after 10:30 pm with the 7:30 pm start time. I saw an interview with Jackman on FoxNews where he said that Australia is as much about Australia as Casablanca is about Casablanca, and he's right. This is not a history of Oz as much as it's where this particular story takes place. I recommend it but be sure to hit the loo before the movie starts! The cinematography is fantastic and really does justice to the Kimberly region in the northern part of Western Australia. I'll have to go check that area out someday.

Slow Day in Oz

It is nice when you go out on a trip and you don't have to rush about. Thursday in Perth was generally slow. Jonnene got her hair done up and she looks great. We spent some time at the mall in Innaloo where I dropped off my Teva sandals at a cobbler who has a stand in that mall where he repairs shoes, bags, and such. The velcro straps were wearing out and I wanted to keep the sandals, so he will replace the straps for AU$20 and we can pick them up on Saturday. Hey, I don't usually go to Australia to get shoes repaired...honest. (The Teva website link shows an updated version of my old sandals.)

For the afternoon we went up to the in-law's so that Jonnene and her Mum could alter a pair of pants and shorts so they can hang better on her fabulous triathlete figure. That evening we went out to the Dome for supper. The intent was to get something with turkey in it for Thanksgiving but after going thru some of the other restaurants we were having no luck finding anything...and we're weren't going to Subway! So I reasoned that since I had a turkey croissant on Tuesday, that it would count as my Thanksgiving meal and I ended up with a chicken foccacia which was quite tasty.

It's All About ME!!

Well, it's mainly about me only because Jonnene had the camera and she didn't take any photos of herself. So feast your eyes on this fine example of American manhood!! Or look at the pictures of me instead.....
Here's a shot from when we were in Melbourne on Monday. This is on the South Bank along the Yarra River where there are plenty of shops, restaurants, a casino, and nice views of the city. It's even better when the sun is out. I always like taking time out during a trip to Perth to stop in Melbourne where we can go downtown to the CBD (Central Business District), stretch our legs, and see what's changed since the last time I was there. I can tell you right now that there's lots of new buildings going up and the city's as vibrant as it's ever been.

Chompin' down on my fish n' chips at a shopping mall in Perth. We spent most of Wednesday going into various stores, shops, and other places to see where we can get the better souvenirs for friends and family. We found some swag that will score us big points with those back in the States. We might have to get a few things for ourselves, too!

We found some kids and decided to adopt them. Then their real parents showed up. This is at the Sorrento Quay at Hillarys Boat Harbor north of Perth which is a real boat harbor with a rather large shopping center out over the water. As you can tell, the sun was out and the weather was rather pleasant with a cool breeze coming in from the ocean. Souvenir-wise we didn't find anything that we couldn't get back in Perth but it was a nice drive and seeing the Indian Ocean was pretty cool...beautiful blue colors out there. And check out the new Centenary Cycling Club T-shirt I'm sporting here!

We dropped in at the Revolution Pilates Studio where Jonnene used to teach pilates so she could schedule some private sessions. We arrived unannounced so we got to see the surprised looks from the folks there when they looked up to see Jonnene. That was fun and they were so happy to see her. The owner, Neil, wasn't there when we dropped in but we'll see him soon enough. He was born in Shreveport, grew up in Colorado, and has lived in Australia for over 14 years.

We prepped Jonnene's old KHS bike so she could give it a test run around the neighborhood (she was going to do a ride this morning but got rained out). She's got a triathlon this Sunday before we go to the Christmas family reunion/party that afternoon.

Right now it's Thursday morning and she's gone to her old hair dresser for some hair work and catch up with the news there. I'm enjoying a slow morning, watching the news shows and updating this blog. I'll take a walk to a nearby art supply store later. For lunch we'll go somewhere that I can get a turkey sandwich or po-boy so I can celebrate Thanksgiving!

First Full Day

It was an easy day on Tuesday, our first full day in Perth. The sun was up before six am which really got our attention! Jonnene had an appointment with her old massage therapist at 11 in downtown and we went early to walk around a bit and scout out some of the shops to look for potential souvenirs for friends and family. Her mom, Faye, picked us up and dropped us off at the Stirling train station where we took the commuter train into town, finally stopping at the brand new Perth central station which was under construction when I was here two years ago. When Jonnene went in for her appointment I continued to explore the shops...went to the London Court mall where we got a picture of my Mom standing at the entrance when she came to our May '06 wedding. Checked out some shops that specialized in shaving gear and sports apparel. It was sunny and warm, very nice to walk around and do some people watching. Saw this HUGE billboard for the Australia movie...I'll get a pic of that soon.

After she was done (and all loosened up!) we met up with her sister and brother for lunch at a sandwich shop. David went back to work and we headed to the parents house where Jonnene got to drive the Australian way for the first time in 22 months. She did fine albeit she hit a few reflectors with the left wheels early on...no worries after that. We picked up Jonnne's old Forester which her parents bought from her and we'll use it some of the time we're here (I might get to drive).

Tuesday night we had a pizza night...they have Domino's here...and David's family came over. His wife, Olga, has her parents in from Russia and they're in the second week of a seven-week visit. Their English is limited but we were able to say the usual greetings and I think her mom knows a bit more english than her dad. It was a fun night with the kids around. Jonnene went thru a lot of the stuff she left behind when she moved to the States and will bring a few items back with her. But she's going to throw out a couple of boxes of things, donating some of it to Good Sammy's (like our Goodwill stores) and trashing the rest. It'll give Raelene a bit more room in her house, too!

Going to Oz...Arriving in Oz

Holy Ka-moley, we're in Australia! Finally hooked up to the internet and spending our first full day in Perth. Jonnene's already gotten a massage from her old masseuse, Steve (yeah, I let some other guy put his hands ALL over her! Anything to make her happy, y'know?), while I walked around the shops in downtown Perth. We met up with her brother and sister for lunch, and now I'm back writing up a few things for this blog. I think I'll show some photos with captions instead of a long boring write-up that goes on forever.


On our way from Houston to Los Angeles...this is somewhere over California as the sun was setting on Saturday. We left out of Alexandria, LA with a transfer in Houston. We had to spend about six hours at LAX before our flight to Melbourne but we had to deal with using a bus to get to our Qantas 747 from the international terminal. The terminal is undergoing renovations and there's a limited number of gates available at this time. So all 250+ passengers on our flight had to board buses...two buses at a time...out to a converted maintenance building where we walked up ramps to board the plane. Jonnene wasn't impressed.

We sat on the right side of row 52 with a young lady from South Carolina, Alisa, who is going to a arts and sciences college to become a fashion designer. Our flight over the Pacific lasted over 14 hours and had to take a more southerly track to avoid some bad weather sitting east of Australia. As it turned out, the weather was not as bad as the pilots had been told so we took the route for nothing but I guess it's better to be safe than sorry. Generally, the flight was pretty good...I slept great compared to other trans-ocean trips, saw three movies, and didn't accomplish any of the little projects I had in mind while we were in the air.

This is the inside of our 747 during our flight over the Pacific, somewhere about 8 hours into the trip. You can see some of the video monitors located on the back of the seats so passengers can watch movies, TV, documentories, and other stuff....good ways to waste time and forget to get some sleep. You take off around midnight, eat dinner about two hours later, and somehow we're all still awake. You almost have to force yourself to sleep (well, some of us) and you HAVE to sleep if you have any hope to feel like a normal human being when you land in Oz.

Jonnene walks with friends Pam and Gary along the Yarra River in Melbourne. We landed in Melbourne about 10 am local time, got through immigration and picked up our bags (no problems at all with customs), cleaned up a bit, and headed downtown to mail a birthday card to my nephew, get my customary Farmer's Union ice coffee at a 7-11 near Bourke Street, and meet up with some old friends of Jonnene's for lunch on the South Bank. It was nice to relax after all the travel.

One of the many seagulls you'll find along the Yarra River as you walk along the South Bank of Melbourne. The sea is not that far away and the harbor area is even closer.

All told, our total actual flying time was 22 hours, 19 minutes. We also kept the total time we spent traveling from the time our first plane taxied to the runway in Alexandria to arriving at the gate in Perth...we're talking a total trip time of 40 hours, 56 minutes!! Yeah, we kept track of that. All true.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

It's 31 degrees outside, below freezing, and we took the dogs out for a long walk in the neighborhood since it'll be the last time we can do that for the next three weeks. In about 90 minutes we'll head out to Alexandria and stop by my brother's house before we go out to the airport to catch the first of four flights in a row to Perth, Australia. It'll be a lot warmer there, about 40 more degrees! Jonnene and I are ready for this trip...we need the break. But I have to get my shower first!

The past week has been tremendously busy, getting ready for this trip while working and maintaining some semblance of normalcy around here. I had to finish up three jobs for a local helicopter company and "star" in a video for a new website for those saddles I got pictures of a few weeks ago (hey, Paul, you'll be getting a check after I get back! Yea!). Did a couple of rides, a spin class, and lots of work around the house.

I'll try to post daily reads about our Down Under adventures along with photos. We're bringing the laptop. We're surprised that our bags are way underweight at this point...we could probably carry an extra 23 pounds between us but there's not much more I want to carry in the bags for now. It'll allow us to bring more souvenirs and gifts back for sure.

Well, that's it for now. We're off to fly around the world.

Two Days to Go

A few months ago I joined up with a small group of guys who do an easy 4-mile run every Wednesday morning. During the summer we start out at 6 am and then once school starts it's moved to 5:45 am so a couple of the guys can help prep the kids for school when they get home. I run from the house to get an early warmup and run back after we're done, so I get 4.71 miles for my efforts according to the map I worked out at MapMyRun.com. It's a nice time to spend with the other fellas...there's four others besides me: Matt, who owns Sportspectrum, the place to go if you want the right sports gear and real live personal service; Rex, an accountant (I think); Mike, a financial officer for one of the hospitals here and lost about 30 pounds to prepare for a 1/2 Ironman triathlon this year; and Jeff, who I believe is an enviromental engineer and the group's enviromentalist. That means Mike and I make fun of him, but Jeff can hold his own.

In fact, Mike and Jeff couldn't be more opposite on the political spectrum and have had a few interesting discussions/debates during some of the runs. But there's no doubt that each would help the other in an instant if they had to. Basically, we've all known each other for at least 10 or more years, however these runs have allowed me to hear them talk about what else they do in their lives. I can tell you that I've learned more about Shreveport politics as well as youth soccer leagues than I ever thought I'd want to know! This morning Rex wasn't there as he's been battling a knee problem and has missed the last 3-4 weeks. We were dressed for the cooler temps except that Matt was bare-legged and bare-eared...this guy has a store with all the stuff he needs and he isn't wearing any of it! Anyways, we did the usual pace, about a 9:30/mile which allows us to talk and still work up a bit of a sweat. My pace when I'm running by myself is around an 8-minute mile and around 7:20 in a race.

I learn all the current stuff...like our mayor is known as "Heavy G" and that the two major youth soccer leagues in town don't like each other. We keep up with Matt's plans on building a new store so he can move out of the old location. Mike and I are the relative new-comers to the group. I think 5 or 6 runners is as big as it'll get since the size allows everyone to talk, listen, and make smart-ass remarks at the appropriate times.

In the meantime, we now have two full days left to prepare for Oz and it'll get done. Look for a rush of activity Friday night! I'm finishing up my free-lance art jobs and will be in a video for Johnny Cobb's new website on Thursday. I'll let you know how that turns out. I made a rush out to the old house in Bossier City to trim the bushes which I've been meaning to do for the last month or so...did it all, trimmed and bagged, in about 25 minutes...a new record! I don't think I'm going to get much else done here at the new house. The place is covered with leaves and I'm not making much headway. I overloaded five bag-fulls of leaves yesterday and you can't see where I made a dent. I also want to finish the gutters before we go...good luck with that...maybe it'll happen?

The Rush

Here we are, four full days before we leave for Oz, and I'm already worn out. Today was busy...worked in the yard and knocked the leaves off the roof, worked on three design projects, sent some items off with FedEx, trying to finish up bike club uniform orders, and some other stuff I can't remember right now. The Wife is equally as full with her schedule and aggravated her shoulder when she took a tumble on her bike yesterday morning, not even a quarter mile from the house. She caught the edge of the pavement with her front wheel and went right over as she was coming around to get alongside me. She went back home and I continued on to see if any of the kids were going to show up for a ride in 38-degree temps. They didn't and I went back home to visit the wounded.

The weekend was pretty much the same....lots to do, made the mandatory visits to family members (not as bad as that sounded, just needed to be done before we fly out and the weekend was our last chance). Had a nice easy ride with one of the girls on the Centenary cycling team. I raised her saddle halfway thru the ride and it made a lot of difference in her spinning style and efficiency. It was cold that Saturday morning but the sun was full-out and it felt warmer than you would think.

Started the process of packing, making sure the luggage tags were updated, folding up the clothes for the summer season down under. The only cold weather clothing we're taking is light stuff for while we're in the States. Once we start flying we'll be in planes and airports...we'll only be outside when we're in Los Angeles transferring between terminals and it'll be in the mid-50's out there. But if the Qantas flight is cooler than usual then we'll have what we need to stay cozy along with a blanket and pillow.

I'm looking forward to the travel but the run-up this week is going to be brutal!

Sometimes We Gotta Go Walkabout

In less than two weeks we are off for Oz! The movie "Australia" will be opening soon and it is raising hopes in the island continent of increasing tourism there. Most of the movie was shot in Jonnene's home state of Western Australia in the Kimberly region.

There was a good story in The Western Australian.

But you can check out two new online commercials at the Australia Tourism website. Click on the box called "Come Walkabout" and take a look. First is a short called "Billabong" and then one called "Boab". They both star the same kid who is in the Australia movie.

Pretty good stuff.

Making money on cycling

Today's ride was a good one...I made eleven cents!! That is, I found a penny and a dime in two different parking lots during stops in our Sunday 54-mile odyssey. I'm pretty good at that. I can spot a coin in a parking lot quicker than most people. My biggest payday was when I found 65¢...two quarters, a dime, and a nickel...in a church parking lot. I tell Jonnene that this bike riding thing is paying off, although it might take about five years to collect enough money to buy a pair of riding gloves! Does this make me a professional cyclist?

It was a busy weekend, as far as the bike was concerned. I totaled 107 miles for two days of riding but my legs felt lousy for the most part. Last Saturday I knocked out 73 miles like it was nothing but this weekend it felt like I had no power and my legs just ached mostly the whole time. I could keep up with everyone but it was an effort to do so. Jonnene had some PT credit classes she had to take so I did my riding and some work around the house both days. The leaves are falling constantly and I'm raking them up constantly. I think the leaves are winning the battles but I'll win the war...eventually....I hope.

Okay, He's In

I paid little attention to the news after I voted, so I woke up to the radio alarm clock and found out Obama is our new President. Not a big surprise but I was hoping for a miracle that I suspected wouldn't come. The next four years are going to be very interesting. About 43% of Americans don't pay any income tax and if Obama's able to get that number up to 50% with his "spread the wealth" tax ideas, he'll be able to guarantee himself another four years. "If you plan to rob Peter to pay Paul, you can always count on the support of Paul."

Half of American knows what's coming...the other half hasn't the slightest idea and I doubt they even care. "Change" is a-coming! The new Congress will see to that. Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi said that the House will be more bipartisan with a super-majority Democrat presence. That's a joke, because with that kind of power they don't have to listen to anything the opposition says to do what they want. The Republicans will, basically, be taking up space in the Capital Building. They'll be unable to get any of their bills passed which will make their constituents unhappy and eventually be voted out of office to be replaced with Democrats...that's what the current Democrats are counting on. This will be an ugly time for our country. Sad to see it in my lifetime.

The Vote

Well, I voted today. Stood in line for about 20 minutes (my precinct line was shorter than the other one, thank goodness!) but soon after I got into my place there were about 40 folks who lined up behind me. I timed it just right!

Overheard in line at the voting place:

"The first time I voted for President, it was for Roosevelt."

"Which one?"

Tomorrow morning I'll either be surprised that McCain won or saddened because he lost. If Obama wins, there'll be millions of Americans who will be adjusting their financial status to lessen the damage he will cause in the next four years. If McCain wins....well, it won't be as bad. I can hardly wait for 2012.......

Good turnout for this morning's ride with eight hardy souls out in the cooler temps. The speed always drops like the temperatures as opposed to when we ride during the spring and summer. I doubt we spent any kind of real time above 22 mph and that was fine with me since my legs didn't feel too spritely, almost like they felt at the Tour de Ouachita a couple of weeks ago. But nobody in this ride would be able to ride away from me, no matter how I felt today. There was lots of talk about some of the local propositions on the ballot and how dumb some of them were. We have a few guys who are well versed in the local politics and they can be quite frank about it all. Makes for an entertaining ride before we get to the parkway to speed it up.

Miles

Knocked out a 2 mile run this morning. My left heel has been feeling pretty good since Jonnene worked on it last Wednesday but I felt it during part of the first mile, with it easing toward the end of the run. It seems okay now. I'll know more as the day goes on to see if it stiffens up or not. That'll let me know if I should lay off the running for a while.

Speaking of...I forgot to mention that I set a new personal record for miles run in a calendar year. My previous high had been a total of 237 miles in 2006 and with today's run I now have 255 miles in 2008. Wonder if I can hit 300? That will depend on how my heel feels.

This is My Say for Tuesday

This Tuesday is the BIG election day...Super Tuesday, I think it's called. And it's an important one since our country's also electing a new President. I'm worried plenty about the possible new direction we could be taking and it's beyond me how half this country is taking the American Idol approach to selecting the next Commander-in-Chief.

As I've said in an earlier post, Barack Obama is not a choice for me in this election. He is NO choice. I'm not big on McCain but he's the only choice I've got. Regarding Obama, I don't understand how so many people want to elect a man who has absolutely no experience on the national or international stage, has virtually no idea what the Constitution really means (he demonstrates it daily), is openly advocating socialist ideas without using the word, and suggests things that are a violation of common sense (at least if you're a capitalist, which I am).

I mean, when I hear his recent suggestion of forming a "Civilian National Security Force", all I can think about are Hitler's "Brown Shirts". Yeah, I'll admit that's a stretch of my imagination but what is the need of this? An organization that he says should be as powerful as our nation's military? With Obama, words mean things and there's too many people who aren't listening. If you ask an Obama supporter to tell you what are his accomplishments in his government career, you can't get an answer (there isn't one). If you ask that supporter what Obama means by "Change", you can't get any specifics. They don't know what the change is but, by damn, they know they want it. That's the problem here....nobody knows what Obama stands for and yet there are so many who want to elect him to one of the most powerful positions in the world. This man chooses Marxists for his friends (he said so in his first book) and hangs with people who are anti-American (how can we think he won't surround himself with the same people in the White House?). As others have said, he is an empty suit and will be controlled by others who want to make this country less about freedom and more about "fairness" which we know doesn't exist in the real world. I can only hope that the Senate will not get the super majority of Democrats so that there's hope of slowing Obama's plans for all of us. Better yet would be if he isn't elected President. McCain will be better for the USA, not great, but better in the long run for all of us.

If Obama's being endorsed by our enemies around the world, then what do you think? They still want America destroyed or beaten down, and they think it'll be easier with him as President. That is really all I need to know about not voting for him.

I'm afraid for my country for the first time in my life. And all I can do is vote, using all the heart and soul and knowledge that I have.

Saturday

A bit of conversation from our ride yesterday where we covered 65 miles:

We've approached a "T" intersection and stopped because a car was coming from the left. After it passed, we made a left turn and Joe says "We could have made that." (meaning we could have pulled out before the car got there...which was doubtful).

Me: "Joe, what is your definition of the term 'we'?"

Joe: "You, Tom, Jon, and Duece."

Me: "What about you?"

Joe: "I would have stopped."

I got in about 73 miles all told and for the record I had a great ride. It was totally unexpected since I hadn't been on the bike much the last couple of weeks and the Tour de Ouachita ride a week ago wasn't one of my better efforts. I averaged 20.6 mph for the distance, enjoyed the company, and you couldn't have asked for better weather. Just cool enough to put arm and knee warmers at the start but got warm enough to take them off later in the ride. Jonnene rode with another group and got in about 54 miles. I met her in the parking lot of the church where we ride from after she had finished and I rolled in with the small group I was with. I dropped off the arm warmers and the vest in the car, then got an extra 8 miles by riding to the house while she drove home.

Later that evening we went to a birthday party for an old friend of mine who had turned 60 and it was a lot of fun. Saw some folks I hadn't seen in several years and even Jonnene knew a handful of folks out there!

Oh, the election....

Did anyone see the Obama half-hour infomercial last night?

Yeah, me neither.

Wearin' Out

Both Jonnene and I are dealing with a few aches and pains right now, probably leftovers from all the activities we've done over the year. I'm still dealing with what I thought was a tendon problem in my left heel but she thinks it's more of a soft tissue issue under the tendon. She did some ultra-sound on it during a break at work and taped it up. Jonnene, meanwhile, is having a shoulder problem brought on when she picked up her bike with one hand to fix a chain during a bike tour. She's having one of the PT's at work look at her right now. It's really restricted her swimming and makes it difficult to sleep on her left side.

I can run with the heel the way it is, the pain goes away after a half mile but if I leave the foot in one position for a while it hurts to get it loose again. Doesn't happen all the time but often enough. I've just about decided not to do the half-marathon trail run on Nov. 8th and might just curtail all my running before our trip to Australia (I've already run for 8 miles this week). I don't want to have to deal with keeping my foot in basically one position during all the flights we have to take...especially the 13-hour one between Los Angeles and Melbourne...and try to loosen my foot up every time I try to stand up. So it looks like I'll be spending time trying to get the thing healed as much as possible. I'll play this by ear but The Wife is thinking I should try to see an ortho before the Oz trip if it's possible.

Busy last few days!! I spent most of last Monday in Little Rock doing a photo shoot with my friend Paul. We shot a bunch of pics of bicycle saddles being developed by John Cobb for his new company, Cobb Cycling. Yep, Blackwell Research has bit the dust and the remainder of their inventory is being sold off which is a shame. Their website is still up but most of the major players are doing other things. Dave is now doing sales for the ISM Saddle while JC is starting up his own biz with Cobb Cycling. Right now he'll start with two basic saddle designs and will expand that next year. One of his new saddles, the VFlow, which is a redesign of the Flow saddle that Blackwell used to sell and has been a popular saddle. Here it is with the new graphics:
We have three of the old Flow saddles on our bikes and I need to replace one of them.

Last Saturday we spent in Monroe, doing the Tour de Ouachita bike tour that morning...a cold ride with lots of hills! Showered at a friend's house and hit the mall that afternoon. Then went to the ULM football game where we watched my beloved Warhawks blow a 21-0 lead and lose in the last 22 seconds, 29-28, to Florida Atlantic.

Yesterday on the Set

Spent 14 hours on the set of "The Year One" on Monday....8 hours at the standard rate, 6 hours of overtime at time-and-a-half, and twenty-five extra dollars for being an "action extra" which meant we got placed closer to live explosive devices and ran a lot! It was fun! But I got really tired from all the standing I did. Here's some pictures:
This is outside the extras' dinner tent where you can see the "outside" of the city of Sodom. This was an entire city with alleyways, doors, streets, and a large city plaza. Once you were inside you were back in Biblical Days except for the film cameras and modern-dressed film crew members...and the LSU pop-up tent among the other tents in the corner of the plaza. The plaza featured a sacrificial platform in the center and a place of pagan worship with a giant bull's head with fire in its eyes and mouth...pretty cool! At one side was a royal palace and another side with a shopping bazaar.

Here I am the extras' tent in my costume as a lower level citizen of Sodom. I spent most of the day without my glasses and watch which they didn't have back then. It wasn't so bad...I can see well enough, just don't ask me to read a sign! You can see the week's worth of facial hair I grew for the part. It used to be darker when I was younger!

During a break in filming, I'm standing with a couple of other extras, Kate and Kim. There were over 300 of us "citizens of Sodom" and we were constantly being herded on and off the set...felt like we were leaving a sporting event sometimes! I was glad to return to the 21st century at the end of the day!

I drove to Minden at 5 o'clock in the morning and then got on a bus for a drive to a gravel and sand pit near the town of Sibley. It was dark and we went to a large tent where the extras would be set up for breaks and lunch (which was great!). After filling out our paperwork, we were sent to the wardrobe tent to be fitted for our costumes and makeup (which I didn't get). The place was full...there were a couple of rows of mirrors with people getting makeup, half the tent was rows of costumes on racks, and wardrobe people running around trying to get the slow rows of extras moving about. If you were a "slave" you got extra attention at make-up with whip marks on the back and a dirty, filty look. Some women got "kids and babies" to carry around, which were actually manikins.

When we were on the set, we saw lead actor Jack Black all the time. He looks exactly as you always see him, he's a nut, is a little on the heavy side, and entertained us sometimes between takes. The director was a character and briefly dipped into the political waters when he told the extras "How about that Colin Powell?" in reference to his endorcing Obama for president. He got mostly silence which I don't think he was expecting and it was funny to watch him get out of that hole. I liked him but it's obvious we wouldn't see eye-to-eye politically.

I mentioned explosions earlier....in the scene we shot from different angles and in different moments of the scene, the city of Sodom is being hit by meteors (getting it's just desserts from God) and there are impacts in certain spots around the plaza. In fact, we had four of them. One was initiated from an air gun at the sacrificial altar and the other three were genuine electric-blasting-cap-fired explosions that fired chunks of stone-colored cork into the air. These things sounded as loud as Civil War cannons and many of the extras wore ear protection (I didn't). One scene, with two takes, had double explosions for two meteors hitting the plaza...I think our "action extras" were called the X-Group (x-pendable?) because they placed us closer to the explosions but not as close as the stunt men were. That meant we ran a lot when the director yelled action. On the first take I had to run toward a gateway with about 30 other X-groupers and I could feel the concussion of the explosion followed about a half second later of being peppered with a rain of small and large pieces of cork! Lots of smoke everywhere and the wealth of confusion that the director wanted.

We waited until everything was cleaned up to do a second take and one of the assistant directors told me and two other guys to go to the right this time toward another gateway. We hit our marks and on "Action!" I turned to the right....except that the edge of my sandle got caught between two of the pavers and I went straight to the ground hitting my right elbow and hip (but not badly...just surprisingly). A female extra almost fell on top of me and I scrambled up heading for the gateway. So now I've got a bit of bruised hip and a scrape on my elbow. Oh, the things I do for my art. But, anyway, that's how my day went. Lots of running, lots of standing in the sun, a very tasty lunch (BBQ'd chicken, pasta, rice/beans, salad, and chocolate cake), met several new people, and I should be getting a check in a couple of weeks.

AND this time I got in front of the camera! If I make it into the movie's final cut, I'll have to see if I can find myself in the crowd. Might have to wait for the DVD to come out so I can go over the film frame-by-frame.

Early to Bed

Early night tonight! Gotta get up at 4 am to prep for my drive to Minden to be an extra in "The Year One". I was checking online for the list of extras for tomorrow's shoot and there must be at least 300 people who have to be there! I think I've mentioned before that I will be one of the "citizens of Sodom" but I'm in a list of about 30-40 guys who are called "action extras"...I guess I will be doing something different than the other couple of hundred extras. I dunno...do I run around the set or something? I'll let ya know what happens. Another day, another 58 dollars or so.

Today was a slow day. Jonnene had to work again, working on three open wounds and a new patient. It didn't sound like a lot of fun to me but that's the nature of the job on a weekend. I did some work in the yard and cleaned up some stuff. Jonnene did some housework after she got back along with a bit of shopping for things we needed and in short supply of. About mid-afternoon, I met with Blake B, a high school senior going to a rural school near Shreveport since I am mentoring him for his senior project. It's a cartoon strip about a close encounter between the sun and the moon, with human personas. I'm to help him put the script together and show him techniques on drawing the strip for his presentation in mid-November. We've put in a total of five hours on the project and he's doing a pretty good job so far. I meet with him again on Wednesday and we should get the bulk of the art done at that time. I didn't want to do this mentoring thing at first but it's not been all that bad. He's a skinny kid, way thinner than I was that age...and I was skinny back in 1973!

Wish me luck...I'm about to be one of a few hundred faces out of focus in the background of some movie!!

A Good Run

I don't think I've ever been this relaxed going into a run as I was for this year's Autumn Breeze 10K yesterday. I had not been running as much as I had wanted because of my Achilles tendon soreness, trying to take it easy and not make things worse because I could have run on it too much. I had decided to just run the way I always had, with 8-minute miles, and if the heel flared up I would just bow out of the run and walk back to the truck. Basically no pressure to perform...just a workout as part of getting ready for the Louisiana Trails half-marathon in three weeks.

It was a great morning for a run...cool, lots of people talking and laughing. I heard there were over 500 registered by Friday afternoon for the various runs of 10K, 5K, and a 5K walk. I spoke to Frank, or as we know him by his nickname "Deuce", who is 57 years old and races on our bike team. He had crashed at last weekend's Tour de FireAnt ride...you probably read about that in my earlier post...and was still sporting the scabs from the skin he lost on his left arm and knee. Like me, he was wanting to do a relatively easy run so we both decided to try for that 8 minute pace and not get too eager to go too fast when the gun goes off.

When we started the pace was kinda what I wanted: just above the pace I wanted but not that fast. In fact, I felt pretty comfortable for the first mile while I was weaving between and around the slower runners in front of me on the jogging trail alongside the Fant Parkway. I figured I was in the first 40-50 runners making my way up a bit at a time. Of course, there was no way I could catch the leaders...those guys are just too fast and were already a couple of hundred meters ahead of me. When we passed the Mile One marker, my watch said 7:22 which surprised me because I didn't feel I was going that fast. I thought I better slow it down to last for the entire 6.2 miles. At two miles I caught up to Daniel who is training for Ironman Florida coming up in three weeks. He was probably going to do more miles after this particular run so he wasn't exactly pushing it. We talked a minute and I let him set the pace through this neighborhood the course took us through. Then Deuce caught up to us and the three of us had put a really good gap on the runners behind...we were probably in the top thirty by now. Deuce and I ran behind Daniel, and I decided I was going to try to keep up for as long as I could. But the pace still didn't feel that particularly hard...I was feeling no pain at all from my Achilles which was very good.

At three miles, I told Deuce that we were at a 7:15 pace...we had gotten faster! He said he didn't know if he could hold that and I replied I wasn't sure I could either. But we kept going, following Daniel who was only 10-15 feet in front. We got to a turnaround near downtown at 3.5 miles back onto the jogging trail, heading on a return to the start at Stoner Boat Launch. Now we could see who was behind us as we passed each other on the trail. When Daniel's wife Elka came past, he dropped off to run in with her so that left Deuce and I on our own. The only runner we could see in front was about 150 meters ahead and I figured the two of us were about an equal distance in front of whoever was behind us. He stayed about 10 feet in front of me and I never could close the distance but I really didn't care if I did or not. When we got to the finish, he came across 3.5 seconds before I did and we were really pleased with our runs!

I finished the 6.2 miles in 45:13.7 which is about 26 seconds slower than I did it last year when I was running more! I came in 28th overall out of the 168 folks who did the 10K distance. I was fairly happy and my Achilles didn't complain once although it would be aching later in the day. Got 6th place in the 50-54 age group (there's a lot of older fast distance runners around here...17 of the top 30 were over the age of 40!). The pace for the entire distance turned out to be a 7:18 per mile, way faster than I intended but I'll take it!

Jonnene had to work this weekend but we went out later in the day to do some shopping and rent a DVD to watch. Pretty much a mellow day after the run.