It's raining outside...I'm sick inside

Man, I've seen lots of rain in my life...some of the nastiest, heaviest deludges all the way to light powder-puffs of mist. But the rain that's falling in Perth right now is another animal. Big, old droplets and lots of them. It started thundering around 4 am this morning and it's been pretty much raining ever since. Perth airport was shut down with flights waiting on the tarmac unable to go to the gates because of planes already at the gates unable to leave. It's been impressive, no doubt.

In the meantime, I've gotten sick and stayed inside all day. No fun. Nothing to report. We're having some people over later tonight and I'll try to join in but don't know if I can hack it with everyone the entire evening. Hate it.

Undies and Oz

Here I am in Australia and I'm up to my neck in underwear. Well, not really up to my neck but underwear/knickers seem to be at the top of my recent purchases since I've been here. Y'see, I planned to get rid of my current, well-worn, and not-exactly-new tighties at the end of the year and replace it all with new stuff. So I decided to start my new supply with some Aussie-styled duds. So far I've bought 5 pair of briefs and 3 pair of boxer briefs. Will there be more to come?

We arrived in Oz about 10 days ago, planning to stay for a bit, visiting family and friends. It's been a nice smooth trip so far but now it looks like I'm coming down with a summer cold (it's summer here...well, almost) and even though I can function just fine I still feel like I'm a half-second out of sync. I'll just go to bed early, I guess, and sleep it off.

Unconnected

Acck! Spent most of the day without internet! The suffering was tremendous and the withdrawal pains stupendous. But we're back on now. All is well. Peace, out.

More Random Stuff

Well, Jonnene and I have taken action on how we're getting from Shreveport to Dallas when we go on our trip to see her family in Oz later this year. The original plan was to rent a car one-way to Dallas, then when we return a few weeks later we'd rent a car one-way again back to Shreveport. There would be a drop-off fee, of course, but it would definitely be cheaper than flying. Taking a plane from Shreveport to Dallas and back is ridiculously expensive and we had the time to afford to drive there and back plus save save at least $250 each way, if not more. Jonnene's mother had suggested this and it sounded like a great idea.

My favorite part of the flight to Oz is the sunrise while over the Pacific Ocean.

But a few days ago Jonnene came across a fare sale with American Airlines that offered a one-way between the two cities for $84. After adding the fees it would be $96. This was more than half the regular price! Add in the fees for two bags of luggage ($50 total) and flying over was only $40 more than renting a car plus the cost to fill up the gas tank before turning the car in...not bad! We could consider the $40 to be a "convenience" fee for the flight. The advantage is that we can wait a couple more hours before having to leave the house, giving us more time to pack or run last minute errands or just relax a bit. And we still save around $200 for the trip to DFW.

Of course, we still have to get from Dallas to Shreveport when we come back. The fare sale expires mid-December so we can't use it for the return. We're going to wait a while to see if any other sales pop up and, if not, we'll go to Plan A and rent a car to drive back. We'll still save money and should be back home by early evening of the day we fly back into the States.

It's no secret that we're both ready to go!

Last Saturday I participated in the Louisana/Mississippi road race championships (bicycles) down in Natchez, MS. We drove down that morning since my race didn't start until 2:10 pm...didn't need to get a hotel. Saturday is when the age group races take place and I have found myself in the position of qualifying for the Masters 55-59 age group. We were going to be paired with the 60+ racers so this more than makes this an "old man" race. Attendance for these races was low this year for some reason and we only had six guys in the 55+ and three in the 60+, making only nine total racers to cover the 36 miles of a 7-lap race in Natchez State Park. There should have been twice as many but it wasn't happening this year. Don't know where everybody else was.

The weather conditions couldn't have been much better...wasn't too hot, wind wasn't bad. All I was worried about was being able to keep up on this course. Within 100 meters after you start you have to make a climb up to the top of the levee, make a sharp negative turn to the right, cross the 400-meter-long levee and soon climb three short but very steep hills. These hills always get me and I've never been able to stay with the pack more than two laps. With a small field I wasn't sure if I'd have enough people to hang with before the group might break up.

We found a great shady spot to park, next to my teammates Joe and Brian. After I got dressed in my cycling duds we went out to warm up, discuss some tactics, and talk to some of the other racers we knew. Jonnene and I worked out how I wanted to take the bottle handups and by the race start time we seemed to have everything worked out. I choose to use a set of aero wheels mainly to see if they'd do me any good on this course and, also, just for the heck of it! The front was a Zipp 404 and the back was a Blackwell 100mm deep carbon wheel, both tubulars with fairly good tires on them.

The start of our race. I'm in the middle of this photo as we begin the climb up to the top of the levee.

The race began faster than I thought it would, not anything I couldn't handle...yet...but still quick considering the small group we had. Some of the guys thought we'd just stay together before making attacks later in the race but, no, there were attacks from the beginning and I was trying to keep up until my legs were warmed up enough. The pack crawled up the hills in the first lap and I was happy to see that I was staying with them but it was still a hard series of climbs, just as I remembered them. I had some trouble keeping up on the fast downhill curves, leaning the bike while going 30+ mph (I'm not a big fan of doing that) and, as a result, I let a 200-meter gap open up between me and the rest of the pack ahead. Then a fast downhill right turn, with a bump, onto Wikcliff Road and I used the next two hills with their descents to bridge back up to the pack which wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be. The course is a 5.2 mile loop and at this point we had three miles to go before starting the next lap of seven total.

It was fast, around 28-29 mph through all these beautiful trees that line the road but which also has plenty of light and dark as you go through the spotty shade. Suddenly you can see well in the light and just as suddenly it goes dark as your eyes try to adjust to the shade from the trees. Then you pop out into the sun and go through the rear entrance of the park over some rougher road. I went past Jonnene in the feed zone, happy to still be in the pack. We were still all together starting our second lap. The second lap went roughly the same as the first but the hills were getting harder to climb. I got gapped again on the descents but not as badly and easily made it back up to the group before we topped the first hill on Wikcliff. I was getting hopeful that I might be hanging in longer than I thought I would. A couple of the guys were riding kinda stupidly and I got cut off twice but there was no contact. I kept an eye on them real close after that.

I took a new cold water bottle from Jonnene as we began the third lap. We climbed up the levee again, went across, and did the series of hills again. It was getting harder but I was staying with the group and I getting my confidence up that I might make a difference in this race. After the hills I moved up to the front so that I could control the pack as we went through the curves...at my speed. It worked well but I decided to go to the back since I had minimized the gap threat on this lap. At this point we dropped a Tiger Cycling rider so there was just 8 of us now. Joe and Brian were up at the front, marking Randy, a very good racer from New Orleans. Then I felt it...a slight whump-whump-whump from the back of the bike. I had a flat! I couldn't believe it! Being in the back I couldn't tell Joe and Brian what was happening but I pulled over, shifted the gears so I could remove the rear wheel as the follow truck came up. I got my spare wheel out of the back of the truck and quickly changed them out. The driver put his hand on my backsides and pushed me down the road. It was a really quick change....that rarely happens. So I picked it up and thought maybe the pack will slow down for a lap and I could catch on. That wasn't going to happen. When I got to the start/finish line I looked up at the top of the levee and I couldn't see the pack at all. That killed my incentive to chase so I backed off, told Jonnene that I'd flatted but I was going on anyway (you never know what's going to happen up front). She wished me good luck as I went by.

After climbing the hills again, I waited for the Tiger Cycling rider to catch up to me so I'd have some company on the road and we stayed together the rest of the time. We also caught a rider from the 45+ age group that had started five minutes ahead of us so we all rode together...except for one time when the 45-pluser try to get away. We didn't chase him since he wasn't in our race but we ended up catching him anyway. He had to do two more laps than we did so there was no point in him attacking us. At the end of the last lap we made a half-hearted sprint for the line which I "won" so I finished officially fifth out of six in my age group. Brian got second in the 55+ part of the race and Joe was third in the 60+.

On the last lap: I'm in the back with the other guy in my race and the 45+ racer as we start to go across the levee. I'm ready for the race to be over by this point.

We packed up quickly and headed out. Our original intention was to drive up to Monroe to see the ULM-Grambling football game but it was so late that the game would have been half over by the time we got there. So we ate at a restaurant with Joe and Brian in Winnsboro which had an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet...sweet! Then it was on to Shreveport where I listened to the game on the radio while Jonnene read her Kindle. BTW, the Warhawks won 35-7!

My Warhawks got their running game going against the Tigers of Grambling.

Saturday...wasn't there one last week?

This morning Jonnene and I got up at 6am which is a more respectable hour to wake up for the day compared to the 5am alarms so that we can walk the dogs to we can get a quick ride in or go to yoga/pilates (well, Jonnene does that). This time we were going to do the local bike club's monthly ride from Ford Park which started at 7:30am. We had already put our gear together the night before so it wouldn't take long to pack up the car and get on our way. So why not sleep in a bit later?

With the hot weather we've had (last significant rainfall was June 22nd) it would already be near 90F by the time we started our ride. It was a huge crowd...don't have a total number...but it included several from Texas who were invited to partake in the ride and the food that is served up afterward.

The group starts to gather up before heading out from Ford Park.

The ride itself went pretty well with the longest distance being 48 miles which I would eventually get into a small group of faster riders in the last 10 miles where we really pushed the pace with some significantly-fast surging up the hills. Jonnene rode really well on the way out but started to have some issues with the heat in the last part of her ride. She felt she hadn't hydrated enough the day before but she would be fine. It was getting close to 100F by the time we returned to the park. The food and drinks were welcomed and fairly well consumed. Good time had by all, generally speaking.

After getting some much needed showers and a bit of rest at home we headed over to my mom's house to move a queen-sized mattress from one part of her house to another and get her computer set up for Skype so she can talk to and see us when we go to Oz. She can also have a chance to talk to Holly while she is in Hong Kong. Then we made a quick stop by the grocery store for a few items. The rest of the day/night we're at home, just relaxing. Tomorrow I need to get some training in for the individual time trial district championships a week from now in LaPlace. I'm quite sure it'll be hot tomorrow, too!

Trying Again...

I tell you, I thought I had last written in this blog much more recently. Then I finally look at the date of my last entry and it's in March....MARCH! Time has flown by way too fast and I haven't kept up. Many things have happened. Here's a brief look at them and I'll get into any particular ones at a later date...hopefully, not five months later:

1. Jonnene and I have been married 5 years as of May 6, 2011.

2. I took three of my Centenary triathlete students to the national collegiate championships in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Two weeks later a tornado came through Tuscaloosa, damaging property and killing people.

3. My niece, Holly, went to Hong Kong this week to be an exchange student at Lingnan University. And she's the reason I'm trying to get my blog active again (she's started one herself to record her experiences).

4. I did my Rouge-Roubaix bicycle race last March. The first eighty miles weren't so bad. The last 26 were not pleasant at all, finished the 106 miles in 6:06, slower than I wanted to go. Good thing: NO flats.

5. I've already competed in two other bike races since then and I've three more (I think) on my schedule left to go.

6. Jonnene has done a couple of triathlons but she's not as active this year. Kinda taking a break from all the action.

7. Both of us are going to Australia late in the year. We hope to bring Holly down from Hong Kong at some point while we're there for a visit. Hey, we're on that side of the world, Holly's on that side of the world....just makes sense.

8. We have had over 45 days of 100+ degree temperatures this summer. No measurable rain since June 22nd. The grass in the front yard is dry and brown. The good side? Don't have to mow it!!

9. I'm feeling very optimistic for a good football season out of my ULM Warhawks. We have a good team this year and we will be in a bowl game! I promise you!!!

10. I got first place in my age group in a few races this year (duathlon and a couple of 5K runs). My competition is skeered of me.

Riding Against the Wind

Knocked out 80 miles today. Eighty. My last long ride before the Rouge-Roubaix bicycle race in St. Francisville, LA in a week. That'll be 106 miles of exquisite effort and some pain with about 20-22 miles of the route on gravel/dirt roads, some of which possess a few hills that'll more than tempt you to get off the bike (if you don't fall over first) and walk. I've done The Rouge three times and I've walked parts of the course each time. Watch the video at the link above and you'll see why.

Anyways, I had a pretty good ride today. Got a little aggressive on some climbs and went thru a couple of dirt sections with a bit of speed. Our ride "leader", Mack (that means he knows the routes better than we do), followed me on a muddy section because I was picking good lines thru the debris and he said he trusted me to lead through. I was chasing Chris but he already had a good lead going into the section, so catching him was going to be a bit hard...however, I didn't have to. I did go after him and Warren a couple of other times when they took off later in the ride and caught them. I'm not going to say I'm ready for The Rouge (I'm not...not enough, anyway) but I hope to make myself proud. It'll be a good workout and maybe I might place well enough in the Masters 50+ to get some points for my team.

Jonnene and I are talking about other improvements we need to do for our house. The kitchen is a high priority but not an immediate one. We're moving our sights to the back yard for now. The gutters that I put up a couple of years ago are going to come down and we'd get new ones put up by professionals. Remove a couple of trees, too, but I need to remove part of the patio bricks and concrete so that the trunk of one of the trees can be ground down after it has been reduced to a stump. Replace the patio surface with new patterned concrete and possible include a deck. Then improve the drainage and get some grass back there. Oh, yeah, and a new storage building would be nice, too. Obviously, we'll do this a bit at a time, in a timely and orderly manner.

Already had some work done on the front of the house last week to replace some rotting fascia boards. The husband of a friend (who is also a graphic designer) is an independent contractor and I hired him to fix it all. He got it done in a day and he did a fine job. I finished painting the new work on Friday after priming the wood and reset one of the corner pillars on the front porch in the meantime.

It's always something.

Oh, what's been happening lately?

- I recently exchanged Twitter messages with Adrianne Curry, an actress and model. She won the first season of America's Next Top Model. We discussed the maturity level of 18-year-olds in regard to military service and voting. I was actually surprised she responded to my comments. Of course, that doesn't compare to being able to correspond with Michael Yon who is a war correspondent (he has a book coming out that I will have to get a copy of). He and I have exchanged a couple of conversations via FaceBook about Mount Everest, Katrina (the hurricane), and flying into Iraq. He's former military and writes about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus he has an intense interest in the Far East, especially Thailand. His photography is outstanding and his writing equally so.

- Taking three of the kids from the Centenary Cycling & Triathlon Club to Fort Worth this weekend to participate in the Texas State Duathlon Championships on Sunday morning. I won't be racing this time. The entry fee this week was $60 and it wasn't worth that much money for me to run-bike-run in under 75 minutes. Heck, it was $50 each for the students a couple of weeks ago (that the club is paying for) and I thought it was too much then! I don't understand why it's so expensive unless it has something to do with insurance and liability. I hope the race packet has some decent swag in it or we're not coming back to this particular race.

- I've been trying to prepare for the Rouge-Roubaix bike race coming up on March 13th. I need a couple more long rides (like, 60+ miles) to feel like I have a chance of completing this race the way I'd be proud of. I've already paid the entry fee (that was a lot, too) and reserved the hotel so I gotta go. There's already 23 Masters racers (40+ and 55+ age groups) pre-registered including four of my teammates from Team LaS'port. I'm expecting that number of 23 to probably double by race day, maybe even triple! The bike is ready to go. Am I? Only three more weeks to train!

- Looking to do a few needed repairs on the house this spring and I still have leaves to rake up. We have a fascia board that is apparently rotting so I'm going to have a guy come out to see what needs to be done...hopefully it's just that one board. So many things we want to do in the back yard. Sheesh! We need to cut back on the spending this year since we're planning a big trip to Oz but there are still projects that have to be taken care of. Home ownership is a wonderful thing, right?

Bumpy Ride

I committed to do the Rouge-Roubaix bike race on March 13th down in St. Francisville. As I signed up online I was wondering if this was smart...still not sure but I've paid the money and I guess I gotta go. The Rouge is in its 13th year and I've done three of the races with the last one being in 2004. It wasn't a very good race then because I wasn't in shape for it and really shouldn't have been there. So I've wanted to go back and try to redeem myself but most of the time it didn't work out. So now I'm going to do it and, like the the marathon, it'll be a matter of getting into shape. The Rouge-Roubaix itself is a 100+ mile bicycle race with about 24 miles of the course on country backroads on dirt and gravel surfaces. It's a hard race and considered to be one of the toughest in these here United States. If you're not in position to contend then you're in a position hoping to just survive. Then when you finish...after swearing you'll never do this race again...you start thinking about how you could do it better next year.

So, yesterday, I went out on my first official training ride for the Rouge. That means a long ride...in this case, about 70 miles...and I went with a few guys who took me on a 265-minute journey thru parts of Caddo and DeSoto Parishes that I'd never been on before. More than half of that ride was on country backroads to simulate some of the sections of the race. They were on mountain bikes and I was the only one on a road bike which means I have no suspension to soften the pounding I would take as I went around, over, and through potholes, bumps, mud, and whatever else you don't normally see on a smooth road. It was actually an enjoyable ride although I did get shook up quite a bit and joked that I thought I had loosen up any blood clots that I might have had, if any. My bike seemed to survive okay but it'll need some cleaning. Here's the LINK to photos of the route that someone else had taken a couple of years earlier. When we rode it, the roads were drier and well packed but we did come across a number of rocky areas including a 1/2 mile of fresh dropped white gravel rock that I had to struggle with to keep upright. Basically you have to keep pedaling the bike...if you stop at any point you'll either fall over or will have to dismount. You won't be able to get back on and ride again, you can only walk out of the mess. I managed to stay on the bike but it took lots of concentration to keep myself from falling on those rocks!

So, yeah, my legs are tired but I'll give them an easy spin late this afternoon before I give the Centenary kids a time trial fitness test. They have a busy semester ahead of them if they want to do the races and they'll have to train. Oh, yeah, and study for their classes, too!

My Step-Mother is a Thief

Wow, it's been a long time since I last posted here, hasn't it? The master bath is finished and it looks great! I'll post a photo sometime later. The holidays and most of this month is all about spending money...and I've reached a point in my life where I hate to spend money. It's a necessary evil but I don't have to like it. The obvious for December is the holidays and getting gifts, going to parties, and such. In January it's all about my truck repairs, dog bi-yearly exams, getting the first flight reservations for our trip to Oz a year from now, getting racing licenses, and buying new racing uniforms. Yuk.....

Anyway, more to come on all that later. As to the headline for this entry, it's true. My step-mother is a thief. I don't say that lightly but with all seriousness. Right now, until she issues a proper apology and offers reparations, I don't intend to have anything more to do with her the rest of my life. It is genuinely all about the principle of the thing.

We had gone to my Dad's house Christmas Eve to spend some time with him and the step-in-laws, most of whom I like and enjoy seeing. I had brought most of the presents, my computer, and other things in a plastic tub so it'd be easier to carry them. The laptop computer was so Jonnene and I could see her family open presents...via Skype...down in Australia on their Christmas morning. After emptying out the plastic tub I noticed that I had included two small packages that I had not meant to bring along...presents, for a couple of other people, of chocolate that I had ordered from a place representing a company in New Zealand. I had gotten Jonnene a whole bunch of the stuff as a present for her. I put them back in the tub to bring back home.

Thing was, I forgot to bring the tub home. At least I didn't forget the computer! I decided that I would get the tub later when the Christmas holiday was past and there was no hurry to get the small packages, wrapped but with no name tags, to the folks I intended for them. I had to go back to Dad's anyway since I had unfortunately duplicated a present he had already received and I would substitute something else for him instead.

So...Monday morning I'm on my way to Dad's and I called while driving to make sure everyone was home. The step-mother answered the call and, after a short chat, I mentioned that I was also going to pick up the tub with the two small presents in it that I'd left in Dad's office last Friday night. Then she said, with surprise, that she didn't know those were presents! She wasn't sure who they belonged to, so she had opened them and consumed the contents! She had eaten two large bars of chocolate in two days not knowing why the chocolate was there or who they were intended for. She had made no attempt to find out who they belonged to, didn't call anybody to inquire. She told me that she was sorry about that, but that the deed was done. She said, "I wish I could take it back but I can't." And she said it very abruptly with no sound of remorse in her voice. Not even an offer to make up for it. I was stunned and just said I'd be there in a little while to get the tub and drop off Dad's gift.

As I drove up to the house, I was getting more angry about what happened. The packages were wrapped in gift paper...there were no name tags...they were found in a plastic tub, not under the tree or in a place where a "secret Santa" might have left them as obvious presents to her. She had taken it upon herself to open them and eat them. Did she think for a minute that somebody might be calling to ask about them? I couldn't believe the height of arrogance displayed here.

I came into the house and gave Dad his present, which he appreciated, and we talked for a bit about other things. The step-mother came in during that time with a small holiday-styled sack that contained some of her home-made fudge and something else that was wrapped up. She said that she hoped I would accept it as a substitute for the other packages. I told her that it wouldn't (this was fudge that was already in her house, that she could have eaten instead of wolving down the New Zealand chocs...I found it a weak substitute, totally inadequate). She replied as she walked down the hall that that I could take it or leave it. It was up to me. I decided to leave it and put it on a table in Dad's office. If I had accepted it then I would have been giving her a pass and forgiveness for taking something that didn't belong to her. She had offered a poor substitute as compensation plus no offer of money to replace what she had eaten.

It was the principle of the thing and I couldn't forgive that unless she was willing to admit that she did the wrong thing and was truly sorry. I wasn't getting that from her at all. In fact, her tone was such that it felt like she was trying to make me the villain for leaving the chocolate which "tempted" her to open and consume it! I felt no guilt and I knew who was at fault. If I had left anything else, would that mean she was free to take it, too? Did it matter if it was an item of small value or did it mean more if it was an expensive item?

No. It doesn't matter the value. She stole. She made no resonable attempt to compensate or try to realize what she had done. She didn't even ask the nature of the gift....as far as she was concerned it was just some chocolate I probably bought at Wal-Mart or Target. It was much more than that but I'm not going to bother telling her unless I have to. I've never trusted her that much in all the time I've known her but this was the final straw. I do not intend to do anything that involves her if it's within my ability to do. If I ever do have to deal with her it'll be because I have to and can't avoid it. But, essentially, I'm done with her.

Eventually I'll have to explain this to Dad when a future situation calls for it. I don't know what he'll think of that. If he defends her I'll understand. I won't be upset at him for doing that. I'd defend Jonnene in an instant if she were accused of something, false or not. In this case, I just hope Dad and I will be okay with each other.