Art, Bikes and Oz

Back in the States

2012-01-26T06:45:00.003-06:00

Actually, we've been back coming up four weeks now. We got into Dallas on the late afternoon of Monday, January 2nd, after a 15-hour flight from Sydney and we rented a car to drive back to Shreveport where we got to our house around 7 pm. Not bad...if we'd flown back to Shreveport we would have gotten into town about the same time (because it'd be a later flight) and would have cost about three times as much. The drive back allowed us to unwind a bit plus get used to driving on the right side of the road!

This will be brief but I wanted to record these numbers:

1. 66 miles. That's how many total miles I ran while I was in Perth, Australia. I ran every other day for distances ranging from 3 miles (often) to 6 miles (twice). I only missed one day because I was sick so I stayed fairly faithful to the schedule. Didn't run at all during the total four days we were in Sydney.

2. 946. That's the total number of push-ups I did while I was on this trip. We were gone for 43 days and I made a decision that, to help stay in shape, I would do one pushup the first day, two pushups the second day, three the third, and so on to when I got to Day 43 I would be at forty-three pushups for that day. By the time I got to 20 I realized that there was no way I'd do that many...plus more...straight through, so I divided it up to sets. For instance when I was at Day 25 I would do two sets of thirteen and twelve with about a minute's rest in between. On Day 26 it would be thirteen and thirteen, and so on until by Day 43 I was doing three sets of 15, 14, and 14. Since I've been back I've made it a point to continue the exercise by maintaining 20 pushups a day. So far so good. I can see a bit of difference in my shoulders.

Now if I can just work on that stomach!

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

2011-12-06T02:39:00.002-06:00

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

2011-12-05T05:55:00.002-06:00

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

2011-09-13T18:55:00.001-05:00

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

2011-09-12T15:55:00.007-05:00

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?

2011-08-20T20:10:00.003-05:00

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...

2011-08-19T20:10:00.003-05:00

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

2011-03-06T21:23:00.003-06:00

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?

2011-02-18T11:10:00.003-06:00

- 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

2011-01-23T11:05:00.002-06:00

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

2011-01-05T17:09:00.003-06:00

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.

Tired Week

2010-10-09T08:33:00.004-05:00

What a week....we had the funeral for Jim on Tuesday. It was a great service with tremendous music. During the visitation Jim's CD's were playing in the background of the songs he sang and recorded. There was a new appreciation for the deepness and tone of his voice as we visited with relatives and friends. His son and daugher-in-law were able to come down from Tennessee and it was actually the first time I'd ever met them...very nice people and easy to talk to. During the service, one young man named Ben Waites sang. He knew Jim and is going to Louisiana College but didn't hesitate to skip his classes to come to the services. He's also confined to a wheelchair, unable to get much use from his arms and legs but he has the most incredible voice. He sang two songs that were so fitting for the service. Jim would have loved it. Then there were two very young ladies who play violin and had recorded a few songs with Jim years ago. They played a most beautiful duet that really set the mood. Since then Jim's body was cremated and he's at home now while Mom decides, in her own time, what she will do with the remains.

I got the shoes that I'm going to use in the Marine Corps Marathon on the 31st: a pair of Asics Gel-Nimbus 12, size 11, with the proper insoles. Tested them for six miles yesterday morning and they felt great. Even my leg behaved itself, enabling me to go at marathon pace. Tomorrow is my last long training run, about 26 miles, and I'll see how they feel on my footsies for almost five hours.

Here's what's going to get me through my first marathon.
Pretty, ain't they?

Probably because of all the things we've had to do in regards to the funeral and arrangements and such, that's why both Jonnene and I are just worn out. Plus work and the bathroom renovations....oh, yeah, new photo below!

The tile work is done and grout has been applied, as seen in the picture above. Monday the tile will be cleaned and sealant applied. Hopefully, by Tuesday the toilet will be in place as well as the faucet/levers for the sink. We still have to choose cabinet door handles and drawer pulls plus determine the size of the mirror over the sink...we're reusing the mirror from the original bathroom but it'll have to be cut down to a size that'll work in the new place. But so far it's looking really good!

Shower Updates

2010-10-03T21:23:00.003-05:00

The tiling on the bathroom shower has begun! Photos below....

The funeral services for Jim have been scheduled for Tuesday at 1 pm. We spent a couple of hours at the funeral home taking care of paperwork and becoming familiar with how the whole process works. He will be cremated and that procedure was described to us so we'd know what was happening. It all took over 2 hours to get most everything arranged and it seems to be the way we want it. Later I sent a photo of Jim and a written obituary to both the funeral home and the church for them to use in the paper and the service program.

Only did mile repeats today for my marathon training. Next Sunday is 26 miles and then I start tapering. I also signed up Jonnene for the 10K race being held there the same day. Should be fun!

The tiling has started in the shower. The young man doing this is very meticulous in how he sets up the tiles and the details he has created to make this shower a bit unique. He knows his stuff.

A closeup of the back corner of the shower. You can see the little triangular seat that's been placed in the corner. Normally this would be bigger but we were concerned that we needed as much stand-up space in the shower as we could get so it's sized enough to allow one to sit on it but not for long. It's mainly to let Jonnene prop her leg up to shave. The shower floor tile has not been installed yet. The horizontal band with the multi-colored small stones come from an Australian company. The green "spots" on the tiles are tile spacers that'll be removed once the tiles have set.

Jim Parker - RIP

2010-10-02T07:57:00.003-05:00

My stepfather, Jim Parker, passed away last night. It was a surprise or maybe it wasn't a surprise. He had been in two hospitals over the last five weeks after surgery to try to find out why he was having breathing difficulties. It was pretty much determined that he had fibrosis (can't remember the proper name) that may have been the result of being exposed to asbestos in his younger years working in construction and in housing units that he helped maintain for the city. From what I know about asbestos exposure, it is a nasty way to live after it makes itself known. There is no cure.

Both he and Mom had their surgeries the same day. She had gone in to repair a broken wrist, just day surgery. Jonnene drove her to the clinic for her procedure and I drove Jim over to LSUMC for his surgery. I hate, now, thinking that when we drove away from their house that it would be the last time Jim would ever see it. I had a suspicion of the possibility but I was hoping for the best. In fact, all during the time Jim suffered through the recovery from the surgery I felt he would get to go home at some point, even as late as yesterday afternoon. This past week had started hopeful as he was being weaned from his oxygen and starting some therapy. He was happy to get out of that hospital bed and move around a little bit. But Friday morning his CO2 levels were very high and it was hard to wake him. He was put back on oxygen in an attempt to purge the CO2's out of his blood.

Jonnene went up to check on him during her lunch hour and he was rousing some, recognized her being there. When Mom had gotten the news that morning she was upset but relieved some when she got Jonnene's call and update on his condition. I went up there to see him later in the afternoon and Mom had already been there for a couple of hours. His breathing was labored and you could hear him trying to cough up the gunk in his lungs but he didn't have the lung capacity to get enough air to cough it up at all. We were able to talk to him, he wanted to know where his glasses were but didn't want to put them on. Mom and I talked about things regarding Jim and his condition plus some other things.

I left around 4:40 pm to go pick up a couple of items at Target and I thought he was going to improve after he'd had the weekend to recover a bit. I was already thinking we'd get him out of the hospital for a day over the next week. He looked so sad and so tired...we knew that the only thing he wanted was to just go home, even for a short while. Was that so much to want?

Anyway, Mom left soon after I did. She gave Jim a kiss, he kissed her back, and they told each other that they loved each other. She went to the grocery store to get a few things.

I was home with Jonnene when we got the call around 5:45 pm to come back to the hospital because there had been a change in Jim's condition. That's not good news. Then Mom called, upset. She was still in her car when she got the call and wanted to know if we knew anything. We didn't and soon we were on our way back to Willis-Knighton.

When we had gotten those calls the staff on Jim's floor was working to resuscitate Jim. His nurse, Jonathan, had been at the front desk making notes of Jim's condition by checking the monitor there. Jonathan told us later that as he looked at the screen Jim went from having a pulse to virtually no pulse, just like that. It stunned Jonathan for a second and he and others were in Jim's room in seconds since it was just 15 feet away. They tried for 15 minutes to bring him back. We met Mom in the parking lot and went upstairs where they told us he was gone.

So, anyway, this bear of a man who liked to sing and dress as Santa Claus for kids was gone. Now we have to deal with the funeral arrangements and trying to keep Mom in one piece. To say she is sad is an understatement. At the time of this writing there are no plans in place but we'll take care of most of that later today.

I had been hoping we could sneak him home for a while to see his dogs and be in familiar surroundings. I don't think the remainder of his life would have been of any kind of quality that would remotely resemble anything good. At least he's not in pain anymore and the last 26 years with Mom was probably the next closest thing to heaven he could have ever wished for. Mom's face was the last one he saw and I think that would satisfy him.

Long Ways

2010-09-28T21:26:00.005-05:00

Last Sunday I ran 23 miles. NEVER have I run 23 miles. It's a long way. But I had to do it because I have to do these long runs to prepare for my marathon...only 32 days away now. It actually went quite well. I prepared for it in the couple of days before, eating right, drinking enough to be hydrated properly (I had to pee five times during that run since I was so well hydrated), and getting back from a football game in Monroe soon enough Saturday night to allow me to get enough sleep before heading off at 6 am Sunday morning. I ran slowly because the purpose of the long run is to build endurance. Speed in not important. You save the speed work for the shorter runs during the week. So I ran about 3 minutes per mile slower than I would have for the actual race, going at a 3:1 run/walk ratio: run three minutes, walk one minute. I ended up with an 11:07 per mile average, almost dead on three minutes slower than the 8:05-8:15 pace I want to do at the marathon. And I felt very good afterwards. I did some errands and took my niece and her boyfriend out to a quarterhorse ranch that a cycling buddy of mine owns. They seemed to like that a lot.

I also signed up Jonnene to do the 10K run that will be held in conjunction with my marathon up in Washington, DC. We had thought the race was filled with their 10,000 runner limit but a notice came up on FaceBook that fifty spots were open so I grabbed one for her. The nice thing for her is that she'll start her run (at a different location but the same finish line) the same time I do but she'll be done soon enough that she can go back to our hotel, clean up, and come back out to see the last part of my race. She'll be done in about an hour while I'll still have 2 hours and 45 minutes to finish my race...if I do it in the 3:45 time that I want.

The bathroom is coming along and the tile should start going up by Thursday...I hope.

The countertop to the vanity has arrived and was installed.
The undercounter sink was attached, too.

The shower area has had several coats of waterproofing "stuff" applied to the concrete board and surrounding sheetrock. It's almost ready for tiling once the copper pan is attached to the floor. You can also see the two insets on the wall where we will be able to put shampoo bottles and things like soap.
It'll be nice.

More Bath Pics - Part II

2010-09-23T16:51:00.009-05:00

In case you didn't know, we've been in the process of renovating our "master" bath...oh, you DID know. Well, okay, here's the latest pics of the work in progress.

One more look at the vanity and tower before paint was applied.

Jonnene takes a look inside the cabinet. This shot also gives you an idea of the size of the room we're dealing with. The cabinets are not as deep as to allow a little more room to manuver.

The travertine stone tiles are stacked up in the carport waiting to be applied to the shower walls and the bathroom floor.

One last look at the bare studs in the shower area before they are covered up tomorrow. Also a look at the painted walls and ceiling in that direction.

The painted cabinets and walls. The granite counter top will go in next week.

A close-up look at the trim tiles we'll have in the shower area. They are manufactured by an Australian company, Maniscalco, so we had to have it!

View of the entrance to the bath where a pocket door will come out of the left hand side. We'll have to do some painting on the walls, I guess! Hey, there's dogs outside!!!

More Bath Pics

2010-09-17T19:19:00.007-05:00

The vanity and tower have been installed!
Coober checks them out. Hope he doesn't "mark" them!

Here's a better view of the tower (I don't know what else to call it). It has two drawers at the bottom, cabinet doors with shelves inside, and an exposed storage area at the top.
These will be painted later. They had primer put on them today so now they're all white.

At the bottom is the vanity with center drawers and side cabinets...and drawers up top, too. The counter top with the sink will be installed later. The counter will slide between the vanity and the tower. Power outlet is that little hole in the wall. The sink will be at the left with the mirror and lights around it. The place is starting to take shape!

More Renovating, More Running

2010-09-13T21:16:00.015-05:00

Updates....yeah, updates. Sort of a busy weekend. Not in the way you count the number of things you did in a space of time but the time it took to do some things. Such as Jonnene running her long run of 7 miles on Saturday and I did my long run of 20 miles on Sunday. I had never covered 20 miles on foot ever in my life and it really got tough the last 2-3 miles...I'm sure I walked more than I ran at that point, had already run out of water, it was hot and humid, and I still managed to average 10:46/mile. I thought I'd be slower! For Jonnene, her knee started acting up on her about 2/3's of the way in but she turned in just shy of an 11-minute mile pace.

There's also some family health issues that we're having to tend to but that's our job as the kiddos to do the things that need to be done.

The bathroom renovations are still underway....shall be for a while longer. More pictures below:

Sophie and Coober sometimes get to check out the mess in the bedroom.

The custom-made vanity unit and tower came in and are waiting to be installed eventually.

Here's the original entrance to the master bath after the demolition was finished.

And now the smaller version of the entrance after the sheetrock has gone up which will feature a pocket door.

A downward view of Jonnene as seen from the ceiling rafters before the wall boards go up.

Looking toward the shower area after we got down to the studs and after the plumbing was worked on. You can see the drainage ports for the shower and the toilet on the floor.

Same area after the sheetrock has been put up. Light/vent/heater will be installed in the hole in the ceiling. The exposed areas will have different wallboard put up to make that area waterproof and then the stone tiling will be put in.

We left our names and the date on the inside of one of the walls for someone to find someday in the far future when the house is renovated again or torn down...hopefully many decades from now!

Looking towards the entrance after the demolition was finished.

Same view after the pocket door framework and a stout header board was installed as well as the framing for the door jam.

A much cleaner look with the wallboard in place! Now the mudding begins followed by texturing of the walls to prepare it for paint (we have to finalize our colors soon).

We moved ourselves to the guest bedroom while this is going on. But above is our master bedroom with all the stuff, the old mirror (which we'll have cut to size and reused in the bathroom), and boxes of bathroom fixtures. The bed has a tarp on it to keep the dust off and the closets have been covered with plastic sheeting for the same reason.

The Renovations Begin

2010-09-03T15:19:00.008-05:00

I know, it's been just over a month since my last blog entry! Sorry. It's harder to maintain this thing than I thought it would be. But I won't ignore it...I might get on a roll and make you wish I hadn't started this thing!

First off, I'm still training for my marathon in October. I've had a setback with some pain in my left calf muscles and we haven't been able to truly figure out what the problem is. I've scaled back my running to give it a chance to rest but I think I'm about to start ramping it up. Some runs the thing will hurt like crazy and other days it'll sorta hurt and then go away. Like this morning...I ran 6.8 miles at a 8:14/mile pace and had little problem. Ran 16 miles last Sunday, little problem. Ran an easy 4 miles last Wednesday...that sucker hurt like a you-know-what. I ice it every day, Jonnene will rub it down, will do the elliptical machine at the gym, and I often wear compression socks...seems to help. More to come on this little adventure.

We've started our renovation on our master bathroom! It sorta sounds silly since our "master bathroom" is the same size...small...as our guest bathroom but we're trying to make it look bigger by taking out the soffets and the dividing wall/door. Should be interesting. In the meantime we've moved into the guest bedroom to avoid the dust being kicked up. Here's some pics of the job:

Looking to the left after I removed the shower head and most of the fixtures last Monday.

The work has started (last Tuesday)! The toilet is gone and most of the plumbing disconnect has taken place. Also, the electrical has been removed...you can see the working light hanging from the ceiling.

Same angle with EVERYTHING ripped out! Sheetrock goes in next week.

This view is from the inside of the shower looking to the right of the bathroom. Drawer handles are gone as is the toilet paper roll holder.

Same view with everything gone and demo'd down to the studs. Next week the plumbing will be adjusted and new electrical will go in. The room's nice and large when there's nothing in it!

Full Weekend

2010-08-02T21:38:00.004-05:00

Jonnene and I after her race where she finished 7th in her age group.

Sunday was the 30th anniversary of the River Cities Triathlon up at Cypress Lake. I've done this race about 10 times with the last one in 2004 and that was when I swore off triathlons and went directly to duathlons. I wasn't interested in learning to be a better swimmer so why not do races at what I was better at? The last couple of years I've been in charge of the bike portion of the race which means I have to come up with volunteers to man all the turns and the exit/entrance of the park gate....find motorcycles to ferry the race officials around the course...make sure the course is in reasonable shape, sweeping here and there, marking potholes to be filled, and getting the dead animals off the roads. Yep, it's a glory job alright.

We got up at 4 am that morning, had to walk the dogs and then load up the Rav4. We got to the race site around 5:15 am, off-loaded Jonnene and her gear, and I headed out to drop off vests, flags and cones to the various corners that my volunteers would arrive at a couple of hours later. I had an issue with some gear being stolen at one of the corners...it was weird and takes too long to explain but I had enough stuff left over to cover for what ended up missing. Then it was back to the park to organize things with the officials and motorcycles, send some volunteers to certain spots inside the park to direct the cyclists, and find Jonnene somewhere on the beach so I could give her a good luck kiss. Soon the first wave was coming out of the water and heading out on the bike course so I had to hope that things were okay. I talked to some of the corners by phone during the race to make sure things were fine. There were three crashes that I knew about, one of which might have been a broken collarbone. We sent the EMS crew out and we assumed that they took the victim to the hospital. One of the volunteer coordinators brought the guy's bike back to the transition area.

Jonnene takes off with her bike after a 1/2 mile swim in Cypress Lake.

The word for the day was HOT. I think the heat index got up to 108 degrees by the time the last participant came across the finish line. There were about 1,100 racers signed up but I have no idea how many actually did the race. I'll bet there were over a thousand. Everyone seemed to handle the heat fairly well as long as they stayed hydrated and raced within themselves. I walked about and even rode my old cruiser bike to get around the area, monitoring the race over the walkie-talkie I had and talking to workers over the cell phone. Sometimes I had both going at once.

When nearly everyone was off the bike course I headed out to do a final clean-up of the course, pick up the volunteer gear, and just make sure things out there were fine. I came upon a racer who had gotten a ride from one of the motorcyclists to a spot on the course where she had lost her bike computer. It had just flown off the mount on her handlebars but she continued on. With her race done, she was now back out looking for that $100 piece of equipment she had bought just a few days before over in Dallas. After about 10 minutes of staring at grass on the side of the road, I started to walk down the hill, saw a glint, and found the computer! It was on the side of the road with just a tiny scratch and somehow nobody had run over it with a bike or car. She was estatic and gave me a big hug, dampening the front of my polo shirt and shorts from the race sweat on her skinsuit. Hey, I like my women sweaty, y'know? Anyway, that was my good deed for the day.

Jonnene and Lisa come back from their bike ride side-by-side. Lisa is the better runner and would finish ahead of Jonnene by 90 seconds. Lisa was 6th and Jonnene was 7th in the same age group! They were both in the top third of all the 1,000+ race finishers!

Eventually, Jonnene finished her race, missing her PR by only a couple of minutes! Considering she had shoulder surgery just six months ago and the limited training time she had, I considered her effort to be phenomenal! Essentially, she went into this race with no pressure to do well, just enjoy the event, and she raced totally relaxed, mentally speaking. She did well.

We got home around 1 pm and ate ice cream. I think we deserved it.

Now I've got a bunch of flags, vests, and signs to clean up and organize so I return them to the race promoter. It's Monday and my part of the race isn't over yet.

July begins

2010-07-05T21:31:00.003-05:00

Well, the July 4th weekend and holiday is coming to an end and you can hear some fireworks outside as everyone takes advantage of this last legal night to ignite their ordnance, er, fireworks. A few loud booms here and there which our dogs aren't too fond of. I heard that this holiday results in the most runaway dogs than any other time of the year. I'm not surprised.

Saturday morning was the FireCracker 5K and I was scheduled by my training guide to do a 5 kilometer race and add 4 miles to that distance for seven miles total. Jonnene and I headed out to join with 3,000 other runners and once we got there I went out for a short 1/2 mile run as a warmup and to start getting in my total distance. Got back and into a long line for the port-a-potties where, just before it was finally my turn to go to one of the outhouses, this young punk walked up and cut the line to get into one. Another port-o-let opened up for me but I walked up to the guy's potty and banged the door twice really hard, yelling "Get in line next time, jerk!" I hope it scared the crap out of him 'cause I didn't hear anything out of him. I heard a few laughs in the line, did my business, and went back to the race start where everyone was gathering.

I worked my way up to the third "row" of runners, chatted with some folks I knew and waited for the MC to finish up the festivities, which means we start the race about 20-25 minutes later than the scheduled start time (it's been like that for years...we've gotten used to it). Finally the firecrackers go off, signaling the start, and off we go trying not to trip over all the people around us. Jonnene started further back and is probably dealing with more of a crowd than I am. I wasn't sure how I wanted to run this although the training guide says to "race" the 5K and I wanted to not go out too fast. After finally getting some elbow room and passing some people on the early hills, I was able to manuver around a bit to hear the 1-mile announcer call out "6:51" as I went by. That was way faster than I intended and I was worried that I wouldn't have much left by the finish, especially to get the extra miles later. By two miles I was at 14:03 and feeling pretty good so I kept motoring, passing more people and getting passed by only a handful. I saw Daniel A and Martha S in front but I couldn't get much closer than 20 meters to Daniel and finally caught Martha in the last tenth of a mile. I finished up in 21:44 for 3.1 miles and I was pleased with that since it worked out to a 7:04 per mile average, plenty fast enough. I went to the port-o-lets again and then went out to do the course again. Taking the extra miles slower I still ended up with a 8-minute mile average. Jonnene had a good run, too, with a 27:31. I was proud of her for knocking out the race within a minute of her best 5K time.

Sunday was a rest day from running and I spent most of the afternoon at Mom's doing some work on one of their bathrooms. I had renovated the other bathroom earlier this year which I thought came out real well and Mom liked it. This time the job is a little simpler, requires a bit of cleaning up and replacing the toilet seat lids and putting in a new faucet, as well as some painting and some other installations. I got the faucet put in but will have to come back for the drain installation. Getting the old seat off the toilet was a chore since the bolts had rusted and I ended up having to saw one of them off. But it got done and the new seat's in place. The room already looks better and I'm only 30% thru the work!! The rest will take a couple of weeks or so to finish up.

Regarding my marathon this October, I've always had this set of goals:

1. Show up at the start and finish the marathon. Finishing is the main thing.

2. Try to finish in under 4 hours.

3. My target finishing time goal is under 3 hours, 45 minutes. Again, finishing...period...is more important. But this is my pride talking here.

So, out of curiosity, I went online to find out what it took to qualify for the Boston Marathon. In my age group, I would need to finish in 3:45:59 or faster. I looked at it again....if I achieve goal #3 I would be a qualifier for Boston in 2012. Wow. It'd be nice to pull that off. Jonnene says we could go if I wanted to do that race.

BUT I gotta qualify first and that's going to take some work.

It is really getting hot around here

2010-06-21T12:12:00.002-05:00

Today is the first day of summer with an expected high of 98 degrees...tomorrow we're supposed to have 100 degrees. Then it'll drop down to around 93 by Friday. Whew! Relief! At last!

The weekend was way busy. I even did a long nap Sunday afternoon and I was still busy. Yesterday Jonnene and I woke up at 4:30 am to volunteer at the Sunrise #3 Triathlon: her to work registration and me to help set up the transition area (oh, yeah, Jonnene did some of that, too!). I also helped guide the racers thru transition during the race after The Wife went on to work...she had to work the weekend. She's never too enthused to do that...don't blame her. My Centenary kids did well but the heat got to them as well as everyone else but they all survived.

After that I got home and went out for my Sunday run in 95 degree warmth. Had to do six 1-mile repeats at 20 seconds faster than my planned marathon pace and I managed to do that. With four minute rest breaks between the efforts I would down a nice cold 6-8 ounces of water or energy drink. I still felt wiped out after it was all over and I got a nice outline of my tanktop on my shoulders from the sun. I still sorta feel it today. That got me a nice nap that afternoon. Called Dad to wish him a happy Father's Day and I'll get his gift to him later this week. Ashley and Clint came over last night and fed them as they got ready for their second night in their new rent house here in Shreveport.

Yeah, Saturday we helped moved them into their new place in the south part of Shreveport. It was hot that day, too! Saturday morning I spent out in the yard, doing yard stuff and starting on placing the pickets on the fence. I'm not too interested in looking into the back yard of our backside neighbors and them into ours. Got the main supports in place, set up a line to keep the top of the pickets level, and got one picket up. By then I was worn out and put everything up.

But the most important part of the weekend was getting a call before 5 am Saturday morning from my step-father, telling me that he and Mom were at the emergency room of the hospital. She's got a kidney stone and the sucker made itself known much earlier that morning. She hasn't passed it yet and I feel for her since I've gone thru that...it is REALLY painful and can mess up your schedule for sure. I drove down to the hospital, picked Jim up and took him to their house so he could get the car to bring Mom home (he had traveled in the ambulance with her). Today she's supposed to set up an appointment with a urologist and see what the next step is to clear this thing up. Keeping the fingers crossed for the simplest and less painful solution.

I do run-run-run, I do run-run

2010-06-14T21:14:00.003-05:00

Wow, I'm now starting my seventh week of this marathon training gig...139 days until the Marine Corps Marathon, so about 17 more weeks of this to go. Actually it hasn't been bad at all. I did a 12-mile "long run" this past Sunday and listened to the squish-squish of my shoes that were full of sweat in the last three miles (takes about two days for the shoes to dry out). My right ankle, or more precisely the right achilles tendon has been acting up the last few weeks so I started putting it on ice after a couple of runs plus being careful in how I walked on that foot. Seems to have worked...it didn't bother me at all during Sunday's run and it's been relatively pain-free since Friday. I'm still not taking any chances however. I'll do ice again after Tuesday's run whether it hurts or not.

This morning I took a quick drive over to Minden to attend the funeral of one of my classmates from 1973, Billy O'Neal. He died of cancer on Friday morning and had been sick for a long time. I got to see him on April 30th (see photo below where he's making a face at the camera) when there was a fund-raiser to help offset some of his medical bills and we talked a bit. Neither of us had really spoken to each other since graduation from Minden High School. We just weren't in the same circles as life went on but we knew each other and we had absolutely no problems, past or present, with each other. Thing was that he remembered me and told how a couple of months ago he had mentioned to his wife, Charlotte (another classmate of mine), that a house they were driving by was one I used to live in. He just said it out of the clear blue. Heck, I didn't even know he knew where I had lived in the first place! After that visit and today's services I wished I had gotten to know Billy a little better. We still had different interests but I think it would have been fun to know him as the man he grew up to be. He was funny during our short visit back in April even though the cancer was in his brain and he spoke a little slower. He was also confined to a motorized wheelchair that he said wasn't fast enough for his liking. But the thing was that he looked like a man who was content with how his life was (obviously wasn't that wild about the way it was ending) and that things would be fine.

Billy O'Neal: March 1, 1955 - June 11, 2010

Rest in peace, Billy. Even though we were more acquaintances than friends, I'm glad I knew ya.

We have niece #3, Holly, staying with us for the month while she goes to summer school at Centenary. She's taking Physics which is some kind of hocus-pocus, voodoo subject that can't actually be real and goes beyond art major types like me. Well, really it doesn't but I don't like bothering with it. I got the gist of it when I took the class in college and I got into a couple of arguments with the instructor (to this day I'm still convinced I'm right) but I pretty much know how it works. Just don't ask me to explain it in English. I can see it in my mind much better than I can say it.

Slackin'

2010-05-25T18:14:00.003-05:00

I'm now into my fourth week of training for the Marine Corps Marathon with 20 weeks to go, about 159 days before I toe the line up in the Washington, DC. I'm already around 25 miles short of setting a new record for miles I've run in a calendar year...269 set last year...and it's only late May! By the time this is over, I'll have a personal record that I'm not sure I'll ever break. Surprisingly, I'm not as sore or stiff in the legs as I thought I'd be but I'm sure an injury or two will crop up before October gets here. I ordered a MCM training shirt (see above) which says In Training on the front and Semper Fi on the back. So far I've been faithful in my training, only having to make one adjustment to change a scheduled training day to another day, and I'm a little surprised at how I'm sticking to the plan. I could eat a little better and sleep more! I guess I'm becoming a tad obsessive with wanting to do this and a year ago I had no idea I'd even consider doing a marathon! The goal is to go under a 3:45 time and if I run it smart I could do under a 3:30. Main thing is to finish with a respectable time and to be happy with my effort.

Last weekend was time-consuming and busy. We drove to Birmingham, Alabama and back with only an overnight stay so we could attend the wedding of Dale's daughter, Athena. The birth announcement I did for Athena's arrival into the world back in 1986 got me my first Gold Addy award as a free-lancer. I've known Dale since we were in high school and his son, Erik, is my god-son so there was a lot of personal connections here. We had a great time but the weekend wore us out. I had to get up at 5 am Saturday morning to get in my long run for the week: 8 miles which included hill repeats. Jonnene takes the dogs to the kennel, and after I shower we are on our way. Forgot to mention going to an art show the night before! Get to B-ham, dress up fancy and head to the wedding. Reception...food, dancing, seeing people I haven't seen in a long time...back to the hotel and sleep. Then up Sunday morning to drop by Dale's house for an hour or so, then back to Shreveport just in time to attend the last hour of a friend's 50th birthday party! I think Jonnene and I are still recovering.....

From the Back

2010-04-27T14:16:00.002-05:00

(this is written tongue-in-cheek....maybe...but the basic story is true)

As I rode it,

I did Tuesday Night Worlds two weeks ago and the group pulled out right at 5:45 pm which is weird since we're usually 5-10 minutes late leaving from ANY parking lot. We left a lot of riders still putting on their helmets or prepping to go (partly because it is a long drive for most of us and we're subject to the whims of traffic along the way).

I had heard before that the ride to Benton from the start was actually civil and treated more as a warmup. That was okay with me...I need a warmup before I have to put a Jon Whitten on everyone's heads and crush some souls/egos. You know I'm not that mean but Russ always gives me a wholesale dose of deserved respect because he is a wise man.

Well, it was almost race-pace from the start (reminded me of ERBC) and I'm trying to get my wrinkly old Joe-French-slash-Frankie-G legs into the groove but not having much success. I got dropped by mile seven at 28 mph (that was me, not the group...they was faster....much....faster). Eventually latching onto a couple of soul-deflated folks we got in a fairly good and speedy ride. Eventually I would 2-man TT it with Jason Sanders on his hopped-up-totally-tricked-out tri-bike (and me on my basic K2 brood) for the last 10 miles cruisin' at 25 mph most of the time. I let him set the pace 'cause I'm kind-hearted and wanted him to get a good workout. He didn't deserve a Whitten-style whippin'. He is only a man.

With two miles to go, I started feeling a deflation on my rear wheel, the tire specifically, and had to let Jason go. I noodled those last two miles at around 15-16 mph on that slow leak, finally making it back to the parking lot with a snail's breath of air to spare.

Even with that, my average speed for the night was 22.2 mph. Yeah, buddy, I was going plenty speedy even with the drop and the un-airing of my rubber parts.

Don't know if I'll be out there much the rest of the year. Next week I begin training to do my first marathon in October. I'm going to ride 2-3 times a week as cross-training but I'll be a runner for most of 2010. But Jonnene and I are going down to New Orleans this weekend to take the beginner's USAC officials' clinic (Lisa and her husband will be there, too) so we can do some o-fficiating for LAMBRA this year and help poor old Ricky out. So you ain't rid of us yet. Follow the rules of racing and we'll look the other way. Might even produce results in a timely manner. Yeah, right. Gawd, I'm a comedian.

Be forewarned, I'm coming back STRONG on the inline 2-wheeler in 2011. Be ready for the "Alan beatdowns" that'll be commencing next winter. Like Cesar Milan says, I'll be calm and assertive. Everyone else will be calm and submissive. I am a kind man, don't forget.

Another Greg-o-logue

2010-04-26T18:59:00.000-05:00

Daily Gut: Hating Arizona

by Greg Gutfeld

So Obama deemed the new Arizona immigration bill “misguided.”

Translation: he means “stupid.”

See, “misguided” is a word used by people who know better than you. Calling something “misguided” is an intellectual exercise in superiority–even if they don’t call you stupid, they really, really want to.

Too bad Obama has no other plan that’s less stupid. And the Arizona bill is what happens when there is no plan: a plan gets made.

It reminds me of something a really smart guy said on Hannity last week.

Roll Sot:

“Until you make it easier for them to get in legally you have to make it as difficult as possible for them to get in illegally. It’s that simple.”

It really is that simple.

Let’s play it again, but slower, in case you didn’t get it the first time.

(play it again, but really slow)

He really is an underused source of brilliance at Fox News.

Anyway, until we create a front door for these folks, we have to make sneaking in a window harder than hell. Amnesty doesn’t do that. Amnesty just says – “everyone in… is in!” That does not control the tide.

The fact is, it’s called illegal immigration, because it’s illegal. And Arizona has chosen to deal with what we already call illegal. And while, on its surface, it appears mean – it’s not. It’s actually a beginning. It pushes the debate forward to a place where we can finally develop a system that gets all the wonderful, hardworking people in.

And most are hardworking. And most are wonderful. Seriously, most of these folks killing themselves to come here are more deserving than half of the jerks born here. I’m referring to anyone who stinks of patchouli, uses clubbing as a verb (except in Alaska), thinks graffiti is art, owns their own sex tape, once dated Paris Hilton, listens to Dave Matthews, claims they’re in Mensa, plays Frisbee golf, known to wear a speedo, carries a tiny dog in a purse, blames America for everything, enjoys performance art, thinks yogurt is food, cries while whale watching, majored in any form of gender studies, cares more about death row inmates than their victims, and thinks I can’t bench press twice my own weight. (I can, or I used to, anyway).

And if you disagree with me, you’re a racist homophobe who eats donated organs.

Yeah, yeah, I'm back!

2010-03-30T14:56:00.004-05:00

From a window at it's international airport we could see downtown Sydney as a Qantas 747 is moved to a terminal.

This is short for now. We've been back from Australia for almost two weeks now and the jet lag is thankfully over. It took a longer time than usual to get over it...maybe having to deal with cold weather again and not wanting to get out from under the warm blankets early in the morning might have contributed to that. The trip back was actually pretty good, most of the flights were on time, and it was nice to arrive in Shreveport without having to drive back from Alexandria or Longview just so we could have cheaper flights.

Like I said, I'll get into our trip in a later posting. Since we've been back one of the worst things that could happen to the United States happened....the passing of Obamacare, the socialist health reform package that'll put us on the lower level of Euro-style health care that'll increase costs and decrease care as well as limit any innovation of medical procedures and care because there'll be no incentive to do so. Plus a ton of companies will be laying off people they can't afford to keep!

This STORY in the American Spectator is brief but it gives an insider's view of how inept the Administration is when it comes to their understanding of free-market business practices and how they are making things just a tad worse...make that a whole lot worse.

Heading Home

2010-03-16T13:12:00.001-05:00

Just a quickie....it's early Wednesday morning in Melbourne. We're up and heading to the airport in about an hour. Wish us a safe journey!!!!

We're in Melbourne!

2010-03-15T04:41:00.006-05:00

But, first, some pictures from the west side of Australia:

Perth: On Cottesloe Beach there was a large sculpture exhibition going on which included this piece of art with these sails. It was fun to watch with the breezes going on. Oh, and the temperature this day was 104 degrees!

Perth: Jonnene's sister-in-law, Olga, shows her daughter what she remembers of playing a guitar.

Perth: A week ago we had an outdoor "snags on the barby" meal with Christine and her man, Eddie, along the banks of the Swan River. "Snag" is Aussie slang for sausage...and they were delish!

Yeah, we're here. It's Monday night and we're in our room at the Best Western Atlantis on Spencer Street, right near the stop for the SkyBus so we can get a ride to the airport early on Wednesday morning. We spent last night up in Bendigo at the home of a couple of friends of Jonnene's and caught the train back to Melbourne this afternoon. It was probably the first time I've been on a passenger train since I was a little kid when we would ride between Minden, LA and Hope, AR. It was nice but I spent nearly the whole ride sleeping since we were dealing with a 3-hour time lag since leaving Perth.

Speaking of, we left Perth very early Sunday morning. Jonnene's sister and parents took us to the airport...which, BTW, had been and was being renovated big-time since we had been there in 2008. We figured the weight of our check-in bags just right: the limit we were allowed was 23 kilos (50 pounds) and each of our bags were pegged at 22! That means we had added about 27 pounds to our bags from what they weighed when we left the States. We have added quite a few things that we're bringing back with us including chocolate that Jonnene claims we will make last until June. Hope she's right!

Tuesday, we'll get an early morning run in the Central Business District (CBD) of Melbourne and we'll spend the day just walking around. Probably check out the Victoria Market, the gardens...just enjoy the day. We'll try to find a nice place to eat for our last dinner in Australia and then back to our room to finish repacking our bags.

More Oz Notes

2010-03-10T03:26:00.008-06:00

The Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade that staged in front of our hotel in Sydney.

Here's the water polo team. Wow.

• Tonight (Wednesday) Jonnene and I are going to a restaurant called "That Little Mexican Place". The only other time we went there was in November of 2006 when it was brand new and we meant to go again when we visited in 2008 but didn't make it. It was a small place with about 7 or 8 tables and the guy who owned it, Gavin Bower, was also the cook. It was interesting that he cooked the food in his pajamas...well, they looked like pajamas. And he visited all the customers at their tables when there was a lull. He studied Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisine in Santa Fe, New Mexico so his stuff was very genuine. We're happy that it still exists and now has two locations!

• Right now, before we leave, Olga's highlighting Raelene's hair in the kitchen. Rae's is wearing something that looks like a water polo cap...sorta reminds me of the parade in Sydney (see photo above). The cap part, that is. Then you pull some hair through some holes and highlight those suckers.

Theeza plane, she's a-quiet, she's a-big, she's a-plenty nice-a...
....but her regular economy seats suck!

• We tried to get Premium Economy seats for our flight back to Los Angeles next week on the Qantas A380 since our regular Economy seats pretty much weren't to our liking. However, it would have cost us $2,200 EACH to upgrade since our current tickets were bought with restrictions. Well, okay, fine...we'll fly regular economy one more time, Qantas, but that's it! We'll gladly spend the extra money to get Premium in the first place and be a little more comfortable on that big plane. You know there are only 32 Premium Economy seats on an A380? That's more seats than the First Class "apartments" on the same plane (just 14). Meantime there's 72 Business Class seats and 332 regular economy seats. I'd love to ride Business......

• Jonnene and I have decided that we want to weigh as much or less on our return to the States than we weighed when we left for Australia. On our last trip we ate tons and gained quite a bit when we came back...visiting relatives who want to feed you will do that. So far we're doing okay. We're still eating, but not as much. I'm about 1.5 pounds lighter right now and I think Jonnene is around 2-3 pounds lighter. We're also running nearly every day and it's hot enough to make us sweat a lot. And we're walking all the time. Seems to work.

Dogs in Oz

2010-03-08T19:42:00.005-06:00

Angel sneaks a peek into our bedroom window early one morning.

Ben walks along the beach after a quick dip and a roll in the sand.

I've had a couple of unexpected run-in's with dogs on this trip that weren't pleasant. As a result, I have a hole in a pair of shorts from an attempted bite and a pair of mangled Bolle' sunglasses. The hole was a result of a large dog named Chase who belongs to Jonnene's cousin, Christine. We had visited their house the same time we went out to see her aunt and uncle. I was the only male at the cousin's house and Uncle Bev had warned me about Chase earlier, that the dog was aggressive and had bitten a neighbor. I wasn't that worried about it and was confident that I could handle the situation, simply by ignoring the dog and staying away from it when possible. When we arrive, Chase is barking like crazy and spinning in circles behind the fence...a very anxious dog....not a good sign. And he's pretty big. So we go in the house, visit a bit and go out the back to see Christine's beautiful back yard. Chase comes up to me and tries to "herd" me away from the ladies in the group. I ignored him and walked by him, and once we're in the yard everything was fine. He did show signs of claiming space so he was definitely territorial but pretty much left us alone and even played. Then we walked back to the house and suddenly he was trying to separate me out again. But he seemed friendlier this time and I stopped to pet him. Initially it seemed to be going good but I saw the demeanor in his face change and he started to growl. I stopped touching him, stood up and started to walk away. He didn't like that, I guess, and went behind me and took a bite of my shorts, probably trying to bite me directly. The nice thing was that the shorts are baggy and he didn't come close to my hind quarters at all. But he put a nice hole in my shorts...it was a bite meant to do damage and it did. Since he belonged to someone else and he hadn't actually bitten ME, I yelled at him and he backed off a bit. I told Jonnene what happened and she relayed the message to everyone else. Christine moved the dog away (probably not the right thing to do because it doesn't teach the dog anything) and we went inside to inspect the new redesign of my shorts. Christine was mortified but I told her it was okay, no harm was done. However, I do wish I had come back at the dog and showed it that it didn't own the space it was protecting. I wouldn't have hit it but I would have come back at it to show who was dominating who.

Then there's Angel, my sister-in-law's new dog which is a Kelpie mix. Actually a very nice dog but energetic, anxious, and has a few habits that it'll either grow out of or will have to be dealt with. But she's sneaky and we learned to keep doors closed to keep her from taking things that don't belong to her. She'll take things outside, chew them up, bury them, or hide them somewhere. In a way, it's funny but not all the time. Well, she managed to get hold of my Bolle' sunglasses with the prescription lens insert...somehow she managed to sneak into our bedroom without anyone noticing. We came home from an errand and Raelene found the glasses with the earpieces totally chewed up but, fortunately, my lens were shaken loose and were in pretty good shape. I'll just have to order a new pair of frames when I get home and things will be fine. But now we're keeping an even closer eye on Angel.

Fortunately I've had some better experiences with dogs on this trip. We got to see Sophie's old playmate, Ben, this past Sunday. He's a few years older with two new hips but still has a playful disposition and doesn't sit still for long. I met Ben on my very first trip to Australia in 2003 and he's always been a friendly dog. You show him some affection and you've got a friend for life. It's always something to see when he meets Jonnene...he sniffs her, realizes who it is, and immediately begins looking around for Sophie. Alas, Sophie's in the States and the two former playmates never see each other again. It really makes you sad but that's how it goes.

Australia 2010 - My Sixth Voyage

2010-03-05T00:51:00.003-06:00

The Sydney Opera House as we saw it last Friday, February 26th.

Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm way late on updating this blog as far as our trip to Australia is concerned. It's been busy enough, it's been fun enough, and the trip is going well so far. This entry is mostly quick thoughts and observations of the trip so far.

• Our flights to Los Angeles were excellent examples of how to cut an expected 4-hour time cushion in LAX in half. We got to the airport in Shreveport in plenty of time. Mom brought us over and hung out with us until we felt it was time to proceed through security to get to our gate. Jonnene took a little longer to get thru because her arm sling needed some extra going-over by the TSA folks there. When we got to the gate we found out that our flight to Dallas was going to be delayed by almost an hour, and it was. Well, almost, about 50 minutes later...and our jet had been replaced by a turbo-prop. Well, okay, the pilot puts on the burners but we still get to DFW much later than planned....but we manage to get to our connecting flight (on the opposite side of DFW, by the way) with time to spare. But it didn't matter....we actually leave the gate, pulling out about 50 yards when we stop for a long while. Then the pilot comes on, saying that we're returning to the gate because he doesn't like the sound of our left engine. We couldn't tell if the sound was odd but if the pilot doesn't like it then I'm fine with not flying! We find out that a hydraulic pump in the engine has to be replaced and we leave the plane to sit around the gate area. About two hours after we were supposed to be in the air, we finally reboarded our flight and headed on to LA. We arrive at LAX with just over two hours before our plane to Australia is supposed to leave, so we rush to get our bags over to the Bradley International Terminal and check in. Well, miracle of miracles, we fly through check-in and security with hardly a wait in line...and find ourselves with over an hour to kill before we even start boarding the plane!!

• We flew on the new Aerobus A380 that is the jewel of the Qantas fleet. First off, the plane is NICE...it is extremely quiet (you can easily talk to anyone without raising your voice and be heard clearly). It is big and has plenty of amenities such as a "pantry" you can visit at any time to get drinks and food. You can see a tour of the aircraft HERE. However, we had our problems with the economy section. First off, we're never flying it again after this trip. It has its pluses but not enough to overcome the tighter spaces and the amazing amount of tilt the seats have that let the one in front of you practically hit you in the head if you're leaning too far forward when the passenger in front drops his seat back. Suffice it to say that we will fly Premium Economy whenever we fly Qantas internationally in the future. More leg room and wider seats...of course you pay more for it but both Jonnene and I think it's worth the extra expense. We'd prefer to fly business but I don't think we can afford the +/- $10,000 it would cost for a seat round trip!

More to come....it's Saturday night here and my eyes are drooping....

Vinter Vunderlund 2010

2010-02-12T07:48:00.008-06:00

Wow! We got snow all day yesterday and all night last night! Here's the view from our driveway looking out into the neighborhood.

The trees above our house.

Decided to put the flags up to provide some color and contrast to all the whiteness.

The house looks like a picture postcard.
Too bad most of the snow will melt by the end of today.

Looking down the street at all the trees. It was very impressive for this part of Louisiana. I was able to get in a bike ride a couple of hours yesterday morning before the snowfall came and that was really nice.

The Cold, The Wet, and The Muddy

2010-01-31T02:27:00.005-06:00

Jonnene and I are not as warm as we look...there be a whole lot 'o shivering going on!

Saturday was one of those days where I only did a smattering of activities but it took a long time to do them, so the day felt busy although you could count on hand everything you did but still have fingers left over. It was definitely not a waste of a day however I can look back and think "is that all I did?"

It started out getting up early this morning to walk the dogs in 33-degree temps and giving them only a short walk at that because Jonnene and I had to be at the 10-mile Trail Run at Lake Bistineau State Park by 7:30 latest. Jonnene is still nursing her shoulder so she would be a volunteer but I had to run the darn thing. Rain had passed thru late Thursday evening into Friday morning and the trail was a muddy, wet mess. There were over 70 people doing the 10-miler (over 80 were doing the shorter 3.8 mile run) and none were looking forward to sloshing thru deep puddles in freezing temperatures. So this race was not a matter of when you were getting wet (it would be very soon), it was a matter of how wet you got. I was slightly overdressed but that's how I race and I would be quite comfortable throughout the run...probably could have done without the vest but that was no problem. The start was a mass/mess of bodies flying down a wet clay hillside and eventually stringing out into a single-track trail. I got behind Denise Cook and let her pace me for the first two miles before she finally left me (she's a fast runner and ended up third woman overall). Only one mile into the run was our first big puddle and it was three steps through KNEE-DEEP freezing water which certainly woke me up. This would be first of at 25-30 such crossings of various lengths and depths...the most memorable being a virtual mini-lake when I made at least 13 steps in water just below my kneecaps...there was no avoiding it, you had to go through it. Eventually you just ignored it all and ran through most everything. Sometimes you got surprised by a puddle that didn't look like it could be that deep and it was. The water and trails were churned up and mushed up by the runners ahead of me and you would get muddy one minute and wash it all off the next!

Eventually, everyone was spread out over the trails and for a long time I was running by myself. I got lost one time which really messed up what little rhythm I had and it took nearly a mile for me to settle down and get my head back into the game. As soon as I felt I was recovering, an ankle got snared up in a vine and I went heels over head down on the trail. I remember grunting as I hit the ground but I popped back up again and kept running, noting that there was nobody around to see my fall....no witnesses but I wasn't embarrassed by it, that just happens on these runs sometimes.

The last three miles were the worst...nothing but water and mud everywhere and there was no getting around it. Lifting my feet out of that mess was a chore and really slowed me down (seemed to slow a lot of people down). I caught up with two other guys in the last 1/2 mile but couldn't get around them when we hit the last quarter mile across a field to the finish.

Finally crossing the finish line at 1:39:48, about 15 minutes slower than I wanted to do. However, what I wanted to do involved much drier conditions and that didn't happen either.

I was glad to be done and Jonnene was there to greet me. She had been helping to remove timing chips from the shoes of finishing runners (probably because those runners mostly had frozen fingers and couldn't do it themselves!). I finished with a 9:59/mile average but like a friend said, with the conditions you couldn't concentrate on a personal best, you had to just survive to finish. I was the 4th Grand Master (50+) out of 16 to finish and 30th overall. When we got home Jonnene had to soak my clothes to get most of the mud and filth out before they could put in the washer! Every time we drained the bucket there was nothing but brown water going down the drain!

After getting home and cleaning up I had to go to the women's basketball game at Centenary. Two of my cycling kids are on the cheerleader and dance squads and I had promised to go to the game to see them perform. It was a lot of fun and the women's team lost a close one to North Dakota State 67-61. I think Jonnene enjoyed it more than I thought she would and I was glad she came along. Afterwards we ate a VERY late lunch at Newt's before heading home for a quiet evening of just vegging. Busy day indeed, not a lot to show for it but that's okay. I'd like to get a ride in on Sunday but it's going to be a cold day, too. I'm ready for some warmth!

Newest Helicopter Paint

2010-01-13T11:18:00.003-06:00

Here's the newest paint scheme I turned out for LifeLine Arizona. It's really simple but the bright red color really pops! I designed a new logo for LifeLine that works well on the side of the aircraft along with the "Arizona" name under the star of life logo near the tail boom. I also did an outline of the state around the aircraft number on the vertical stabilizer at the rear. I think it came out pretty nice.

Cold Weekend

2010-01-10T20:49:00.002-06:00

Not much to report on the home front. Went out this morning to log 5.5 miles on a run in 27 degree air and that went pretty well. Ran a tad faster than I expected but when the sun is out and there's no wind, a cold day isn't so bad...as long as you're doing something to generate a little body heat. I'm going to register for the Trail Run at Lake Bistineau on January 30th, 10 miles of running on trails and I want to be ready to do well at that. I did it back in 2008, going 1:29:53 or about 9 minutes a mile. I'd like to knock that down to 8 minutes if possible and if the trail conditions are good.

Jonnene is doing remarkably well in her recovery from shoulder surgery. We've been out and about every day, she's done housework, walked the dog, and other things that I keep getting on her case about...I want her to take it easy and she can't seem to do that. Every night she's slept in our big easy chair with lots of pillows around to support her and I've slept on the couch next to her. Tonight she wants to try to sleep on the bed so we'll see how that goes. The chair is waiting just in case.

I've got plenty to do this week. First meeting with the Centenary cycling club for the semester. Two big graphic design jobs, one of which has to go to the printer sometime Monday, the other needs to be done as soon as the client has made up their minds. Bills to pay and a quarterly estimated income tax check to be mailed to the Feds. Some new parts for my bike and trying to decide if I want to repaint it before that upgrade takes place. Yep, lots to do. I'm only one man.

Let's Get Surgeried!

2010-01-07T17:54:00.004-06:00

Thirty hours after the operation and Jonnene is home reading while seated in a pile of pillows in our comfy chair in the den.

The dogs, Sophie and Coober, visit often.

Yesterday Jonnene went in for surgery on her left shoulder and everything went fine. She'd been having problems with it for the last couple of years but things went south rather rapidly during the last 3-4 months. She was hoping that surgery wouldn't be needed, trying various things to alleviate the pain like kinesio-tape and certain exercises. But she knew that she'd have to go under the knife or orthroscope eventually and Wednesday was set as the day.

We got up at 4 am, walked the dogs in the cold air, then got back to gather up what we needed before heading to the surgery clinic near where she works...literally across the hall from where she works! Got the paperwork finished and was shown to our exclusive prep room. Jonnene put on the surgical gown (open in the back!) and we were visited by all the folks who would be working on her, including the surgeon. He's very experienced in this kind of thing, specializing in shoulders, knees, and various other things like that. He is a former team surgeon for the NFL New England Patriots and a couple of other pro football teams. He's also a nice guy and he told us what was going to happen during the procedure with a professional air, followed by more relaxed conversation. I felt good about him after that, especially since Jonnene knew him from work and did PT with many of his patients.

She then got the "good meds" and was soon feeling very good about things. So, as they wheeled her out, I kissed her bye and I drove back to the house to check on the dogs and get the car fueled up. I returned to the clinic and did some work on my laptop, read a magazine before the doctor came out to tell me that things went great. Her shoulder was not as bad as it was first thought and he was happy about that. Her recovery time was still going to take up to 4 months but she will be close to or better than normal in six months. In another hour I was allowed to go back to the room to see her and get her ready to go home. After getting her dressed we chased down some prescription meds for her on the way home, then got her settled in.

Sunday, 2010

2010-01-03T21:05:00.003-06:00

Got this photo today from a friend who's wife was taking pictures at the duathlon. Here I am screeching to a halt so I can enter the transition pit and go out on my second run.

Today was the only Sunday we've had so far in 2010. It was a cold one! However, it looks like next weekend will be even colder! We're talking mid-to-high teens with the possibility of rain/sleet (slight, but still there) and all this week won't be much warmer. In other words, this entire week will be one of the coldest we've had in some time! I don't know if I'll get much of anything done outside for a while. Might have to visit the Centenary Fitness Center to run the treadmill or something like that.

Jonnene and I went to a matinee showing of "The Blind Side" starring Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw. A most excellent flick...I'd recommend it highly. Earlier we went out for a 2-mile run and kept the pace under 9 minutes per mile. I was most proud of The Wife for getting after it when it wasn't a race. It'll probably be the last run she does before going under the knife on Wednesday for her shoulder. Hopefully she'll be back outside doing that crazy running or biking or pilates stuff in 3-5 weeks after surgery but we won't rush anything. She'll know when's she ready to start up again...after a couple of weeks couped up in the house she'll be begging to do anything!

First Race of 2010

2010-01-02T20:42:00.007-06:00

Jonathan and Chelsea, two of my Centenary cycling club kids, take their warmup run into the fog that was out on the course this morning. It was also 28 degrees out there! Brrrrr!

Jonathan shoots out of transition to begin his bike split. He had the fastest finish of the club members, thanks mostly to his run splits. The boy is FAST!

Of course, I did the race, too. Didn't do too badly.

Jacquelyn, the club president, talks over her race with her dad, Jim, who drove over with the family from Fort Worth to participate.

This morning was the Dustbuster Duathlon and my first race of 2010. I didn't think I was in as good a shape for it as I was last year so I approached today as a training race so there wasn't really any pressure on me. It was a very foggy morning and the temperature was officially 28F...but the good thing was that there was no wind so the cold was tolerable, sorta. Four of my Centenary kids were participating in the race and they would garner two first places, one second place, and one third place in their age groups, so it was a good day for them! I did okay...got second place in my new age group: the men's 55-59 (ouch!) that I moved into this year. However, I held my weight against the youngsters, getting 18th overall of 106 finishers in a time of 57:18. My runs were faster than the previous two years but my bike split was almost 75 seconds slower than last year. Cranked out a 6:47/mile the first run and a 7:15/mile the second time...can't be too upset with that.

Friday night Jonnene and I went to Macaroni Grill, a nice classy Italian restaurant in town. The place itself is classy and the staff are dressed in white dress shirts, ties, and black pants. Jonnene looked great as usual and I could have been a little better dressed but our decision to eat there was kinda last minute so I didn't have a chance to change into a sharp-dressed man. There were a number of customers there who didn't even have as high a dress code as I did...one guy kept his baseball cap on his head the entire time though his date was dressed rather well. Some folks just don't know how to dress for the occasion anymore, even if it's informal. Sometimes I wish guys still wore hats with their suits. It's dated, of course, but it was still a smart style.

As to New Year's Eve, we stayed up until eleven to see the ball drop in New York. Earlier we had been at my Dad's house to celebrate his 76th birthday. I gave him a book called Liberty and Tyranny by Mark Levin. I think he'll like it. We ate tacos, had some brownies, and visited with some of my "step" relatives. Then it was back home to wait out the end of 2009 and sleep late into 2010. Hope the new year is a good one.

A welcome to the new year!

2009-12-31T21:26:00.004-06:00

November 2006: I won the Grand Masters category in the half-marathon during the Louisiana Trails races. Can I do a full marathon in 2010? Hmmmmmm.

We're just about 2.5 hours away from the new year as I write this...will probably go to bed in a little while. I'll take everybody's word that when I wake up in the morning it'll be 2010. Right now it's miserably rainy and dank outside but you can still hear some fireworks going off here and there in the neighborhood. Probably they're being fired out from under a back patio or carport around the area...keeps the powder dry until it's time to unleash the ordnance. One of our dogs, Sophie, is not pleased with the noise while our new dog, Coober, is curious about the sounds but I'm not sure if he's scared. His ears are definitely perked up!

Some end of the year numbers: I totaled up 5142.3 miles on the bike and 259.3 miles running for all of 2009. I would have liked to do some more but the weather the last 3-4 months has really curtailed my activities (I did run in the rain once last week and between storms last Wednesday). Tomorrow...New Year's Day...I'll put in a ride with the local bike club to Waskom, Texas and back, about 26 miles total and a nice run afterward (depending on the weather again) but nothing too hard since I'm participating in a duathlon on Saturday and I don't want to wear myself out. So I'm aiming for a nice start to the new year. I intend to run a marathon sometime in 2010, mainly because I've taken an interest in doing one while I can and before my legs eventually crater. I'd like to be able to say I've done one. I need to pick out a locale, something unique and not the usual fair that many of the runners here usually do. Like the marathons in New Orleans, Houston, Dallas White Rock, or Cowtown (Fort Worth). I'm looking at other possibilities...like the race in Missoula, Montana or the marathon that honors the bombing victims in Oklahoma City. A friend has been suggesting the Commanders Marathon in South Africa (probably not) and Big Sur in California (sounds too hot for me). We'll see where it goes.

I hope all who read this have a good New Year's celebration and that you've got plans or aspirations for 2010. Something to look forward to. I'm going to hang out with my wife and see what life brings and see what it is about life that I can affect. Just another adventure. Let's enjoy the ride.

Happy New Year to you all!

Oh, man, what a holiday....

2009-12-26T20:44:00.004-06:00

It's the evening of December 26th and I'm kinda worn out. We woke up early but not as early...Jonnene has to work this weekend and we had to walk the dogs so we had to get up early enough, but I was dragging. After she went on to make people healthy again I attached my new Look pedals to my TT bike and switched out the cleats on my shoes. I adjusted the tension but will need to ride it a few times to get the pedals just right. Then I went to the local building supply stores to get a few items for Mom's bathroom....still have some renovation to finish up, to install the medicine cabinet, some accessories, and the faucet. Then it's all detail work after that. At least it'll be a functional bathroom that she can use again. Jonnene spent the time after getting off work with house stuff. Tonight we went to Newk's for supper and went over to Kohl's to do some clothes shopping and get some comfortable pajamas for Jonnene to lounge around in while recovering from her upcoming shoulder surgery.

Christmas Eve was mostly composed of a few last minute errands. I took Mom around to check out bathroom items, including choosing the medicine cabinet. We got it to her house and found that two corners of the mirrored door had been chipped, so I would have to make an exchange after Christmas (see above). I cleaned up when I got home for our trip out to Dad's for Christmas Eve supper and opening some presents. Both of Gladys' daughters and their families came over and the supper was pretty good. I brought over my laptop and at around 7:30 that evening we were able to watch Jonnene's family in Perth, Western Australia open presents on their Christmas morning. We used Skype to make the audio/visual connection and it worked great. The picture below was taken by Jonnene's niece, Michelle, on her new camera where everyone posed, including ourselves on the big screen TV, for a family portrait (below).

Jonnene and I are on the screen in the back for this family picture!

Christmas Day saw Jonnene worked the morning at the hospital while I got in 4-mile run in below-freezing temperatures. Walking the dogs earlier that morning in the dark was way too much fun but there was no wind, so the run was easier to handle and halfway through I was nice and warmed up. When she came in around noon we packed the car to head to my brother's for a family get-together. Again, it was good food all around and I can tell you that I've gained a few pounds over the last 72 hours!

Miasses Draggin'

2009-12-19T21:05:00.003-06:00

Finally trying to get back to being serious with my riding and I picked a heck of a day to start. This morning the temp was 38 degrees (wind chill of 31) with a nice 9 mph wind out of the northwest that we were going to be heading into. This ride was one that Mack put together for a distance of 100 miles and I was hoping I would be able to do it. My plan was to make a decision at the 30-mile mark as to whether I could do the whole ride or not...at that point I would end up with at least 60 miles anyway, a decent distance to cover at the beginning of my "serious" training. We had seven riders at the start and we were going to try to stay at a good 17-18 mph pace...after all, this is not a race and the main goal at this time is to get some saddle time and some miles in our legs. No need to rip them up when it doesn't matter. However, my legs were not in the mood and I knew that about 10 miles into the ride. Sometimes you have days like that. Even pushing a measly 18 mph seemed like the greatest effort and I was getting more flustered. The wind in our faces was not helping and its speed was increasing as the morning went on...at least we had some nice sunshine instead of the depressing clouds that seemed to stick around all last week.

I got dropped at one point about 22 miles in but caught back up, strangely enough feeling better by then and was able to climb a couple of hills with better effort, but then my legs started feeling bad again, working way too hard to keep up with the group for the effort they were putting out. When we got to the 30-mile point, Roland and I decided that it was better to head back home than try to be heros. So the two of us headed back to Shreveport from wherever we were in East Texas while the rest of the group went on (I heard later that they were plenty wiped out from their longer ride!). The nice part of our return was that the wind was now at our back and we would find ourselves cruising at 22-24 mph with little effort. I ended up with 63.1 miles and a tired pair of legs. I'll try again tomorrow but will only do about 40 miles with a mile run immediately after I finish. Hope the legs hold up!

Later in the day Jonnene and I took the dogs to the groomers' to give them a bath. Coober has probably never had a proper bath in his life so that was an experience for us all. He wasn't amused and would try to fight it but many times he'd just succumb and stand there dealing with it. When we used a blow dryer on him he's just scrunch up and bury his head into the crook of my arm and keep it there, probably going to his "happy place" in his head to get away from that loud thing constantly exhaling on him.

Sophie (at right) looks on as Jonnene washes Coober. He's not happy.

But he's clean and shiny and smells good now. Hopefully the more we do this he'll start to settle down and understand that he's not going to get hurt and that there's nothing to be afraid of. He actually was quite good, considering, because I wasn't sure if he'd just go nuts or be too submissive. He got to sniff at some of the other dogs there as well as the groomers on hand.

On The Run

2009-12-16T21:16:00.002-06:00

Last night Jonnene and I participated in the annual Downtown Christmas Run, which is running four laps of a four-corner course in downtown Shreveport so that it totals 3.4 miles. We got there around 6 pm when it was already dark and the temps were already down to the upper 40's...not bad but the wind was blowing and that could put a tingle in your running shorts. I had already decided to run with Jonnene the whole way or until her knee started giving her problems. It turned out to be just fine as we ran the entire route and she had no knee problems at all! We averaged 9:16 per mile, coming in 127th and 128th overall...there were 330 finishers with timing chips, about 300 more without them. On the slightly downhill finish, I had her go out ahead of me and encouraged her to pick up the pace the final 200 meters. She kicked it and cruised in like a champ! We did the run at her pace which was good enough to put her into 4th place in her age group! I got 10th in my age group but if I had run my regular race I might have gotten 3rd or 4th. It didn't matter, this was for fun and I got to spend some fast time with my wife and it was all good. Afterwards, we had dinner with our friends Elka and Daniel, both of whom won their age groups in the race.

The week has been kinda hectic with some last minute free-lance jobs to finish up, trying to get the permits submitted for a time trial the Centenary club is putting on this February, working with our new dog so he can understand ALL of our demanding demands, and just trying to keep up with Christmas! I'm hoping to get a ride in Thursday morning but it's going to be a cold one!

Getting used to the new dog

2009-12-14T12:00:00.002-06:00

I set another new personal best during this morning's ride: most miles in a single calendar year on the bike...5,027 miles! That's with 17 days left in the year and more miles to be added. I hope I can do another 200 miles depending on the weather and I might hitch onto a 100-miler that Mack is planning for this weekend. This morning's ride was in a low overcast, sorta foggy, mild temperature sort of event. Mike, Roland, and Dick were the only other riders to show up although conditions demanded that a larger crowd should have been there. It's just going to get colder as the week goes on.

Our friend, Jamie, came by last night to take our Christmas card picture with all the animals...ALL meaning both dogs AND the cat! That was interesting in its own way. What was nice for me was Jamie, Jonnene, and I remembering stories about Farley, talking almost as if he was still here. His drinking habits getting the most laughs since he was famous for leaving half of the water he gulped up strung out across the floor. That was really nice. Jamie is officially the first person that Coober has met since we brought him home and he was a little anxious/nervous meeting another person. He barked and backed off but in about five minutes he was getting friendly with her. We need to have him meet more people so that he doesn't become afraid of people he doesn't know. We're taking him on walks twice a day and Jonnene got this harness/lead that wraps around Coober's nose and makes him behave a bit better on these walks. So far it's working pretty good but he is challenging it, which we expected. We have to remember that Coober has spent most of his life at a shelter so walking on a leash is not natural for him (but he's doing very well considering). But we've survived our first week with him and we really like him. We'll see how it goes over the next few weeks and how he takes to training.

Tomorrow night we will be at the Downtown Christmas Run, a 3.4 mile 3-lap run in downtown Shreveport. Hope it won't be too cold! I'm going to run with Jonnene the entire way or until/if her knee starts to act up. If the latter happens I will go on and get a faster run over the remaining distance. Otherwise we'll run together and just enjoy the crowd and the evening. Maybe we'll wear Santa hats!?

Cold Outside!

2009-12-10T07:46:00.006-06:00

We got our Christmas tree up last night! It's the best one we've done so far...of the two Jonnene and I have ever done together. Looks great!

Man, it is cold out there! Jonnene's feeling under the weather and will be taking today off from work after leaving at noon yesterday. I've got some kind of crud in my eyes the last few days...thought it was pink-eye at one point but I don't think it is...so we're doing just fine right now! I had to take the dogs out for their morning walk, one at a time, and it's really cold outside. I think it was about 29 degrees but, fortunately, there was no wind. Still spent nearly an hour total walking around the neighborhood. We decided on a name for our new pet: Coober. As in Coober Pedy, a small town in South Australia. He gets his first vet visit this Saturday and we just received his previous vet records. Looks like he's closer to three years old since it says he was neutered in April, 2007 and he'd have to be a few months old for that to happen.

Coober, myself, and Sophie get together for a team meeting.

Jonnene sent me a photo of Farley that I had taken soon after we had moved into the new house...early 2008...that I had forgotten about. He's totally laid out on his side staring at the camera with those big old brown eyes. It's not a well taken photo, some slight movement with a slow shutter speed, but it didn't matter. I realized as I was looking at it on the computer screen that I had a big smile on my face.

Blah

2009-12-08T09:46:00.003-06:00

Man, it is dreary outside. There's been so much rain this fall...usually I like rain but I want more sun now. The ground is saturated so we're getting more puddles in yards. The gray skies don't exactly enthuse me to go run or bike. I'm wanting to do both but I'm not that hard-core and the idea of constantly cleaning my bike after nearly every ride or watching my new Asics turn a dingy brown isn't appealing. But you know what will happen...eventually we'll start getting days and days of constant sun, and the rain will start looking good again.

The dog with no name....yet...running through the backyard of our house.

We got a new dog last Sunday! Still trying to come up with a name for him. He's about two years old and we rescued him at a local shelter called Pet Savers. Visit their website and think about making a donation for the good work they do. Anyway, our guy's a lean, energetic dog, however his maturity has made it easier to deal with him...so far. In a perfect world we'd all want our dogs to start out with us as puppies but there are so many older dogs that need homes. And many of them are already house-broken or just need some love. Sure, you might have them for a shorter time but, with patience, they'll show you how much they appreciate the gift you've given them of a home, food, and that needed attention!

We're hoping to come up with a name for the fella tonight. We pulled out a few maps of Australia to see if any towns or landmarks may be good candidates for a name. We've found several that are appealing.

Last Saturday I went riding with a couple of other guys to do my first 50+ mile ride in several weeks. It was special because the temperature at the start was 21 degrees! After three-and-a-half hours the temps had risen to a balmy 42 degrees. We were rugged up fine and actually enjoyed the ride although my legs definitely felt like they haven't done this in a while. Jonnene rode later in the morning but you still had to dress for it. It helped that the sun was out.

That night we went to the annual Christmas party that our triathlon club holds and I did a mighty fine job NOT stuffing myself with all the great food that was on hand. Oh, I ate alright but managed to hold off. The food was great! During the awards ceremony and speeches later on, I scored by winning three of the door prizes that were being given out (and there were a LOT of people there). Even Jonnene won something!

Cali Thanksgiving

2009-11-29T20:29:00.006-06:00

Yeah-huhhh, we went to California for the Thanksgiving holidays, visiting my aunt and uncle in Fresno. Got there Wednesday night after flying in from Dallas (we drove there) and spent Thanksgiving Day with some of the family up in Modesto. Ate too much, of course. Jonnene and I spent some time both Friday and Saturday mornings running to work off the calories! On Friday we went up to Sequoia National Forest to check out the giant sequoia and redwood trees, do some hiking, and experience driving at night for 6,000+ feet downhill as a storm front was moving in, turning the road into a fog bank as the clouds rolled in! We flew back on Saturday and got home very late that night.

Jonnene stands inside the "Fallen Monarch", a giant sequoia that fell over 300 years ago (estimated to have been around 1,500 years old) and was used as a shelter, a stable, and a saloon in the past 130 years.

These trees are BIG. Jonnene stands near the base of one of the "younger" trees, probably only a few hundred years old!

While we were hiking on one of the lesser traveled trails in the forest, we were treated to seeing a group of five mule deer grazing. We all watched each other for about 10 minutes before continuing to hike on and the deer went on about their business.

Just to give you an idea of size: That group of tourists is standing about 50-60 feet away from the base of that huge redwood to the left. They're checking out the fallen tree at center.

Up In The Air

2009-11-25T21:12:00.003-06:00

While we were at DFW waiting for our flight to California, we ran into Lindsay as she was getting off a flight from Indiana! We bought our house from Lindsay and her husband, Scott, when they found out they had to move "up north". They visit Shreveport when they can and Lindsay was on her way to see family for Thanksgiving. It was a real surprise and pleasure to run into her!

Hey, I'm putting a post on my blog while riding in a MD-80 ("Super 80") at 32,000 feet somewhere over deep west Texas! Jonnene's trying to catch a few Z's while I type this. The flight's been real smooth so far and it's really dark outside. We're dropping in on my aunt and uncle in Fresno, CA for Thanksgiving. The pilot thinks we'll be 20 minutes early getting into Fresno which will be great for us. In the meantime we have a cranky baby a couple of rows ahead of us...well, I guess not everything can be perfect.

We're All Racists (again)

2009-11-23T21:47:00.002-06:00

More insightful commentary from Greg Gutfeld:

FRIDAY'S GREGALOGUE: WE'RE ALL RACISTS (AGAIN)

So apparently Sarah Palin sold over three hundred thousand copies of her book in one day - and as you can guess - they were all purchased by racists.

At least, that's what the sociology professors over at MSNBC Community College believe. Check out Hardball guest Norah O'Donnell, impersonating a talking puffin...

"This is a largely white -- almost no minorities in this crowd. And they`re here because they love Sarah Palin. I think it`s an emotional connection, Chris because they feel, too, that they`ve been beat up on, whether it`s the economy or they feel like outcasts. They like the outsider, if you will, in Sarah Palin. And that`s why people have been willing to wait, 1,500 of them, since 7:00 AM this morning to just get a glimpse of Sarah Palin."

So let me get this straight: people appreciate Palin because they've been picked on by a big bully. It makes me wonder if Norah ever psycho-analyzed Obama supporters this closely... or called them "largely black."

But hey, I guess that's better than calling them a tribe or something. Chris?

"I think there is a tribal aspect to this thing, in other words, white vs. other people. I think she is very smart about this. Here she is on the issue of -- of what happened down at Fort Hood, obviously, an ethnic issue, as many people see it.."

So, imagine for a moment, if during an Obama rally, Matthews described it as "tribal." How fast would he be fired, and then ending up on Oprah issuing a tearful apology?

Boogla moogla, I might say.

Which is Greg-lingo, for "pretty fast."

But here's the real issue: I used to think this race-baiting tactic was a political ploy. But now I believe they mean it. They do think that if you're against the policies of Obama, you must be racist. And that's because in their profession, they don't know anyone who's against the policies of Obama! Surrounded by likeminded lackeys, they're convinced that everyone beyond the tinted windows of their black cars must be card-carrying members of the Aryan Book Club.

The real truth: Whether it's Norah O'Donnell or Chris Matthews - they're just too scared to question a black man over policy.

And that's authentic bigotry.

But what can you expect from a bunch of white people?

And if you disagree with me, then you're probably a racist.

Busy Week

2009-11-22T09:07:00.009-06:00

Well, I should be depressed this morning...my ULM Warhawks lost a game last night that they shouldn't have and will most likely not be in any post-season bowl game. Plus the U.S. Senate voted to begin debate (with exactly the 60 votes the Democrats needed) on that stupid montrosity of a health care reform bill Congress is trying to force upon the people of the United States. Want to really screw up health care in this country? Congress will find a way to do it.

But, instead, we had our Aussie Film Fest and belated house-warming party for our friends last night at the house. We ended up with about 30-31 people dropping by to visit and watch Australian movies with us. Jonnene made a number of genuine Australian treats along with other food items that were a hit with the crowd. We started at 3 pm and by 8:30 pm everyone was gone. Jonnene and I were a tad exhausted...from thorough cleaning of the house, moving things around, getting things ready, yard work, and such. We slept great last night! We'll have to do it again sometime.

Last weekend I took a group from the Centenary College Cycling & Multi-Sport Club to Fort Worth, Texas to participate in the Bronda's Du (duathlon) that was held at the Texas Motor Speedway, one of the NASCAR venues across the country. The course was a 2-mile run, 16-mile bike, and 2-mile run with the runs entirely in the infield area and the bike portion leaving that huge stadium into a 5-mile loop outside that we had to do three times. I think everyone had a good time. We grabbed up a couple of awards as two of the kids got third place in their age groups. I picked up lunch for all of them after the race and I was proud of them. Our next race is January 2nd, another duathlon here in Shreveport.

Here we are, gathered up under the Texas Motor Speedway sign in the pit area...way too early on a Sunday morning.

Jacquelyn begins the second lap of her first run. Both 2-mile runs were on a 1-mile lap course in the infield of the auto race course. She got third in the women's 20-24 group with a 1:21:59, a 4-minute improvement on this same course in a race back in February!

While our race was going on, there were race cars doing practice laps! The bike course left and re-entered the infield through a tunnel that went under the race track.

Here's me crossing the finish line in 1:15:41, good enough for 41st overall of 226 finishers and first place in my men's 50-54 age group.

Jonathan talks over his race with Jonnene. He had the fastest time overall of the entire Centenary group. Even though he got fifth in his 20-24 age group, he had the fastest second run of the group with a 6:03/mile average. He was 33rd overall with a 1:14:01 time.

Here's the gang after the race: Chelsea, Jonathan, Jacquelyn, Bekah, and Christopher (who got third in the 16-19 age group in his first ever multi-sport race). They look pretty sharp, don't they?

New Look for the TV Room

2009-11-06T22:41:00.003-06:00

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

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

Here's a detail of one of the kangaroos:

Here Comes the Sun

2009-11-02T07:02:00.002-06:00

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

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

What's been and going to happen

2009-10-28T06:59:00.005-05:00

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

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

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

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

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

That's Some High Water!

2009-10-19T18:48:00.005-05:00

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

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

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

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

Sunday and Sore Muscles

2009-10-18T09:53:00.005-05:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's Friday, Call the Kids In!

2009-10-09T07:28:00.007-05:00

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

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

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

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

Mid-Week

2009-10-08T08:22:00.002-05:00

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

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

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

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

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

Still Cloudy

2009-10-07T10:32:00.002-05:00

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

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

Lite Tuesday

2009-10-06T17:13:00.002-05:00

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

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

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

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

Painting again

2009-09-25T17:52:00.003-05:00

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

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

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

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

2009-09-23T07:03:00.003-05:00

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

MONDAY'S GREGALOGUE: AVERSIVE RACISM

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

A simpler definition of aversive racism?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2009-09-16T20:32:00.003-05:00

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

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

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

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

September 11th

2009-09-11T20:45:00.004-05:00

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

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

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

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

Things Going On

2009-09-04T21:06:00.003-05:00

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

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

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

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

Happenings

2009-09-01T10:02:00.002-05:00

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

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

Hi Alan!

No problem, consider it done.

David

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

Saturday....again

2009-08-29T21:34:00.003-05:00

Jonnene and I with my Grandma!

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

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

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

The Office

2009-08-28T22:06:00.004-05:00

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

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

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

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

It's Thursday

2009-08-27T21:37:00.002-05:00

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

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

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

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

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

Dreams and Time Trials

2009-08-23T21:17:00.008-05:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I just thought this was funny

2009-08-21T11:19:00.002-05:00


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

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

I hear cooler weather's coming

2009-08-21T06:28:00.003-05:00

Okay, so I'm in this large pack of riders leaving the village of Frierson, heading toward I-49 about six miles away. We're flying down this bumpy, pock-marked road at about 26-27 mph and I'm reaching for whatever energy stores I can find in this 54-year old body. I looked over at Frenchie and said, "I thought the Thursday night rides were supposed to be easier than Tuesday night!" He just smiled and replies, "What do you mean...this IS easier." He's suffering as much as I am. But we're hanging in and sometimes I find myself at the front...how that happens I'm not sure. The speed was fast the whole ride, even when it was easy or easier. By the time we got to Linwood Road, we had dropped half the group and I started to lose touch with the front group. Considering we started the training ride with about 25 riders, there were only eight left to drop me. Later down Linwood I would catch up to two of them and finish back in with them.

Now I'm going to take it easy until the district time trials down in LaPlace near New Orleans this Sunday. Jonnene and I are signed up and I'm thinking this'll probably be my last bike race for the year. I'm not burned out yet but I'm starting to feel the beginnings of that weariness and not wanting to ride as much as I used to. It usually happens around August for me, partly due to riding all summer in the heat which makes me feel drained a lot and also that real life is busy during this time. I'm close to 4,000 miles which is the most I've ever done to this point of the year. I still plan to do a duathlon or two before the year is out (start running again next week) and would like to do the Louisiana Trails run again in November but we'll see how that goes.

Centenary College begins its fall semester next week and we moved my niece into her dorm Wednesday. That was exciting, mostly watching her (and her mother's) nervousness and anticipation...I was cool as a cucumber and enjoying the whole thing. I saw a couple of my cycling club kids who were helping people unload their cars and talked to them a bit. I have to get the club going again and schedule some rides and club meetings next week. As long as I'm getting paid I guess I should do it, huh? More of the members have gotten bikes over the summer and others remembered to bring theirs so I'm expecting more participation. I know we have folks who'll be doing triathlons in the spring but I also need to grow the road racing side of the club. My goal this year is to get more members out of the regular student body since my current membership consists of guys and gals from the swimming and cross-country teams, and I lose them when their main sports are in season.

Too Long Ago...

2009-08-19T07:24:00.004-05:00

I love going thru my old photos, reliving some memories, gawking at the clothes, and sometimes amazed I've lived up to this point with all I've done. I'm going to post some of my old pictures from the 70's and 80's every once in a while just to review the situation that set it and why it was taken. The picture above was taken in the Spring of 1975 of my good friend Paul, at left, and myself when we were both 19 years old. We're standing on the east bank of Bayou Desiard on the campus of then Northeast Louisiana University (now known as the University of Louisiana at Monroe). We're about 100 yards south of the traffic bridge that crosses the bayou, near where the Natatorium swim complex would be built a couple of years later. When this shot was taken, Paul had gotten a new tripod and wanted to try it out. So we set it up with his camera and used the timer to get some pics of us just standing around. Seems to have worked! As you can tell, we were letting our hair grow long as was the style for the guys back then and we're wearing our flared-leg, worn-out jeans. I'm also wearing my first synthetic material (nylon) shirt that looked pretty neat but felt really weird....I was a child of cotton materials. I'm betting this picture was taken on a Sunday when the campus was really quiet and hardly anyone was around (I miss those kind of weekends). Probably the funniest part is seeing how skinny we both were...Paul's not quite that thin anymore and I'm struggling to stay as slender as I am!

New Toy...well, not yet

2009-08-17T18:34:00.007-05:00

THE OLD: Apple MacIntosh G4 - meant to be good at home or the office.

I'm getting a new computer soon. It's time. I've had my Apple Quicksilver G4 since 2002 and it's long in the tooth by computer technology standards. I've replaced the hard drive, got it a DVD-CD player/recorder, and maxed out its RAM during the time I've had it and it's done a wonderful job. In fact, I can still keep using it for at least a couple more years if it doesn't suddenly die on me. I can still do graphics work and design on it. I can still surf the internet. It's only the third computer I've owned since 1994....I'm good at making them last a long time. But most of the new software being written now is beyond the operating system of my trusty G4 (not that I get much new software anyway...I can make what I have last a long time, too).

THE NEW: 2009 Apple MacBook Pro 13 - small and powerful, take it anywhere.

So this is what I'm looking at...the Apple MacBook Pro with the 13" screen. I asked a friend who's well versed in all things Apple and Mac, told him I wanted to get a laptop this time that had the power to enable me to still do what I do with the G4 and then some. He was quick to recommend the MacBook Pro...very quick. He said it's an awesome machine for 2009, told me what setup and memory to get. Why the small one? I can hook up my larger flat-screen monitor to it at my desk along with a separate keyboard and mouse, and can even use both monitors. Then the smaller size makes it easier to carry around when I travel. He thought that would take care of what I needed both at home and on the road.

I'll order it before the end of this month to take advantage of a $100 rebate. I'm kinda excited about it but I temper that by realizing that there'll be a period of time where I have to get it set up, tied in to the internet here at home, get some graphics software, and other things to make it run the way I want...should take a couple of months before I'm satisfied with it. In the meantime I'm already getting some of the components I need: a separate keyboard (it is THIN!) and the adaptor so I can hook up my current monitor to the MacBook. Still need to get a wireless mouse (which I use when I travel...I hate using those trackpads that are built in). Should be nice.....

Here's a fun music video

2009-08-12T21:27:00.003-05:00

"Daylight" by Matt & Kim.

It's the background song for that Barcardi commercial which shows the guy going back through time to get his mojito drink.

chorus
and in the daylight we can hitchhike to maine
i hope that someday i’ll see without these frames
and in the daylight i don’t pick up my phone
cause in the daylight anywhere feels like home

Getting Back in da Groove

2009-08-12T16:30:00.009-05:00

Oh, I know. I haven't posted anything for a while. I'll try to be better! This is a start....

Here's me crossing the finish line after 24.8 miles of hurtin'...did a not-so-great 1:04:28 but had to deal with a headwind on the return. Works out to a 23.1 mph average but I wasn't real pleased.

Last weekend, Jonnene and I went down to Castroville, Texas (about 30-something miles west of San Antonio) to do the Texas State Time Trial Championships. It was essentially a workout for both of us to prepare for the Louisiana/Mississippi TT's in two weeks. Being from Louisiana, we weren't eligible for any awards but we got a good workout. Jonnene improved on her time from the Arkansas time trials (see below) and is improving her time trialing even better than she probably thought she would. Her 1:10:30 got her 12th in the 25-deep Category 4 women's grouping. My race didn't start well before it even started: I blew out a tire on my disc wheel during my warmup and had to use a spare rear wheel I had brought with me. I always bring spare wheels when I go to races out of town. Of course, the spare wheel was not a disc so I'd lose some aero advantage out there on the course. I started fast with the tailwind but when I got about 3 miles into the ride I looked down and saw my front wheel skewer was loose! Had to pull over and tighten it, all within 10 seconds. Then I took off again, catching my 30-second man within the next mile. I would catch and pass five other riders and be caught by three who had started behind me. After a very smooth turn-around it was a battle against the headwind and the last four miles pretty much killed what had been a pretty good average speed (I was at 24.7 mph at the turn-around).

The rest of the weekend we spent in San Antonio, touring the Alamo and the RiverWalk. We did the good touristy thing and just walked about the area. I'm interested in the history there and it's always strange to know you're walking on an old battleground that now has a shopping mall on it!

Photos from the Arkansas State Time Trial Championships

(Above) After my ride....a 1:03:20 for a 23.5 mph average and I got a good idea where my fitness level was. The course was flat with a few bumps in it but I was pretty much happy with my effort. Photo by Paul Stillings

Jonnene rolling in after doing her very first 40 kilometer time trial. I wanted her to finish under 75 minutes and she did, with a 1:11:55 run. I was proud of her! Photo by Paul Stillings

One of my best buddies, Paul, came out to take photos of our race and we all went out to eat lunch later. I think we're trying to gang-sign here but it's not working out too well. I guess we're too white? Photo not by Paul Stillings

I'm now nationally quoted...

2009-07-26T17:31:00.003-05:00

Good start to the day! Conservative/Libertarian radio commentator, Neal Boortz, read an email of mine on the air this morning. Neal is based out of Atlanta, Georgia and used to have his show broadcast here in Shreveport until the station changed formats. Now I catch him on the streaming broadcast on his website every once in a while. It was based on this STORY. I HAD to comment but I won't tell you which one was mine.

Droppin' some trees

2009-07-19T17:24:00.006-05:00

We had a couple of trees taken out of the front yard on Friday. There was one butting up against the driveway which had been slowly moving a slab over the years...about 3.5" over! And it was kinda swallowing the slab, too. We wanted to take it out before it cracked the slab and messed up the sidewalk/walk-up to the front of the house (which I had repaired last year). The other tree was about four feet from the front of the house near the front door. It had a few large branches over the roof which we felt would be a problem some day, especially if we had some high winds or a nice ice storm over the winter.

Working on the "Driveway Tree": The top half of the pine tree is down and you can see the guy at the top. He was wearing a safety belt and had climbing spikes attached to his boots.

This is how you take a very tall tree down, one piece at a time. The worker is about 50 feet up and saws off a 4-foot chunk of the trunk. Then he pushes it off to the ground below where the other guys cut it up into smaller pieces for loading on the flatbed trailer.

Here's what's left of the oak tree that was directly in front of the house. You can barely see the stump to the left of the sidewalk that leads up to the front door. All this wood will be hauled off on Monday. At least we hope it will...maybe Tuesday?

What a busy weekend it was

2009-07-12T20:57:00.002-05:00

Saturday morning Jonnene and I went out to Cypress Lake to meet up with a bunch of the other local triathletes to go over the course for the River Cities Triathlon coming up on August 2nd. I only planned to ride while she would do a bit of all three events. She spent about 15 minutes max in the water and that was that...one of the other girls said now she remembers why she only swims in Cypress once a year! The water there isn't the greatest in the world yet it is Bossier City's backup water source (let's hope the Red River never runs dry!). Then we went out together to scope out the bike course which is 18.4 miles in length and now has a new bridge on the back side as well as a new section of road being built near the spillway that will shorten the course by 1/10th of a mile. It won't interfere with the triathlon but it'll make for a straighter stretch there next year. There are new sections of asphalt inside the park and at the entrance so the triathletes will love cruising down those sections.

I put in another lap after making a pit stop inside the park. I planned to do a fast up-tempo ride over the course so Jonnene, Daniel, Tony, and a few other guys headed out with me to get that extra lap in. I took off at mile three, keeping the pace at a steady 25-26 mph and soon saw that only Tony was staying with me. It was good to have the company. I charged up the hills trying to keep the pace up and he followed, telling me that I was killing him! I doubted that...Tony is a pretty strong guy...but maybe he wasn't expecting me to take the hills that aggressively and he was just happy to hang on. By the time we got back to the park both of us were sweating heavily. I would end up losing about 4 pounds in water weight...and I was drinking! Nearly emptied both of my bottles! But that's the way it is in hot, humid Louisiana among the pine trees.

Saturday afternoon I stayed around the house doing some small things that needed doing while Jonnene went out to get her hair done, get Sophie (the dog) cleaned, and doing some grocery shopping. Later that night we watched "Taken", a movie we rented starring Liam Neeson and it was an action flick we quite enjoyed. Ate take-out Chinese food, too, from a place nearby that we hadn't tried yet. Yessir, I loves my General Tso's chicken!

Today was more of a work day than a rest day. I spent most of the morning clearing out this semi-circular garden spot next to the house in the back patio. I pulled up all the bushes and wild grass there, shoveled out half the dirt and redistributed it on the back yard where I had pulled up about 72 concrete pavers (that was fun...). We're going to make that spot more of a rock garden, putting in gray river stone with three of the pavers. It'll look a lot better and be a lot less upkeep...I hope. Someday we want to pull up all the brick in the patio and replace it with molded concrete, along with other things we'd like to do back there.

While Jonnene was doing house stuff (things us fellers don't know nuttin' about), I got started with a new setup for putting our bikes in the back of her Rav4. The idea was Jonnene's but I put myself to work on the project, cutting out a huge chuck of outdoor carpeting that fit in the back of the car along with a board that would hold the front forks of our bikes. It'd keep the car clean and keep our bike stuff more organized. So far it looks pretty good...still needs some tweaking but it's going to work out well. Then the two of us went shopping, getting some small shelves that would help move her books from the linen closet to the office closet. We're slowly getting the house the way we want it.

Today's Tour de France stage was anti-climatic. I was expecting lots of fireworks today as the tour was going to tackle the Col du Tourmalet (a 6,900 foot mountain that can break your legs like twigs) but the huge climb didn't change anything in the overall standings, and, except for some exciting downhill-at-60 mph footage, nothing really happened. Armstrong and Contador didn't challenge the current yellow jersey holder (who'll probably keep it the rest of this week, but WILL lose it). I guess they're going to make their serious moves when the peloton goes into the Alps starting this Friday. Monday's a rest day so no Tour TV for me! Sob!

You Know It's A Weird Day When....

2009-07-07T21:42:00.002-05:00

...both your automobile AND your bike are in the shop at the same time! And overnight on top of that! I'm down to my time trial bike and using Jonnene's car for most of Wednesday. The truck has to have a couple of switches replaced so that my air conditioner runs for more than 30 minutes and it's gonna cost bunches of moola. Yuk.

The bike is having its bottom bracket looked at. The sealed bearings aren't spinning the way I'd like and the shop is going to see what the problem is, if there is one (I could be imagining the whole thing). It just seems to be too sluggish and I could be wasting a few watts of energy trying to turn the pedals. It's always something....

Shannon in Switzerland

2009-07-07T06:29:00.003-05:00

I've known Shannon Koch since she was 14 years old and started racing for Team LaS'port as a junior. Now she's, what, 22 and is racing in Switzerland this summer! The photo above shows her finishing a race this past weekend over in Germany where they combined the women and the junor men in a race called a "rundstreckenrennen", something close to an American-style criterium race. She finished second among the women racers despite dealing with a stomach-ache toward the end of the race. In the picture one of the junior men racers just barely nips Shannon (at left in the white uniform) at the line but supposedly was very upset afterwards that he almost got beat by a girl. Shannon said that if she had 5 more meters she would have beat him to the line. That doesn't surprise me. All these experiences will make her a better racer when she gets back home to Dallas.

Something I'm Thankful For Today

2009-07-07T06:02:00.004-05:00

I am thankful that the Versus channel shows live coverage of the Tour de France so that I don't have to see any of the Michael Jackson funereal services or Obama in Russia (is he really doing anything over there?).

Happy Fourth of July 2009!

2009-07-04T22:07:00.003-05:00

The flags in front of the house. Usually I have an Australian flag on the far end but today is Independence Day and I went full-on stars and stripes!

And here's the house they fly in front of! Looking pretty good with the new front windows and interior blinds, hey?

We went to a party tonight hosted by a member of our cycling team...the same guy who won the national championship last Monday. Got to see his new stars and stripes jersey and the medal that came with it. Lots of people there, even some folks I hadn't seen in a long time and whom I really enjoyed talking to. You can hear the fireworks outside but it's not as bad as I thought it would be.

Happy Birthday, America!!

Ze Bathroom, She Is Fini!

2009-07-04T15:09:00.003-05:00

Finally! I can say that our guest bath is pretty much done! Outside of switching out the yukky gold sink faucet for something in white and chrome so that it can match the rest of the other accessories, there's not much else we can do. Well, maybe add a few pictures on the wall. That wouldn't hurt.

ABOVE: Looking from the bathtub end of the guest bath. On the left is the renovation in progress. Had to rebuild the medicine cabinet (and replace the cabinet door) and put in new wainscot along the lower wall. We switched out the wall mirrors between the two bathrooms which gave us better proportions on the walls - the smaller one we put in the guest bath just looked better there and the larger one works better in the master bath. Click on the image to see a bigger version.

ABOVE: Looking into the guest bath from the hallway door. This shows you what the room looked like when we moved in (left), with the striped wallpaper and the louvered divide wall between the vanity and the toilet. The center photo shows that the layers of wallpaper had been striped off and the sheetrock underneath with its repair patches before being textured. The last photo (right) shows the finished version with the new paint, the divider gone, and a nicer place to visit for those special times.

When we eventually get the master bath renovated (it'll be a major job), at least we'll have a functioning bathroom to use in the meantime that looks pretty good...and pretty good for any guests we may have.

Baby, It's HOT Outside!

2009-07-03T06:38:00.003-05:00

No kiddin'! The temps around here have been in the 100-101 Fahrenheit (wow, actually spelled that right! Score one for me!) range the last few days and it's made for some sweaty bike rides and dramatic weight drops. I hope our water bill doesn't go up too much with the amount I've been drinking. In the last 72 hours I've done four training rides, one 4.5-mile run, and spent a couple of hours out in the yard, and I'm feeling it. I'll be taking all Friday off, sorta....I'll still do stuff but just not as intense. The worse part is that I can't seem to get the A/C on my truck fixed. I've taken it to the shop twice now and when they say it's fixed, I find out it's not fixed. Oh, they've done some real work on the system but it's not correcting the problem (stays cold for a while, then blows warm air the rest of the day). I'm giving them one more shot at it and if there's no joy then I'm looking for another place to take my business. I think the problem is mechanical now since there are no leaks and all moisture has been evacuated from the lines which was originally thought to be the cause.

Wednesday night we had the sixth in our 8-race time trial series south of town. Usually I run these time trials but sometimes I get to actually race one or two of them myself when someone else volunteers to take over. This was the case and I got to suffer with the rest of the crazy people who want to see how fast they can go on a bicycle for 7.35 miles...in this heat. Jonnene helped Jason, along with several other volunteers, to make it all work. Fifteen riders showed up and I started third in the lineup. I ended up having a good ride, setting a new personal record on the course with a 17:52 time, averaging 24.68 mph, and finishing sixth overall. I was happy with that and the whole event went smoothly. Did I mention it was HOT?

One of my LaS'port teammates, Mat Davis, won the 65-mile Masters 30-34 road race championships last Monday up in Louisville, Kentucky. He was part of a seven-man break about halfway thru the race and made a dramatic sprint in the last 200 meters to narrowly win over Mike Olheiser of Alabama. It was a terrific win for Mat and the team as Olheiser has a few stars & stripes and world championship jerseys hanging up in his closet! This made Mat the third Team LaS'port rider to win a coveted jersey over the last ten years. Mat was at Thursday night's ride and we got to talk to him a bit about his experience. He sounded pretty excited about the whole thing.

Mat pumps his fist in victory as he wins the 30-34 national
road championship over world class racer Mike Olheiser.

Since today is pretty much a day off for everyone, I'm going to get a few things done around the house and run errands with Jonnene. Tomorrow is the Fourth of July where we'll participate in the FireCracker 5K run and go to a team party that evening. We'll just enjoy the holiday.

3,000+

2009-06-30T20:51:00.002-05:00

I managed to do it. After putting in over 62 miles in two separate rides today, I have achieved my early-year goal of getting 3,000 miles on the bike in the first six months of the year! Now this is not a lot compared to some of the guys I ride with who do a lot of heavy training miles (I'll bet some already have 5,000+) but I never had this many miles by the end of June EVER. Even when I was racing a lot back in the late 90's and early this century...I got most of my miles in late spring and all summer. Yeah, big accomplishment.

Tonight's ride at Tuesday Night Worlds was one of my best so far. The speeds were high and I even took a couple of pulls but mostly sat in, with an occasional move toward the front. The main thing was that I didn't get dropped the whole time and things were looking good until Daniel crashed. We were flying toward I-49 from a rough side road and I was sitting mid-pack when Jason attacked from the right side. This opened up a nice gap up the right and I immediately thought about taking advantage of it to move quickly to the front. Well, there were about 3-4 other people thinking the same thing and they were closer to it so they made the move...I stayed where I was and let them have it. That jammed up the right side and Daniel (who had done a Half-Ironman Triathlon just three days earlier in Texas) bumped the back of Mary's bike and dropped off the edge of the road into a rough patch with gravel. His wheels slid back to the left, kicking up gravel into the road and down he went into the ditch on his right side. I was never in any danger of getting caught up in all that although I did have a ringside seat to the whole thing. As the group slowed I yelled out to everyone to ride straight and not turn their heads to see behind them or we'd have another crash due to stupidity. As it turned out, Daniel was fine though scratched up a bit and was shaken up enough to want to throw up (he didn't). All but four of us went on, including his wife because he told her to go ahead and keep riding. Jason, Jeffrey, Tony, and I stayed back with Daniel and rode back in with him. After a few miles he was back to riding normal and we were speeding down the road again. He wasn't looking forward to washing/scrubbing the road rash on his arm in the shower tonight!

And it was my birthday, too!!

2009-06-28T21:21:00.004-05:00

Today was the first of three 40 kilometer (24.8 miles) time trials I hope to do this year. Jonnene and I were up in Galloway, Arkansas for the Arkansas State Time Trial Championships where I wanted to get an idea of my fitness level at this point. I have two other TT's coming up: the Texas state championships on August 8th and the Louisiana/Mississippi district championships on August 23rd. What I want to do is work toward breaking the hour mark, the same goal I had last year but didn't get to try for when the LA/MISS race was canceled due to one of those pesky hurricanes that came blowing through about the time it was scheduled. I did set a Personal Record of 1:02:01 at the Texas time trial a few weeks before so 2008 was not a total loss.

We drove up Saturday afternoon to Little Rock and checked into the Residence Inn which was about 4 miles from the race site...nice and close. After taking a short time to unwind after the long drive we went to Carino's Italian Restaurant to meet up with some other racers who had driven in from Monroe and Oxford, Mississippi. It was a fun dinner and soon we were back in the hotel just relaxing before getting some shut-eye. The nice thing about a time trial is that you don't have to do a lot of pre-race prep...just have the bike ready, your pre-race eats, and your racing gear (helmet, uniform, shoes, etc.). For an hour or so on the bike you don't need much.

Sunday morning we were at registration around six o'clock, signed in and got our stuff together. However, the event starts at 7 am sharp so it didn't leave us with much time to get in a good warmup. Both of us were able to go a couple of miles down the course before we had to turn around to get back for the race....you can't be on the course once the TT starts. The juniors and women were the first to go, in 30-second intervals, and I was scheduled to start about 7 minutes in the Masters' groups after Jonnene began her trek. I was able to get about another mile of riding in before I lined up on time and set off. I didn't have much of a goal in the ride today except to see where I needed to improve over the next eight weeks and to try to finish in under 65 minutes. I wanted Jonnene, who was doing her first 40K, to come in under 75 minutes.

The start was good and I only topped out the speed at 26 mph, deciding I was going to do a steady ride to test my endurance and not blow up early. I actually felt pretty good and finally found a cruising speed around 23-24 mph that I was comfortable with. That's slower than I want to go at Texas and LA/MISS in August but I'll work on that during the rest of the summer (I'll have to average more than 24.8 mph to break an hour in 40 kilometers!). Did the first ten kilometers in 15:20 and that was nice but I could tell I was starting to slow a wee bit, staying at 23 mph most of the rest of the next 10 kilometers. I caught all three guys who started ahead of me before we got to the turnaround but was also caught by two guys who started behind me, including my teammate, Tim, who had come up from Monroe. We call him the Time Trial King but he had missed his start time and had to start a few seconds later. It didn't seem to be hurting him too much! I held him off until 2 kilometers before the turnaround which I considered a moral victory of sorts.

The turnaround happens at a large curve in the road which is only a disadvantage if you don't play the downward slope of the road correctly as you turn 180-degrees to the left. Not a big problem for me and I started to push the pace a bit. I hit the 20K mark at 32:10, way too slow, and I tried to make up for it by upping the pace to a 24-25 mph rate. Again, I wanted to stay steady and stretch out my endurance as best I could. The speed dropped back down to 23 again but I passed three more riders on the way back, including Jonnene who was pedaling well and looking good for the distance (she would end up averaging around 20.6 mph and finishing with an 1:11:55 time...great job, wife o'mine!).

I had carried a small water bottle with me but I never touched it...not that I didn't want to but I didn't want to make the movements to get it and, as a result, get slowed down. I usually don't drink during a TT anyway anymore. A fellow racer told me once that you should be able to go hard for at least an hour without drinking (but not much more) so why take a bottle with that extra weight? Well, I carried a bottle this time just in case and never used it even though I had cotton-mouth nearly the whole ride. The last 7-8 kilometers seemed to take longer than I wanted but I was glad to see the One Kilometer to Go sign and took it in to record a 1:03:20 time for the distance, for a 23.49 mph average. That got me 5th place in the Masters 50-54 age group. I was fairly satisfied, knowing I was only 1:19 off my personal best time and I felt I could work hard enough before August to surpass that time gap.

My pal, Paul, came out to take a few pictures (which I hope to post soon) and, after we got the results and watched a bit of the awards ceremony, we went back to the hotel room to get cleaned up and pack away our gear. Then we walked over to the Cracker Barrel restaurant for a late brunch and catch up on things. Saying goodbye to Paul, we headed back to Shreveport, returning in the late afternoon.

I was somewhat happy with my effort, knowing that I can definitely improve on it over the next 6-8 weeks. Can I break an hour? I'll get back to you on that!

Can't Think of a Title Here

2009-06-19T07:09:00.002-05:00

Dad and I went to CiCi's Pizza yesterday for lunch. He was ahead of me and asked for the Senior Citizen Discount from the guy behind the counter which works out to $5.44, about two bucks below the regular price. He paid, got his glass, moved on, and then I come up to the counter. "That'll be $5.44, sir," the guy says. Do I look like a senior citizen already? He didn't even ask for an ID. I can ride a bike at 30 mph, do trail runs, and multi-sport races! I have plenty of people who tell me I look way younger than I am!

I took the discount. I'm not nuts or that vain. There are advantages to getting older with all these discounts. I already get hotel rooms at the 50+ rate (sweet!) and our car rental in Colorado was acquired the same way. It's still hard to believe, though.

Started running on a regular basis again. This morning was a short 2-mile effort and I decided to take it easy. I must know nothing about taking it easy since I ran a 8-minute mile pace! I was looking for a 8:30 pace or slower so I could reintroduce the legs to the pavement. The humidity was ridiculous...about 91%...and I was dripping with sweat when I came back in.

I'm starting to drop some weight, getting close to 10 pounds under my heaviest earlier in the year. Most of it is eating fewer snacks, trying my best to moderate the amount I eat in a single sitting, and the heavy workouts in this summer heat. I can lose quite a bit in a training ride but that's mostly water weight and I'll gain a lot of that back in 12 hours. Of course I still eat some things I should be ignoring but that's me being WEAK!! What I'd like to do is be around 160 pounds when the district road races come up in September and have less weight to haul over that hilly course. The trick is keeping the muscle strength during all this and not lose the weight too quickly.

Taz, the cat, came in this morning not looking too good. He has a small gash across his nose and I think he has some aches and pains going on, too. Obviously he got into something with another cat last night. I'll take him to the vet today and see if there's anything else going on with him...it's time for his regular checkup anyway.

Concise...or Not

2009-06-14T20:55:00.002-05:00

• Plumbing is okay in the house! Yea! But the shower knobs now turn in different directions...gotta get used to that. Already blasted myself in the face twice going in the old directions.

• Knocked out 90 miles on the bike Saturday. It went pretty well but my legs were pretty sore that evening. Lost six pounds, mostly water-weight, even though I downed almost four water bottles during the ride along with a decent amount of eating to keep my energy up. Gained three pounds back as the day went on after the ride.

• Took Niece #1, Ashley, out shopping late Saturday afternoon and evening. She was finally spending two years worth of birthday money and worked out some time to come over. She ended up with some quality makeup and dresses while we were over at the Louisiana Boardwalk. Ate supper at Saltgrass (we have half our dinners in the refrigerator for later lunches).

• Volunteered at the Sunrise Triathlon #3 this morning, working the swim part of the race. Jonnene kept track of swimmers and I was at the end of the pool helping them get out. It was fun. Afterwards both of us got in an hour on the bikes to keep our legs loose...mine were just sore. The rest of the day was us just being lazy!

We're All Good

2009-06-12T20:42:00.002-05:00

Well, the shower is fixed. I had tried to make repairs myself to the faucet valves but kept getting leaks. Finally decided to bring in a plumber because I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong...I've made these repairs at least a dozen times and they've turned out fine. So the plumber came by this afternoon and got things back to normal. The good thing is that I found out it wasn't my fault...apparently these particular valves are used in old houses like what we have and replacement valves aren't quite long enough by a few millimeters to completely shut off the water when you close them. The plumber has been coming across this problem a lot lately and has been hoarding parts off the old valves he's replaced to aid in repairs. He can't get enough of the "good" parts from supply warehouses! So he replaced a part in the hot water valve with one of his stashed parts and used one of my replaced valves (that I'd kept) for the cold water side. Now everything works! And for now, things are normal.

We're staying in town this weekend. We could have gone to New Orleans to race in the Tour de Louisiane but my legs aren't up to it and Jonnene wants more rest. I plan to do a 80-mile ride Saturday morning but it won't be at race pace...more of an endurance tempo ride. She's going to stay more local but spend time on her TT bike. We're thinking of doing a 40K time trial in Little Rock, Arkansas on the 28th (my birthday!) and we need to spend time getting used that aero position. I put 33 miles on my TT bike last night, about 12 of them on a more-than-spirited ride to Frierson...and I hung on this time!

We're keeping a couple of dogs for a friend of ours, Jamie, while she's in Las Vegas to attend a USAF class graduation for her husband. They're usually a little rowdy but they've behaved themselves so far, probably because they're around different "humans" and haven't figured out how to work their way around us. I tend to think that Jonnene and I are a little more strict with our animals so "Chip" and "Rosie" can sense that and react with a bit of caution to us.

Got a lot done today. Seemed I was really busy getting the Centenary Bike Day planning off the ground plus a few free-lance jobs started. One of those busy days where you really can't show anyone what you've done!

A Lovely Song, A Couple of Nice Videos

2009-06-11T09:25:00.001-05:00

Discovered this song recently, "The Book of Love", written in 1998 by Stephin Merritt and originally performed by Magnetic Fields (which I've downloaded to my Nano). In the links below it is performed by Peter Gabriel with full orchestration. Just click on the links and turn the sound up.

VIDEO ONE: This video was submitted as a school project and was very well done.

VIDEO TWO: Same song used as background for the season finale (and supposedly last episode of the series) of "Scrubs". This was probably one of the best endings to a long-running TV series.

Enjoy. I did.

Top One Hundred Places To Stand

2009-06-11T06:50:00.002-05:00

Unusual website: www.stoodthere.com
A list of the top 100 places to stand. Apparently it changes depending on how important a location is at the time.

The full list of The 100 Greatest Places in the USA as of 1am on Wednesday June 10, 2009....
Yellow is where I've stood, light blue is where I'd like to go. Nothing against the other places, I'll get there if I can.

1 Hoover Dam, Arizona/Nevada USA
2 The Lost Sea, Craighead Caverns, Tennessee
3 Niagara Falls, Canada/USA
4 Statue of Liberty, New York
5 Waimea Canyon, Kauai, Hawaii
6 Empire State Building, New York, USA
7 The Grand Canyon, USA
8 The Alamo, San Antonio, Texas
9 The Bean, Chicago
10 General Sherman Giant Sequoia, Sequoia National Park, California
11 Times Square, New York, USA
12 Space Needle, Seattle
13 Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico
14 Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado
15 Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Philadelphia
16 Kingda Ka Roller Coaster, Six Flags, Jackson Township, New Jersey
17 The Chicago Theater, Chicago, Illinois
18 Sears Tower, Chicago
19 National Memorial Arch, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania
20 Monument Valley, Arizona
21 Aerial Tramway, Palm Springs, California
22 Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, USA
23 Fallingwater, Pennsylvania
24 Hearst Castle, San Simeon, California
25 USS Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
26 Harley-Davidson Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
27 Mount Washington, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
28 Old Faithful Geyser, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
29 Churchill Downs, Louisville, Kentucky
30 Museum of Modern Art, New York
31 Totem Heritage Center, Ketchikan, Alaska
32 Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe, California
33 Texas School Book Depository, Dallas
34 Bodie Ghost Town, California
35 Four Corners Monument, USA
36 National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC
37 Moody Gardens, Galveston, Texas
38 El Capitan, Yosemite National Park, USA
39 San Miguel Chapel, Sante Fe, New Mexico
40 The Mission, Carmel, California
41 Hollywood Sign, California, USA
42 Everglades National Park, Florida
43 Graceland, Memphis, Tennessee, USA
44 Gettysburg National Military Park, Pennsylvania
45 Alcatraz. San Francisco, USA
46 Louisville Slugger Museum, Kentucky
47 Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, Michigan
48 Bourbon St, New Orleans
49 Clingmans Dome, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee
50 Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, West Virginia
51 Grand Central Station, New York, USA
52 Fort Clinch, Amelia Island, Florida
53 Fort Sumter, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina
54 Mowich Lake, Mount Rainier National Park, Washington
55 Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona
56 Castillo de San Marcos, St. Augustine, Florida
57 Carhenge, Alliance, Nebraska
58 Glacier Bay, Alaska, USA
59 Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington, DC, USA
60 Needles Eye, Custer, South Dakota
61 Navajo National Monument, Shiprock, New Mexico
62 Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida
63 Grand Ole Opry House, Nashville, Tennessee
64 Bingham Canyon Mine, Salt Lake City, Utah
65 Taos Pueblo, Taos, New Mexico
66 Aspen Mountain, Aspen, Colorado
67 Ocean Drive, South Beach, Miami
68 Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC
69 Bryce Canyon Ampitheater, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
70 Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings, Colorado, USA
71 Beverly Hills City Hall, California
72 Death Valley, California, USA
73 Gateway Arch, St. Louis, Missouri
74 Wall Street, New York
75 White House, Washington DC, USA
76 Mount Rushmore, South Dakota
77 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland, Ohio
78 Badlands National Park, South Dakota
79 Ground Zero, New York
80 Las Vegas strip, USA
81 Mount St Helens, Washington, USA
82 Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee
83 London Bridge, Lake Havasu City, Arizona
84 South St / Whitehead St, Key West, Florida
85 Lake Placid, New York
86 Area 51, Nevada
87 Point Barrow, Barrow, Alaska
88 Sundial Bridge, Redding, California
89 Jenny Lake, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
90 Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, North Carolina
91 Roswell UFO Museum, Roswell, New Mexico
92 Universal Studios, Orlando, Florida
93 Amish Country, Intercourse, Pennsylvania
94 Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey Bay, California
95 Ulysses S. Grant Home, Galena, Illinois
96 Grafton Museum, Grafton, Vermont
97 Oglethorpe Square, Savannah, Georgia
98 Sea World, San Diego, California
99 Plymouth Rock, Plymouth, Massachusetts
100 Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah

Fun at Home

2009-06-09T22:29:00.003-05:00

I just spent half an hour standing in my shower tonight holding back water shooting out of a busted faucet! My hands and arms are going to be so sore in the morning. I can confirm that the water pressure in Shreveport is pretty darn good and powerful!

I was taking a shower after our evening bike ride, getting ready to turn off the water. The hot water knob turns just fine....the cold water one just spins, and water keeps coming out of the shower head at full force. Okay, just great....I turn the hot water back on so I won't get too cold but there's no way to stop the water unless I can get the knob to seal back up. Otherwise we have to get the city to come out here to turn the water off...we have an old water valve outside that defies the use of any commercially available "keys"...you will only destroy them if you use them. Only the city can do it.

So I'm trying to reseal the knob and it comes off. And out shoots this solid horizontal geyser of water all the way to the opposite wall...and, boy, is it loud! It reminds me of that Seinfeld episode where Kramer is getting blasted against the back wall of his shower the same way, but it was funnier then. Well, now we have to call the city to come out and turn off the water (it's almost 9 pm now). Jonnene makes the phone call after finding the number in the phone book and I have to wait, standing there holding the faucet knob in the pipe the best I can to minimize the amount of water pouring in so it doesn't fill up the shower basin and spill over into the house (and turn off the hot water). Jonnene quickly fills up a couple of buckets so we can still use the toilets later and waits for the city crew to show up. Eventually they do show up, the water is turned off, and I can finally towel off. I'm going to be tired in the morning!

So I'll have to see what happened with the faucet and replace it...or get a plumber out here instead. My plumbing skills are adequate but not perfect. Then get the city back out to turn the water back on. On top of that, we're getting our new blinds installed in the morning!

Couldn't ask for a better way to start the night.....

Racing Rapides Stage Race

2009-06-07T20:14:00.005-05:00

Here's me going around one of the corners in
the stage three criterium on Sunday.

Jonnene and I went down to Alexandria, Louisiana over the weekend to participate in the Racing Rapides Stage Race, which consists of three race stages: Stage One - a 3.1 mile time trial Saturday morning; Stage Two - road races of various distances later that day; Stage Three - criterium races in downtown Alexandria on Sunday morning. This would be Jonnene's first real foray into bicycle racing and we kept the expectations realistic since she had pretty much no experience at this. This was my first stage race in almost a year (with a 3-year gap before that) and I was just hoping to survive in a respectable fashion. Both of us are still not up to full-speed yet health-wise which has limited our training...I've only been back on the bike for the past two-and-a-half weeks since I was sick and I can still feel some gunk in my lungs. But we decided that we had to dip ourselves into the races and this event seemed to be one that we could both do.

We stayed with my brother's family starting Friday night, got up early to be at the TT location by 6:30 am so we could pick up our numbers and sign in. I was familiar with the course but Jonnene went on a recon with one of her teammates, Elka, to look it over by bike (we drove the course the night before). Her TT ended up with a 8:23 time over the five kilometers (3.1 miles) placing her 20th out of the 22 starters. My run left me with a 7:24...my best was a 7:04 in 2007...which put me 13th out of 17 in the Masters 45+ division. Both of us had someone who finished of us by one second!

Louise, Mary, Elka, and Jonnene wait
for the start of their road race.

Jonnene and the rest of the ladies had under two hours to prepare for their road race stage, a distance of 29 miles...not really long but probably the right distance for her first road race. About 8-9 miles in she lost contact with the main field on the first big hill on the course but later began to pick up some other ladies who had difficulty hanging on. Eventually they worked up a nice little six-woman group of their own for the rest of the race. At the end she ended up getting fifth in the group sprint at the line but I was really proud of her for taking this on and doing well in her first road race.

In my race I had only one goal and that was to hang on for at least the first lap of our three lap 44-mile race. Over the last few years these Masters races have become intense events with guys who are Cat. 1's and 2's entering because they're old enough. Thing is, they're still fast enough! I wasn't anywhere close to being in shape to be a factor in the race so it was essentially a training ride for me. I wasn't able to get enough of a warmup in so when our 24-man field started it was like a rocket launch. We were barely a minute into the race and already going 32 mph...I was thinking I would be spit off the back much sooner than I planned, like right then! But I hung on and the first 9 mile stretch to the main hill was rarely below 25 mph and often above 30 mph. I was feeling better than I thought I would but I knew the hill would tell the tale of how my race would go. We went up this quarter-mile-long hill at 25-26 mph and I was sticking with the pack, even passing a few riders on the way up. The rest of the way I sat at the back, hanging on to the draft and even trying to move up into the field a few times but I wouldn't stay there for long.

I grab a water bottle from Louise in the feed zone and
start my third lap on the road race.

But as we came thru the feed zone finishing our first lap, I was still there and I heard a lot of cheers for me as Jonnene and other friends saw me dragging along with the pack. We covered the first lap at a 24.8 mph average and I was exhausted! Right then some guys attacked and really stretched the group and I lost contact. I chased for over a mile, getting within 20 meters of the back of the group but couldn't close it and finally had to give it up. I rode the second lap and most of the third lap by myself. The Cat. 4 field caught me early in my third lap and I took a 5-mile ride sitting in their draft...that was actually quite fun to sit back and let them do the work! I let them go eventually and just kept pushing to the finish. Officially I came in 15th place in the Masters 45+ and got a single point for my omnium total.

That night we met up with some of our teammates at Outback and replaced some lost protein. BTW, I had chicken and ribs...yum!

Sunday morning was the crit and Jonnene's legs weren't quite there. She fell off the pace early but kept going and finished her first criterium and stage race. It was so cool to watch her do this bicycle racing thing for the first time and I think she'll try it again eventually. I think she enjoyed hanging with the other girls on our team, too. She wasn't able to help them during the races but I think they liked having more friends and teammates on the road with them.

Lined up for the criterium.
I'm in the white helmet, listening to the pre-race instructions.
I was ready for the weekend to be over!

My crit wasn't really much to write home about. I was hanging on the back of the pack in the first lap...like the road race it started FAST...and as we took the fifth turn, a right-hander, the guy in front of me started having problems. His name was Pitt and he rides for the S3 team...he's been racing for a number of years. As he leaned into the turn his bike started to wobble and he suddenly fell on his right side into the pavement. My momentum wouldn't allow me to go to his inside (the safer route) and I had to head for the outside of the turn while watching where his sliding bike would go. I ended up having to shoot a 2-foot wide gap between the opposite curb and his bike at 24 mph. I didn't feel any panic at all during this and just did the only thing I could do. The result of this was I got separated from the pack and couldn't catch back up. I ended up catching a guy named Michael from England who rides for Absolute Racing and the two of us just finished out the race. He let me finish ahead of him since I pulled him the last three laps which was very sporty of him. Like me, he had been sick over the winter dealing with an embolism in his circulatory system and had only been back on his bike for a handful of weeks. Very nice and courteous fellow.

Now we're home and the gear is put away. Time to rest!

Riding Hard Sorta

2009-06-02T21:53:00.001-05:00

My detailed analysis of tonight's effort at Tuesday Night Worlds:

I've done a lot of bike rides in my life...and tonight was one of them.

Monday

2009-06-01T15:59:00.003-05:00

An Air France airliner was lost over the Atlantic Ocean last night flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. The Aerobus 330-200 was carrying 228 passengers and crew when it went down in bad weather about 4-5 hours after it left Rio. As much as I like to travel to Australia (five trips so far and I'll do it as often as I can) this is the only thing that can creep me out about the trip...something going wrong and literally disappearing somewhere out over the blackness of the Pacific Ocean. My philosophy about flying has always been that once I'm on the plane everything is out of my hands and my control. I leave it up to God and decide to just go enjoy the trip. My feeling is that the pilots have plans for the upcoming weekend, too, and are just as interested in getting to the destination safely as I am. Mutual interests are always good....

I still miss Farley. I'm getting used to him not being here but his sleeping spot in the living room continues to have that empty look. I sometimes catch myself dodging around there when it's dark and I'm heading off to bed. When he was alive I always had to make sure I didn't accidentally kick him in the nose, head, feet, or butt (depending on how he was laying) since I usually couldn't see anything after the lights went out. So I'd make these exaggerated movements around him to avoid any contact and then bend down to pet him goodnight. Like I said, sometimes I find myself still doing that, and then I'll stop to squat down for a look as if he's still there. Jonnene told me that she finds herself doing that every once in a while, too. Who knows? Maybe he IS there for a short visit from Up Top to check on us and that's why we make that move? Maybe we can feel him there?

I checked on his grave at the Bossier house earlier today when I had to let a technician do a maintenance check on the A/C and heating units there. I talked to him a bit and admired how the grass has really filled in...you almost can't tell where the digging marks are anymore! The ground has settled some so next time I'm there I'll throw some more dirt to fill it in. I wonder what he chased up in Heaven today?

We had a large group for the 5:50 morning ride, eleven of us and it was a little faster than usual. I took the first pull on the parkway and kept it at around 22-23 mph to give everyone a chance to hang on and not get dropped. So I pull off and it's off to the races after that! My apologies for going so slowly! I got home almost 10 minutes sooner than I usually do and that was with some added hill repeats as I got back into the neighborhood. Jonnene and I are thinking of doing the Racing Rapides Stage Race down in Alexandria this weekend...well, I'm thinking....she's pretty much decided to suffer thru it.

Worn plumb out

2009-05-30T16:12:00.005-05:00

Been busy on the bike the last few days. On Thursday I did what are called VO2's with Matt, Jason, and Don, something that Matt does every couple of weeks and are quite painful. Essentially, we do about 40 minutes of warmup at 23-24 mph (which is a workout in-and-of itself) and that's normal for those three thunderbolts. Then you follow that up with six 3-minute near-max efforts with 3 minutes of rest in between. The fifth effort, however, has to be beyond max and you should feel like "hurling chunks" when it's done. Then you have about 40 minutes of cool-down at around 17-18 mph. So, yeah, I did it and I did feel like "blowing chow" after the fifth rep. But I could see how this would improve my time trialing and maintaining a sustained effort if I keep this up at least once every couple of weeks. The whole workout covered almost 40 miles.

Then today I had to get in a long ride so I could continue trying to get back into shape after all that sickness a few weeks back (I still can't breathe as deeply as I need to). I managed to scrape out 67 miles with the first 40 being pretty hard and the last 27 being pretty weak (still averaged 19.8 mph for the whole distance and I'll take that for now). Got home totally wasted and had to force myself to put up the bike gear, shower, and get some things in order. Then I collapsed on the bed and snoozed for over an hour! What woke me up was the intense need to eat and I finished off what was left of my Chinese food that we had ordered last night. General Tso's Chicken is what I usually get and, yessir, dem boys is tasty.

(Now whether this means I do the stage race in Alexandria this weekend is suspect. I have until Thursday night to make up my mind if I want to have myself publicly destroyed during that time!)

I spent the rest of the afternoon visiting one of the local bike shops and then tried to finish up the medicine cabinet for the guest bathroom. The cabinet's installed in the wall now and ll I need is to get shorter screws for the door handle and some wood screws to anchor the cabinet into the wall. Then we're done with that!

Jonnene is working this weekend but she got off early enough today to take part in an open water swim class. She didn't get home until a bit after 4 pm but apparently got a good workout in the lake with about 32 other participants.

We rented "Kung Fu Panda" last night (hence the Chinese food order) and really enjoyed it. The computer animation on these films is really getting good and I was blown away by things like low-lit water in a night scene being reflected on the characters, or how a character would become brighter as he approached a light. Very well done.

Lingering....

2009-05-26T18:02:00.003-05:00

It seems to be evident that Jonenne and I are still dealing with the effects of our illness even though we both 2-3 weeks past the worst part of the whole ordeal. We're both getting back into riding and other activities we like. Jonnene did a triathlon last Sunday where she was about two minutes faster than she was when she did the same event two years ago. I got back into riding about a week ago today and have already put in over 160 miles. But we can tell that we're not all there yet. I'm a little embarrassed that my desire to ride the bike isn't as strong as I'd like for it to be. I didn't ride at all yesterday during a holiday when I had all day to do so in good weather. And even though it's wet outside right now and probably suitable for getting on the bike, neither of us have any desire to go out there.

I did ride this morning with the 5:50 group, doing the strongest pull of the ride around 24-25 mph and even did a few hill repeats once I got back to our neighborhood. I noticed, again, that I'm still not breathing as deeply as I need to...the lungs seem to persist in having some congestion in them. I'm thankful that I don't feel anywhere near as bad as I did just two weeks ago but I'd really like to get over this stuff for good. Both of us feel tired most of the time which we attribute to trying to stay active as we usually do while still recovering from this lingering illness (which we've never really gone to the trouble to identify). Oh, well, we'll let some more time pass and eventually we'll shake it off.

Spent some of the day working on the medicine cabinet for the guest bathroom. The bathroom is pretty much finished and we decided to reuse the old wood cabinet instead of buying a new one. Major changes were a new lighter door and removal of one of the shelves inside. I need to finish painting it, then install it into the wall, and the loo will be done for all practical purposes. All that's remaining is to pretty it up with some pictures and stuff and any future guest will feel right at home. Photos to come when the cabinet gets installed. I'm pretty proud of it...looks really good!

A Very Useful Webite Link

2009-05-25T17:02:00.002-05:00

You know how you've heard that 5% of the content on the World Wide Web is actually useful and the remaining 95% is just a bunch of crap? Well, it's true.

However, I have come across a website that falls into that five percent.

It's called RunPee.com and it lets you know when to take that pee break during a feature film in your local movie-plex. It's gives you a 3-minute window to allow you to head for the loo and not miss anything important in the film by telling the approximate time the opportunity to leave comes up and the dialogue/action that clues you in. Why spend all that time squirming and gyrating in your seat, yellow to the eyeballs, afraid to leave because you think you'll miss out on an important plot line? It's a new website and still needs some tweaking...if you can hold it.

This is the most important breakthrough in web history and proves why we need this technology to benefit all humankind.

STAR TREK

2009-05-24T20:19:00.004-05:00

Jonnene and I went to see the new Star Trek film this evening.

Only one thing to say (of course I'll say more):

IN-FREAKIN'-CREDIBLE!!

Yeah, I liked it a lot. Definitely in the top three of all the Star Trek movies with "Wrath of Khan" and "The Search for Spock". My palms actually got sweaty during the fight scene with Kirk and Sulu on a drilling platform about 3,000 feet above the planet Vulcan. This movie was loaded with action and really great special effects.

Links to the movie trailers:
Trailer #2
Trailer #3

Rain again

2009-05-23T19:19:00.003-05:00

Got in a nice ride this morning of about 53 miles. It was a little longer than I was planning and it was a lot faster than I really wanted but it was a training ride and I needed to continue improving my endurance. The nice thing was that I stayed with the main group all the way to Frierson and I-49. After that the pace was a little slower and I found myself working a little harder to stay in. I couldn't complain...surprisingly, my legs feel pretty good right now (we'll see how they feel in the morning). I'm looking at doing the Racing Rapides Stage Race in Alexandria in two weeks and use it only as a training race and putting no pressure on myself to do all that well. Get some experience basically and that'll be fine. I hope I can get enough riding in before that to survive the whole weekend! A week later is Tour de Louisiane down in Covington and I'd like to do that race, too. It's been 4 years since I was last down there. We'll see how it goes.

Tomorrow morning Jonnene will be participating in the second of the Sunrise Triathlon Series and we hope the rains hold off a bit. Some time back the first race was canceled because of a huge storm that blew thru and Sunday's race could be similiar. I'm helping out to do the transition area setup and cheer The Wife on. I think she'll do pretty well but we'll have to see how her hip holds up in the run.

The threat of rain is here with us the next few days and I'm getting tired of it. I need several days in a row of dry weather so I can spend some serious time out in the yard. I can't do much when everything's soaked.