Concise...or Not

• 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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....

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

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

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

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.

Memorial Day Weekend begins

The History Channel has been playing the famous HBO series "Band of Brothers" all this weekend as their tribute to Memorial Day, coming up this Monday. Whenever it's on I stop most of what I'm doing and watch some of the episodes. It's filmed as battle-realistic as possible (based on the style of "Saving Private Ryan") but it's never like the real thing must have been. At the beginning of each episode there are brief interviews with men who were actually part of Easy Company in the 101st Airborne. They are old men now and they are sharing their feelings and stories with the audience. I watch them, try to picture them as young men who saw terrible things, and came away different. Some can speak easily about their experiences and others have a much more difficult time. You can see the pain on their faces as they talk of the deaths of friends. You realize that they can't tell you much but in the few sentences they speak, they tell you everything. There are times I find myself tearing up as I listen to them and I'm thankful to God that I've not gone through what they did. Sometimes you get the feeling that these men were the unlucky ones even though they survived the war....that they're envious of of their buddies who died because, at least, it's over for them. Those old men have to relive those experiences continually and for some there's no peace and they feel tremendous guilt for having survived, that there's something they could have done to save a buddy. But they'll never know.

These are the men that this holiday is for and they deserve all the thanks we can give them. They, and the men who served before them and who served after them.

It's Thursday....yeah, really.

Got in a total of 54 miles of bike riding today. That's combining the 5:50 am morning ride and the evening ride so hopefully that'll help get me back into some kinda shape a little faster. I stayed with the morning group easier than I thought I would, even though it was a bit faster than usual which was surprising for me. It had gotten slower the last year or so and to see the speeds constantly over 24 mph seemed so yester-year, y'know? Now the evening ride was, again, seeing me hang in with the racers for the first six miles to the Crossroads. Heck, I even led going down one of the hills around 30 mph and stayed toward the front of the group. Fortunately, when we turned right to head to Frierson the pace slowed a bit and that made me happy...I could recover a bit! Then I made one last chase to a couple of other guys up the road but that would be it for me. Over a couple of small risers and I was off the back. I continued on and had a good ride for the condition I am in. It just wasn't that fast.

Jonnene's preparing for a triathlon this Sunday here in town so she had the TT bike out, getting familiar again with the aero positioning. I think she'll do just fine in the swim and bike, but the run we'll be keeping our eyes on. Her right hip...or actually some outside muscles....are giving her a problem. We're surprised by it cause it came on rather suddenly a week ago so she's held off running during this time. She's confident that she'll finish the triathlon but the run might not be what she would want. Usually it's the knee but now it's something else. I tell you...the gal is falling apart!! Hee-hee!!

Koff...koff...kofffff....hack...

Paul relaxes with his version of the musical "Kats".

I rode my bike for the first time in two weeks last night. As Jonnene said, I would rely more on my muscle memory than actual muscle strength. The best part was that I stayed with the racers for the first six miles down to the Crossroads and I felt friskly enough to do a couple of chases...and caught 'em, too, at 29 mph...but toward the end I was feeling a bit worn out and more than happy to let them go on. I waited for Jonnene's later ride group and finished out the jaunt with them at a much slower pace. But 27 miles for my return to the road wasn't bad...I'm curious if my butt will be sore when I do my second ride on Thursday! In the meantime, I'm still sick to some extent but I'm getting better, getting more energy and all that. Still lots of coughing going on....

Spent parts of Monday and Tuesday up in Little Rock visiting my friend, Paul, and doing another photo shoot for Cobb Cycling of their new V-Flow Max saddle. A good opportunity to catch up on things and stay up way later than the two of us should. I think I konked out before 1 am Tuesday morning, getting up at 7:45, eating breakfast and leaving for Shreveport by 10:30. The shoot went well and I've included a shot of the new saddle. Should be ready for sales & distribution by July. Johnny Cobb says it's the most comfortable saddle he's ever designed and he plans to use one of the two sample models at a Half-Ironman race in Kansas in a few weeks. Jonnene rode one of them last week and she felt it was a very nice saddle, no problems at all. It just looks a little odd.

Last weekend was the fifth edition of the local Rocky Mount Stage Race, a race I started back in 2005 with just two road races over a weekend. It became a stage race the next year and I took myself out of it. I had gotten burnt out on being a race promoter and director, and I'm glad to spend time being a regular volunteer and advisor if needed.

I drove lead vehicle for the Cat. 1-2-3's and the Masters 35+. Highlights included a 7-man break in the 1-2-3's that would end up in a heads-up sprint between internationally-experienced Christian Helmig of the Metro Volkswagen team and Mat Davis of my own Team LaS'port. Mat...or "Bolt" as we like to call him...edged out Christian by a couple of inches at the line in an impressive display of power and speed. In the Masters race, Jason Miller of MidSouth Masters took off from a small break and rode solo for the remaining 3.5 laps of the 4-lap race, winning by 4 minutes or something like that. It was fun to watch from my vantage point.

On Sunday morning I spent 90 minutes on a corner on the criterium course in a freezing rain, getting wet and wondering if my sickness was going to get worse. That weather lasted thru the first three races (Cat. 5's, Women, and Master 45+/55+) until the sun blasted thru all the clouds and the weather was warm and perfect for the final three races. After all that, I vegged out the rest of the day trying to get well.

Here's me putting lead vehicle signs on my
trusty 'kota before the road races.

The Category 1-2-3 pack sails around one of the
corners on the road course.

The "Peanut Gallery"

From left to right: Jonnene, with her dog, Sophie, Elka, Blake, Scott, and Heather as they watch the Sunday criterium races.

Pics from Colorado

Some of the pics we took while up in Colorado Springs last weekend. Click on the images if you want to see a larger version.

Pikes Peak, Colorado, as seen from the Garden of the Gods.

Jonnene stands by some of the fallen boulders in the Garden of the Gods.

A sick man's viewpoint. Jonnene has the laptop on the table at the end of the bed, checking emails, while I suffer from congested lungs and fever at 9500 feet. Yeah, real fun here. We were staying in the India Room.

Breakfast at the Stonehaven Inn Bed & Breakfast.
I don't feel near as good as I look.

Several mule deer wandered up around the cabin to partake of the corn left for them (to keep them away from the flowers recently planted outside) that morning. It was really cool!

View from the second floor deck at Stonehaven.
We're in the morning shadow of Pikes Peak.

Back in Colorado Springs:
My niece, Kristi, with her husband, Marc, outside their new home in Fountain, CO. Marc heads off to Afghanistan in a few weeks for a year. We wish him a good trip that passes quickly and that he stays safe out there.

Back From the Springs

Just a short post for now....we're back!! I'm taking it slow today, mostly just resting and getting some strength back. It's nice to breath in this thick low-elevation air!! Still congested but it's better than 48 hours ago!

Flight down was fine...left ear got a little tight on the descent but no big deal. In fact, it still feels plugged up. At least my sinuses gave no problems with the pressure changes.

We consider the trip a moderate success. We got to do a few things, look around the area, see some family and friends, and enjoy the views. Obviously we could have done a lot more if I wasn't sick but that's how it goes. You can't plan for these things and you have to be able to adapt to the conditions. More to come with pictures.

Sick at Altitude

Well, at this time we're up in Colorado Springs (which happens to be in Colorado, natch) for an anniversary trip but it hasn't turned out exactly as we planned. For one thing, my sickness got worse and my chest was getting more congested even before we left Shreveport. The flight up no problem...probably one of the smoothest rides I've ever been on...but I found out soon that when your chest is clogged up like mine was (still is) you can't breathe very deeply...no surprise...but when you're in thin air it's even worse. On Saturday night we stayed at the Stonehaven Inn Bed & Breakfast after spending most of the day doing some site-seeing which was wearing me out. The B&B is located on the west side of Pikes Peak, in its morning shadow, at an elevation of 9,500 feet and I went rapidly downhill after we got there. It felt like the entire night I was having to make myself breathe and worked up one heck of a nasty fever which broke later that night. It was an effort to just walk to the bathroom and back. I felt like I should have been dragging a tank of oxygen behind me with the plastic tubes under my nose! I'll get into the trip a little more later but I wanted to say the B&B was a great place...good owners (from Arkansas who recently graduated a daughter from Louisiana Tech...small world) and terrific location. I'd recomment the place in an instant. I told Jonnene we'll come back soon and do this right...meaning when I'm not sick and influenced by the elevation.

So it's Sunday night now and I'm feeling much better but I'm still congested, especially in my sinuses which ought to make the flight back to Dallas really interesting tomorrow if that doesn't clear up. At least I ate a complete dinner tonight, a delightful meal of baked salmon, couscous (rice), and green beans cooked up by my niece's husband, Marc. We've stayed Friday and Sunday nights at their house here in the Springs and they've been great hosts. Marc's heading to Afghanistan in a few weeks for a year's tour with his Army buds and we hope he keeps his head down and aims straight. He's already spent 15 months in Iraq and seems...at this point to us...that he came out of it with a positive experience. He's had a grenade thrown at him and has been in "few" firefights, but he likes to talk about his experiences with the locals and how they were invited into homes to eat and visit. I felt he enjoyed being around the people there and he does smile when he talks about them.

Even though we haven't done everything we wanted to do because of how I felt, we have gotten a few things accomplished here. Twice we got to visit with a friend of mine, Ron, who lives in Manitou Springs and is manager of the Wal-Mart there. He's still a member of our local race team, Team LaS'port, and wears the uniform on his training rides in the mountains. I hadn't seen him since 2002 but we still exchanged the ocassional email and I wanted to make sure we made contact during this trip. We also met his wife and we had a grand time hanging out in a little coffee shop called Spice O' Life on the main drag in Manitou Springs. That was good.

We got to see some tourist sites like Garden of the Gods and the Cliff Dwellings. I had seen all of this when I was 12 years olds on a family vacation with my Mom and brother. The tourist spots haven't changed that much but the area around Colorado Springs has changed plenty since 1967!

More to come....I'm tired and I wanna go to bed.

Sickness All Around!!

And now, the only blog on the internet guaranteed not to give you swine flu!

At least I think so. Oink, oink......

Both Jonnene and I are dealing with illnesses at this time, both are different. She's been wrestling with this hacking cough for over 10 days now and, though it seems to be getting better, she's still letting go with these concussive blasts. She's trying some different meds and hopefully that'll solve the issue. In my case it's a classic recurrence of my reaction to the change of seasons where I sneeze a lot, stuff tissue up my nose, and feel achy all over. What's really weird is that I knocked about 48 seconds off my previous time on my 2-mile neighborhood run this morning. Maybe I should exercise while sick more often? Nah.....

Since we last talked....did a 50-mile ride on Saturday with some of the boys but it was not near as intense as the previous Saturday when we knocked out 78 at race pace. Oh, it was fast and you had to do some work, but it didn't come near as close to tearing you down from the effort. What we like to call a "civilized" ride yet still putting some hurt on your legs. Got some hill work in the process and that nearly did me in but I managed to either keep up or catch up over the top.

But Sunday was the Funday. The local triathlon club, Sunrise, was putting on the first of three races in the Sunrise Tri Series. It was not a good sign when the thunder and lightning came on around 2 in the morning. Jonnene's dog, Sophie, spent the rest of that early morning in bed with us as she is not fond of such weather and shakes a lot. So the alarm goes off at 4:30 am and we got up since we're supposed to be there to help set up the transition area at 5:30. It's STILL raining....a lot! Well, we still have to go out to the race site and get the official word from the race director as to what we have to do. We drove out, not even getting out of the car because it's raining so hard. Over the next hour more cars showed up and eventually everyone migrated to the covered area of the swim club the race was starting from. Eventually the race director had to cancel the race...too much lightning, thunder, and more rain than anyone was expecting. We were home by 8 am and felt like we had spent all day out somewhere!

Doug, the race director, makes the announcement that there'll be no racing today.