Painting again

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.....

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.....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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

"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

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...

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

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

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....

...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....