Petie Came Home

You may not know Petie. . . . .he's been missing for about a year now. He and his partner (for anonymity's sake, she will remain anonymous) used to camp outside our camper each race. One day Petie just disappeared. We didn't know what happened to him, he was no where to be found. And then one day the Ransom note came.

Apparently Petie had been kidnapped and had traveled around the world with his kidnappers. He managed to break away and send little notes throughout the past year, unfortunately these notes self destructed after only a few short hours in my in-box.

But a few weekends ago, on our team camping trip, he returned to the safety of the camper bringing along all the babies he had fathered along the way. It was a bitter sweet homecoming. While it was good to see him, it came as a great shock to see all his children. I think it came as even more of a shock to his partner (who again, will remain nameless). She pecked the hell out of him when she learned of his infidelities. He's been in a coma the past few weeks. . . . I've heard mumbling escape his beak only a couple times giving me hope. I can't understand why he's mumbling "Virgin". Obviously he's a father so that's not the case for him. . . . .

We'll keep a watchful eye on him over the next couple weeks. I understand he may be in a coma all winter, it's not un-heard of. All we can do is hope.



Get well Petie.

A weekend without racing

We skipped the race weekend for the first time. . . . . . .ever. It was an action packed weekend.

A fantastic night ride on the new Gila trails Friday night.

A OLD friend's wedding Saturday.



Lots of people we haven't seen in years.





Sunday we did some painting for/with a friend, rode the new trails at Greenbush (yes, they really ARE fun), and benched a couple sections of the Gila trail. It's almost completely ready to rock now.

Yeah, it was fun. It was a LOT of fun. Maybe I'm ready for retirement.

Good Luck

Good luck in the culvert everyone.

The secret Gila trail won't be a secret much longer

It's done. My secret trail is done. I have named it the Gila trail. Tonight will be the first ride on it. It still needs a little work, there are some areas that need benching and possibly a reroute depending on how hard a particular corner is. . . .we'll see.

I can't wait to try it! I hope it was worth the work.

What every office needs

I swear our office has one of these. . . .

All this crap is giving me a headache

All this bailout crap is just giving me a headache.

Doesn't anyone care how we GOT here? Wow. What a mess.

Feeling kind of lost

Do you get those days?

I don't like them very much.

Maybe humor will help.

Cyclocross

Did Cyclocross practice last night. Yeah, I think I don't really like cyclocross anymore.

I think I liked it a whole lot more when I was in shape.

Interesting.

How Many of Me?

HowManyOfMe.com

There is 1 person with my name in the U.S.A. http://howmanyofme.com">How many have your name?

Up North?

You know you're "up north" when you see this at the grocery store.

The Levis Trow Camping Weekend

It could quite literally be the best weekend I've had mountain biking/hiking/camping/hanging with friends. . . . . . . .ever.

Ahhhhh

I love "Massage Becky".

Although I'll probably hate her tomorrow. :-)

Rhinelander

Yeah. Wow. I loved that course last year. Still loved it this year, except I'm not as fast as I used to be, which kind of sucks. I'm also not as coordinated as I used to be, which the water volunteers saw first hand as I face planted in front of them trying to grab a water hand off. Somehow I missed my bottle hand off and got a bit nervous that I'd have to make it through a whole second lap without water. What was I thinking??

I've since learned to just STOP if you miss the hand off and wait for it (that would have taken a LOT less time). . . . . .and not to take your hands off the handle bars AND turn your body at the same time. For some strange reason the bars want to go where your body goes. . . . . .Duh!

Other than the third day with this head ache, a few bruises and some gravel rash, I'm fine. I'm feeling a little stupid. . . . .but then again I never said I was a genius, nor do I even pretend to be one, so whatever. Someone has to be the village idiot once in a while.

Monday and Tuesday had me in the Dells for a Realtor convention. That was relatively fun. Except now I've got a TO DO list the size of Texas and we're heading out on the team camping trip Thursday evening (or maybe Friday AM, we'll see how on-track I can stay). The next couple days will be interesting. I might need to be checked in somewhere. . . . . . . .will have to use alcohol & caffiene to cope (not together though, because that would be silly).

Kids

I can't even imagine having children, when I can barely cope with THIS ONE crying all night.

For some reason Thunder decided she didn't want to be in her bed last night. We listened to whimpers and cries from her crate all night long. Thank goodness that was the first time for that. Hopefully it was the LAST time.

While I know some people question my/our decision NOT to have children, I have to say the older I get, the better I feel about that decision. To have children now (for me) would mean I would have to come up with a whole lot more patience, empathy, time, energy and money than I currently have. I guess there's a reason our biological clocks guide us to having children earlier in life.

Not everyone WANTS to be a parent. I guess that's one of the great things about life. Most of us actually get to make that decision based on what's right for us.

More weekend fun

Sunday had us doing the ride for Heather. After my 2:19 race on Saturday, I thought I was going to DIE on this short little 30 mile ride. But I made it through. Hopefully we helped them raise just a little more money for this worthwhile cause.

Sunday evening we gathered up for a fire, after creating some most delicious home made pizza.


Somehow we managed to eat just about every morsel.

Then it was off for a fire. Unfortunately we decided it was too dry to bring the Christmas tree out, so that awaits yet another day. But a few cabinet & flooring pieces from the remodeled Swart house provided great entertainment.

Monday Bill had to head into work, I guess he had to rebuild a server or something, so I gathered a few peeps for our own Labor Day ride. We were a few peeps short of a whole package. . . . . .but we made the best of it. Off to ride around Long Lake we headed. We even ran into this shady character and his peeps, off on their own ride.

We forced a "newbie" out on this ride. . . . . ."massage Becky". We gave her an epic ride and ended up popping her a little bit,. Sorry Beck! But she learned some SKILZ and rode most excellently. . . . . .even for a newbie! Hopefully we didn't scare her off now.

About 38 miles in with the newbie we made a swing by Beechwood to visit some peeps who were doing some trail work. . .. . . .starting to prepare for the Beechwood Blaster. After visiting them for a bit, we realized we had given Massage Becky just a little too much of a first REAL ride, so we hitched a ride back home. After 3 decent rides in a row, 38 miles was fine for me as well.

Good times with good friends. That's what life is all about. Sure, one has to work sometimes to make that happen. . . . . . .but it doesn't get any better than spending an afternoon on your bike with friends, out in the absolutely beautiful weather with the sunshine warming your soul.

So far, so fun

Saturday was the Stump Farm race. We arrived in plenty of time to get our things together and get registered for the 3 hour. Standing around the start line for the rider's meeting, I realize I forgot my heart rate monitor strap, so I boogied back to the truck (which was on the other side of the parking lot and of course my bike was already "staged" so I had to jog) to get it. That was my warm up. Sweet. Ready to go.

They yelled GOOOO, we ran to our bikes, it was mass chaos, people and bikes everywhere. By the time I got to mine and grabbed it, wouldn't you know, I was the nearly the last person. CRAP! What is with my starts lately???

I put the hammer down and worked my way through the back of the pack to settle in when we hit the single track. I wasn't where I needed to be, but at that point it didn't matter if I was slowed a bit by others in the single track. After all, I did have 3 hours to try and catch up.

Finally about 1/3 of the way into the first lap, I caught the girl in front of me, Ann. We hadn't every formally met, but I knew her name from the race results. So I introduced myself. I have to say that was the first time I've actually held a conversation during a race, especially for that long. We tore through the single track chatting, which was fun, but also a bit more work. As we crossed over the timing line, I informed Ann that I had to stop each lap to exchange my bottle. I wished her a good race and off she went while I pulled to the side to get a new refreshing beverage and some more cliff blocks.

With my new bottle on board I stood up and hammered it out to try and gain back some time I'd lost. Soon after I hit the single track for the second time, I found Ann. She had just had a little scuffle with a tree and was just settling back into the groove of things. We rode that single track out together and I pulled out ahead when we popped out to double track. Since she pulled for most of the first lap, it was my turn. She stuck on my wheel for a while, I introduced her to one of my teammates as we passed her (way to go April!) and then somewhere, I'm not sure where, I somehow shook her loose. I really wasn't watching where she was, I was just trying to ride clean and have a good, FAST race.

Not knowing how far behind me she was, I stopped for my third bottle and cliff blocks. After a quick exchange there, I stood up and hammered again. Looking back, I didn't see her anywhere. I finished out the 3rd lap alone, with a little less speed than the first two as my back was really starting to get sore. My body wasn't used to racing hard for over 2 hours and it showed. I crossed the finish line around 2:19. . . ..not enough time to squeeze in a 4th lap. From what I remember (results still aren't posted) my first lap was 46 minutes, my second lap was about 10 seconds longer at 46 something and my last lap was around 48 minutes. Overall pretty consistent, and a very good time.

I wrapped up 3rd place and took home a nice Stump Farm mug. Now I have a set. Sweet.