My life lately = chaos...but then again if you know me then rocketpants = chaos. Or at least that is how I feel most of the time. I run around like a crazy person, trying to keep a zillion plates spinning at any given time and then thrown in a good dose of quirky personality and well...you get = me...my life and a good does of hilarity mixed in with a good does of chaos.
I've been in Houston, TX all week for an experimental trial. After the first day of feeling like an utter failure because I couldn't get my control to work...finally sorted that out and life did look up a bit after that. Good stuff came to fruition and well...i made probably more samples than I know what to do with. It's going to be an interesting time trying to analyze everything.
While in Houston...i discovered that I would be going to Chicago this week for some training. I was surprised I would get to go...so double props to things that help us with our jobs...but...NO TRACK BIKE RIDING!! For a SECOND WEEK!!! ARRRRRRRRGGGGGG. And it is the LAST week of class. I.AM.SO.BUMMED. I missed it last week and now I will miss it this week...and well....i HEART my bike!! I haven't gotten to try now the new steed in all of his glory yet on the track...but plans are in the works for next weekend. sigh
So I got back from Houston on Friday and on my way from the airport I see this guy on a bike...dressed as a...COW. It took me a minute to remember it was Halloween...it would have been way funnier if it hadn't been. After I get home and am trying to sort myself out because I had planned on doing Tour de Julian with a couple of friends of mine the next day. Julian is known for its apple pie (and hills)...so I just saw this as a great excuse to eat apple pie. A nice bike ride and mix it up with some pie after...right? 55 miles of Tour de Apple Pie. YEA! That is how I had it marked out in my head.
Now all is seemingly fine but I have to make a simple thing like doing a bike ride complicated. It wouldn't be me if I didn't...so I had to have the added: Sure i'll do the ride but I need my friend Kim to pick me up...totally out of her way...because I had dropped my car off during the week at the shop so they could fix the dumb check engine light. Now I was going to grab the car on the way back from the bike ride...but the car is 20minutes away from my house. I flew in late on Friday and am trying to sort my life out when at 11:50PM i discover...i have no shoes or helmet and my arm warmers and cycling jacket are: in.my.car! ARGGGGGGGGG!
Desperate text messages, phone messages and emails get thrown at Kim as I am just hoping that somehow my telepathic skills are working and she will get my messages and call me. We somehow manage to get every thing together at a very early time saturday morning...pick up the car (as the shop said I could just grab it when I got back), get the stuff and meet up with our other friend Laura and head out. WHEW.
Now chaos is pretty much the theme of the morning by this point and the beautiful thing about going on a bike ride is you don't have to start with the group...uh...or even close to when they start...yea...we took our time and finally got on the road some 30 minutes after the group left. No matter. We had a group of 5 and enjoyed the day. It was a beautiful ride and all was pretty spectacular weather wise granted the last 20 miles or so the WIND had picked up and was quite the tyrant.
Most of the second half of the ride is downhill...and me...i don't mind going UP the hills...but coming back down them can be another story. If it is a technically curvy decent...me.no.happy...but just generally a downhill...i'm ok...but i sorta wish I had a little dish of fearless in me a little more coming down a hill. But this time...the wind is hitting us from the front and the side and I am torn between not wanting to go as fast down the hills and the reality that if i don't keep pedaling and in the drops that the wind is going to quite literally throw me off the bike. So I tuck in and keep reminding myself about the physics of the bike when the wind picks up: a faster spinning object is more stable...so...spin!
Overall, the ride was fantastic. Great friends to ride with AND...even with our 30 minute later start and the reality we were one of the last groups coming off of the road, THERE WAS SOME APPLE PIE LEFT!! Actually they still had 3 apple pies! Props to the organizers for enough apple pie for everyone. When we rolled in...i just bee lined it for the apple pie...didn't even put my bike away...still had my helmet on..chowing down on the apple pie. It was awesome. YUM...Tour de Apple Pie...gotta love it.
Today I even threw down an 8 mile run and would have done 10 if the dark hadn't closed in and every car on the street suddenly decided they wanted to run over me. After 6 near misses in 5 blocks I called it good and headed in.
A great weekend!
4 comments:
nice job jo! that sounds much more enjoyable than barren desert and dehydration ;)
Sounds like some busy times! The Tour de Apple Pie sounds like fun. I'd definitely ride if it meant apple pie at the end!
I'm jealous of the travel. Although I hear you on cars gunning for you after dark. It's like the sun goes down and all of a sudden eveyone on the road goes nuts.
Near misses are sure better than hits... but oh my! Take care.
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