It's been a few weeks now since the Pelotonia and life still hasn't slowed down enough for me to take a break and recap this great ride, so I'm stealing a few minutes at work. It is fresh in my mind because I just wrote the thank you letter we will be sending to our donors and I want to blog just a bit while it's in my head.
The ride was much more fun for me than last year. I know where I'm going now and had trained more properly for the long ride. Hills weren't something I trained for, but at least I'd racked up a few 50 mile rides prior to the big day. Knowing where you're going is not overrated in the slightest. I knew every big hill, dangerous intersection and even when to save water between fill-ups. I guess that's what you'd call a veteran, and at 2 out of the 3 years the ride has existed, I did feel a bit like a pro at it.
Amanda and I were separated the day of the ride. Luckily, she and Mom could ride together, but the 43 milers were released in a different time than the 102 and we couldn't afford to wait the extra hour to go. The early morning hours are so critical when you're riding as far as we were. By the time we got into mile 70, the heat was terrible and an air quality alert was out. If weren't out of the hills by then, the girl riding with us might not have made it. She was already strapped for lung and energy capacity as it was.
I think this year's ride had a lot more gravity to it than last year. Becky, a family friend of Amanda's, died the week of the Pelotonia despite the best treatment available and heartfelt prayers for a miracle until the very end. She left behind a young husband and younger children, one of which is too young to even ever have a memory of her mother. It is for the future of people like this that we rode and I know Becky weighed heavily on both Amanda's and my minds as we rode towards the finish line, only to leave from there to a wake.
The people on this day are so amazing. I know I said this last year too, but as you ride through towns, up hills, past farms, and even at the random hilltop stop in the Hocking Hills, there were people out ringing cowbells, cheering, honking and waving at us. They were so supportive of our efforts and I felt very appreciated. For those of you who supported us during the ride or before it in some way or another, I just want to pass along these peoples' appreciation to you. To quote the great Red Green, "Remember, we're all in this together, and I'm pulling for you."
Pelotonia has already raised $9.5 million and it's still about 40 days from the fundraising ending. We're sending out thank yous now, and in about 2 months this all starts again. It feels like this Pelotonia adventure never ends, especially now that Amanda and I are captaining a group which is ever-expanding (hopefully 10+ riders in 2012). With such a large group, we're going to need bigger corporate sponsors (Thanks this year to Champion Feed & Pet Supply, Ohio Farm Bureau Federation and Amanda Hills Spring Water) totaling close to $10,000. If you know of anyone or want to join our cause, keep an eye out for a link to a Facebook group for 2012. It's the next step after our thank yous.
Our day ended with a country concert by a group called Bomshel. I was pretty content to just sit there and eat big, drink a beer and listen to them. But even though the day was over, our work is far from done. Patients still need treatments, children need to know about preventions, and families need hope for a cure.
I married a saint. Don’t get me wrong, nobody’s perfect, but this woman brings light into the hell that was last week. She stuck with me through the worst I could drag her down into and she helped to get me back up out of it. For that I am grateful. Who knew that pipetting could stir such emotions in my cold, automated heart?
My grad research project officially started the beginning of August. It feels like I’ve been waiting for this forever, but now that It’s here I just can’t wait until it’s over. The way the past three weeks have flown by, I imagine this project will be a blur in my life so I’m going to need to find things like Pelotonia to brighten and accent this high speed pursuit of a couple of letters after my last name. Since I’m doing most of the work by myself without any employees to help me, I would be remiss to not mention those who have volunteered to help me out of a few pickles so far: Lucien, Dare, Dan, Frank and Mike.
Lab work has never been my specialty and I seem to have forgotten that when I wrote the protocol for this experiment. I’ve suddenly been submersed into the dark world of basement labs, working in four different labs and gaining access to BSL2 over at the vet school for culturing of pathogens. The amount I’ve learned in the past week has rivaled all of last year’s classwork, making me question why I ever took classes in the first place because I’m such a hands-on learner. But last week was an extreme baptism into the hellfires of bloodwork.
When Amanda called, I told her to go to her exercise class because I wouldn’t be home for a long time that night. Everything I’d tried to do that day kept dragging out. I’d been at work since 7 am and it was already 6 pm. I still had to do all the hematocrit, plasma and serum spinning and storage, and didn’t even know how long it would take me since I hadn’t done 200 blood samples at once before in my life. I’d memorized protocol and gathered supplies, just starting when the phone rang. Amanda immediately asked if I wanted her help. Her company was more what I wanted, but her help was great too. But I didn’t want to ruin her evening, insisting that she didn’t come down.
She came down anyways, bringing pizza and a hug for the hapless, absent-minded genius who had forgotten to lock down some hematocrit tubes before spinning and was cleaning up broken glass glitter. It’d been over an hour and I’d gone nowhere. We ate and she learned how I wanted samples labeled and pipette and she got straight to work. And we worked, and we worked. This was a bloodwork marathon I don’t intend to duplicate any time soon. Thursday is looming up on me already. Last week we didn’t leave the lab until midnight but it was long before that when I realized I married a saint. Such self-sacrifice doesn’t come easy or often and I really appreciated it. I love you, Amanda.
Well it wasn’t easy, it never is. But Amanda and I have reached our minimum fundraising goal. The final money will be coming in this week, just before the student deadline of next Monday. This includes a bake sale at Champion Feed and Pet Supply in Delaware, and sponsorships from Amanda Hills (water for the bake sale) and the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation. It’s really tough getting my mind in gear for a race which is still over a month away and after the start date of my research project, but Amanda and I have started riding and getting in the habit of riding more often. To be honest, this fundraising and the jersey printing has gotten me even more excited for the race.
I also want to take the time to thank everyone who donated to both mine and to Amanda’s ride. Fundraising last year was a function of some really big sponsorships and that was great, but it was so much more moving to receive small donations from so many people. It is a great and true example of how many people are touched by the suffering of cancer. Every person who donated has their own story, their own motivation for why they donated. I don’t know all of the stories, but I know many of them. And I can tell you that they are my inspiration for riding. My ride serves as my only way to give an embrace of encouragement and gratitude towards the people who have shared, who have struggled and who are praying for a cure.
Cancer is a serious story, and I focus this race often on the serious side – encouraging your support for my ride based on your compassion for those in your community who need your support and the hope that comes through research. But it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t provide a little light entertainment for you as well. And trust me, it’s a real pleasure to embrace fitness through this challenge on behalf of cancer patients and families. So here are a couple of light thoughts to share with you about my Pelotonia experience so you can gain insight into what an average person thinks during preparation for this great event.
Last year’s ride made me want to curl up in a ball and sleep for days. This picture doesn't do justice to the pain and exhaustion I felt at the end of 180 miles. Physically exhausting is how I would describe the first day, the longest ride of my life. Before that day I had never ridden more than 45 miles and I relied on pure youth to pull me through. But if Saturday was physically exhausting, Sunday was a battle of the mind. Singing stupid little songs over and over pounded through my head and I hated groups like the Black-Eyed Peas for their repetitive music that was impossible to clear from my head as a captive listener to my own head as I rode on. It was like an 8 hour trip to the dentist.
This year I decided to try and ride more before the Pelotonia to be in better shape. Great thing about central Ohio is that there are lots of open places to ride. The problem with great rides is that you always want to keep riding. But eventually you have to come home. The return trip is never as fun as the way out, and such was the case last week. I swear the wind always switches directions when you turn around. I had been looking forward to an Irish blessing style, downhill, wind-to-the-back ride on the way home. Instead, the sun started blazing and the wind picked up – in my face. All I could think about on the way home was how I was going to eat all-you-can-eat pizza at Cici’s. An hour after Cici’s, all I could think about was what a terrible idea that was. I probably ate 2 pizzas single-handedly.
The most important part of the ride is the bike. Believe it or not (probably not if you ever see my bikes) but I know a lot about bikes. I know the good brands, the right questions, the things you can afford to fix and the things you can’t. I know how to fix nearly everything, but I would rather pay someone else who was formally trained to do it. I know what a good price is, what is a ripoff and what is a steal. But I also know the value in having a bike that gets you there and leaves some cash in your pocket. That’s where my silver speckled, 1990s Peformance Focus comes into play. It has all the right parts and just gives up a little on the aesthetics side of things. I love the bike more and more every day. In fact, if I have a weakness, it’s that I fall in love with bikes and am unwilling to let them go. I used Craigslist to sell last year’s bike and when I pulled it out I barely was able to let it go. It rode so beautiful, with a 70s style pristine paint coat and basically no rust. But last year it betrayed me and the whole pedal mechanism jumped ship on the ride. I had to keep reminding myself of that as I sold it to a new kid who was less picky than me on what bike he rode to Athens. We’d been through a lot together but it was time to let it go and pick up a new bike, a new story for the next ride.
Compression shorts are awkward. Even more awkward is the fact that they have a changing room for trying them on at the bike store. I remember growing up thinking that I would never look like one of those guys, but I have relinquished in favor of common sense. Athletes wear clothing designed for athletes. It’s lighter, breathes better and wicks away sweat; every pound that I don’t have to haul with me to Athens is a pound faster that I can go. I’m still getting used to the idea of wearing them and I feel pretty exposed biking in them in public. But I’ll get used to it over time; it’s just like any other athletic outfit – designed for specific purposes and let me tell you that it makes the ride SO much better.
Sunglasses are vital to a decent ride (unless you ride in the rain, then your bike is probably rusting away). I don’t have a great history of keeping sunglasses uncrushed, so I try not to spend a lot of money on them. The result is that they break and I just feel less guilty about it. But when they all break and I need some to ride in, out comes the super glue. Amanda’s suggestion turned out to work great. While waiting on hold with an office calll I held the superglued glasses together in a firm grip. I reapplied superglue in thin coats every few minutes and at the end of the call let go. It held together great and now we’re ready for another ride. When it comes down to it, I’d spend money on a water bottle or speedometer any day over a pair of sunglasses.
If you’d like to hear more about the ride, please find us at Champion Feed and Pet Supply this coming weekend for the Pelotonia bake sale fundraiser there. I’d love to talk and tell you more about anything you want to know AND you can shop around a little, too! Champion has been a great partner to work with and we are very excited to be hosted there this weekend for the sale. They also have a nice store with everything for pets, horses and livestock.
As I said, I will have soon reached my sponsorship goal and will likely exceed it, as has Amanda. We are very grateful and still will continue receiving your donations. Every dollar goes toward cancer research and the more we can raise for this great goal, the better. I also encourage you to consider donating to 3 other great people who I know that are riding this year and still working towards their goal. Beth Wenner, Christopher Fullam and Mary Connolly. They are good friends who are riding with great reasons this year. Please check out their profiles on pelotonia.org, and if you feel so moved, consider giving a tax deductible donation to any or all of them, or to myself or Amanda. The biggest key is to give; it all goes towards the greater good: Ending Cancer.
Here’s OSU’s movie for some final thoughts about the Pelotonia. We got an email to be on this movie, since Amanda and I are both a part of Team Buckeye, but it just didn’t fit into the schedule with everything else.
...when you're having fun. It looks like my blog has mostly died in the past 2 weeks, but in reality, that's because of all the good things that have been happening around here. I've been super busy and while my busyness encompasses a broad range of stuff, I'll try to lay them out in a series of blogs. Since most of my life has been defined recently by grad school, this first blog will focus there.
I was originally supposed to start my pigs on project the beginning of July, but the project start has been a little delayed by the age of the pigs and their growth. It all is based on when they reach a certain age and so as the pigs were born a bit late, my research was once again inevitably delayed. We're planning now to start the beginning of August, but that is good because it gives me a lot of time to catch up on the other progressions with the project around here.
One of these includes the final formulation of the diets to be used in the project. After balancing out the potential diets, we determined that there was a need for another treatment for comparison and the deletion of a previous diet. Since my focus is still on the impact of organic production, we will be using a commercially available, organic supplement which is intended to benefit the pigs in a similar way to which antibiotics could be used without the actual use of antibiotics. This is a fun little bit of science, but please stay posted and I will either blog my class paper on the issue or I will create a page to upload it. It's too long for this blog already.
We also got a shipment in of pig feeders for use in the indoor housing with outdoor access treatment. Because these pigs were traditionally fed on clean ground we needed to buy and build new feeders. I need to be able to weigh back all of the feed to determine weekly feed intakes and weight change. This will help us get a numerical value for what we call feed conversion which is simply the amount of feed it takes for a pig to gain a pound in body weight. Because we're going to look at economic factors to consider in organic production, the amount of pig feed it takes to grow the pigs will be an integral value in this.
Assembling pig feeders turned into a 2 day process where I ratcheted, un-ratcheted and re-ratcheted all day. The feeder material was sheet metal folded and drilled and it didn't quite all line up. To further complicate the matter, the instructions were not written in the correct order for everything to line up. It took 3 times to finally get an order of assembly which worked. At the end of the second day, covered in dirt and grease, I was finally confident that the pig feeders would work and hold up to the abuse that pigs put on everything in their pens. Hopefully the straw bedding will distract them from demolishing the feeders.
I also got to do my first pig weaning last week. I know it seems odd but I never took a swine class in undergrad and so my trip out to the farm last week turned into another great educational experience. The pig industry is very numbers oriented with records on everything. So as we weaned piglets from their mothers, we weighed them. They were doing pretty well, since some were weaning out at upper 20s. After recording weights, we sorted them into groups of similar weights so that they could grow with other pigs of similar size. This helps to prevent bigger pigs bossing the little ones around and "hogging" all of the feed.
As I mentioned before, we're also using straw in the outdoor access pigs. So while we were out there we helped put straw up in the mow. Stacking straw in the mow (pronounced like "ow" with an 'm' on the front) is hot, dusty, sticky work. We used to do a bit of it when were younger, but I haven't stacked much since high school when I stopped volunteering for sub-minimum wage work. It capped off a super long week last week and gave me sore hands which will once again harden into callouses that I lost in college. Hard work is good for the body.
We've also been doing a lot of training and sponsor recruiting for the Pelotonia. Luckily this is going to start wrapping itself up so we can just focus on the training. People have been very generous; Amanda and I are grateful for all of their support and proud to be riding on behalf of agriculture this year.
Tomorrow marks the first level cutoff for fundraising for my benefit bike ride. As we approach the deadline, I'm still $100 short on my fundraising goal. If you know anyone who has suffered through cancer, any friend who has dealt with the pain of watching a relative suffer, or you personally have experienced this, please consider donating to my ride. 100% of the donations go directly to cancer research to find cures and preventions for the disease which plagues the entire world. (and it's tax deductible!)
Click on this link to donate to my ride. It is not a virtual ride, I am actually biking, sweating and aching 100 miles down to Athens. Even so, this is just a fraction of the effort that cancer patients and their families go through every day just to keep fighting. I hope to be an inspiration to them, and you can be too.
I think I might need an organization as misleading as HSUS to help me with my fundraising for the Pelotonia. Or maybe one of the 10 minute infomercial (<-- can't believe that's an official word now) welfare requests. They're sure good at tricking people into donating. I'm just not especially good at asking people for money; it's been something I've struggled with all my life. We never negotiated for allowances with our parents. Our 4-H projects always sold to the people who bid the highest, but not because we had ever sent them letters asking them to buy our animals. If we sent a letter, it was asking them to support the fair and the youth in general, but never just us. Even when I worked at Farm Bureau and my job was specifically to recruit sponsors, I still struggled with asking people for money. Any amount was fine with me just so long as they were giving of their own good will.
But now here I am again, asking for money. My Pelotonia profile says it all: I'm riding to raise money and awareness for cancer research in Ohio. Our Ohio hospitals are making huge progress in treating and preventing cancer and this research will provide hope to many people this year, next year and next decade. Has cancer affected my family in the past? Heck yes, it has. That's the main reason we live in Ohio now, because we moved here to support my grandpa as he fought and ultimately won his battle with cancer. This year two of my friends have also been fighting cancer, both with great outlooks. And a friend at Amanda's church is in a huge struggle this year as we pray for a miracle.
So that's why I'm riding. I don't do cancer research, nor am I a nurse or a doctor, nor am I superb at comforting those who suffer. But I am athletically built enough that I can ride the miles. And so I ride, because that's my part in this. I ride so that you and others know that we are trying to fight cancer and help those who suffer. But riding isn't enough, I have to also actually raise the money for the ride.
And that's where asking comes in. The hardest thing that I have to do for this Pelotonia, harder than the training or the bike search (which is now complete!) is the asking for money. I've posted to Facebook, contacted old friends and even sent out letters now to corporations and politicians, organizations and well-connected friends. And now I'm back to here. If you read this blog and can even spare $5 or less, please consider donating. This link will take you to my profile where you can choose to donate or not after reading mine and other peoples' stories on the Pelotonia website. Please consider giving to support this huge effort which encompasses nearly 4,000 riders.
After the initial start on the Pelotonia, things got pretty busy around here and they haven't been slowing down as much as I thought they would. We had discussed plans for how we would solicit sponsors and eventually landed on the idea of forming our own Peloton this year. This design allows people to still donate to specific people on a Peloton, but also we can get large sponsors to donate to the whole group. The trick is that we need five people actually registered to form the group and start soliciting financial support so I've been trying to put the pressure on the other people who want to ride so we can get this moving. As of right now, only 2 people are actually registered for the race.
I also received my first donation last week from a friend of Amanda's and mine who was in our wedding. It was pretty exciting to get that email and I can't wait to really start fundraising so I hope everyone hurries up with registering. In the meantime, my profile is here if you want to take a look.
There's a bike sale this week down at OSU and I'm hoping to take a look there for a new or used and repairable bike. I don't want to ride that classic of mine down there again. It was far too pretty to beat up like that.
Neither of those have anything to do with each other to be honest, except for the fact that they are both open tabs in my browser right now. Studying for my non-ruminant nutrition, there was a question on the quiz about which enzyme is the only enzyme not to come from the pancreas. The answer is enteropeptidase which is secreted by the crypts of Lieberkühn. I had to post that title because it sounds like the sequel to a dark fantasy movie. But in all seriousness, the pancreas has to be the most underappreciated organ in our body. The pancreas does practically a bit of everything including buffering your intestine and secreting enzymes, insulin and other hormones. And yet, if you hear someone talking about organs they'll talk about their heart, their liver, maybe their kidneys, and then their appendix. How often does someone talk about their pancreas?
Grooveshark involves a totally different train of thought, but if you haven't seen it yet, it's a great way to listen to artists whom you haven't heard, without having to sit through Pandora's advertisements. My brother recommended it to me as a way to listen to his new artist pick, Doug Paisley. There's also advanced membership options, and such, but if I want to control my music and shuffle, etc., I'll just buy it. This was just my way to hear it first and not wait through ads to listen.
As I wait for someone else to sign up for the Pelotonia with me so that I can start soliciting businesses, I just wanted to repost my link. Please share the link, even if you can't donate.
This past week I registered for the 2011 Pelotonia. Although it wasn't until May of last year that I even thought about the Pelotonia, this year I wanted to get an earlier start to make the fundraising process less stressful so that I can help other people who are riding with me raise funds as well as the year progresses.
You can view my public profile here, and I encourage you to let me know what you think about the Pelotonia, my riding, or fundraising ideas/offers, etc. This was a great experience last year and the visible appreciation of so many cancer patients, survivors and families was extremely touching. If you are interested in riding and raising money for cancer research, please do. The registration info is pretty straightforward and the organization is good about returning query emails as well.
I know that my profile says I am a virtual rider, but I am actually registered for the 100ish miles down to Athens, Ohio, this August. Because we are riding in the student group and this lowers our registration fee, they are having students register as virtual riders to simplify the online system. It was a lot easier for me than last year because this year we didn't have special forms and hopefully I won't receive a warning form about not having enough funds, etc. The OSU Student Group is very active and I know that I will be trying to get to know some of them this year and participating in their fundraising events.
Additionally, me and my friends will be accepting larger donations this year and are willing to put together a sponsorship jersey with sponsor names and/or logos on the jerseys. These are pretty common among the riders and can be a great way to get your organization recognized as a donor and to advertise to many people on the ride. If you have any interest in sponsoring with an advertisement on our jerseys, please let me know as well. We are a great, fun-loving group of people and will represent your name well.
For those of you who remember, I did the unthinkable and raced in the Pelotonia 2010 cancer research fundraiser. This ride really tested my dedication and persistence as it was was easily one of the most difficult things I've done. It also resulted in the tragic death of one of the riders in a traffic accident.
Well, the hard work of so many people finally came to a tangible fruition a couple of weeks ago when the Pelotonia check was presented at the OSU/Michigan game. The total of nearly 8 million dollars just goes to show how important this issue is to the community and how deeply the cause has touched so many people.
It's never too late to start fundraising for next year, so stay tuned for updates on our plan to ride next year in our own Peleton. We're currently looking at about 5-6 riders and will be looking for both corporate and small dollar quantity donors. Please think about how important the cause of cancer research is, and look up how much the James has done for the cause of cancer research. Until then, I'll be losing weight, trying to sell my old bike and planning out my ride for next year.
I gave blood yesterday afternoon for the first time in my life. Thanks to Amanda for sticking with during the process and being supportive in helping me conquer my huge fear of needles. Props also to the nurse for making the process smooth and nearly painless. The needle sticking was easy going and it flowed fast and easy. It really means a lot to me to be able to give blood to help out people in need. I feel like I've really done something to make a difference, kinda like when I volunteered for mission building projects; it's a great feeling.
However, let me just say that running 5 miles today with the blood donation yesterday is much more difficult than it was last year when I was 2 days hungover. I figured the run would be a piece of cake after my 180 mile Pelotonia this summer and then the non-hungover system, but I was wrong. I felt completely out of energy by the time I'd even gotten done with the first mile and a half, and by 2 miles, I was nearly dead. I love to push my body to extremes, but today I couldn't do a thing. My body was shot, but after a solid breakfast, I'm already quick on the recovery for some family football and turkey this afternoon.
As promised, attached are pictures, first of one of the kittens. There are four total but coincidentally enough they've turned up missing and we're pretty sure our neighbors are to blame again. Anytime we get decent cats around, our neighbors steal them or they turn up "missing". I just don't get it.
Secondly, inserted is one picture of me and Chris at the end of Pelotonia10 Day 1, and then click here to see a picture of me at the finish on Day 2.
If anyone is looking for MSU tickets for this fall, please look forward to a link on my facebook. I'm trying to get rid of the whole season minus the MSU vs. Notre Dame night game and all I'm trying to do is cover cost, so they're a great buy.
Finally, I just wanted to throw in a picture from Amanda and I's little pure Michigan trip last year to Lake Michigan in Grand Haven. I miss being in Michigan in the summer. Either that, or I miss the job flexibility that I had last year which enabled me to go places like that. Done get me wrong, I'm far happier being here in Ohio with family and my wife, but I miss my friends and the state of Michigan a lot. I miss it even more now that everyone is moving back to East Lansing for the fall semester. I just got a text last night from Drew asking if I was going to be in town and I think that's when it hit me more than ever how many people I've left behind in one place that will be dear to me for a very long time. Thankfully I have good friends here, both new and old, to fill the gap and spend time with.
Reflections on the most challenging thing in my life thus far - I’m just gonna talk as I see it in my head.
Amanda is amazing. I can’t explain it because I’m truly amazed by her. Her true worry for my well-being expressed in her face. Her true devotion exhibited by stopping in to see me at Logan on my way back alone because she “just happened to be near there”. Her pride apparent in the hug and kiss she gave me at the end and the smile when Chris and I came into Athens. Her dedication to a cause I jumped into made obvious by her encouragement through training and her waking me up and stretching my muscles in Athens before I jumped back on the bike, feeling like I was going to throw up. I can’t enumerate the plethora of ways in which she supported me through this ride.
To my sponsors. As I signed up for this ride, I knew that I wanted to help raise money for cancer research while getting into a better fitness level for my own future health. What I didn’t realize was both the scope and the depth of the Pelotonia in Ohio. All along the route there were people lining the ride and cheering with signs and cowbells. So many cancer patients and children with memorial signs were along the route, thanking the riders for their efforts and I just thought it’d be good to pass on to you how much your contributions were appreciated by the people of Ohio and I know the research towards a cure for cancer will provide hope to people all around the world. Thank you for your support of me and please look forward to next year as we try to put together a team which will require about $10,000 in donations. We’re going to need your help.
To the family of Michelle Kazlausky, I would like to express my deepest sympathy for the fact that she is never to return from a cause which she believed in so decisively. I will continue to pray for the family. I can agree with the statements in the article about frustrations with cars/trucks on the road and I think Chris agrees also that there were some very rude and inconsiderate people who behaved as if they gave no thought to how we would survive after they shoved us into the shoulder and guardrail or who decided it would be a great idea to gun it into a tight spot assuming that the bike would just vanish or miraculously stop. People need to learn to be safer on the road around bikers. I realize bikers can be rude as well, and if you’re one of those people, you need to behave better because you’re giving the rest of us a bad name.
My body aches. Chris had marching band practice and so on day 2 he needed to opt out because he has tryouts coming up soon. I can understand that, but it was increasingly difficult as day 2 progressed to do the ride solo. I’ll admit, I made better time on day 2, but that’s because Chris set the better pace. Instead I tagged behind faster riders on day 2 and passed many people. The only things holding me back on day 2 were broken spokes going into Logan and helping a girl in the hills fix her bike chain. To that girl and to the guy going on the 102 ride in a single gear, I give mad props. Both of them took the same course that I struggled through with a 70’s classic, but they had even fewer gears than I did. To the rest of you, congrats on a good ride, but we worked harder on our bikes. I’m so happy to have finished on my LeJeune. And as I rolled her into Baer Wheels on High St., the tube finally burst (which I assume is from a bad spoke installation), so hopefully she’s put back together soon. My knees are absolutely killing me, but in truth I know that my knee is considerably better than it had been before I started training and it has made miles (pun intended) of improvement since the wreck last summer. Plans for next year include getting an iPod (or offbrand) on an armband that plays music by stereo. Conversation alone can’t get me down there and back… I need some music and headphones are banned. Second addition is a new bike seat. Sure, my bike is original, but let me tell you… that seat is a little too original.
Anyhow, that’s the most intense thing I’ve done in my entire life, ranking near but more difficult with MSU tailgating and “education”, hiking the Grand Canyon and getting married (which turned out to be easy).
In case you ever were interested in MSU football tickets, I'm trying to get them moved this weekend before Amanda and I put them on Ebay. I got them for half of face value on discount and I'm just trying to get my money back on them. I had to buy the set to get Notre Dame tickets, of course I could've gotten them other ways apparently, but now I just need to move the rest of the season.
Thanks to Michael for the Youtube of this morning, where Michael Cera gets hit by a bus.
This might be the last time that I have time to post here before I ride the Pelotonia this weekend. The final tally in pre-ride training is 10 lbs lost, and never more than 30 miles biked. I'm sure hoping this goes well. I guess what I'm most concerned about is the bike seat and how sore I'm gonna be by about mile 40, or how sore I'll be on Sunday when I ride back. Anyhow, the big rally is tonight and I'm very excited to see Counting Crows in concert.
Usually I associate that phrase with some terrible office rally speech, or some new sales pitch at Wal-mart, or Bdubs' 11th sauce that has yet to rear it's ugly head. Instead today marks the day when I want to set aside 30 minutes to document my thoughts, feelings and feeble accomplishments every day.
Reading this one blog that I subscribe to and realizing he has now limited himself to 2 hours per day for blogging, I understand why some peoples' blogs are so superior to mine. But then there are people like my dearest Amanda who still post meaningful and recently especially good blogs and yet don't spend half of their life in doing it. I'm looking for this next couple of months to be a period of growth for my blog which launches it into a larger readership and more frequented category. Mind you, that means it has to become less obviously personal. I don't like to share my personal thoughts and feelings with nearly anyone and for this reason don't even keep a journal. However, I can still keep all of my best friends informed via this blog on what's going on in my life whilst entertaining the other readers on this blog and I think if you know me well enough you'll be able to read between the lines and hopefully piece together a more personal biography of me and my life during grad school. Who knows, I might even start a new blog specifically for grad school just like I did the off-shoot for my agricultural discussions. Who knows, I might even really start into ad and reviews on here as well, even though I doubt you actually make any money doing that stuff.
As this week begins and I am no longer sick, I decided I needed to take the time and sit back and reflect on how this summer is going. I'm not here to fill you in on all of the details, but I am really surprised by how fast the summer flew by. And while I'm finally over the fact that my undergraduate years are gone, it was a hard shock to have Gail come down and visit for the last time last week before she moves out to Minnesota. I think that really struck the reality in my that I'm into a new stage of my life in school. Obviously the wedding did that but my life with Amanda seems so natural and wonderful that I wouldn't describe it as a harsh shock at all. Sure, it's crazy at times around here - I really wonder what our neighbors must think of us - but it's been as seamless of a transition as I could've asked for and every day I thank God for her.
What I really mean to say is though that as I've gotten older, every year has had more and more of a routine to it. It seems like just yesterday that I was starting my summer on pig farms and the sun was coming up earlier and earlier. Well, by the time that the novelty of my new job had worn off (and trust me, that didn't take long) I started into the pattern of just counting the samples, and calculating the time required for jobs. Well, then came the chores around the house. Sweeping the floors or putting away the dishes just fit itself into the other facets of my everyday life so conveniently that it wasn't long before we'd broken into the double digits on washer and dryer uses and the DVR didn't seem like anything other than a way to record the weekly series. (By the way, my weekly series is definitely The Colony. Sure it still has an element of control that I don't think a reality series should have, but given the camera footage captured, it has been an entertaining summer show to watch.) Then the TV fit into the idea that I was just getting from one show to the next, or looking forward to the next evening when I fed the fish, or the next Sunday when I went to church. Family, friends and Amanda have been the only breaks to this onslaught of life this summer that is relentless in its pursuit of tomorrow. Every second that I can spend with them is the time that is precious, captured in the moment and they are what have made this summer so great. Without them it has just been an endless progression towards the start of the school year and a repetitive monotony that I think has just made the summer blur together until it finally seems to have flown by.
And that gets back to just why I think this blog is going to be so important. This is a way for me to express myself to people in the next few months and will serve as my experiment to truly evaluate publicly what I am doing and is an opportunity for me to focus on those things which make me happy. I think we only truly realize how happy we are once we're looking back, and I want to appreciate life as it comes instead of spending so much time in the past.
On that note, my movie review for today is "Rachel Getting Married". Yeah... no offense to anyone who found this either introspective or entertaining, but I found little meaning or comfort in a movie so poorly shot and terribly scripted. There are few movies that Amanda and I give up on, but this is definitely one of them. I've sat through my share of cheap movies, but it's the not the budget the limits this. It seems as if the directors went for this subtle approach to portraying a family in its dysfunctionality, but this has already been done a million times. And besides, doesn't Brothers and Sisters do this so much better? Instead, this show has scenes that drag on forever with it unwitty script while you're forced to endure inferences at topics which should seem to be critical to an actual plotline if there had been one. The choppy cinematography did nothing but exacerbate the problems this movie already had. In summary, don't watch, but if you must, you can borrow it from us. :)
Hopefully some storms can show up this week to lower the temperatures and humidity before Chris and I suffer through a 200 mile Pelotonia this weekend. The current temperatures and humidity have been combining for weather that stifles the body and soul.
I have sent in an email asking about my method of race registration as a student. I have replaced the brake pads. I will eventually need a new seat, a spare pack, some shorts and gloves and new tires. I will hope that doesn't cost much. And I will continue to be excited to ride in the Pelotonia.
I got my bike last night! Amanda says that I have now officially committed myself to the Pelotonia because I have bought the bike now. Hopefully everything is smooth sailing from here as I get registered this week and start riding. Again, pictures of the bike are to come. I posted a preliminary picture on facebook last night, but I haven't gotten out into the light yet.
Also, I found objection to Gene Baur's recent post on his blog. I have since posted a comment which I believe will never make it on their blog site, so I will post the comment here:
Gene,
If you want to go so far as to link the BP oil spill to the animal food system, then maybe you should also consider the transport energy spent moving your vegetables from where they are grown to your local store which wouldn't have them naturally in season. Livestock agriculture provides food that is relatively little different in environmental impact than the vegetable-matter which you seem to endorse. Even if fossil fuel consumption were higher with meat production compared to plant-based foods, the total environmental impact is the picture you should be looking at.
Consider the hybrid cars. Over a period of a few years, the battery waste from these far exceeds the long-term environmental damage that is caused by "gas-guzzling" SUVs.
After the recent frequent posting, I bet you’re surprised I haven’t been on here yet. Well, I’ve actually been online, and even on the blog site. However there was a recent loss of ability to blog which remained unsolved throughout Monday afternoon. So here’s what I’ve been up to since last posting.
Amanda and I have successfully moved. If you don’t have our new address, please email, text, call or facebook me for it. Moving was mostly finished Saturday, but boxes are still everywhere even after all of the unpacking and mattress buying yesterday. (I have to insert here that I’m currently listening to Mother/Son songs for the wedding and Paul Todd is singing and there is nobody more creepy than this guy. If you know of someone, I challenge you to post one, but this man is frightening. I tried wikipediaing him, but to no luck.)
While I was at the grocery yesterday I finally invested the 2 dollars for some power-steering fluid. Mind you, besides the spilling that occurred, my car darn near took an entire quart of it. I guess it needed the fluid badly. Lol. Anyhow, I have since heard no more steering sounds at all. Literally the first turn I made afterwards was silent. Problem solved, and also one more compelling reason for me not to return to Wal-mart (who is not linked because I now dislike them) who told me that they would fill it for me the last time that I was in. Lazy liars. I’m learning how to change my own oil and I have 2400 miles left before it is that time…
Weight is down to 234.5. That’s great progress, right? Well, with biking, moving and swimming I am sure it is partially water and also partially great exercise. Regardless, I am hoping to continue the trend by perhaps swimming this evening and taking a bike ride tomorrow. (Next song, equally terrible)
Work continues this week, with me getting onto the kill floor on Thursday. I’m pretty excited and a little anxious about it. I’m not nervous, just (no offense dude, but your mom probably was in the first “your mom” joke… back before they were funny.) I’m not nervous about Thursday, just anxious that I will be able to learn fast enough to stay out of harm’s way and be helpful.
I looked at a yellow bike yesterday. Probably not going to work. However, I went to Handy Bikes and the man there was quite helpful in regards to pointing me to what things will be good for the race in August. Now it looks even more hopeful that the bike this evening will be the one to take me to Athens and back on the Pelotonia. I can’t wait until I get the bike and can start going. Please get ready to sponsor me!
