Aaaand She's Off

The big news since the last posting is KyKy earning her driving privileges. On Thursday afternoon we headed down to Chaska, where it is rumored the people giving the road test are a bit more lenient. I couldn't tell you if they are or not, but KyKy passed on her first try. She could think of only one other friend who had passed on one attempt. She's been driving around with us since November, and she isn't a risk taker or all nervous behind the wheel, so her passing was not a huge surprise.

Yesterday was her first "solo" trip, although it wasn't truly solo. She ferried her sisters to softball and karate. This is the big, big upside of her getting her license, TOYH and I can have her make the annoying trips for us, other than going to the liquor store get daddy his beer and mommy her red wine. She's still keen on running an errand without anyone with her, that day will come.

I remember how incredibly liberated I felt when I finally got my license. Living out in the middle of nowhere, we were completely auto dependent, and until Terri got her license mom had to cart us around. I'm sure she was happier than Terri when Terri got her license. Because dad was commuting up to Moose Lake for work, we became a 3 car family - 1 truck, 1 sedan, 1 high milage commuter car for dad. There was usually a vehicle available for any driver who needed to get into town, even when there were four licensed drivers in the house. I think my first trip by myself was to play in the pep-band at a basketball game, taking the old Dodge "Wimpy Wagon" truck. I felt so free, not having to depend on anyone to get me to and from practices or "social engagements."

Things are different for me now. Driving is a chore and getting in the car to go somewhere by myself makes my brain crazy. I'm not sure if that's a function of the aftermath of the accident or if it's because I can't stand the thought of putting more miles on a car that is closing in on 180,000. When I think of my dream job, a big part of that dream is being able to commute by bus or bike. I know KyKy doesn't share my disdain for driving....yet. On the bright side, she sees the environmental and health benefits of taking the bus or biking for some trips. She took the bus to and from work on Saturday despite having a license.

Speaking of dream jobs, I'm not at mine right now. This job should be easy, but somehow I seem to find a way to screw up something almost daily. In fairness to myself, I think the instructions I get are sometimes ambiguous, but the fact remains that this isn't rocket science and I shouldn't have so many problems. I've always thought that I could be content doing just about any job. I'm not sure I think that anymore. For better or for worse, work plays a huge part in how we identify ourselves, and I suppose by extension, determines our self worth. I'm not strictly defined by my job. I have other interests outside of work I think make me a semi-interesting person to be around, but I'm embarrassed to say that when I meet new people or catch up with old friends, I dread the inevitable question, "What are you doing now?" - in other words, "What kind of work are you doing?" or really, "Who are you as a person?" Job as identity. I can never give the simple answer, "I stock shelves." I'm always qualifying what I say by adding that its transitional or some such thing. In short, I guess I'm kind of ashamed by my work, and thus my identity as a person. I tell myself that this shouldn't be, that I'm bigger than my job, and that I'm good enough, I'm smart enough yadda, yadda, yadda. Oh well. I'll just have to buck up and not let it bother me.

But Can I Still Respect Them The Next Morning?

Yesterday morning at work I was sent to a different section of the store to help get ready for the day's opening. In the course of conversation with one of my coworkers I found out that he is a "Mixed Martial Artist" and that one of my female coworkers is a big fan of "MMA" and attends matches at the Mythe nightclub in Maplewood. This rising sport used to be known as ultimate fighting, which appears to have started as a brutal near fights to the death. In the past 15 years or so, the sport has evolved and instituted some rules. In a striking fit of common sense, the powers that govern the sport thought it best to make kicking someone in the head when said person was splayed down on the mat illegal. Whew. Since I don't watch MMA, I will let others pontificate about this sport being a barometer pointing to the end of Western Civilization. I simply have no interest in watching. None. Not even to be able to pontificate about how this is the end of Western Civilization. I'm more interested in why these two people I work with, who seem entirely rational and well-adjusted, are smitten with this sport. The guy I worked with is very pleasant, doesn't have a chip on his shoulder, and I've never seen him act or pose as a tough guy. The woman is a sporto type, (she went to the Twins' opener). I never would have guessed that she was into this kind of human carnage, although I was told it might be because of the drink specials at the Mythe.

All this lead to a fevered insomniacal hour last night, consumed with thinking about the appeal of MMA and of other sports. Let's see what I can recall:

American Football - The unmasked truth about this sport is that it is deadly dull. I just don't see where people get off calling this game exciting. A play normally lasts 5-6 seconds after which there is, at minimum, a 45 second period before the next play starts. This is soooo much a teevee sport. Why? To fill up that 45 second gap, the previous play is reviewed, dissected, telestrated, replayed ad nauseum. If teevee watchers were forced to sit and watch the teams huddle and substitute players after every play instead of replays, the ratings would take a nose dive. Booooorrring. The only attraction left for the game would be the "big hit," that is, waiting for someone on the opposing team to get shellacked, and hopefully injured, by someone on your team. I think I watched about a total of an hour of football in 2008. I think I saw 4 serious injuries. Dumb. And boring.

NASCAR - Three words. Watching. Paint. Dry. Similar to American Football, I think the popularity comes from the suspense in hoping there could be a high speed car wreck, the equivalent of a "big hit" (with injury!). This sport has had the unfortunate consequence of making NASCAR's yahoo fans think that 35W is Daytona and that they are Jeff Gordon. Morons.

Basketball - Boring on the pro level only because the athleticism is so great that the game does not look challenging. Raise the basket 3 more feet and widen the foul lane 10 more feet and it might be more like women's basketball, which looks much more interesting to me.

Hockey - Interesting because it has nonstop action due to the line changes and the zipping around on ice skates. On the pro level, the stupid enters in through the constant ticky-tacky clutching, grabbing etc. which has the effect of dampening the thing that makes hockey interesting, the speed. Also, pro hockey has idiots like Derek Boogaard who runs a hockey camp for kids to teach them how to fight. 'Nuff said.

Soccer - I've truly enjoyed watching World Cup soccer on the teevee. Ironically the problem with the game is not actual violence and injury. It is the appearance of violence and injury. In my observation, one only has to look at an opponent cross-eyed to get him to flop down on the turf holding his leg as if his achilles tendon has snapped and rolled up like an old fashioned window shade. From what I gather, the team trainer comes out, kisses the boo-boo and everything is all right since the player, more likely than not, finishes the game showing no ill effects. (Note to self: suggest magic lipped soccer trainers move to NFL. Millions could be made.)

Here are two gross generalizations for you. For the most part the pro sports I've watched have been so filled with chest-thumping bravado and in your face intimidation that I simply turn them off. The other thing I generally find bothersome in most all sports are players testing the limits as to how much they can get away with without being called for a penalty or foul. How much grabbing can an offensive lineman get away with before getting flagged? How hard can a basketball player push off before the ref calls him out on it? Gotta test those limits, and when it becomes epidemic, the leagues change the rules to reign in the scofflaws.

Which brings me to baseball. This sport at the pro level is not without its problems, but it is the one game I can sit down and watch on the teevee and not feel like I am wasting an afternoon or evening (o.k. I could watch World Cup Soccer for a few hours).

I'm not sure what the greatest appeal of the game is for me, but I do know that the intimidation and trash talking doesn't seem as prevalent, A.J. Pyrzynski excepted of course. Sure there are brush back pitches every once in a while, but honestly I think the pitcher and catcher and the hitter are all trying so hard to outsmart one another that they can't be bothered with overt intimidation. Second, baseball has no clock artificially imposing drama. Third, game is played out in the open with no silly scrums that can hide rule breaking behavior. I realize pitchers trying to paint corners of the strike zone may be attempting to get away with something, but he expects to be scrutinized on each pitch, he cant hide anything. O.K. Joe Neikro using a nail file and Kent Hrbek lifting Ron Gant off of first base were trying to get away with something. One was successful one wasn't. Like I said, the game is not without its problems, but the fact remains that the league doesn't have to tinker with rules constantly to refine the game, other than cracking down on steroid use. It'll be a cold day in hell before the NFL gets serious with performance enhancing drugs.

The good news for our family is that Madster is playing park rec softball this spring and is really jazzed about it. This gives me an excuse to take her down to the Metrodump for a game or two this summer. Woohoo!

On Busyness And Sleep

Once again there was a weekend of activities that kept us from all being together. For some strange reason I thought that as a family we would be under the same roof at the same time more often, but I guess I that was wishful thinking. KyKy and Madster have this week off from school so they spent the whole weekend with the Evil Grandmother doing camera club things. 'Nika, not to be left behind alone at home, had her old school chum from Emerson, Sophia, stay over night on Friday for a day and a half of giggling and movie watching. TOYH went to a "tea" at church on Saturday afternoon and we both attended a birthday party for a neighbor on Sunday afternoon. This evening Madster starts Park/Rec softball, along with karate. More running around, although she vows to ride her bike to softball when she can.

In between all the comings and goings, we had a couple of guests. On Thursday, TOYH's sister-in-law from China came over for dinner. On Saturday my long lost sister from Atlanta showed up for a chat and a visit. Both of them are on whirlwind tours of the motherland and were able to squeeze in face time with us at our humble abode.

I continue my work at everyone's favorite warehouse-type store, still pulling the 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. shift MTWFSat. I've grown accustomed to the 4 a.m. wake up calls. The nice thing about this schedule is that I'm home by 10:30 in the morning and I have the afternoons to myself. Not having two days off in a row hardly matters because I get home from work so early. Granted, as soon as I get home, I'm back in bed for an hour or two, but it still feels like I've got so much day left that I hardly feel like I've been to work at all. The quality of sleep has been varying. For reasons unknown, I've been waking up at about 3 in the morning, and then dozing off and on until the alarm goes off. Maybe my body is telling me that it's time to start riding bike to work, which I really should do for a bunch of reasons. There was a stretch last week where I was waking up before the alarm, and then not really napping well, yet not being a total wreck the rest of the day.

It's probably because I spent so many years as a swimmer hauling my butt down to morning practice that I remain a "morning person." Waking up and getting out of bed is never fun for anyone, but I think it must be less traumatic for me than for others. Staying up late always gives me a twinge of anxiety, most likely because I think, rightly or not, that I'll be getting up early the next day. Or perhaps it's because sleeping in past a certain time, say 8:00, always makes me feel like I've wasted half the day. This is not so with KyKy. This morning when I rolled out of bed for my daily ablutions, there she was sitting in bed watching DVDs on her computer at 4 a.m. She did not wake up early to do this. Today her day started at about 1:45 p.m.

Had my 60 day review at work today. 180 degree difference from my 30 day. My supervisor is actually happy to have me working for her, which is a nice change. After 30 days, I think she was ready to let me go. I thought she was misunderestimating me, and she was a little bit. I have improved the quality and quickness of my work quite dramatically in the past 30 days, but I still maintain that I wasn't as pathetic as she thought I was at the beginning. This is not to say that I'm set on making a career out of stocking shelves. I'm still working toward getting some computer skillz at MCTC. To that end, I've started an algebra review. The math anxiety has not set in.....yet. I just wish I had put more effort into math from about 4th grade on. For some reason, I have a copy of my 11th grade "Holt Algebra with Trigonometry" in my possession. I started on page one and am working through it page by page, actually enjoying myself, which is the biggest surprise. Ask me about that one later

My (Supposed) Reading List

When I finally get down to reading books, I'm working through two right now. "Working through" is overstating it a bit though. The first book I'm mostly ignoring is "The Left Hand of God" by Adolf Holl. This book is what Tom and Matthew and I work through at our "Book Club." (Book Club is another a bit of overstatement - we mostly drink wine, catch up with each other, speculate theologically and sit around a fire out back. Wednesday nights are partly why I am not a total bitter crank.) I started the book a while back and was not terribly impressed.

Holl is not saying anything I haven't heard about or read before, but the manner in which he says it is a bit, uhhh, unique. The subtitle of the book is "A Biography of The Holy Spirit." Holl starts with the baptism of Jesus. In the beginning of the book, he generally follows the New Testament timeline with side stories from the 20th century that illustrate the movement of the Spirit. His general thesis is that the Spirit is unpredictable, and what we claim as indwellings or manifestations of spiritual possession (tongues, etc.) are by in large indistinguishable from psychosis. Meh. That's not new or terribly interesting to me. When discussing the book with T & M, I couldn't tell them if I found the book edifying or merely titillating. His idea that the Spirit might simply be psychosis is reflected in his rather scattershot, throw-something-out-and-see-if-it-sticks style. I must say that Holl does a nice job of giving a brief description of Wesley/Finney/Azusa Street holiness movement without any snobbish European dismissiveness of American sects and praxis. I actually should be reading the book now instead of writing this drivel.

The second book I'm currently reading is "Crabgrass Frontier" by Kenneth Jackson. Once again, I'm not really reading it carefully. I'll bite off a few pages before falling asleep or as in the case on Monday, I took it to karate and tried to read while 'Nika was screaming and punching at air. The problem with Mondays is that more often than not, there is parent there in the sitting area who is constantly complaining to another parent about the liberal agenda that is hiding behind every bush and coming out to get her and her family. Help! Help! I'm being repressed. If you don't like it, move. Perhaps you could find happiness and succor in Riyadh, Singapore or least Salt Lake City. I'm all for everyone holding their own opinions, and I realize that democracy needs to have all kinds of ideas to thrive, but lady, your constant stream of complaints in a shared space like this is simply, utterly annoying. Next time I'll bring my iPod to tune you out. Literally. Anyway, back to Jackson. He writes about the suburbanization of the U.S. He's been referenced in a lot of other books, so this not terribly new stuff for me. He reaches back in history noting that suburbanization is not a 20th century phenomenon. He compares city growth in the U.S. with British and the Continental cities. Lots of interesting tidbits that I'll have to reread since I've been so distracted or tired when I read it the first time.

Mostly though, I spend a lot of time on the computer reading political blogs, transit forums and blogs and to a lesser extent bike stuff. Too much time on the computer? Yeah probably. A waste of time? Mostly no. Do I feel like a more informed citizen? As a matter of fact, yes.

A Family In Full

KyKy arrived back in God's country this morning at 5:30 a.m. Who knew there was a red-eye from Honolulu to MSP? I didn't bother to ask, but my guess is that plane was a pretty depressing place to be. Not only were people crammed into an aluminum tube overnight, these warm-weather loving, beach laying, whale watching vacationers came back to upper 20's and the chance of a couple of inches of snow in the next few days.

I, of course, went to the airport alone to get KyKy. 'Nika wanted to tag along but things got a little out of hand last night. TOYH and I were invited to a friend's 50th b-day party. All evening long before we left for the party, we promised ourselves we would get home early. We dropped 'Nika and Madster off with Charlie and his dad, went to the party, and came back to pick up the girls at.....1:30 a.m. That's some good parenting there, folks. Actually, a good time was had by all. TOYH and I got to see some friends we hadn't seen in a while, and Madster & 'Nika had fun with Charlie. 'Nika was not disappointed at all when I told her she would be staying home in bed this morning. KyKy was pretty dazed coming off the plane and she went straight to bed when she got home.

Later on this morning the Evil Grandmother and Dreadful Man showed up for a combination happy birthday E.G. and welcome home KyKy brunch. TOYH whipped up some extremely not too shabby grub and we had a lovely time eating and chatting. Afterwards, I went back to bed for the second nap of the day.

I've been pondering a few things this last week. Last night at the party and today with D.M., I had some conversations related to what I've been turning over in my head. My skill set, as far as employment goes, is a mile wide and an inch deep. I've done a bunch of different things - driving, clerking, bookkeeping, tutoring, studenting, taking care of folks with disabilities - none of which resembles or has led to a "career."

A full life, yes. A life of conventional middle class ease? Not really. Along the way I married TOYH, my superior in every way, (except for maybe finding one's way around town in the car), and we have three incredible, unbelievable daughters. We scrape along enjoying each other immensely as we just get by. I've got some rich friendships that I wouldn't trade for anything, except my family of course. These things keep me from turning into a bitter old crank. Yeah, money is a pain in the ass and I would certainly like more of it, but nearly everyone I know feels the same way.

So, one of my co-workers is in school right now at MCTC taking computer programing classes after he pulls his early shift at work. This got me to thinking that I should maybe do the same thing. I needs me some skilz. Since gainful, career-like employment has not come up and introduced itself to me as I shuffle through this mortal coil, I had better chase something down, grab it by the back of the collar and make myself known. I applied online at MCTC for computer network administration. Will this turn into something? Eh. I don't know, but it's a start.

In The Hospital Again

Dad went in yesterday for the second time in a month. It looks as though he'll be staying up there in Cambridge rather than being carted down here to Abbott. Yesterday he went in for his pre-defibrillator check and told mom he wanted to go to urgent care because his right leg was feeling so weak. They were concerned enough to keep him overnight to rule out anything serious, and are keeping him another night, at least, until he can see the cardiologist tomorrow. Along with weakness in his leg, the atrial fibrillation is back, and mom said his INR level is still a bit low. So here we are. He's been off the booze since his first stay at Abbott at the beginning of the month. Mom reports that he's now fun to have around home again, which I can see, since he's a charming guy, when he isn't drinking. Unfortunately when I talked to him on the phone today, he sounded kind of hazy. He said they've been pumping him full of painkillers since his back is bothering him so much. I think the pain is related to his spinal stenosis, which they are guessing is the cause of his leg weakness.

I called KyKy in Hawaii to update her and give her the hospital phone number. Dad's itching to talk to her, but he wants to have his suitcase full of memorabilia in front of him so he can tell her what sights to see. KyKy says they may try and go whale watching today, since they could hear whales from their hotel room last night. That never happens in Minneapolis, at least in March. It's been rainy and gloomy all week and will continue to be rainy and gloomy through the weekend when we could get some snow. I should have told KyKy that she may see whales from her hotel, but I'm looking at the chickens and ducks next door as I write this. It's not so bad here.

Bachelor Weekend Almost Over

I'm now awaiting the return of my beloved OYH, Madster and 'Nika. The weekend went pretty much as described. I did finally get out on my bike and rode back out to work on Saturday just to see how long/far it was. I took me about half an hour to ride 7 miles. 15mph isn't too bad for someone as old, fat and out of shape as me. On the way home I found a couple of shortcuts that will lop nearly a mile off the commute. Now it's a matter of getting up the gumption to get up early enough to ride to work for a 5 a.m. start.

I really want to start up bike commuting again. I can't tell you how much it grates on me to be sitting alone in a car driving to work. It seems so wasteful. That old beater of a car has 177,000 miles on it and it feels like every trip is bringing it's demise more quickly. Unfortunately, I probably won't be biking to work this week. It looks like rain and crappy weather nearly every day I work.

I ended up going into work today, my day off. They needed extra help, and since everyone else in the fam is gone, I figured, "Why not?" Plus, time and a half isn't too bad either.

TOYH is going to stop on the way home and pick up some charcoal for grilling tonight, mmmmmm.

One last observation I want to get out there. A week or so ago in the Strib there was an article about the drop in traffic congestion during rush hours due in part to the rise in unemployment. Part of the article talked about traffic reaching a tipping point, whereby a small decrease in actual cars on the road results in a rather significant drop in commute times. My own observations will attest to this. Twice last week, I had to be out in rush hour traffic and planned according to how long it typically takes to get somewhere at this time of day. Eastbound Hwy 36 and southbound 35W were a breeze. The article in the paper also had testimonials saying the same thing about people's commutes. Now when the economy picks up again, how can the number of cars on the road be kept at the same level so traffic will be just this much smoother in the future? It would be nice if some folks were able to carpool or take transit, but I doubt that smoother rush hours will be a feature of life around here. Once people start working again, and see in the beginning that their commutes are relatively easy, the roads will fill up and we'll be back to being stuck in traffic all over again. Tipping point the other way.

An All New Bachelor Weekend!!!

Sorry if I got your hopes up, but this is not some kind of teevee show. KyKy left for Hawaii today to go visit her cousins, who are vacationing there from China. It really pays to have a cousin who you are very close to who, in turn, has a dad who is a member of an airline's plutonium club and can fly you anywhere in the world. In a sadly pathetic attempt to make things up with the younger two girls, TOYH took them up to a friend's cabin for a weekend on the Brule river in northern Wisconsin. She put together a semi-elaborate ruse so that they would be surprised. They were, apparently. In the end though, northern 'Sconny doesn't really hold a candle to Honolulu in the middle of March.

So that leaves me home alone until sometime Sunday afternoon. What have I done so far since I'm unfettered by filial or spousal obligations? Let's see. I took a nap. I rode the bus downtown to the library to return some books and pick up another one. I called Madster's school to tell them she wasn't playing hooky. I petted the dogs. I drank a beer. That pretty much brings me up to date. Tomorrow holds the promise of a 4 a.m. wakeup call to go to my oh-so-fulfilling job. Then there will be a nap. Maybe in the afternoon I'll hop on my bike and go for a real ride. I'll probably drink another beer. All of this is a testament to the level of trust between me and TOYH. She has no qualms about leaving me for the weekend despite my on the go, risky, hip beyond belief lifestyle. As you can see if my weekend alone was a teevee bachelor show, I'd be beating off those silicone injected babes with a stick.

Is It Really Spring Now?

We've had some glorious weather around here for the past few days - highs in the 50's and even a 60 yesterday. The snow is gone. All that's left are the dirty ice berms, the remnants from the snow plow's work on the sides of the street.

This time of the year always appeals to me more than just about any other time. The days when the snow is melting and the sun is out take me back to Paul's Lake when dad would finally get the bikes out from the basement. The promise of riding bikes around the neighborhood after a few months of trudging through snow, and the idea that summer was not too far off always gladdened the heart.

It may seem odd, but I find the angle of the sun at this time of year simply lovely. The light is filtered through more atmosphere and that atmosphere is bit more dingy so there is not the blast furnace effect of summer or the cold clarity of a January sun. (I like fall for the same reason.)

Spring also makes me think of the end of the swim season. From 8th grade through my sophomore year in college, I spent many winter mornings and every winter school evening in the pool, often getting to school before dark and then leaving after the sun had set. The beginning of March was always State Championship time, so the taper was in full effect and one felt invincible in the pool. After months of hard, hard training, coming out into the light of spring in the best shape of one's life makes an indelible association of weather and physical well being.

Unfortunately, I won't be getting the same spring rush this year as I have in the past. The last couple of years I've been riding my bike through the winter, as much as practicable, so the warm weather and lack of ice on the streets in the spring were a source of excitement. This winter was more harsh than the last two, and I kinda fell off my bike, as it were. Now that the weather is warming up, I'd like to start riding to work again. My commute is down from a 27 mile round trip to about a 16 mile round trip, but since I start at 5:00, it would mean getting up at around 3:30-3:45 to get there on time. We'll see. I need to figure out just how long it will take me to get there and plan accordingly.

Now That I Have Absolutely Nobody's Attention.....

I'll start posting again. Mucho happenings in our household since July.

For all intents and purposes, I'm not working at the bike shop anymore, although I still have a key to get in. I spent a couple of months unemployed until Costco answered my bleatings and hired me. Two laptop computers have died in our family. TOYH is working full time as a nurse and also part time as a nurse. KyKy quit swimming at SWHS and joined the fly fishing club. Madster and 'Nika started at new schools in the fall, both finding great happiness and satisfaction in their respective moves. So that's it in a nutshell. Oh and I embarked on a unfocused, amateurish historical study of my house, neighborhood, and city with respect to transportation issues surrounding their growth.

So when the muse descends, I'll write. It will be to no one in particular since everyone has given up on me. If you, for some inexplicable reason, decided to check in on this piece of crap, welcome or welcome back. Feel free to comment. I'll try not to be controversial, since I really don't like internet pissing matches.

The Sweating Season

90 degrees today with dewpoints in the lower 60's. Yuck. This Atlanta-type weather I can do without. This year I actually planned ahead and installed the air conditioners before it got too hot. The house was relatively comfortable today when I got home.

I ended up going to both jobs today. I had to run payroll for Jon and Doug and then it was back down to Used Bike World Domination Headquarters to help with the mess down there. Jamie the owner is out of town for two weeks working as a mechanic on RAGBRAI (the ride across Iowa) and then on the Habitat for Humanity 500 mile ride. While he is gone his employees are conspiring to create some order out of the chaos that is Sunrise Cyclery. I sure hope we make some progress.

We're finally a complete family again. KyKy was at her cousin's cabin for 4 days so we had to plod along without her.

TOYH is stressing out a bit about work and stuff. She's been helping out with Gabe's mom's stuff while she's gone in Costa Rica. This helpfulness has been cutting into the paperwork time at her real job. I must say, though, I'm proud of her right now. Normally she overdoes it on the helpfulness front in situations like this and ends up a wreck because she doesn't have enough time in the day for work and helping. This time she's let others carry some of the burden. Now she's only mildly freaked out about how much stuff has to be done. That's real progress.

It looks like Gabe is coming home tomorrow. He's doing well, recovering more sensation and his reflexes are getting stronger. He's got a long road ahead though.

A Bit Of Relaxation

Our neighbor Gabe is making some progress and has moved out of ICU in San Jose. He might be able to come home midweek if the docs think it's o.k. For travel purposes his neck is not the concern, there are titanium plates in it to keep it stable and he only has a soft collar around it. There are other worries for such a long journey. In this type of accident there are always secondary problems - shallow breathing and the risk of pnemonia, fever, no bowel movements. A Caringbridge site has been set up and you can follow his progres here.

TOYH, Madster, 'Nika and I got out of town for a bit yesterday afternoon with some friends. It was nice to get a little physical separation from all the heaviness that's associated with what's going on with Gabe. We're back at it today with a bunch of friends this afternoon. We'll be trying to get Carolyn's house picked up for a possible mid week return. I talked to Matthew, Gabe's dad, on the phone for a bit yesterday. He sounds exhausted. He hasn't been getting very much sleep. I simply can't imagine what they are all going through.

Trying To Figure Out My New Job

This was my first "full" week at the bike shop. First conclusion: I know jack crap about bikes. It's quite intimidating to have a customer come in and ask you specific questions about a bike part and not know what the heck the person is talking about. It's not just intimidating, it's painful. Hopefully this will change with time. Here's an example - just today I had a customer who wanted a tune up on her bike. Miracle of miracles, I actually replaced a brake cable and made her rear brake work. Unfortunately, I told her that we could replace old, cracked, rotting tires on her bike. I took the old tire off and went to search for a new one, a 26 x 1 3/8 tire. I found some new tires that were stamped 26 x 1 3/8 to 26 x 1 1/4. Close enough, I thought. It ought to work on this rim. I installed the first tire. It did not work. The tire would obviously not stay on the rim. I asked a fellow employee about this and he said, "What you need to do is find a tire that fits only to 26 x 1 3/8. If it has an extra dimension stamped on it, it won't work. And by the way, I sold the last new 26 x 1 3/8 specific tire the other day, so go look in the basement for a used tire that only has 26 x 1 3/8 stamped on it." So I go down to the basement of the shop, and I'm amazed to find two tires of the correct size. Triumphantly, I go up to put these used tires on the rims, and I find the same problem I had with the new tires I had tried previously. I go back to said fellow employee and tell him that the 26 x 1 3/8 specific tires are not fitting correctly and would easily come off the rim. "Oh," he said, "You have 26 x 3/8 Schwinn tires that will only fit on Schwinn rims. If you try them on any other type of rim for 26 x 1 3/8 , they won't work." Sigh. Take that particular situation and multiply it by about 1 million and you'll get an idea of the permutations and combinations of bikes, bike parts and the bike business. The nice thing about bike esoterica is that I'm actually interested in this kind of bike minutiae, as opposed to the specifications of a Hewlitt Packard 8720B with options 001 and 1E1 in my previous job. It will take years of observing and experimenting to feel comfortable in the bike biz, but I want to take that plunge.

Can It Get Any Worse? Why Yes It Can.

This morning TOYH went over to Carolyn's to let the dog out and discovered that the house had been burglarized overnight. A first floor window had been left unlocked and that was all that was needed. As far as we can tell, nothing of great monetary value was taken, but a violin with great sentimental value was. I stuck around to walk the cops throught the mess and ended up spending more time on my cell phone today than I have for all the previous months of the year. This whole situation is very, very wearying for me and TOYH. The latest medical reports we have heard are not so encouraging. Matthew is having a very hard time keeping together emotionally down there in C.R. Carolyn just arrived last night and I'm sure she's going through the same thing as Matthew. Then crap like this burglary happens and we end up being involved in trying to sort out the mess. By no means are we the only ones who are doing things in Carolyn's absence. It's just that our proximity to Carolyn and her house put us at ground zero. We're very, very tired.

Today's Drama

Last night we received a call from our neighbor Carolyn telling us that her son Gabe, who we've known since he's been in diapers, was involved in a mishap in Costa Rica. Gabe is spending a month there as an exchange student through AFS. The word last night was that Gabe suffered a concussion in a swimming accident and was being transported to San Jose for treatment. This morning we woke up to the news that Gabe had broken his neck and the doctors had taken some bone from his hip and implanted it in his spine. Not good news. I spent some time with Carolyn this morning and this afternoon trying to help anyway I could. Another friend, Kelly, was spearheading the effort to get Carolyn's passport in order, and get her out of the country to be with her son. As the day wore on, there was no new news on his condition. All we knew was that he had come out of surgery and was awake. Naturally, everyone gravitates to the worst possible scenario. We had heard that Gabe had no feeling in his fingers or toes when he was transported to the hospital, and that the doctors knew that there was swelling around the spinal cord. Conclusion drawn by those of us thousands of miles away? Paralysis. This was driving me crazy. After having worked in an emergency room for two years, I can tell you that jumping to conclusions about the status of a patient is just about the easiest thing in the world to do. I didn't want to tell Carolyn that everything was going to be alright, nor did I want to jump on the doom and gloom bandwagon. The lack of information was excruciating.

We did get some happy news later on tonight. Gabe called his mom and said that he could raise his arm above his head and wiggle his toes. This is good news. But.... just as we shouldn't have jumped to negative conclusions when we first heard about the accident, neither should we conclude from the information we have now that Gabe will make a full recovery. Time will tell and we'll hope and pray for the best outcome.

Of Bike Rides And Bridges

This morning the lovely TOYH and I went for a bike ride to take a look at the new 35W bridge. By the end of this weekend they will probably be finishing up the span across the river, which is utterly remarkable. Believe it or not, I took pictures and they are posted on my Picasa page. I had to fiddle around with some of the images because I'm not a good photographer. It' really hard to capture the immensity of the project and how strange it looks to see two spans of a bridge, unconnected, cantilevered out over the water.

This afternoon we're off to Kent and Ann's for the 4th. Usually we walk all of 4 blocks to Powderhorn Park and catch fireworks there after having cooked out with the neighbors. This year a bunch of neigbors are AWOL so we're going to spend the evening with family. I'm gonna miss the Powderhorn fireworks. It's not that the display is so spectacular, it's because it seems like the whole neighborhood, and this is a fairly diverse neighborhood, is gathered together for an hour or so and is enjoying something in common. It's pretty cool

The Transition Has Begun

Today I went into Test Equipment World Domination Headquarters to officially end my employment there. It amounted to me opening up QuickBooks and entering my termination date. When I put in June 29th as my final day (the last day of my last pay period), QB asked if I was deceased. Well not exactly, so I didn't check that box. I'll still be putting in some hours with Jon, but not as an employee. I am now a highly paid consultant to Northern Test. I'll be coming in to do some mercenary work and leave. Ahhhh the life of an independent contractor.

Monday I went into the bike shop to help Jamie and Jen do inventory. Not much got done. The point of sale software that the shop uses asks for a bunch of information that cannot be transfered from the current program. If we set it up right, it ought to work pretty well, but the initial data entry is going to take a while. Jamie's plan for training me in consists of this - follow him and the other employees around for a couple of weeks. It's actually not a bad plan. There's really no chance of training during off hours. On Mondays the shop is closed (hence the time to do inventory). In the 4 hours I was there for inventory, there were probably a dozen or so people wanting to come in and look around. Eventually I want to be able to get in and keep the shop open on Mondays and extend the hours the rest of the week. The idea of working at this shop has been such a long time coming, it hardly seems real now that it's happening. I really hope it will work out.

I would like to post here more, but since I don't have a job sitting staring at a computer screen all day, it will probably be a bit more difficult to do it as often as I used to. The quality of the posts will suffer too, if that is at all possible.

It's Lonely In Cyberspace

No responses to the previous post. That's what you get when you take a 2 month vacation from blogging.

KyKy and The Madster are on a one week service trip at the Lake Traverse Reservation. It's very odd to have them gone and completely out of touch. No cell phones. No access to computers. Funny how in the last 15 years or so, we've created all these new modes of communication and we use them. I'm not a huge cell phone user or emailer, but these things have generally been at my disposal and I've used them on occasion to communicate with friends near and far. When KyKy was in China this spring she sent some email dispatches and called on her cousin's international cell phone. This week - nothing, and she's just over the border in South Dakota. All we've heard is that they made it there ok. Weird. I guess this means we'll have to sit down face to face and talk to them when they get home. Or they could call from their bedrooms on their cell phones.

Back From Blogging Vacation

After the last comment section smackdown, I lost interest in blogging about stuff. I still don't know whether I'm interested in keeping up with it, since not-blogging is the new blogging. If anyone happens to read this, check in with a comment and prove to me that there is at least someone who looked at this garbage.

Things are winding down for me at Test Equipment World Domination Headquarters. I'm training in Douglas on the job and counting the days until I start working at Sunrise Cyclery. Looks like it will be July 8th or thereabouts. I'm going to start there as a regular employee, with an option to buy into the shop at a later date. I'm excited to start work there, but apprehensive because I won't be making as much money as I am now, not that I'm earning the equivalent of a king's ransome at this job. TOYH has started nursing in earnest and she'll be pulling down a good paycheck, but a sigificant chunk will be eaten up by health insurance and school loan payback. Sigh.

Adventures In Suburbia

Yesterday I brought the car into the shop we've been going to for 18 years, Roseville Auto Repair. When I had it in last, Perry told me that it would need a transmission flush and a brake job, and soon. He estimated $700 and I thought, riiiiight, I'm just ooozing money to spend on a vehicle I'd rather not be driving in the first place. Yesterday I broke down and brought it in. It was good news, bad news, good news. Turns out I didn't need new rotors on the brakes, which lowered the cost significantly. But.... There was a hole in the muffler which I couldn't hear because a heat shield was rattling all the time, covering up the exhaust system noise. Good news again - total cost for brakes, muffler and transmission was less than the original $700 estimate. The boys in the shop were scratching their heads because I put on less than 2500 miles in the 4 plus months since the last time I last had it in. Bikes and buses baby.

In keeping with my theme of life failure, I decided to take the bus to work from the shop. It's 3.8 miles from Roseville Auto to Test Equipment World Domination Headquarters if you take the most direct route by car. Here's what happened. I walked 1 mile from County Rd B to Larpenteur Ave to catch the 61 bus. I waited 20 minutes for the bus since it runs only once an hour, even during rush hour. I get off the bus at Larpenteur and Jackson and walk 3/4 of a mile to TEWDH. Total time: 1 hour and 20 minutes to get 3.8 miles away, walking nearly half of that.

Since it took so long, I had time to think about this situation. Roseville and Maplewood were built for cars and they will probably always be car dependent. How can you encourage suburb to suburb transit use when buses run only once an hour? Not very easily. The population density really isn't there to support more frequent service or more routes on major thoroughfares. There is block after block of big yards with small houses, and very few apartment buildings. The buses that happen to run through these 'burbs are on their way to either of the downtowns. Local service is by chance only. Plus, in Maplewood at least, there are no sidewalks. From the bus stop to work I walked the streets. While I was walking to and from the bus stop I got a few "what-is-that-raving-lunatic-doing-getting-footprints-on-our-precious-asphalt streets?" looks. I must say biking when there isn't snow piled up isn't so bad. The main streets have shoulders to ride on, but the plows tend to leave snow piles in them after a storm.

I got into a rather heated discussion with Jon on a similar topic. I maintain that eventually some of the outlying developments in the metro will become the new "ghettos." People will want to live closer to the core cities and the dream of 5 acres and a mule will die with higher gas prices and the longer and longer commutes by time (as roads get more congested) and distance (since you'll need to go father and farther out to get that "rural" feel). Cheaply built housing will sit empty and be turned in to rentals or be sold for less than what the original market value was. Jon believes that jobs will move out to where the housing is in the far reaches of Wright, Dakota and Scott counties and there will be no flow of people into the core cities and first ring suburbs. We'll see.

Where am I going with all of this? I dunno. We're coming up on our 10 year anniversary on Park Ave, and there were people who thought we were foolish to move into such a marginal neighborhood. Well the neighborhood isn't as marginal as it used to be. If I'm right in my belief about the future, our neighborhood will become more desirable as the years go by not only because we live only 2 miles from downtown, we've got 4 local bus lines that run less than a mile from the house.

More Culture Than A Bucket Of Yogurt - Then We Kick Some Butt

Yes our household is the definition of cultural refinement. KyKy continues her sojourn in Chicago. She has reported back periodically, basically to tell us the other kids she went with are a bunch of idiots. (Note to KyKy, if you want to fit in with this crowd you need to stop acting like a mature 25 year old and start acting like a 15 year old. Yeesh) She comes home late tonight on the train, not soon enough for her I'm sure.

Friday the rest of us went to see Midsummer Night's Dream at the Guthrie. Wow. Just wow. I know nothing about architecture, but in my opinion, this building is pretty cool. We arrived early to poke around the place. This is not your typical theater building. It has 3 different stages, a restaurant and bars and bartenders all over the place. The building, not just the ticket office, is open to the public for long hours every day. If you want to go have lunch there, fine. If you want to go walk out on the "Endless Bridge" (the part of the building that looks like it's sticking its tongue out at SE Minneapolis) during the day, knock yourself out. If you want to go to the 9th floor and get a great view of downtown and the river through yellow tinted windows, go right ahead. I guess Jean Nouvel was trying to create a community gathering place, not just a theater building. Oh yeah, we saw a play there. What can I say. When 10 year old 'Nika is gushing about Shakespeare, something is being done right. Obviously, MND is made for "low" comedy, and Joe Dowling exploited that very well. There was hip-hop music and singing, Irish Dancing, great physical acting and some slapstick. I hadn't read the play for 23 years or so, so I got a little lost with the whole Oberon/Titania thing, but I was able to follow the rest of the plot pretty easily. Our review - 8 thumbs up!

Saturday, TOYH and I went to the MN History Center (on the bus naturally) by ourselves. Madster had too much homework and 'Nika for some strange reason did not want to go. There is an exhibit there called "If These Walls Could Talk." They picked out a house in the working class section of St. Paul and traced its history back 120 years. Absolutely captivating. It was a "house tour" room by room, with each room representing a decade or two of time. German immigrants who built it. Italians who worked in the breweries and rail yards who followed. African Americans and Hmong immigrants who who were not able to find living wage work for themselves. The curators were able to track down families who had lived there from the 1940's onward, and they recorded some oral histories of everyday living. Priceless. Prior to the 40s they were able to find the names of residents and their occupations and fill in some general details of what was going on in the neighborhood. It wasn't a huge exhibit, but took us a couple of hours to get through it.

As for the butt kicking, the girls and I pulled on our "jock" clothes - the girls their karate togs, and me my fruity lycra biking stuff. 'Nika and Madster took part in their first karate tournament and I went on the Ironman Bike Ride. I'm pleased to tell you that Madster kicked and punched her way to 3rd place and 'Nika to 2nd place in their sparring competition and placed 5th in "forms" (think synchronized dance routine except filled with kicks and punches). They came back with trophies and medals. I came back with a certificate stating I hauled my fat butt 62 miles on my bike. I met up with Nerdy Bike Neil, his wife Belinda and some of their Trailhead Cycle friends. It was a great ride with great people. The butt kicking part for my ride comes courtesy of a couple of riders who were all decked out in racing kits, but it doesn't involve fists of fury like the girls. After the 2nd rest stop these gentlemen came buzzing by us on a downhill section. On the ensuing uphill, I sensed that they were not as fit as they appeared when they came flying past us earlier. Since I hate hills with the burning passion of a thousand suns, I attack them just to get them out of the way quicker. Turns out "Lance Armstrong" and "Greg LeMond" were slow on the uphill. Dropped 'em pretty quick. Same thing happens on the next downhill - they zip past us. Going uphill, drop 'em again. They must have gotten tired of having an old fat guy humiliate them on uphills, so they didn't pass us up again for the rest of the ride. At least that's how I remember all this happening, my bike going pocketa-pocketa-pocketa the whole way. (Please see "Secret Life of Walter Mitty" for the pocketa reference) If you want a different version talk to Neil.

Thank You Madster For That Interesting And Informative Post

Now back to the boring stuff. Rain yesterday. Rain today. Possible snowflakes tonight. On the plus side, things are really starting to green up.

Yesterday on the way back home from work I stopped in at the hometown-based ginormous electronics retailer to pick up a digital converter box for the teevee. Since we are the only family on the planet to not subscribe to cable or satellite, I really do appreciate the local stations broadcasting in digital just for us. Anyway, a few months ago I applied for my two $40.00 coupons from the govmint to get converter boxes. The coupons came last week, and I actually showed some fiscal restraint and waited until there was some extra money in the bank to buy one. And one is what I bought. I brought it home and spent a while hooking it up to a teevee that has DVD and VCR (yes TOYH and the kids still borrow video tapes from the library) players plugged into it. Voila! It worked. Now I have 19 local channels, including 7 count 'em 7 local PBS channels. All for one easy payment of $23.00. The reception is great compared to what we have with the old analog broadcast. No watching programs through a snowstorm of static. No horizontal lines endlessly running up the screen. No having to get up and fiddle with the antenna to get certain stations. All is not perfect though. The sound on one of the stations sounds like the treble knob is turned up to 11 so the spoken "s" and cymbals can really get annoying after a while. It always amazed me that we lived in the middle of the metro and our analog teevee reception was utterly craptastic. I suppose that was a function of using rabbit ears antennas and not hooking a huge retro-looking aerial to the chimney. Back tonight to gigantic big box retailer to get the second converter.

On the cultural end of things KyKy apparently made it to Chicago ok. Don't know. Haven't heard from her. The rest of us rubes will be at the brand spanking new Guthrie Theater to see The Bard's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." We got the tickets through a program called Project Success. As a life failure I'd like to take the bus to the play, but I think we'll end up taking Crapmobile instead. Actually, driving around in that thing is only about half a step up from riding the bus.

Geez....

Wow, it's been awhile. Wait, let me rephrase that. It has been EONS. But, back to the reason I'm updating on the old man's blog. Today at school was pretty o.k., except the fact that I had art class. Yeesh... I hate that class so much. She also scares me half to death. I do not understand the way her brain works. She was making us write those stupid plays that are in spanish (fyi, I go to an immersion school) and always telling us to read the play to her and get an automatic B. I swear, everybody in the class knew what she was about to say. Ohh well. Our play sucks anyway. We have to write either on social or political happenings in the US and must be less then 4 minutes. Thanks for the very wide variety and interesting choices. Well, at least tomorrow is Friday, and then we wont have her for another 3 weeks (Yesssss!!!!!). I wonder what would happen then? Only god knows.....

Things Are Worse Than I Thought

People are failing all over the Twin Cities. It's nice to know I have so much company though.

So Long PigBike

At least for this season. I put about 800 miles on the beast since December. I wish the total would have been double that, but I can't control the weather or way the streets are plowed.

I'm ashamed to say I have an abusive relationship with this thing. Last year I dressed it up with a new drive train to make it more appealing. Over the winter I rode it through the slop - snow, sand, salt - and that gunk covered PigBike. Sure I washed it off a few times but never really gave it a deep cleaning. Now that summer is here, PigBike will be ignored in the basement unless I'm going to do a long ride in the rain. Nice dry weather is for SS Deathstar. Come next winter though, I'll be crawling back to PigBike to get me through next year's slop.

This bike will probably be with me for the rest of my life. I bought it back in 1994 I think. Between 1994 and 2006 I probably rode it 150 miles. It sat in garages, basements and storage rooms for most of that time. In August of 2006 I finally got the beast tuned up (at Sunrise Cyclery) and started riding. Was that ever painful. I was fat and out of shape. I would literally turn the cranks about 10 revolutions and have to stop pedaling and coast. I couldn't sit in the saddle very long before my butt hurt. I kept plugging away. I started riding to work. At first my commute consisted of throwing PigBike on the bus rack, taking the bus to downtown St Paul and then huffing up Jackson St to Maplewood. One lovely fall day I mapped out a bike route home on Google and rode it. The bus/bike combo ended shortly after that. In February, of all months, I joined the Twin City Bicycling Club, aka Nerds on Bikes Parade. That showed me that winter riding was possible. A year ago, SS Deathstar showed up and I quickly put 3700 miles on it. Later in the summer I bought a fixed gear to fit in with the cool kids. Somewhere along the line after a combination of a couple of glasses of wine and eBay, I ended up with a single speed mountain bike. I hardly ever ride that thing, but I have big plans for it.

Are there any great lessons to be learned or can I turn this little personal history into some kind of metaphor for life? Naw. I'm still fat, albeit in shape fat. Sadly, I'm not riding as much this year as I did last. I do wish I had more opportunities to bike in groups. Most of my riding right now is solitary, which is fine, but it would be nice to get together with other folks for some rides. There are a few reasons why I don't meet up with others. 1) Family schedule. 2) Lack of TCBC rides starting close to home. 3) My hang-up about throwing my bike on the back of the car to get to a bike ride. It's o.k. to haul it around for vacations or "epic" rides like Ironman, but to do it on a regular basis? That just seems silly to me.

There are two benefits, present and future, I have received from hopping on the bike again. Future benefit? My vocation could be in the bike industry. What Jamie is doing at Sunrise is really cool, and I'd love to be a part of it, if it's viable. I never really imagined myself working in retail, but if you believe in the product, selling stuff doesn't seem so repulsive. Present benefit? Why it's the smug superiority I feel when I tell people I rode my bike to work today.

Earth Day - If Anyone Is Still Reading Hello....hello....hello

Rode the Pig Bike to work today, 9th time this month. I figure I only need to ride two more days in the next week to be able to say I rode to work for half of my commutes in April.

Neil, if you're still reading this, I'll be ready for the 62 miler on Sunday.

Lots and lots of stuff to write about, but I've been too lazy to set fingers to keyboard. Lesseee.... Both 'Nika and The Madster were granted transfers to Seward Montessori in the Minneapolis Public Schools. This is good news, but we're still probably going to send 'Nika to Minnehaha Academy, which I'm ambivalent about. Bottom line - TOYH and I think she would really benefit from the more individualized attention she'll (hopefully) get at M.A.

Minneapolis Public Schools are re-vamping the H.S. programs to try and encourage students to attend their area H.S. KyKy and Madster have a mutual friend from Emerson who is very bright, but unable to get into South High next year. She'll probably end up at Roosevelt, which would be our neighborhood school also. We know very little about Roosevelt, other than it's Jesse Ventura's alma mater (which is a strike against it). We are very pleased with Southwest and KyKy would be allowed to stay there. Rumor has it that sibling preference is still policy, so if Madster wants to go to SW she'll be able to go there. Ahhh rubbing elbows with all those cake-eaters makes me feel all warm inside. Speaking of Southwest, KyKy is heading to Chicago on Thursday by train with the SW Orchestra. 4 fun filled days of concerts, sight seeing and train rides.

I've been in talks with Jamie at Sunrise Cyclery about future employment. Turns out my core competencies align well with the operational deficits to create value-added synergies which in turn would lead to a marginal increase in the bottom line - in certain projections. I'm having my people (Kent) look at some numbers to get a handle on the financial end of things. I'm cautiously optimistic about making this work. There are still a huge number of unknowns at this time, and we're slowly starting to work through them. Jamie's wife Jen is a lawyer who has set up businesses before, which is a huge help. As much as I would love to go into business with them on a handshake, I'd feel much better about signing a business pre-nuptial. We're still in the dating phase right now.

TOYH is still working away at People Inc. Unfortunately, she still isn't up to full time hours yet. They are still dealing with some staffing issues. Hopefully sometime in the next few weeks we'll have a better idea of what her full time work week will look like. Her working only part time has been a mixed blessing. Lord knows we need the money. Bad. On the other hand after 3 1/2 years of an absolutely full schedule of school and work, this bit of a break is really, really nice. We actually get to see each other in the evenings. I can't tell you how nice that is.

More On Politics.....Or Rather The Media

I watched the "debate" last night for a few minutes. Here's what I saw when I turned it on. The moderators Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber were asking about an association Obama had with a former Sixites radical and statements said radical made. Ugh. Turned the channel to PBS for a few minutes. Turned back to the debate for a bit more of the you've-been-in-the-same-room-with-a-person-who-said-stupid things-long-ago-so-why-do-you-hate-America-and-you-don't-wear-a-flag-pin kinda questions. Obama wrapped up this episode of journalistic brilliance with a jab at Clinton for the same type of nonsense (your husband pardoned Sixties radicals so nyah), thereby lowering himself into this stinking sewer we call political discourse. This whole exchange made me want to scream. To be fair, Obama started to take the high road and chastised those bonehead moderators for dwelling on this kind of stuff. On the one hand I wish he had stayed on the high road and not said anything about Clinton's past associations, but on the other I'm thinking, "You've gotta attack, you can't just take a hit like this." Well he attacked, and I felt just a little dirty afterword. Low road.

Can I just say one thing? PLEASE MAKE THIS GUILT BY ASSOCIATION GARBAGE STOP. Guess what? Whoever is elected president will be elected president of all the people, including stupid people who say stupid things. The president has to be able to talk with stupid people. Just because you know somebody, work with them, go their church, or socialize with them doesn't mean you wholly adopt that person's beliefs and you are indistinguishable from that person. Fer cryin out loud, Paul Wellstone and Jesse Helms became good friends in the Senate. Enough of this crap.

I did stay tuned long enough to hear Clinton's response to a question about withdrawing troops from Iraq. I read today on the internets that this was the first question of the evening that actually dealt with a policy issue. It only took 50 minutes of a 90 minute debate to get to a question about something that matters. That. Is. Disgusting. Thank you mainstream media for making a circus out of what could be the most critical election of my lifetime.

Yuck, Yuck, Yuck

These are not the funny yuks. Weather today - yucky, but at least we've been spared from heavy snowfall so far. Woke up this morning (and last night as you shall see) to a coating of slushy wet snow. It's been raining a good part of the morning and we're expecting more precipitation through tomorrow. It could be snow or rain.

Second yuck - TOYH spent the night running back and forth to the toilet to ride the porcelain bus, as it were. She also was very nauseous and felt like she might have to drive the bus too, but managed to stay in the passenger seat.

Third yuck - Stupid, aka Grover the dog, got me up a couple of times last night to ride the doggy version of the porcelain bus. On second thought, maybe he's not so stupid after all, he drove the bus out in the yard and not in the house.

I'm really going through a bus theme here. Hey Francis, do those silly French social critics or Maggie T. have anything to say about the above bus riding?

Hmmmmm

I just ran across this on a local development forum I frequent. It's a quote lifted from a book called Cities in Full:

"show me a man over the age of 30 riding the bus, and I'll show you a life failure."

That's certainly a day brightener for me.

Now Whadda We Do?

'Nika just called from home to tell me that an envelope came in the mail from Minnehaha Academy. I told her to open it, and yes she was accepted. So now both 'Nika and Madster have been accepted at M.A. which TOYH and I have mixed feelings about. Both of 'Nika's teachers this year are excited about the prospect of her going there, which is a comfort for us because we feel bad about pulling her from public schools. With Madster, we're still trying to figure out what to do. Minneapolis Public Schools will release school assignments next week supposedly, so we'll find out if Madster gets into Seward Montessori. TOYH and I were pleased with that school, so if she gets in we'll have a big decision to make. The one great factor in all of this is cost. Tuition and fees for the both of them to go to M.A. would come to about $26,000.00 total, which we obviously don't have. (I guess this is the correct amount, but I really don't like to think about it.) We've sent in our financial aid application and given our income from last year, we ought to qualify for some kind of aid.

I've been able to commute by bike 5 days in a row now. That's 135 miles not driven. I've been riding the winter pig to try and get my legs back under me, and hoo-boy do I dislike pushing that beast to work. I kinda, sorta, have a have a plan to get myself in shape for the 100 mile Ironman ride on the 27th. So far the weather has not been too cooperative. The plan was to ride the pig bike to work during the week as much as possible (it's like running with ankle weights or swimming in a tee-shirt). On the weekends I wanted to take a shortish fixed gear ride Saturday and then a long ride on the SS Deathstar on Sunday. Last Sunday it rained, so no long ride. Tomorrow through Saturday morning there is the possibility of a crapload of snow. Sigh. On Monday morning this week I rode to work in a rain snow mix, and it wasn't too much fun. The temp wasn't so bad, but my glasses kept fogging up and getting water droplets on them so I couldn't see. If this craptastic weather lasts through April 27th I might bail on the big ride. Neil are you listening?

Will It Ever End?

Sigh, there is anywhere from 4-10 inches of snow predicted to fall by tomorrow morning. We've been getting teased by spring for a few weeks now, and this is just the latest setback. I finally got in a 100+ mile week last week on the bikes, but now I'll be driving again for the next couple of days. This is particularly aggravating because the kids have no school this week and biking to work is much easier when there isn't as much running around in the afternoons.

The end is in sight for a couple of other things. I can't say much about this, but it looks like the lawsuit against me and FedEx is finally starting to move along. I met with a new lawyer last week. The old lawyer representing me has retired; I think he had had enough with the foot-dragging by the other side. I will be deposed by the plaintiff's lawyers on May 8th apparently. I'll go back in and talk to my new lawyer the day before. He has been very reassuring. On the whole, this has been rather difficult for me because I'm being asked to relive the accident moment by moment. It's part of the reason I haven't felt like posting here much lately.

It looks like there's one more end coming into focus. Tentatively by July I will no longer be working here at Test Equipment World Domination Headquarters. Simply put, there is not enough work for me to do here. Jon has been kind enough to keep me on full time until a transition can be made, and as TOYH eases her way into full time nursing, I'll be able to work myself out of a job here. Jon has some self-interest in keeping me here for the time being. If I leave, he loses his health insurance, and given his current health status, he's not wanting to lose his coverage. I'll probably be training in Jon's son Douglas to do my job starting in June. That way Douglas can earn money, Jon only has to pay for a part time employee, and the insurance can remain the same. It looks like a win, win, win.

I have had a few preliminary talks with Jamie at Sunrise Cyclery. He hasn't just offered me a position at the shop, but an investment opportunity. This is a small business I can get excited about. Believe me there is a whole lot more money in used test equipment, but I'm really, really, not interested in it. Bikes on the other hand...... Whether this will pay the bills is another question. Mark, Daniel, are there any job openings working at the Convention Center?



The snow is really coming down hard now.