Time flies

Time has flown by since my last update which are now seeming to come less often. But lots of things going on. Not sure where to start but I guess the biggest thing is that Greg and I are now living the bachelor life. Sandy left this past Friday for Spokane, the length of her stay has not been determined.

I explained in past posts that we had an opportunity to rent a house on Mount St. Micheal's property but it didn't work out. But they did have another unit for rent and wanted us to come out. It seemed to be a sign that we were to move to Spokane, especially after I turned down an offer a year and a half ago.

But since I am not ready to retire yet but could at the end of next year, we decided to have Sandy go out and test the waters; see what she could land in the way of a job and then I would come out at a later time. If things don't work out we still have the house for her to come back to. Another bonus of her going now is that she will be able to provide some help for Emily as she is expecting their third child in June.

It was hard to see her go, especially not knowing if it was permanent or not. Now
Greg and I have to take up the slack and do all of the things that we used to take for granted, such as cleaning, cooking, and ironing. Hopefully we don't come down with food poisoning.

In other news the MICA board met again as we are planning our awareness campaign. We had the MMBA Marketing Director prepare a plan for us. We now also have a new board member and web master to help us design and launch our web site. Hopefully we will have it up in the next couple of weeks. For those of you on Twitter you can follow us at http://twitter.com/MICA_BIKE.

I raced this weekend and last but both were time trials so the overall time was pretty short, under an hour each race. I switched to racing in the singlespeed class for a couple of reasons, mainly because I didn't want to do the longer distance of the Expert age groups. Not training as much as in the past would really put me at a disadvantage, but that is my own doing. Racing in the SS cuts across all ages and racing the Sport SS class has me racing with a competitive group, even if some of them are 30 years younger than me. Not sure what will happen later in the year as the races are the longer, traditional XC format.

Greg took last week off to spend some time at home before Sandy left so he and I tried to get in some golfing. We played 9 holes earlier in the week and my upper back started acting up. It had been sore for some reason, almost like a muscle strain. But playing seemed to make it worse. But after a few days it seemed to be getting better so Greg and I went out to play again.

Of course we went for the full 18 holes since it was a weekday and the course was running a special deal. It didn't take long for the back to start going out. It was getting progressively worse to the point it was painful to move. We ended up quitting after 9 holes. I had an appointment with the chiropractor later this week anyway but this back issue will be new for him. Hopefully he can work his magic.

The final update, if you've made it this far, is in reference to a blog post I made a few months ago about a special phone call that was received while Bernie Wendel and I were out riding. At the time I couldn't report on the content of the call which of course got all sorts of responses. If you were to reread the post I didn't say the call was for me. Yes, the call was for Bernie. It was from his wife informing him that the early pregnancy test had come back and it was positive! What joyous news!

They had been trying to conceive for some time and had gone through the in vitro procedure. As it turns out, she is having twins. I had to wait until it was formally announced before I could say anything. And they had to wait for some time to make sure everything was OK. I know they will make wonderful parents and I will always have a story to tell of that special day when Bernie got the news.

Brief updates

It seems like I have been less inclined to getting around to updating the blog. Things have been busy preparing for Sandy's departure in a few weeks plus trying to get the MICA organization up and running. I have been riding a little plus putting the finishing touches on the trails at the school.

Yesterday Sandy and I spent the morning at Eastern Market and I got out in the afternoon for a ride. I also had a short ride this afternoon as the trails are starting to dry up again after the rains that came in the middle of the past week. We needed the rain though as things are starting to green up but that also means it will be time to get the mower back out of hibernation.

Tomorrow I say goodbye to my trusty Caravan as it's time to turn it in for a new vehicle we had on order. Replacing the van will be a Dodge Journey, nicer on the inside than the van and it will be in AWD so that will be nice in nasty weather. it doesn't have the carrying capacity of a van so the bikes will probably remain on the outside while traveling, but I think I can still get my cot in there if I decide to stay overnight before a race. This will be the first time in a long time we don't have a van or pickup truck to haul things. A sign of getting older I guess.

Speaking of races, the first MTB race of the season is next week at Yankee Springs. Traditionally it is the largest attended race of the season other than Iceman. I am not sure if I'm racing but plan on attending to represent MICA. If I do race I may step back a notch and race the singlespeed class so i don't have to race for as long a distance. I may decide to race SS all year for the same reason. I am not doing any formal training this year so I don't expect great results.