6 months!! Wow. I've been negligent. Well, what have I been upto. Since October I have completely replaced the floors in my house with all the work done by me and Katrina. Painted the walls. Replaced all the trim and baseboards, except the window trim. Painted said trim (before it went up), DAP'ped all the nail holes, cracks, etc and pained them again. Painted all the door and window casings. Katrina re-stained the cupboards. Everything looks brand new. With the hot water tank (along with all the taps) replaced in 2008, the A/C installed in 2010, the old barn doesn't look any of her 18 years. Put her up for sale a month ago and had an offer in 2 weeks. Pretty amazing in this market. Deal fell through Thursday - the buyer is a bit of a nutbar... Oh, well. This Wednesday a new 96% efficiency furnace goes in. I shoiuld get more looks as a result. I'm in a community of about 100 homes and mine is about the nicest. The laminate floors were pretty high-end, replacing the shitty carpet that the home was built with. The taps are really nice Price Pfister and the major mechanicals (furnace, water tank and A/C) are all new. Even the replaced trim and baseboards are waaaayyy nicer than the originals that they replaced. Oh yeah, the washer/dryer are only 2 years old and are high-end LG's re-badged as Sears Kenmores. All in all, I hate to sell the place with all that is new, but it's just too small
Last week-end was the Ride to Conquer Cancer from Vancouver (BC) to Seatte. 250km (170ish mi) by bicycle. It just about killed me. I was not really in good enough shape to do it, despite losing about 20lbs in the last 4 months. I ballooned to about 255lbs and finally decided enough was enough. Between Weight Watchers and trying to get in shape (when not reno-ing the house) I managed to survive.
We started out as a team of 17. Our captain is Paul, my cousin, and the rest of us are friends/family of his. He was diagnosed with Lung Cancer a little before my Dad. He was 30 and never smoked. Go figure. His is not curable, so either it'll kill him one day, or they will find a cure and save him. He's one of a 1000 reasons we all ride. It's such a personal sacrifice: we have to raise $2500 just to get in, work our asses off to be in shape for it, then actually compete the brutal ride. And it's still nothing conpared to what the cancer victims go through. The ride has thousands of riders and in each of it's 5 years has raised an average of $10,000,000.
We started out, as I said on Saturday to start the 2-day ride. Paul could not ride far. His cancer had spread 4 months ago to his spine and he was paralyzed at the time. Pretty amazing. Paralyzed 4 months ago and rides 30 klicks. The road was pretty level and the pace for the first 20km to the border was pretty easy. At our 2nd rest, the 30km mark, Paul called it a day, but I was feeling I might be ok. I hadn't reckoned on the hills to follow. Just shy of the lunch break I hit the first nasty hill (there's one a day) and gearing down to the lowest gear, which means you're pedalling like crazy but going pretty slow, I felt my knee pop. And couldn't use it. Since I couldn't pedal down the hill one footed, I stopped, got off and started limping up it. Fortunately it was only a few hundred metres to the place where lunch was set up. I was pretty upset, I thought my ride was over. My knee was pretty fucked up. I'd only gotten 70km of that day's 125. My mom was at the lunch stop and tried to comfort me (she was driving one of the chase vehicles), I was, I have to admit, crying like a little girl. I ate, iced the knee, let them pack up my bike one one of the other vehicles and got in with mom. We stopped at another rest stop where Meagan (Paul's wife - she's actually my cousin, Paul's the "cousin-in-law") got a thing of A535 and worked on my knee for about an hour. During that, something popped back in. My Mom was totally grossed out. Over that time the three of us talked and we decided that I was done for the day, but we'd re-assess tomorrow. The map of the route also had an elevation chart. We looked over the next day's trek and thought mybe I could do the flats, and skip a medium sized hill that started around 30km in, get picked up and dropped at its end and do the same with the monster hill at the 90km mark. Then I could get dropped at the last checkpoint with Paul and we'd ride with the rest of the team for the last 10km a cross the finish together, that last bit is dead flat and we'd go slow in deference to Paul,
Sunday my knee actually felt pretty good, so I saddled up and started off. I kept a nice steady pace with 2 other teammates, who were also slower. I felt ok at the first check (20km) and kept going. Not long after, though, the knee started to ache. I could live with it and still pedal with that leg, so I kept going. Not long after one of the chase vehicles found us and asked if I was OK or wanted to quit. I said I was fine and kept going. Before I realised it I was mostly up the moderate hill that started at 30km. We got to a rest stop at 50 and was again asked if I wanted to go on. The knee was pretty sore, but no worse than before and I could still pedal. They told me the next 10km or so was all up hill, but fairly gradual. The only problem was we would be in a park and upable to get help - no cars. I decided to go on. By the time we made it out, my knee was about done. I made it to lunch and decided that I only had 20km of flats, and I could pedal that one legged until the monster hill. And that's what I did. They picked me up and dropped me with Paul and we went across the line as a team. I'd managed 100km out of 120 and all but the worst hill. It was pretty emotional. There are chips on your helmet that they can use to track you if you get lost. They also call your name out as you approach the line. I managed to hold it together for a bit after we got off our bikes and got out of the way of other finishers. Mostly by avoiding my Mom - which she sensed and stayed away. Unfortuantely Meagan practcally tackled me in a fierce bear hug and I totally lost it. It was pretty cool.
After, I refused to sit on a bike for at least a week and a week later, my ass still hurts!!
The immediate future: New tattoo tomorrow. Katrina and my youngest, Zack got matching Celtic Crosses and I complete the troika tomorrow. Pics to follow.
I'm going to try to be a little more involved, at least for the next 4-5 months. Hockey's done for the year.
Last week-end was the Ride to Conquer Cancer from Vancouver (BC) to Seatte. 250km (170ish mi) by bicycle. It just about killed me. I was not really in good enough shape to do it, despite losing about 20lbs in the last 4 months. I ballooned to about 255lbs and finally decided enough was enough. Between Weight Watchers and trying to get in shape (when not reno-ing the house) I managed to survive.
We started out as a team of 17. Our captain is Paul, my cousin, and the rest of us are friends/family of his. He was diagnosed with Lung Cancer a little before my Dad. He was 30 and never smoked. Go figure. His is not curable, so either it'll kill him one day, or they will find a cure and save him. He's one of a 1000 reasons we all ride. It's such a personal sacrifice: we have to raise $2500 just to get in, work our asses off to be in shape for it, then actually compete the brutal ride. And it's still nothing conpared to what the cancer victims go through. The ride has thousands of riders and in each of it's 5 years has raised an average of $10,000,000.
We started out, as I said on Saturday to start the 2-day ride. Paul could not ride far. His cancer had spread 4 months ago to his spine and he was paralyzed at the time. Pretty amazing. Paralyzed 4 months ago and rides 30 klicks. The road was pretty level and the pace for the first 20km to the border was pretty easy. At our 2nd rest, the 30km mark, Paul called it a day, but I was feeling I might be ok. I hadn't reckoned on the hills to follow. Just shy of the lunch break I hit the first nasty hill (there's one a day) and gearing down to the lowest gear, which means you're pedalling like crazy but going pretty slow, I felt my knee pop. And couldn't use it. Since I couldn't pedal down the hill one footed, I stopped, got off and started limping up it. Fortunately it was only a few hundred metres to the place where lunch was set up. I was pretty upset, I thought my ride was over. My knee was pretty fucked up. I'd only gotten 70km of that day's 125. My mom was at the lunch stop and tried to comfort me (she was driving one of the chase vehicles), I was, I have to admit, crying like a little girl. I ate, iced the knee, let them pack up my bike one one of the other vehicles and got in with mom. We stopped at another rest stop where Meagan (Paul's wife - she's actually my cousin, Paul's the "cousin-in-law") got a thing of A535 and worked on my knee for about an hour. During that, something popped back in. My Mom was totally grossed out. Over that time the three of us talked and we decided that I was done for the day, but we'd re-assess tomorrow. The map of the route also had an elevation chart. We looked over the next day's trek and thought mybe I could do the flats, and skip a medium sized hill that started around 30km in, get picked up and dropped at its end and do the same with the monster hill at the 90km mark. Then I could get dropped at the last checkpoint with Paul and we'd ride with the rest of the team for the last 10km a cross the finish together, that last bit is dead flat and we'd go slow in deference to Paul,
Sunday my knee actually felt pretty good, so I saddled up and started off. I kept a nice steady pace with 2 other teammates, who were also slower. I felt ok at the first check (20km) and kept going. Not long after, though, the knee started to ache. I could live with it and still pedal with that leg, so I kept going. Not long after one of the chase vehicles found us and asked if I was OK or wanted to quit. I said I was fine and kept going. Before I realised it I was mostly up the moderate hill that started at 30km. We got to a rest stop at 50 and was again asked if I wanted to go on. The knee was pretty sore, but no worse than before and I could still pedal. They told me the next 10km or so was all up hill, but fairly gradual. The only problem was we would be in a park and upable to get help - no cars. I decided to go on. By the time we made it out, my knee was about done. I made it to lunch and decided that I only had 20km of flats, and I could pedal that one legged until the monster hill. And that's what I did. They picked me up and dropped me with Paul and we went across the line as a team. I'd managed 100km out of 120 and all but the worst hill. It was pretty emotional. There are chips on your helmet that they can use to track you if you get lost. They also call your name out as you approach the line. I managed to hold it together for a bit after we got off our bikes and got out of the way of other finishers. Mostly by avoiding my Mom - which she sensed and stayed away. Unfortuantely Meagan practcally tackled me in a fierce bear hug and I totally lost it. It was pretty cool.
After, I refused to sit on a bike for at least a week and a week later, my ass still hurts!!
The immediate future: New tattoo tomorrow. Katrina and my youngest, Zack got matching Celtic Crosses and I complete the troika tomorrow. Pics to follow.
I'm going to try to be a little more involved, at least for the next 4-5 months. Hockey's done for the year.
merlowe:
congrats on the biking that is no easy feet! Looking forward to seeing pics of your new tattoo..
thora:
I decided to click on my testimonials and wasn't disappointed. Thank you so much. Meow. 