It is kind of unsettling when one of your peers dies. And obviously sad. Such is the case when I read that Radomír Šimůnek, Sr. died recently.

I knew Radomír Šimůnek. I spent a few weeks of a winter in Czechoslovakia training for the Cyclo-X World Championships with the Czech National Team. He was the reining World Amateur Champion, but was out for the season with a knee injury. He spoke just okay English, but more than the other guys.

Trudi’s grandmother knitted stocking caps and made an awesome white hand knitted hat with the World Championship stripes on it. I gave it to Radomír and he wore it everyday at the World Championships that year. I thought that was pretty great.

When I saw him a few other times going back and forth to Europe I’d say hi, but it wasn’t like we were good friend or anything.

He was the only bicycle racer to win the Junior Worlds, Amateur World and Professional Worlds in Cyclocross.

In the back of my mind I’d thought it would be fun sometime to go back to Czechoslovakia and track down some of the riders I met back then. It won’t be near as fun without having Radomír around.

I have a bunch of keys. Lots of keyrings. On the one I’m currently using, I have no idea what at least half of the keys fit. And it is very rare that I think, wow, I wish I had the key that fit that and it happens to be on my keyring.

I’ve never had a key to my house. I’ve lived in the same house since I was 14 and have never had a key to it. I go into the house through the garage 70% of the time and have to enter a code, if that counts as a key.

I’ve got keys to friends places in many parts of the country. It’s kind of nice having keys to friends houses, but I should probably mail them all back. I’m not a good person to keep track of keys.

11:11. Ever since I was a kid I’ve had this “relationship” with the number 11:11. It started when I was 10 or 11. (That would be weird if it was 11.) Anyway, I got an alarm clock for Christmas. It was the exact alarm clock that Bill Murray saw every morning in the movie, Groundhog Day. But, instead of flipping over to 6:00 in the morning, I always saw it flip over to 11:11. Mainly at night. I would wake up at least 5 nights a week and glance at the clock just as it flipped from 11:10 to 11:11.

Ever since that started, I see the number everywhere. I’m not sure if it is that I just notice the number more because it is important to me, but it occurs at an unexplainable frequency. Multiple times a day. I look at my watch and it will show 11:11:11. I think that something important in my life is going to occur at this exact time sometimes. And I’m not a guy that believes in superstition.

But, I think it is my good luck number. I can’t remember getting the number 11 in a bike race ever. I race enough I should be getting that number pretty often. At least once every couple years. It wouldn’t be 11:11, so it probably wouldn’t do anything for me anyway.