Monthly Archives: May 2014

Out Living Your Parents

This entry was posted in Just Life on by .

I took Catherine’s mom out to lunch today. We went to Panera to have a sandwich and some soup. I am amazed how great of an attitude she has. She is approaching 90 years old and acts mentally like she is in her early 20’s. I can only wish that I have as great a mindset as I get old.

Anyway, I started thinking about all this because I was looking in the mirror this morning and thought I saw some of my dad’s face in mine. It was the first time in my life that a thought like that had even crossed my mind. It got me thinking about my father and kind of just kept going.

I just asked my brother and it turns out just last night he figured out that I am older now than my father was when he died. The actual out living day was March 25th, 2014. You can go to the Julian Calculator and figure out the number of actually days you’ve been alive. It takes into account leap days, etc. I’ve been alive for 19825 days today. I’m not sure if that seems like a lot or not. But, I don’t want to die now.

I don’t have a whole lot of regrets in my life, but one is that I wish I didn’t treat my parents as they were old when I was younger. I don’t really feel that old. Not close to as old as I perceived my father to be when he was alive.

Time seems to move differently as I age. To me, a day goes so quickly now. Today was the last day of public school here in Topeka. After Catherine’s mom and I went to lunch, I took her by Dairy Queen to have a Hawaiian Blizzard. There were two kids getting sundaes there. Their father told us it was the first day of summer vacation.

When I was in elementary school, summer break was sooooo long. I remember it being forever and then I’d ask my mom how much longer it was and she said it was only half over. I could cram so much stuff into each and everyday and then do it over and over again. Now the days fly by. I can blow a week in no time at all. I’m not sure why I perceive time so much differently, but it is a fact that I do.

My grandmother lived to 99. If things keep going the way there are, with time accelerating, days are going to be blinks of my eye.

Catherine's mom, Berta, in my van.

Catherine’s mom, Berta, in my van.

I caught her here at DQ, off guard.

I caught her here at DQ, off guard.

Kind of Disappointing

This entry was posted in Comments about Cycling on by .

I have been kind of making the next two or three weeks a priority. I love the Quad Cities races and then there is Tulsa Tough two weeks from now. I’ve been riding okay and thought everything was going pretty good. That was until yesterday.

Yesterday morning I woke up feeling kind of weird in the stomach. Nothing severe, just funky. I was thinking about taking the day off in the morning, but by the afternoon, there wasn’t a choice. I needed to stay close to a bathroom. I slept all afternoon, over 3 hours, then slept another 10 hours last night. I don’t really understand what happened, I didn’t eat anything strange and felt great the night before.

So, today, I’m picking Bill up om 45 minutes, 7:45, and heading up to Burlington Iowa for a 95 mile road race this afternoon. It should be interesting. I have no idea where I’m at. I guess I’ll learn some during the drive. I feel pretty weak and cloudy, but nothing else really. My stomach still feels strange, but not like yesterday.

This is one of the hardest things about being an athlete. Training and planning for something, then poof, a wrench is thrown into the equation. But, I’ve had all this happen before, many times, and sometimes it works out better than I could have imagined.

Maybe a long race will just burn this whole thing out of my body. I’ve had that experience before. Anyway, it is what it is.

Changing the subject, the Giro time trial was sort of interesting yesterday. Everyone is sort of disappointed in Cadel. Finishing 3rd in a Grand Tour time trial isn’t really that bad. He’s less than 45 seconds out of the lead with half the race to go. Seems okay to me.

I wonder who would bet against Taylor Phinney for the Pro National TT Championships this weekend? Not me. Maybe Lawson Craddock will put in a good ride too I hope.

Okay, I need to pack up and get moving. I’m moving pretty slowly. Maybe I can get Bill to drive some?

At least it has that going for it.

At least it has that going for it.