Steve Tilford

First of all, have a good Halloween. I have been trying to take one day a week completely off the bike. It’s just an experiment, nothing set in stone. I hate not riding. I love riding my bike and it is hardly ever a chore suiting up to train.

I’ve been pretty beat since Berryman and thought I should take the day off. That coincided with yet another dentist appointment. I’ve been having a lot of dental issues, especially since I flipped off that berm in Cable and landed on my head.

I don’t need to go into specifics, but I spent a good part of the day getting injected and drilled, etc. And I’m still not done. I’m going to have to get another job to afford my dental bill. I can’t believe how tired I was yesterday after leaving the dentist. I noticed that I was sitting there with my fists clinched much of the time. I don’t know why that was, because I thought I felt pretty comfortable and I know I have the best dentist, so I don’t feel stressed. It must just be something about getting your teeth drilled on. That is never a good thing, the noise, smell, and spray all adding up into clinched fists, I guess.

I’m heading out to California tomorrow for a week. I’m going to be riding the Mike Nosco Memorial Ride on Saturday. I’ve done it the last couple years and have thoroughly enjoyed the day. It’s the one time a year I catch up with a lot of my buddies, plus it is always for a good cause. Then I’m going to try to collect some equipment and train some.

Today I have a ton to do also. Car work in the morning, then I’m going to ride over to Lawrence later this afternoon, to meet up with Brian Jensen, Joseph Schmalz and Matt Gilhausen. I haven’t seen Brian and Matt for a few weeks, so that should be good.

Sorry about the milk toast post, but I feel a little rushed already.

I voted yesterday, since I’m going to be out of Kansas next Tuesday.

Another one, sort of, bites the dust.

Halloween was last night, as if you didn’t notice. I don’t know how it is where you live, but in my part of the city of Topeka, Halloween is slowly dying and becoming a non-event. There is an area of Topeka called Potwin, and I’ve ridden over there on Halloween night and they estimate that most of the houses get around 1500 trick-or-treaters. That is almost as extreme as the meager 20 or so we got last night.

The first couple kids walking by our house came by right after I got back from riding to Lawrence. It was around 6:30 and just getting dark. They looked like they were going to walk on by, but I told them to go on up, there was pretty good candy inside. Anyway, I was putting my bike into the Isuzu to take it to the car wash to spray it off (it was super dusty today riding). Anyway, I sat there for a minute and realized that there was a car, with a woman in it, smoking a cigarette, following the kids, a house back. Man, what is going on now. These kids weren’t that young, maybe 11-13 I guess. And, if the parent is so worried, why not just follow on foot. What kind of example does this send our children? And how much fun could it be for them going out, knowing that their mom was watching ever move? I kind of understand why there weren’t that many kids, if this is the norm.
I was riding through town earlier and couldn’t believe, once again, how many people have put of plastic trash bags full of leaves for the trashmen. I was thinking how it got to be that each house has these lawns that we have to mow and upkeep.

I think it must of been back over 100 years ago when only the very rich could afford lawns. Then, when the regular guy could afford a house, and the invention of a push mower, some people decided that they would like to be perceived as wealthy and planted a yard. Pretty soon, the combustion engine was mounted on a wheeled mechanism and there was a power mower, which made lawn care that much easier. Now, many Americans pay other people to cut their grass. We have matured and became wealthy enough that we hire others to tend to our grass. It seems so silly and valueless in many respects. It seems to me that if you want to take pride in your yard, you should be putting some personal effort and sweat equity into it. That only seems right.

But, we seem to be migrating away from things like these above. No real Halloween. No kids mowing lawns. Lots of the things that I cherish from childhood have become nearly extinct in just over a generation. I guess that is progression and aging. I’ll have to mull it over for a while to try to figure it out some more.