2008 Wrap up

My neurosurgeon told me Friday, no riding for another 6 weeks. In fact, no lifting weights, hiking, running or caber tossing of any sort. The hopes of making a late season CX or Scottish Games appearance is pretty much out of the question. Good thing I'm mostly Polish and haven't ever tossed a caber, (be nice to have the option though), but it sucks about the CX racing.

Anyway, I begged, pleaded and promised to take his wife out for a nice meal at White Castle and he said I could ride outside in 2 weeks if I promised to take it easy, not ride off-road, let his wife get the cheese fries, and in general be VERY VERY careful (with bike riding that is, though one should take caution at the WC lounge as well), but preferred I wait 6 weeks to do any out of doors riding/activity. Nuts to all that.

So...

that pretty much wraps up 2008.

It's not who's fattest

...it's who stuffs the ballot box. So bow before the King of the fatties and thank the good Lord Mo doesn't have to hunt you down and kick your butt.

I mean, if I can't win bike races right now, I gotta get ego boosts from winning something. So take that housewives and invalids, Me an my cat beat you!

Cats don't travel well

You don't get to be a 25lb beast by gettin out much. Also, historically, cats are not the most social of animals. What am I talking about? A recipe for disaster is what. Lets take 6 cats from 6 different houses, put them in a car then stick em all together in a tv studio. Sound like a solid plan? I don't think so either.

I mean, Mo isn't a violent man, just a man who isn't afraid to mix it up if the situation warrants it (like when a possum wonders onto your porch or your sister is sittin on the best part of the bed). And I have a feeling being in a strange place with a myriad of odd humans, bright lights and 5 big ol fat strange cats might just get a fully clawed furry man fightin mad. But, I would bet Mo shredding 5 other cats, Dawn G's face then finally posting up on a camera man's head would be the best thing to happen to Wave 3 Listen Live's ratings ever. I would watch that.

So, tune in Wednesday at 10am for the day that will forever be known around Wave 3 as "what on earth were we thinking?", something about on par with Less Nessman throwing turkeys out of a helicopter, just more fur than feathers but hopefully equivalent bloodshed.

Last lap, he's gearin down for the sprint

Mo is in the lead, workin hard, the line is in sight. I'm heading to feeders supply for some after-party treats.

It's crunch time

Otter is comin down to the wire, gonna be a back breaker (so to speak) but things are lookin good!

And don't forget, go to
http://wave3nation.wave3.com/vmix_hosted_apps/p/media?id=2112131
Watch it, refresh it over n over (views count), vote if you haven't yet - don't crush this poor cat's dreams of being King Fattie!

Besides, if he loses, he said he will trash this city Godzilla style.



Millie is watchin you vote Mo. She will take you down like that little white mouse if she doesn't get that years supply of Science Diet.

Ateam updater 2.3.1

This is the automated Ateam update for Tuesday, September 16, 2008. Aint nuthin happening.

Well, next to nothing. Good ol T6 the Vertebrate, still broken. Hopped on the rollers a couple times last week, prolly do it again tonight. Overslept my 6am MRI appointment, (I mean really, 6 freakin AM???), whoops. But I feel like it's slowly improving. That or it's healing all wrong and I'll have a hump like a ski mogul when I'm 50.

And what you really wanna know, Otter Madness is happening come h-e double hockey sticks or high water. Worst case scenario we have no power at the pavilion and have a shorter course. We'll deal with it, it's mountain biking after all. As they say, HTFU.

Oh yeah, if youre on a Mac and not on the latest OS, don't install itunes 8.0. It would be nice if the software updater recognized that you don't have the necessary software to run 8.0 BEFORE they overwrite your current version of 7.whatever, but it doesn't, so there you go.

CX Maiden Voyage XC

I took, what Anthony has called my Fred Sanford, cyclo-cross bike out for it's first taste of off-roading. As you can see, it is kind of junky. At least it was the junkiest cross bike out there tonight. We had a cross practice of sorts at veterans park. No, we didn't get to enjoy the two miles of sweet single-track out there. Yes, we did ride in very bumpy and rocky mowed fields. When we first took off my bike made a very loud metal breaking type noise which sounded detrimental but after looking it over I couldn't see anything wrong, I thought maybe a spoke had broken but not. So, facing the possibility of a stem, or handlebars snapping I decided to keep on going.




So about the bike, yes, it is almost as heavy as a surly cross-check.
Yes, that is a stem adapter that allows me to lengthen a short steerer tube.
Yes, that is butt sweat on the seat.
No, there isn't a front deraileur cable hooked up.
Yes, those cranks did come off of a 1980s low-end schwinn 10-speed.
No, I didn't leave handle bar tape off the drops just to be cool. I used all the spare tape I had laying around. Now, I'm thinking I need to go get another 2 rolls and tape the hell out of the bars.

That course was so rough I couldn't hang on to my bars. I didn't want to drop my tire pressure anymore because I was afraid of pinch flatting. Next week I'm taking the scalpel out there, I really don't see any advantages of running a cx bike over a mtb on the practice course (which may be the race course, I don't know). There weren't any paved sections and my mtb and cx bike weigh just about the same. Well, I gotta go soak my hands in some epsome salt now. Talk to you later.

-R

Part 2

Thanks for all the kind words, calls and emails. It is t-6 and they do expect an uneventful (good) recovery, but in the meantime, man it hurts.

Here is how it went down:
Sunday morning I'm waiting for Sarah to finish getting ready and I decided to run and pick up some groceries in the meantime (I am just so efficient). I wasn't in the store more than 2 minutes when I started feeling faint, flashing in and out of consciousness. I suspected it might be the onset of a seizure, but since I hadn't really engaged in any seizure-inducing behavior, I wrote it off to a blood sugar issue. I continued to try to shop but couldn't think or see straight. The last thing I remember was thinking "I need toothpaste" and heading in that direction. The next thing after that, I was coming to in the mens room, then surrounded by paramedics just outside of. The pharmacist said later it was one of the worst seizures he has ever seen. I don't imagine my writhing around in the broken jars of pasta sauce helped the scene much, I was covered head to toe in marinera and cuts from the jars.

So, it took a while to regain my memory; Sarah was surprised when I called her back (as she was wondering where I was) asking who she was and how long I knew her. Not much in this world scarier than not knowing who you are or what's happening to you. But, all things considered, things have turned out OK. Looking at the cuts on my neck from the sauce, I was fortunate not to open up the jugular.

Well, I have some more doctors to see and can't drive for 3 months, (gas is expensive anyway), who knows, maybe I'll even return to work soon. Nah, thats crazy talk.

Brokeback Mountain Biker

Yesterday i broke my vertebrae, number 6 to be exact. I've never been in so much pain. The season, is finished. They say 6 weeks to heal, no surgery will be needed. Pray for me. Thats all.