Spring!!

Woohoo! Thank goodness it's here. I've been dying for it to start being consistently above 50 degrees. And I think we're over the hump...at least for the forseeable future.

I've definitely been a fair-weather rider this year. No crazy 4 1/2 hour rides on 5 degree days; no rides in sideways sleet. Just an occasional sunny day ride here and there and a lot of hanging out with Matt. I like it!

In light of the above-50 temps, I've decided to switch to an earlier work schedule. If I mange to get into the 7:30-4:30 groove, then I'll have plenty of time to hit the trails for a couple of hours after work. Sounds like a swell plan, I know. But, that's turning out to be a lot easier said than done. So far, in the last 2 weeks, I've made it into work before 8AM a whole 2 times. It's a tough thing for me to do, apparently.

The sad part is that getting up early isn't even the problem. I'm usually up around 6AM. But, then I loooove to hang out for like an hour and a half...wearing my PJs...watching the news...drinking coffee...checking my email. Pretty much anything but what I'm supposed to be doing. It's so hard to get up off the sofa and into the shower. But, starting tomorrow...yeah...that's all gonna change. I know it is. Really.

Seriously, though...I hope it does. The forecast doesn't look too bad for the next 10 days and I'm itching to get my riding season started.

Ringing Rocks Park

14

I can't believe it's already time for another birthday cheeseburger. Seems like just yesterday that Chelsea was scarfing down the last one.

Over the past year, she's definitely started to show her age. Arthritis, cancer, and some minor hearing and sight loss have slowed her down. But, believe me, she can still eat a cheeseburger like nobody's business.

Happy Birthday old girl!

Happy New Year!!!

Gosh, almost five months since my last post. I think that's officially my longest absence. But, I haven't been completely absent from the internet. I do work on the web after all :)

More recently, Facebook has become my virtual drug of choice. Less time to update and there's been a dizzying amount of friends, old and new, that have turned up there. This is mostly a good thing but can be embarrassing when your old high school classmates start tagging you in photos from the late 80's. Oh the hair...what was I thinking??

Seeing as this is the new year, I feel like I should throw out some of my riding plans for next year. The last two or three years were all about 100-milers. That was fun and all. But, I don't have the same desire this year to do all of the training that's required for a season of long races. I generally lose my motivation to train about 3/4 of the way through anyway. Also, there are a LOT of other things that I like to do in my free time so spending most of it on training has lost it's appeal. But one of the things I love about biking is that there is always a new challenge to be found.

So, this year, I want to spend more time "just riding" and less time fretting about how to fit in the workout of the day. My main focus will be to become a better technical rider. That IS part of the reason I moved out here to PA, after all...and it shouldn't be too hard. There are a lot of rocks out here and, based on my current skills, I can't go anywhere but up.

Don't get me wrong, I will be doing at least one 100-miler but, definitely not four! I'm pretty sure, at this point, that my 100-miler of choice will be Wilderness since it's arguably the most technical. I also have a bone to pick with that course since it was the one that got the best of me in 2007. haven't checked through the old results yet to determine what would be a good time to shoot for. However, if I wanted to do better than the last time, simply finishing would be sufficient!

Of course that will definitely mean buckling down and sticking to some sort of plan for three months prior. But, I think I can manage that.

And that's pretty much it. I mean, sure, I'll do some other local races as well but probably won't decide which ones until the time comes. For the most part, I just want a season of fun riding and conquering my greatest fears on the bike. I'll emerge next September with either a hugely improved set of riding skills or a lot of broken bones. Either way, it should be interesting :)

Ok...this officially sucks!!

Well, my surgery went fine on Monday. I wasn't nervous about it at all. Just anxious to get it over with so I could get on with the healing.

I've never had surgery before and I have to say...it was a weird experience. All I remember is the nurse covering me with a heated blanket and then, what seemed like 30 seconds later, the same nurse saying "you're done!"

I looked at my hand and where there was previously this...


there was now THIS...


Don't worry, it didn't switch hands. I took that second pic in the mirror and was too lazy to flip it :) It's actually on my right hand. Thankfully, I'm a lefty.

Seriously, though...I can't believe how big this cast is. All for one broken bone in my little finger. Ha...the first thing I thought was "I look like Popeye." And my hand movement is far more restricted than it was in the splint. I feel like I'm dragging around this big useless club hand. Oh well, I guess it could be worse!

So, I now have two titanium pins holding the bone together. I have a copy of the post-surgery x-ray but I won't bother posting it because it's just a really bad Xerox. Every time I ask for copies of my x-rays, the nurses act like it's the oddest request they've ever heard. This one didn't have a clue how to get a digital copy so that's all I was able to get.

Anyway, the pins will stay in until it's fully healed then they'll be yanked out. Hmmm...yeah...that doesn't sound painful at all!

Speaking of pain, it hasn't been too bad so far. I woke up in the middle of the night the first night and it was just starting to hurt so I took half of a Percocet. Took another half at 6AM and a couple more times during the day on Tuesday. I went to work and, other than feeling a little spacey, I was doing ok until around 3:30 when I started to feel like my lunch was going to end up on my keyboard. So, I went home early. As the Percocet wore off, I started to feel better and, honestly, the pain was completely bearable. Way better than the nausea for sure.

Since then, it's been feeling better every day. But that doesn't make it any less annoying. There's just so much that is really hard to do. Things I've always taken for granted. Getting dressed, putting my hair in a ponytail, opening a can of dog food, typing, driving (thank god I don't drive a stick). I have a newfound respect for one-armed people, that's for sure!

I've been able to bumble through most things but, adequately doing the dishes has been next to impossible. Finally, my environmentally responsible self gave in to my practical self and I went and bought paper plates. ha...now that I think about it, maybe I should just go one step further and have pizza delivered for the next month and a half.

Another issue that I have is that my "club hand" won't fit through the sleeves on a lot of the shirts and sweaters that I wear to work. I don't know if anyone at work has noticed yet but I've only worn two different shirts so far this week :)

All of those thing would be easy to deal with if I could at least ride my bike. it's starting to sink in just how long it'll be before I can. I'm sure it'll fly by but right now it seems like forever. I hopped on my trainer briefly this evening and I just don't think I'm going to be able to get into that. This time of year...I need to be outside. So, I'm exploring other options. Hiking and running are probably my best bets.

"Just ice it and take some Percocet. You'll be fine."

That was one piece of advice I got on the trail. Good thing I didn't follow it :)



Yeah, I would definitely say it's broken.

Did it on a ride Tuesday night. There was part of a tree jutting out next to the trail at handlebar height that was obscured from my view by some branches. I smacked into it HARD with my right handlebar. It could have been worse. I could have gone into the ravine on the other side of the trail but managed to stay in control of my bike.

My hand hurt but didn't HURT. Looking at it, though, I could tell something wasn't right. Taking off my glove confirmed it. My little finger was looking a little...ummm...displaced. My first thought was "damn, I didn't bring my camera". My second thought was "I hope my new health insurance has kicked in" (it had). Next thing I know I'm spending my evening hanging out in the ER.

The ER told me I needed surgery to put pins in it and referred me to a doctor that turned out to be a neurologist! When I called the next morning, the woman on the phone told me they had the wrong first name and gave me 2 numbers to call for the "correct" doctor. Calling those numbers resulted in 1. another doctor that wasn't the right one and 2. a number that had been changed. Calling the new number...I got a furniture store. WTF???

So, while trying to figure out what to do next, I found out that my coworker's husband sells the pins that they use for that kind of surgery and knows a ton of doctors. She called him and he picked one of the best ones he knew of and made me an appointment within 15 minutes. Talk about lucky!

Surgery is scheduled for Monday afternoon. As far as biking goes...I asked about riding pavement in a few weeks and the doc said "absolutely not". Guess it's gonna be a while.

So, here I am...

...just outside of Philadelphia. Been here for a little over a week now. I can't believe how smoothly the whole transition went...and fast! One day, I'm working in Michigan and a week later, I'm completely moved and starting a new job 10 hours away. I think it helped that I had been sort of planning to move for the last year or so. I wasn't in a hurry but doing a lot of looking around for the right location and the right job. I knew that once I found what I was looking for, I'd probably be moving fast. So, I'd started sorting through my apartment back in January. I'm sure that helped make the whole pack and move thing a relatively easy task. Still a lot of work, though!

Anyway, I have to thank Todd and Craig for helping me load up the truck in Michigan and Mike for making the drive with me and helping me unload here. I seriously don't know what I would have done without their help!

The drive was a good one. I love road trips and I'm pretty content to drive for hours and hours...and hours :) Which is a good thing because we were driving for around 9 1/2 or 10 hours. Basically, all day last Thursday was spent driving. I think it helped that we got the boring southern Michigan and Ohio driving out of the way at the beginning and things got more scenic as we went through PA.

I was a little worried about my car making it out here. It's 8 years old and has almost 200k miles on it. I took it in and got it checked out before I left. So, I was pretty sure the old suby would make it in one piece. But, we also all know that if something's going to happen, it'll be at the most inconvenient time. And, really...what could be more inconvenient than having car trouble in the middle of moving to another state?

The only thing that happened was that I lost a hubcap on the highway about an hour away from Philly. Ha...Mike was driving behind me and called me to let me know it had gone flying off onto the shoulder! There's no way we were going back for it. So, now I get to drive around with three hubcaps. Does it look better if I just take them all off? I can't decide.

It was about 8 in the evening when we got to my new house. Now...the thing about this place was that I had never seen it in person. I had originally planned to drive out alone at first with a car load of stuff, mooch couch space from whoever I could while I started my new job and looked for a place. If you have a dog, then you may know how much of a road block that can be when looking for a place to rent. Add to that the fact that I was very picky this time around about what kind of place I wanted and I figured it might take a couple of weeks to find something. Once I did, I'd then move the rest of my stuff and the dog.

That was "Plan A". But, as luck would have it, I didn't need to use it. The husband of one of the women that helped me get my new job just happened to have a house available to rent 4 miles from my job (also 3.8 miles from the closest bike trail and a couple of blocks from the nearest train station and bike path). So, the location was cool. The description sounded pretty good as well...huge front porch, even huger back yard, full basement, three bedrooms, hard wood floors, brand new kitchen...and the dog wasn't an issue at all. I had them send me a gazillion pics and decided that I wasn't going to find anything better. In addition to that, I just got good vibes from these people. So, I took a leap of faith and signed the lease sight-unseen. Ha...my dad, being an attorney, would probably not have approved of that move. But, he doesn't need to know about that ;)

Anyway, the anticipation was killing me as I drove out since I knew I'd be walking into a place that I was already committed to but hadn't even seen. I kept thinking "What about those 2 square feet that I couldn't see in the pics? What about the basement? I hadn't seen that. What about the neighborhood? What about... ?" All kinds of crazy possibilities ran through my head. There's nothing like driving for 9 1/2 hours to get your imagination all fired up.

But, it turned out to all be for naught. The only surprise was that it was even better than the pics conveyed. It's awesome...and spacious! Anyone who has ever seen the tiny place I lived in before will be amazed by the difference. I'd say it's easily 3 times the size of my old apartment. Of course it costs a little more as well. But, a significant pay increase has taken care of that.

Having now unpacked just about everything...it still looks empty in here. I just don't have enough stuff to fill it. I have allocated the three bedrooms to be 1) a bedroom (go figure) 2) a den and 3) a gear room. So instead of keeping all of my bikes in my bedroom, they now have their own room. That room is the smallest of the three and there's still more than enough of room for 6 1/2 bikes, my backpacking, snowboarding, and snowshoeing gear along with my workstand and space to work. I could eventually move all that stuff to the basement. In addition to the inside stairs, the basement can be accessed from the outside, which could be a plus for dirty bikes. But, I'll give the gear room a try for now.

I've been doing some riding...exploring the local trails as well as the multi-use path that runs from downtown all the way to Valley Forge. I have to thank my friend Dmitri for getting me out to a local tuesday mountain bike ride where I met a few people. I've been told there some thursday night racing that I need to check out. I heard mention of singlespeeders and beer. Hmmm, yeah...that doesn't sound like any fun all ;) I'll hopefully be getting out to that this week.

The only down side of the whole situation is that I haven't been able to do any training. I mean, sure I've been riding some and I guarantee my technical skillz have vasty improved in the last 9 days. But, I haven't had the time to really train. I spent this entire weekend getting the rest of my stuff unpacked and running around getting random stuff that I needed for my house. I think I'm at a point now where I can resume a normal life again...one that doesn't entail rummaging through boxes every time I need something. Maybe I'll look at Iron Cross as my next goal. Unfortunately, I don't think there's enough time for Shenandoah at this point.

So...I guess it's safe to say that I'm happy to be here. And I don't miss a lot about Michigan yet (give it time, I'm sure). But, I will definitely miss my friends. The huge biking community in Michigan is something that you can't just find anywhere (Believe me. That was one of my move criteria!). I have seen a ton of bikers around here and I'm not worried at all about meeting people. But, I also have an agenda to get as many friends to come out here and visit as I can. Everyone is welcome and I have lots of space. Start making your plans. Mike was the first. I think Matt will be out here in a couple of weeks. So...who's next? :)