Ponderings of a mad man...

On this day in history last year, Steve Irwin was killed. Also, yours truly was on an 11 night Alaskan Cruise, which was also my first cruise ever. It was incredible and I would go again. I also took over 2000 pictures on the whole trip.

How are our lives defined? Is it by the number of things we collect, or the number of friends we acquire, or the work we do? Is any of it truly worth it? Is it our fates to become our parents as we age? Why does most of the music today sound like garbage, when music in our day sounded like something incredible, which subsequently sounded like garbage to our parents? Is Murphy's Law the greatest enigma of the universe? Why 42? Of all the words in the spoken language, what is the statistical odd when the last original story will be published and everything else will be a repeat of something else? What came first, the spoken word or the thought behind the word? How come when "aliens" come to visit us they always use the "anal probe", wouldn't one think that with all their advanced technology they would have at least advanced their medical skills beyond medieval medicine? Heck, even we have MRI's and CAT scans.

This past weekend was rather interesting. Friday, my dvd player stopped functioning. It would only play cd's and wouldn't even recognize dvd's. Those who truly know me know that that is like taking the spray paint cans away from a "huffer". Thankfully it was quickly replaced.

Saturday, well it was not very fun so I won't even mention what happened.

Sunday was fun. It could have been incredible, but it ended up just fun. Headed out to the mountain bike trails at Lake Manawa with a few friends from work. After arriving plenty early in hopes of getting a couple laps in before everyone showed up, I pulled the bike off the car and headed onto the path. I didn't get more than fifty feet in and a big stick went right through a weakness in the tire and punctured the tube. I did have a spare tube but no spare tire. So I called one of my friends who was on his way out if they could stop and get me an extra tire and spare tubes. There I sat for about an hour waiting and not riding. Once the tire and tubes arrived I was ready to go. Unfortunately the tubes they purchased were schrader valved instead of presta valved tubes. Not good. I did find a spare presta valved tube in my trunk and I was sure hoping it wasn't bad. It wasn't.

We were off and it was fun. I ended up doing 3 laps. On the third lap I snagged a vine between my bar ends and the handle bar which twisted me and threw me off the bike. No damage done to me or the bike so I cranked it out again. On the last half, I snagged a very solid tree the same way. This time my index finger went numb and I noticed that I ripped up half of the cuticle and it became a little bloody mess. I figured that if no bone was showing it was a good thing. I ended the lap and everyone was ready to head home. I felt good about the whole thing and think that the 12 hour race there in 2 weeks is going to be unimaginable.

As for Monday, well, it was a truly lazy day. I didn't want to push my luck too far so I enjoyed some movies, did laundry, and ironing.

Now it's time to get ready for the state championship road race and criterium this coming weekend. More than likely I won't make the podium, but I am definitely going to make them my personal best races of the season. Next year I am hoping to be much better. Hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend. See you on the trails.