Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Never dull

As I stood outside the hospital in the sunshine, cursing the weatherman for saying it was going to rain, crabby because I chose to leave my bike home, I saw the man. He was staggering down B Street propelled forward by the combination of slope and gravity. When he reached the bus stop sign he reached out, grabbed the pole and stopped his forward momentum. He swayed, lurched once, and somehow managed to land on his back on the lawn. I left my post at the bus stop across the street, knowing that as soon as I left my ride home would come. I crossed the street and hovered above the man and asked if he were okay.
“Are you an angel?” he asked me, he was laying face up, his arms outstretched, fly wide open.
I told him no and again asked if he was okay. “Are you trying to get to the hospital? Do you want me to get you a wheelchair?”
“I want to go see my friends. I can’t see your eyes.” He replied. It was then that I realized I might have had a bit of an otherworldly glow with the sun behind me shining through my blonde hair. He told me his friends were at the Veterans’ Memorial and he just wanted to be with his buddies.
I was at a loss for words. I wasn’t an angel and I couldn’t take him to see his friends. I helped him find his feet and told him that bus 11 would take him to the Veterans’ Memorial to see his friends. He was likely drunk and I probably should have called the police to pick him up for public intoxication but I just didn’t have the heart. The man thought I was an angel after all.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

A little break from the norm

I spent the weekend "recovering" by officiating the collegiate race. Holly failed to mention that the prerequisite for collegiate races is that they are only held in really crappy weather conditions. This weekend more than filled that requirement. Saturday I kept warm in the rain by dancing and thinking about how happy I was that I wasn't racing EC. Thankfully, a good friend let me thaw out in her hottub last night so I was ready to spend today freezing again but this time with a little snow added into the mix.

Despite the cold, the races were great and I had a lot of fun. It was a nice weekend with a little excitement thrown in for good measure. Now I can return to my regularly scheduled program of working and working out.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Love it

Check out the new tabloid blog under cool links. Can it really count for a tabloid though if it tells the truth? Looks like Women's Cat 4 racing even got some notice, not that racing with a potty mouth is anything to be proud of. I'm looking forward to the update tomorrow after EC.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

I'm baaack

Yes, I know. I've been a huge blog slacker. Much has changed in my life since my last post. Mostly I've just spent my time becoming queen of Word Challenge on Spacebook instead of rambling on about things here.

Since my last post I've changed jobs, classes and have lost 20 lbs. All good stuff. I love my job! The work is interesting and I have no employees. No one has complained to me about what their coworkers are not doing, I haven't had to call a plumber or clean up blood droplets left in the waiting room. It is fantastic! There have been a few challenges from people that think I'm trying to make their lives difficult by making sure we're compliant, but overall things are good.

Another thing to like aobut my job is the commute. Work pays for my bus pass so between the bike and bus I rarely have to drive anymore. The bus takes longer than riding my bike but the entertainment is fabulous. The bus gives me enough material for its own blog!

Despite a plethera of bus anecdotes, plan on the usual bike racing adventure stories. So far I've done one race this season (not counting the solo riding I did in Vegas.)I raced Hell of the North. I whined and complained and threatened to keep my butt in bed but Kara was so excited that I showed up. It was freezing! I chose to ride my cross bike due to the long section of mud that each lap promised. Right off the start my brakes were dragging onto my rim and I had to stop and fix them. I watched the field ride away. Cussing and swearing I put my head down and hammered into the wet snow that was blowing sideways. To my surprise I looked up and saw I was catching someone. I hammered some more and managed to catch and drop a few more. I felt good and managed to sprint for 5th not bad for starting out dead last and with a 48 up front.

Last weekend I missed Tour of the Depot for a rainy weekend in Colorado with Backcountry.com. This weekend I'll be missing East Canyon to officiate the collegiate race, I can't say I'm sad about that! I am looking forward to the downtown crit in a few weeks.