Friday, September 30, 2005

Friday ramblings and weekend thoughts

Beautiful! I mean really beautiful! I love for these type fall days! The temp is in the low 70's, nice breeze and low humidity!

I ran into one of the VPs that run marathons and she was telling me how hard it was for her to come back to the office after lunch. I couldn't agree more! For anyone in sports and fitness, this is the weekend to get out!

Will I'm thinking about a mid week adventure next week. A friend, John Van Pay is a Student Minister for the First Assembly of God in NLR. It's a huge church. He is a great cyclist and has been working on a fund raisier. They are funding a ministry in China for a new van. The price tag is 31 thousand and they are getting there! How awesome is that? Anyway, John and a crew will start in Fort Smith on Thursday morning at 6 a.m. and ride across the state to Memphis! Cool huh? Insane huh? Just like Geo huh?!!! Have a great weekend!

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Fayetteville, I still love you!

Fayetteville, I still love you! I was lucky enough to get to travel to Fayetteville this week for a recruiting event. Man, I love that town! Tuesday night I got to stay at Ryan and Melissa (my neice) house. We had the best steak I have ever eaten! Mister B's in Rogers. Cost a lot but it was sin!

The Career Fair was good and the kids dressed up and asked a lot of questions. I was glad we were there.

I was supposed to ride with Vicne and some other Faytetteville folks but a huge storm came that afternoon. TV reported spare change size hail and up to 70 mph gusty wind. So we went to Cafe New Orleans and had killer cajun food. Service was slow but the food made up for it.

Back in the office and swamped...

Sunday, September 25, 2005

No ridin' this ride

Got up at 5:30 and looked out on the deck...rain. Then I turned on the tv with no sound and watched the weather and the rain looks to be pulling off. Maybe we get to ride after all. 7AM, I'm in the car heading to the ride and it's pouring. Common sense kicks in and I turn off the road and go to my office and wait a little longer. 2 hours later, still in my office, rain is still coming down. I head to the house. Bummer. Now I've got to find something to keep me busy. I think Terri felt a little bad for me so she made breakfast. It was worth being home for. Still dark and light rain at 11:30 a.m. Maybe it will clear off a little this afternoon and I can get a short ride in.

Saturday, September 24, 2005

The wind was pushing and I was pulling

Meant Rance at the river at 7:30 this morning and rode and easy 45 miles. We keep the speed down since I might be riding the Joe Weber 100 tomorrow morning. But right now there are 4 counties under tornado warnings as the tropical storm Rita moves through the state. The wind has been going all day and the rain started about 3:00 this afternoon. Saying very heavy rain and strong winds tomorrow. Hope not!

I have overloaded on my carbs for this ride. Now I've got to burn them off. I might head to the fitness center tomorrow and throw on some headphones and ride a spin bike and burn some of this back off. Weather after this leaves is going to be awesome! Low 70's for highs and low 60's for lows!

Sylvan Hills lost again last night in West Memphis but not to bad. The hogs lost to Alabama this afternoon. Oh well.....

Friday, September 23, 2005

The weekend (and Hurricane Rita) is upon us

The weekend post here is supposed to be light hearted and fun but I feel for the folks in Texas and now I just got a CNN breaking news release and seems the levee in New Orleans is busting again. My inlaws said the waves were 12 feet at Destin yesterday and close to 20 in the Mobile, AL area. I'm just glad we moved back to Little Rock off the coast, even as beautiful as it is there.

I get to go on a recruiting trip next week to Fayetteville! I'm excited! I plan to stay with Ryan and Melissa one night and in a hotel the other due to the other recruiters coming up. Should be a lot of fun. Yep, the bike is going with me!

Rance and I are heading out for a short 36 miler tomorrow. Just an easy ride since I'll be riding the Arky 100 on Sunday...rain or shine.

Emily got to get checked out of school early today to get to go over to the high school football game in West Memphis. Cristy and her husband are shuttling a group of kids over and they are going to visit Memphis before the game in West Memphis. Yep, Boles and Melissa are going too. Big fun! Terri and I are missing this game and it almost feels wrong.

Tyler made it through another quarter and he will start his LAST quarter in a week! After that he will be finished with college!! He had a great quarter and we are very proud of him.

Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

They say we're gonna ride

Sunday is the Joe Weber Arky 100 and they say we ride come a Katrina or a Rita. I'm set to knock out the 100 mile course and since I was on tour and rode in Hurricane Dennis back in July, I figured, hey, I 've got experience on my resume already for those rides. Not they riding in the rain is a lot of fun to me. I have to take my hearing aid out and stash it in a baggie other wise I'd fry my ear (ok, maybe not...).

Just curious what gas prices are going to do this week?

We broke a heat record. 102 yesterday and planning to do it again today. They say next week we will see temps in the 80's during the day and 50's at night! Yipeee! Finally a fall-ish sort of forcast.

Arkansas is getting the evacuees from Houston due to another hurricane coming. It's a sad time for the south.

Monday, September 19, 2005

There's God in them clouds!

I rode my bike to work this morning in the dark. I have lights on the front, flashing red lights on the back and wear light clothes with a reflective safety vest. Not exactly the road bike rider attire but it works and keeps me safe! The mornings are having a later sunrise so this morning it was start sort of dark at 6:30 then I just happened to tuen and look at the clouds and wham!!!! The clouds exlpoded in oranges. light blues and pinks and had sun streaks shining through! Good morning God! Thanks for the reminder!

I got the honor of leading our small group last night and it was fun. When everyone got there that asked who was supposed to lead since Lee was out. I said not me and everyone was looking at each other then Susan started laughing and pointed at me. Was a great way to get started. Donnie, Susan's husband had said something about me preaching. One thing you will find is that I don't like to just talk to a crowd. It's got to be a whole group thing. We had a good lesson and laughed a lot! We did talk about why we don't talk about hell much and that was interesting to hear the different views.

Tyler is in the middle of finals this week. Sounds like he's in great shape for them and it's very hard to believe that he will be graduating college in 3 months!

Ok, the Hogs lost really really bad but we love 'em anyway. There ours, we're stuck with 'em. We'll just have to make it work.

I get to head to Fayetteville next week for a recruiting trip! I'm going up a day early to set up and will be there 2 nights. One night I'll be at Melissa and Ryan's in Bentonville and the other in Fayetteville. I emailed Vince and hope we get to ride a little. I'm taking my bike!! Wo-Hoo!!!

Saturday, September 17, 2005

Bears and Bikes

What a great day! Got up and heading over to Cook's Landing to ride at 7 with some friends and made some new ones. We got in 80 miles in close to 4 hours. Not a bad ride at all. I took my turns at the front pulling the club and we hit some headwind in the process. I tried to stay sitting straight up to block it and give the guys a break and keeping it at 20-21mph but the wind was kicking my tail. I had to drop down on the bars but I still pulled.

One of the guys riding was very knowledgable about cotton and I really learned a lot! I didn't know they sprayed the cotton to de-folage it. The fields are FULL of beautiful plump cotton ready for the picker to come.

The hogs game is on the tube tonight at 9. Yes I know USC is picked for over 31 points but hey our very own Sylvan Hills Bears were supposed to get kicked to kingdom come last night but they held their own until the last 6 minutes of the game. It was a great game! Exciting! One of those "gee, my throat sure is sore" after the game sort of games!

Oh yeah, when we were heading out this morning on our ride a half dozen folks coming from the other direction yelled to me and I yelled back! what a greqat feeling to know so many folks out on a Saturday morning taking time to training and take care of themselves!

Friday, September 16, 2005

We love our Hogs!

Ok, they (Arkansas Razorbacks) lost last week. Give 'em a minute and we see 'em light the fire. Season is young still! Lost in the final minutes...ouch, those hurt!

Ok, they (Sylvan Hills Bears) lost last week. Give 'em a minute and we see 'em light the fire. Season is young still! Lost before the second half. This Friday night it's the big rival against NLR. Put us on your prayer list!

Terri and I are heading to the game for our Friday night date. With today's temps getting to only 83 then tonight might actually have a football feel to it! Since we are driving, I told Emily we could take 2 people. I make them all buckle up! Otherwise there would be a 1/2 dozen kids piled in. Last Friday night we had kids over at the house until 1:30am. It's because Cody, a guy that graduated last year, got a tatoo on his shoulder of the Superman logo. He had to wait 3 hours to remove the bandage. So the kids wanted to see it. I told Em that our house closes at midnight on Friday nights.

I'll be heading out tomorrow for an 84 mile bike ride to get ready for the Joe Weber Arky 100 next Sunday! Will be riding with good friends so it'll be a blast.

I'm going to be selling tickets for the next time my nephew's Jim and Ryan come together in the same room. It will be the event of the year! Jim, as you know, has moved to TX and is acting all big dog and "just stating facts" on his blog about our beloved Hogs. Well, Ryan lives smack in the middle of Hog country in northwest Arkansas where the university is.

Speaking of "smack". My pal Kevin lead the closing prayer at church last Sunday and asked the Lord to give us a "spiritual smack" when we needed it. I almost busted out laughing during the prayer! Kevin is one of the funniest folks you'd ever meet! We were talking after church and he said no one talks like some of the folks that get up there (Oh thee and thou...) so he just said the prayer like he would normally talk since God's used to that when he says his daily prayers!

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Blind Elvis the Barber, 500 miles and other ramblings

Sorry friends but I took a break from the computer over the weekend so just now up dating.

My mom and sister had surgery and both are doing fine.

Funny stories from being around my family yesterday. I think the drugs had worn off but after you read this, I'm not really sure!

Sherry was telling me about my brother in law has been using the same barber for years. I remembered the barber shop in a guys house from when I was a kid but didn't realize he was still cutting hair. Sherry said he was blind!!!! A blind barber?!!! And he wears his hair dyed jet black and cut like Elvis!! The she told us that he massaged my brother in laws shoulders. I laughed and told he it might look that way but he was probably trying to find the start of the hair line! The it got wilder because I starting thinking about this.... Maybe he was really cutting one of those Elvis lightening bolts with the TLC on my brother in laws back hair! We all laughed so hard there were tears!

Then my dad was asking me if I ever knew he was the 4th grade spelling champion. I didn't know that!!! He was telling me that it was boys vs. girls and the girl had to spell "foot" and she did. Then it was dad's turn and he was supposed to spell "put" but he got messed up and put the "P" in the word "foot" so he spelled "Put" like "Poot"!!!!!! Once again the laughter train got going!!

Then he told me about a lady that was going to commit suicide and she was told if she stuck the gun to her breast and pulled the trigger it would kill her but she was an older lady and she ended up shooting her foot!! (saggy boob).

The whole day was like that plus throw in the fact the me and dad both are hard of hearing so I would think he said one thing and he said something different. Like asking me if I had cable...no a table...now what did you ask me? It would have made a good TV show!

I rode to work this morning! It was dark so I had to use lights for the first time since spring. It was a great ride and I walked in to the Fitness Center and Rance started laughing. Caught him off guard!

I've got so many 100 mile rides between now and November 1st. Oh man!
Sept 25 - Joe Weber Arky 100
Oct 1 - Tour de Cure
Oct 8 - Ride the Ridge (Jonesboro)
Oct 15 - Ride for a Better Life Center fundraiser (Jonesboro)
Oct 23 - Ride for the Roses (Lance Armstrong, Austin Texas)

Ok, let's talk about my nephew Jim... Sherry's son as well as the son of the brother in law that gets his hair cut by blind Elvis... Ok, so Jim moves to Tx and starts this Longhorn mess! Now starts "mentioning facts" about Houston Nutt and pressure. Keep it up Jim ... just keep it up. I told him to be careful they next time he gets to the Arkansas border. This is really all in good fun, unless you ask Ryan and Melissa(his sister who lives in NW Arkansas -- Hawg Country!)

Sylvan Hills football... oh man, they got whipped so bad last Friday night. Not like the Bears we know and love. Come on Bears, let's roll!!!

Friday, September 09, 2005

Oh deer!

Last night was one of those great rides! I met a couple of guys at Cook's Landing and we rode to the LR side and back. I had parked at the submarine and had 7.5 miles under my belt when I met up with them then we rode 20 miles then I rode back to the sub where my car was...in the dark. I sang all the way to spook any deer that might have been standing in the path. No deer but then I got through the forrest and out to the fields and there were tons of deer all sitting and watching the river and me. I slowed way down in case they got the urge to run. It was like something from a movie. A pasture of deer and all is peaceful.

Thursday, September 08, 2005

The hardest interview

We began to interview folks for job here at the hospital. First interview of the morning was a lady from New Orleans that had lost everything. She was a professional down there and now is bascially on square one again. She cried several times during the interview and it broke my heart. She was lucky enough to have an aunt drive down and pick them up after the storm.
This is going to take a long long time.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

Got to love those short weeks!

I'm finished up working for the week and taking Friday and Tuesday off so I have a 5 day weekend. How cool is that? Planning to get a little riding in, clean the garage and all sorts of around the house stuff.

We have our Bike Advocacy meeting in a little bit and I have to present the bike tour I had. I even did a powerpoint slide show. It will go fast. Tried to make it comical. No one wants to watch a slide show of someones vacation.

I've not watched the news except for this morning a bit and it was too depressing. It will conintue for a long time. I continue to pray for them.

I just got back from the bank and all the cars at a hotel I passed have LA license plates.

I had my physical this morning. Resting heart rate close to Lance Armstrong's. Now that made my day! Me and my doctor, who's a marathon runner, had a good laugh this morning. He had to do the middle aged guy physical. I told him I wanted a smoke after he was finished. HA! As embarassing as it was, I got the clean bill of health.