Monday's thoughts

The goodness of others in my town... that was the first thought that entered my mind as I watched 4 guys push a car out of the lane and into a parking lot today after work. Rather than honking and flipping them off the kind folks go out and got them off the street. They had to push the car up a little bit of an incline to do it to. See there are nice folks out there!

I got my bike back today. The cost of the repair. 540!! That's 5 dollars 40 cents! That's the least amount I've ever gotten out of my "country club" (bike shop) with. I'm telling you since Dan has taken over that shop the bar is certainly pushed up high! Always have customers and it's like an ant farm in there but personal service to everyone! I can't wait to ride after work tomorrow and ride in the big ring. The simple things that thrill me! HA!

I spoke to Jordan and Steve (audi gurus -- my heros) and got a couple of magnet caps for my CI. I've lost 2 of them and AB doesn't sell just one color. Hey I would buy several but the only way you can get them is to buy a set which includes a tan, gray and a couple other colors. So Jordan glues rhinestones on the caps for the little girl patients so she traded me a dark silver and black caps for what I had left over. Since she covers them in rhinestones you can't really see what color the cap is anyway. To me that's just the coolest thing to so something special for the patients.

I scheduled Thursday and Friday off!!! For no reason other than the weather looked nice! Lower to middle 70's for the highs! Called my folks and told them to pick a day and we would take a day trip somewhere. Mom got so excited.

Since I didn't write yesterday, church was great! Greg is out so there was a video he made and did the lesson via video! It was pretty cool since I dimmed the lights and had Kevin Clay on sound! Kevin is the BEST when it comes to the sound in our building. Even the senior members enjoyed it for a change. I've seen gotten several emails and requests for a copy of the DVD. I told one member just to go over to the website and download it. Come to find out there hasn't been any services uploaded since August! Yikes! Something tells me I feel a new "project" coming on. HA! I want to get into having the service streaming live as well as video option where you can watch later.

By the way if you are in central Arkansas and missing Kevin Clay from the POINT 94.1 you can find him for a little longer over on the American Family Station 91.7 FM in the mornings. Same ole funny Kevin but with Christian music. He just stopped by there one day and they got flat out got lucky! Too bad he couldn't just buy it.

Well, got to get busy on some other things tonight.

Life is good... especially when you're scheduled off in a couple of days!

Big Dam Bridge 100

Well what a day... Got up in plenty of time and got over to the parking lot and oh man... the back tire is flat. I changed it and ready to go and I notice there are a lot of folks still around about a block from the start. Maybe it does start at 8 rather than 7:30... nope, the Black Hawk helicopter if coming and that's the start signal. Ugh! I pedal and fly up to the start and there are people just standing around. Come to find out it did start and I'm in the crew that is riding the less distances. There are all sorts of bikes and some little folks too. I knew I needed to get on around so I worked my way slowly through the crowd. Now I know why everyone wants to be upfront. It took until the first rest stop before the crowd thinned. Boy it was a mess until then too from where I was in the crowd. Folks were having a good time and that was the important part but they were sometimes 5 across just talking away.

I finally got out to Maumelle and I push it up to the big ring and off goes the chain. Wha?! I pull over and fix it. Not biggie. Embarrassed but oh well. I cruise on through Maumelle and spot Matthew in the crowd. We all group up a little and as we start to go down the hill out by the Plantation I push it up to the big ring for speed down the hill. Chain drops AGAIN! Crud! Lost my group. I get almost to Mayflower and the stupid thing does it yet AGAIN! What on earth? I'm not doing anything different.... other than getting really fed up with it. I'm feeling really great on the ride. You know sometimes when you are just really in the zone and feel like you could ride all day? I was feeling that today.

In Mayflower I make a decision to just do the 50 since the chain has now come off 3 times in 25 miles. I tell myself, Look you've had a great ride out here so why not just head back but give it your all. Push like you've not pushed in a long time. You are feeling strong so go for it. So I head back.

I had a really great ride back. 2 chain drops but hey I was getting used to it and becoming a pro at! Ha...in a way. I dropped it at Riverland so I wheeled off into the neighborhood and just as I start to head back out my sister Donna who lives in Riverland comes driving by. I also plug in my Ipod for the rest of the ride in. I needed some mental diversion. Me and a couple other guys were knocking it out at 22-23 mph and I was loving every second of it. We get to the Mexician place and it drops. Once again I loose my group. At this point I get in that "just ready to get the ride over with" mood. I rode solo the rest of the way in, grabbed some refreshments and headed to the house.

Sounds a bit whining and I guess I was a little but serious it was a great ride today! Even with the technicials it was a blast!

I took the bike over to the shop so they could look it over. I dropped my chain more today than I have all the years I've been biking so I knew it was something. Here's what I think. They tuned it up and maybe it was off just a tad...maybe. I dropped my chain last week 1 time. I think when I changed the back tube this morning I made it worse. But the bike has been riding so outstanding since the tune up.

The rest of the day was spent cleaning the garage and mowing the yard.

By the way... I have no hair...

Life is good... when the chain is on! HA!

Still loving that sound!

I still love the high pitches of the birds and cymbals! When Terri and I don't carpool I have the tunes blaring just to hear the high pitched sounds.

Youtube marketing stunt at it's finest

Oh man this is a GREAT marketing stunt!!!
http://www.youtube.com/experiencewii

Midweek madness

Ok I'm getting some big stuff done so now the rest of the week should be a bit more laid back.

3 days until Big Dam bridge 100. Weather is looking really nice. I heard on the Weather Channel 80 for a high on Saturday then I heard on local weather that is was going to be 86. I like the 80 better.

Yesterday Terri and I carpooled together to work and in the middle of the afternoon I realized I had not 1 but 2 functions after work to be at. I missed both. Talking about bummed out. Both sounded like they would have been a lot of fun.

Kevin the youth guy is going to do services Sunday. I got the song list earlier today. Nice! We are doing the run through tomorrow night around 9. What a difference between the regular preacher and the youth guy. Kids are always wanting to stay out late on week nights. HA!

Have I said anything about new song of the week? It's awesome!
Brandon Heath -- Give me your eyes
Jump over to Youtube and watch it!

Life is good... ready to ride!

One of the best

Note to Mike: here is Mark Batterson's website: http://evotional.com/
You're gonna love it! Like Mark told me in Dallas... go chase the lion!

After work I was really wanting to ride a while. I headed down to the river with Ipod in hand. Pulled in to the parking lot and there's my pal Mike getting ready to ride. We end up riding over to Little Rock and both of us talking and catching up the whole time. I was having a little bit of wind issues with my ear technology but I could still hear most of what he was saying. What I couldn't hear over the wind, I simply asked him what he just said. Not a big deal. Man was it good to see him. We talked about family, friends, training, rides, church. Yeah, a lot about church. If you don't know Mike or don't remember him he was one of the guys who rode with John Van Pay on the across the state ride. Mike jumped in at Cook's Landing and rode to West Memphis. I rode from Ft Smith to Cook's. It was a fundraiser ride for a van for a missionary guy in China. The guys were awesome. Paul Britt, John Van Pay, Rob Carr on bikes on a cold windy day. I was lucky enough to get to ride with Mike on some of the training rides and then several rides afterwards.Mike, thanks for the ride tonight. It was one of the best rides all year!

I'm all wrapped up in Heros. Great season premiere! I'm not going to talk about it in case someone has recorded it to watch later.

Life is good...when you have great friends like Mike.

Sunday night thoughts

Terri is gone to the movie with my sisters.
Em is gone to the hospital to visit her friend's grandmom then to the airport to pick up her friend.
Saydee is laying on the floor ...on her back very unlady like ...even for a dog.
The girls were real smart this weekend and didn't buy any chocolate which means I'm safe! I passed up the chocolate doughnuts this morning at pre-church coffee and doughnuts. Yeah, I know... big deal huh?! Well, to me it really was. I gotta tell you somethings guys, I'm not doing so hot on the dropping the pounds and eating right these days. Oh I'm eating right ... eating right down to the bottom of the box or package. What's up with that? Serious? I mean life is good, it really is but this eating has got to change!
Ok, on to better things, I didn't mean to get all whining there.

Services this morning went great! Just one bump in the road but it was very minor and most didn't even notice. A font changed on me even after the run though and the software I use does that about once every blue moon. All I do is click and then click backwards and it's fixed. Weird huh? But it happens so rare so I don't really worry about it.

Next Sunday is going to be completely different for us. Greg is off on a speaking tour so he had his talk video taped. We watched it last night after the run through to so a special sound check and it was really nice. It starts with him at the state capitol and then he ends up at Emerald Park (a mountain bike trail) then down on the river. It has some nice footage. Kevin our youth guy will be doing the songs so that means it will more than likely be a contemporary service. I plan to inject a little more video and motion into the mix as well. Fingers crossed it serves it's purpose. Like they told us at Echo... if you're not doing it for God, it doesn't count.

I'm really looking forward to next Saturday. The Big Dam Bridge 100. (www.bigdambridge.com) They were saying about 2,000 riders. I hope so! I'm more than likely going to do the 50 or 75 route. I don't know, I could get crazy and do the 100. I did drop a few bucks and get the jersey this year. Hey, it matches my bike... cycling is really all about fashion ya know! HA! Speaking of fashion, you know I still am a (closet) Rock racing fan and still want one of the Rock and Republic jeresys but they are in the rock star price range. Anyway, I read a blog and notes about the young guns who were out riding and spotted a "older guy with a Rock Racing jersey on". It wasn't me thank goodness! HA!

Speaking of fashion, I did buy a couple of new shirts last week. i do not shop but ventured out on a little week night solo shopping trip to the mall. I think me and 5 other peole were in the whole mall at 8:15 that night. Anyway, went in the Buckle and got awesome service. These 2 kids helped me and the first thing I told them was that I wanted a really good looking polo with the graphics that doesn't make me look like I'm in mid-life crisis. I ended up with a gray polo with draker gray graphics. I also stopped by Steinmart and spotted a black shirt that I really liked. It was 34 bucks but guess what the real price had been? $165. Some guy name Ike something. Wore it this morning and got several nice comments. Ok I went to church dressed like Johnny-George-Cobb-Cash. I know I know...

Mean to tell you too I downloaded a great new tune! Celtic Thunder, who comes to Alltel November 12th, has a song called Ride On! Love this tune! Yes, they have the accent but it's a great song! Go download it for 99 cents.

Terri and I went to the new Casa Mexicana today. The old one was right across the parking lot. We decided we'd give it a month or so to let them get all the kinks ironed out before we go back. They added fish tacos to the menu...finally!!! But they aren't too good. But like I said, this is their first weekend open in the new spot so we'll go back again in a few. It was insane crazy busy!

Shout out to Mariann... I'm going to do my best to get over to the photo shoot as long as I can stand in the back. HA!

Shout out to Abbie... hey I spotted your photo in the Hearing Loss magazine.

Shout out to Jennifer... I hear you are heading up next year's convention in Nashville! Very Cool!

Awww right... enough for tonight!

Life is good...without chocolate doughnuts.
My inner Homer Simpson is fighting that statement! D'oh!

Saturday adventures

Started off foggy so I didn't go ride with the group at 7:30. I was actually in the car and on the way but the closer I got to the river the foggier and wetter the streets were. I got out about 10 and had a great ride. Rode out to the country and the nice thing was the tailwind was coming back to town rather than going out!

Got a lot done around the house this afternoon which motivated me to get busy and knock out a lot more.

While out running errands I stopped and got a Fourbucks (Starbucks) iced latte. Yes the cinnamon one. I just said a large. I was the only one getting an order made at that moment and I didn't know a large (veni) had 3 THREE shots of expresso in it. I never get the large. Oh my goodness! I was wired and I do mean hot wired all afternoon! It was so good!

Met Greg for service run through this evening and everything went really well. He thinks I need a new computer system. I'm not going to stop them but it really does need to have something that can handle all the video and mega files we are running through service now. There is one downloaded video that plays fine on my laptop but the sound is 2 seconds off on the church system. We trashed that one for tomorrow.

I'm excited about tomorrow! We have some good songs, Greg has some good points he'll make, I'm happy with the media & art. Doing several motion backgrounds! Hoping for another packed house! We don't have anything scheduled for tomorrow evening service so I get to play tomorrow afternoon! I'm going to get a ride in! Oh boy oh boy!

I put together a new play list that I'm really liking! It's sort of the same songs as Tom 106.7 FM. It was funny because today it was chance of isolated thundershowers and several of the songs are about rain!
Rain in the summertime (The Alarm)
Summer Rain (Belinda Carlise -- go ahead and laugh but I had never heard this song until Rodney played it one day on his station)
Rain Down (Compliments of Gus -- another song I discovered from Rodney's station)
Monsoon - Tokio Hotel

Yes, the Razorbacks were crushed at the football game. Jim, 5 bucks for you (and a Chik-fil-a coupon) if you'll just not say ANYTHING about the hogs all season on your blog. If for no one else...do it for your granddaddy... he would be proud of you. (I know, that was really low...but when you're desparate! HA!!) Several folks I know twittered that they were up and heading to the game (3 hurs from here). I wondered if anyone spoke on the way home?

Life is good ... well of course it is...it's the weekend!

Great day in Arkansas for Audiology -- Hands and Voices

WE ARE HANDS AND VOICES!
Well the board anyway.
(Not just one fruitcake! HA! You had to be there)

Kelly Phonaks's booth

If you are an Advanced Bionic person then you know these famous monkeys!

Fun 2 days! Yesterday after work I went over to the UALR Audiology & Speech department and we had a pizza supper and board meeting for Arkansas Hands and Voices. (www.arhandsandvoices.org ) Met lots of new folks who are on there own journeys into the world of Audiology stuff. Some have kids who are deaf or hard of hearing. Some are educators and some are hearing /speech professionals.

One of the national Hands and Voices folks spoke and helped us to form our guide. I'll admit when it comes to all this bylaws and legislation sort of stuff, I'm not to sharp. I shy away form politics. But that was just a small part of it.

Today the conference started and it was a packed room at the Hilton! Lots of folks from all sorts of area, both sign and vocal groups were there. I've not met a person I didn't like yet!

The exhibits include two of my favorites! Advanced Bionics and Phonak. I spoke with Kelly for a while today. She is the Phonak rep. Super nice lady! We were talking about a new Phonak product coming out and I'm going to test drive one! Maybe the zebra striped one! I'll catch up with Joann (Advanced Bionics) tomorrow.

There has been so much discussion today about different areas and issues of hearing. It's sort of like when I went to Dallas to Echo. This is going into overload mode! It's been great to hear the parents stories and the educators. Some of them I just really can't imagine. And some of them I just want to call a few schools and say, "Hey, you know that money you got because there is a kid with hearing troubles in your school? Show me what you've done with it!" I think some of the schools have some explaining to do but no one seems to regulate it much.

Tonight we had a parents meeting/dinner and while I wished we had had more there it was a nice mix and got to meet even more folks. I met a guy who trains service dogs and that was fun! I asked him what was the most interesting thing he had to train a dog to do and he told me about one dog that when owner sneezed the dog give them a kleenex.

One of the reps showed me a very very VERY cool thing that is FREE where you make a call and it goes through your computer and it captions everything you and the other person says! I'll give out more info after I try it this weekend.

Speaking of weekend... man I've got to get some riding in! Whew!

I gotta tell you... I'm ready for the weekend!

Life is good!

At Hands and Voices meeting

I'm at the Hands and Voices meeting.... big crowd! I spotted Kelly from Phonak and Joann from Advanced Bionics in the crowd.

Justa bike blowin' in tha wind...

Justa bike blowin' in tha wind.... that's what it was this afternoon. Terri and I headed over to the river and she walked and I rode. We said one hour and we'd meet back at the car. We started at the dog park and she walked toward the bridge and I rode toward the arena.

Going toward the arena was pure joy! That translates into tailwind. Big ring cranking and it was as simple and easy as it could be. Looped the boat club and then headed back to the dog park. Yes that would be into the headwind. I told myself that this needs to be a true training ride son stop ya whining and head down, focus and crank it out. Keep that average up. I looked down once and thought, this has GOT to be because they tuned the bike. This is some strong headwind and I am not drafting a wheel and I can not be goin 19mph. No way no how.... it's got to be the tune up. Whatever it is, oh baby I'm loving this!

By the way, yes the tropical Storm Ike did come to town last night. No one seems to know when but there was plenty of evidence this morning. Our yard is covered in leaves... green leaves. We've seen several trees down. Last I heard there was 108,000 folks without power around today. The spooky thing was last night there was a tornado warning and the spinning circle on TV was right were my folks live. I was not breathing for a few minutes. Soon after it was in a nearby town where one of my best friends from the hospital lives. I'll be interested to hear how her and husband did.

Well... as I always say... life is good... even with the wind.

Yabba Dabba do!

Well yabba dabba do! I woke this morning to find NO RAIN! Standing in the kitchen the sun was starting to come over the hill! I was tail wagging excited. Eat a very light breakfast and was out the door. I could not wait to ride this morning since I had gotten a tune up. I was ready to see if I could tell the diffence. Oh man oh man oh man oh man could I ever. Have I been riding with my brakes on all summer or something? Yes, it was that much of a difference. Even in the head wind, and we have it today, the bike was doing magical things.

Well full day ahead. Got to finish up the media for tomorrow and then it's jail time in the garage. Someone call one of those "your garage is a mess and we'll clean it all up and stock it with new Sears products" shows! I'll even act all excited when they uncover my eyes... well unless they glue fake flowers all over the wall.

Life is good.... it's yabba dabba do good!

Oh she's lookin' all fine!

It was pick-up-my-bike day after work. Of course another hurricane is messing up the weekend. I just wanna turn IKE into BIKE.

I know, that was good.... buh ha ha ha

So Dan and the guys have the bike looking good. Serious. When I started rolling it out to the car I could already tell. They really dug in deep and cleaned and lubed anything moving. New cables, new bar tape, new chain, new back tire and tube. Oh how I wish I would have done this just before MS150. The bike just feels tighter again and I'm a very happy camper. Arkansas Cycle and Fitness... oh yeah buddy, those guys rock!

I hope really bad that when I wake in the morning that the tropical rains haven;t started yet and I can get even just a quick down and back on the river.

Man I'm happy it's Friday evening!

Life is oh so good....with a fine tuned up bike!

The first 5 buck a gallon gas has appeared

The first 5 buck a gallon gas has appeared in Arkansas! The Attorney General is going after them too! Go get 'em Dustin!!!!!

Someone slap those fools!!!!

Serious! Someone has got to slap the snot out of these gas guys! Gas was 3.41 when I left the house and now my daughter called and said it's 3.95.

I heard one story a few minutes ago that there was no gas in Camden last night because everyone was filling up.

Insane what gas guys can do and get away with it.... pure insane... no that would be robbery.

Life is good... well except for gas....sigh....

That's a lot

Just a quick hit. Y'all know that band I saw on MTV that I liked? Tokio Hotel. Will I headed over to Youtube to check out what they were like in concert and the first video up is Monsoon. Cool, so I watched it and while I was watching it a number caught my eye... the number of times the video had been veiwed... over 25 ... that's as in over 25 MILLION!! It has me curious what the most watched video ever is/has been on Youtube.

MS150 photos

Here are a few MS150 photos. Like so many other times I wish I was more like Yale and kept my camera out taking 50 million photos. Maybe that should be my new years resolution.

Chainwheel dude at the rest stop. This guy gave me the big thumbs up as he was driving by when he saw I had made it up the mountain. Thanks Chainwheel dude. The lady is the mom of the girl who spoke at the dinner on Saturday night. Talk about a proud mom!

This was one of the rest stops in the middle of nowhere but the cool thing was was that it was at a Church of Christ. (How many times can yo use was in a single sentence?)

Fast Girls Slow Guys biggest rival! The Megasoreasses.

Rhonda! You are looking at one of the Arkansas State champs!

Ironmaiden, Ironman, and JBar

"Well little mister, I hear you have Ipod contraband!"
Ironmaiden was one of the ride troopers.
She would even yell at the snakes.... "Hey you there... slither back over there and wait for us to ride by. You don't want to hear Geo scream like a little girl do you?"

Thanks to everyone for riding like it hurts for MS.

9.11

It's 9.11 ... there will never be words to express this date. To this day it still is hard to believe.

1,2,3...1,2,3....1,2,3...1,2,3...1,2.3...

Like a bad LSD trip from Dragnet back in the 70's my hearing aid went all ghost-in-machine! Mike and I were loading the desk for the control center and I got really hot and sweaty and no air to dry the sweat like when I'm on the bike. So I think the sweat got into the circuits of the aid. Suddenly it's changing programs from regular to soft to phone (silent without a phone to your ear). It repeating this over and over and over. I tried everything but no luck. Today it seeme fine after it spent the night in the dehumidifier. I stopped by Audio and they gave me the same aid as a loaner and sent ghost-in-machine in for a fixing.

I dropped the bike off to Dan and the gang at the bike shop for a tuning. First thing Eric said was man, you've been riding...need a new back tire. Chain was a tad stretched too so I'll be getting one of those as well. White handlebars will now be back. White is great for pro's who don't have to do anything but get on and ride but for commoners who have to fix their own chain and flats... white bar tape is a pain.

Ya hear Lance is coming out of retirement? There was a collective groan across France. HA!

Tyler Hamilton is doing great with the Rock Racing team this year. Big win! Rashaan is pushing the limits (and pain) in London.

The computer system that drives the media is acting all crashy and isn't coming back to life. I'll get some of the guys who had this job before me to look it over and see if I'm missing something. If not... there will be a new computer up there Sunday but that's not what I want for now.

By the way... I feel asleep during the MTV video awards. Serious... it was boring. Too much of the try to shock you stuff. But I do have to say that ex-American Idol Jordan S. stood up for a good fight. The emcee was poking fun of the Jonas Brothers about their no sex before marriage promise rings. Then Jordan came out to present an award and said that the rings are a good thing and that not everyone wants their boyfriend or girlfriend to be a slut. I know, tacky word to say, but it was a major league hit! Way to go Jordan for standing up for the good in people.

I got to talk to a couple of folks about to get implants. They were in the clinic. Super nice folks. One wanted to know about hearing in public places like church and I told her about my first live public experience was in church the Sunday before Christmas and how I heard people turning the pages in their bibles. A sound I hadn't heard since I was a kid. Yep, this CI continues...still... to amaze me... 9 months later!!

Note to nephew Jim.... hey man, zip your lip and stop bashing our Hogs. (Melissa...stop laughing... ok, go tell Ryan I just said that) On a serious note...Jim, please tell Trae we are so proud of her marathon career! Running in 102 degree heat is endurance of the pro's!

Life is good...seriously, it's just plain all out good!

Whoo Hooo!!

New control center going in for the media team! We got it for the most part set up tonight. I'll go back tomorrow night to do some tweaking! But oh my goodness was it hot up there. I had to drop the air and push the turbo fans to get it cooling down. Should have seen us taking the desk up the stairs. It was like moving in to a 2nd story condo!

Hey, shout out to Rebecca for riding with me for a bit Saturday. Thanks friend! I was able to ask all sorts of trainer type questions while we rode together and she didn't even charge me.

I grabbed a new tune today from a band I saw on MTV last night. Tokio Hotel. Ok, before y'all go bashing me... they have a song called Monsoon that is really good.


Life is good.... but boy am I pooped tonight... good night John boy... good night Mary Ellen...

Awesome weekend! Just awesome!

Woke at 4:30 on Saturday all excited about the MS150 ride. I took my time and that was the problem. I took too much time and got there just early enough to sign, suit up and get to the start line. I'll write more later on the ride. It was a great ride. Slow, steady and got the job done while having fun. One of the best supported if not the best supported rides I've ever been on.

Church today was out of the park! We changed up EVERYTHING! New program, new media look, new order of service, one jam packed service. So full there were folks in the balcony behind the control center where I sit. Hasn't been like that in a long time. Nothing but positive feedback all around. The team just nailed it today!

Changing gears... no hate awright... I'm right now watching the MTV pre-awards show. I watch it just so I know what is going on in the pop culture. Som band called Tokio Hotel came rolling up to the red carpet in a monster truck. Dude looks like someone from Motley Crue. Something tells me the technical part of the shw (which I'm interested in) is going to be the best so far. I heard Pink is going to blo up building and they set some things on fire.

Friday morning quick hit

Take a look at the new South Wing of the hospital! They had ground breaking yesterday. I'm loving the cool waves that run across the top!

It was like Wal-Mart at 6am on the Friday after Thanksgiving

It was like Wal-Mart at 6am on the Friday after Thanksgiving! I kid you not! Seriously!

Someone spotted a spot of sunshine coming through the lobby window and everyone busted down the hall to see it.

Gustav really messed with us huh?

OK, MS150 coming up Saturday. I'm excited to get to see some friends I've not seen in a few. I'll be riding slow but that's fine and dandy with me. I want to enjoy the ride while I look at the horses and smell the country air (except for around the chicken houses). Wonder how many dead snakes there will be? Wonder if I will ride by one that I think is dead and it's not?

I'll be working on Sunday media stuff tonight so I will have a clear calendar for the rest of the weekend. They are starting a new series and changing everything up. Remember a week or so ago how I was on my soapbox abut church? Man was that prayer ever answered! I will be using a lot more art to help folks visualize. The services have also been put in a bowl, stirred up and pored out in a whole new format! No more 3 songs, prayer, song.... I'll have a couple of videos in the mix too. Will I sleep well Saturday night... not at all. Will I drink coffee at 5:30 on Sunday morning... lots with Cinnabon creamer (oh man that is good stuff!). We return to a single service (fall & winter) this week. Can you say packed house?! I love it when everyone's together in one service.

Well time to jump over the pond and listen to whatever Rodney is talking about on the Aussie radio. So fun to listen to but so strange to think he is talking tomorrow morning... yep, it's Friday morning in Perth.

Life is good...really really good now that the rain stopped for a bit. Makes me feel like I need to put an olive branch in my mouth and ride my bike around the neighborhood.

Wednesday afternoon quick hit

Wednesday afternoon quick hit... uh... still pouring down rain. I'm about to call Noah's Boat Depot.

GUSTav get on outta here

This is the scene behind my building today. The wind just ripped more than enough umbrellas. Ok, we actually enjoyed watching some (can you say employees with attitudes?!) folks trying to walk across the parking lot with umbrellas and the wind would just flip them inside out. Most flipped out so hard they would break. The entrance to the hospital was nothing but broken umbrellas. Serious the trash can at the main entrance must have had 20 umbrellas overflowing the trash can.

Well New Orleans survived for the most part and now we are sitting in a swirl of rain and wind. The rain we can handle but when you put the wind and the rain together you get a lot of cranky folks.

The rain is supposed to continue for the next couple of days then the sun will come out and say hello to the humidity! At least the temp will only be 87 for Saturday's MS 150 kick off. If I can just get up the mountain by 2pm then I'll survive. I plan to take it easy until the mountain... then I'll take it even easier so I can climb that bad boy.

My pal Brandon is coming to town for the BDB 100 in a few weeks and I'll be heading to J'Boro where he lives to ride the Better Life Ride. He has a screaming fast new bike so he'll be dropping my butt right out of the cage but that's alright. I am old enough to be his dad. Serious... I'm actually friends with his dad for years but Brandon and I became biking pals. He is married to the sweetest girl, Hannah and has those little guys named Will and Ben. It will be great to catch up with him.

Life is good even in the wind and rain.