Stuck Out In the August Rain. Out in the Cloudburst Again

So, here it is the end of August already and I've hardly written anything on my poor blog this month. Just to show off my lameness, I thought I'd do a quick recap of this month.

Let's start with the fact that I actually raced this month. Weird. I've been plagued with migraines and dizziness for most of the Summer, so I haven't been able to train, let alone race. We'll see if my stupid hormones let me race this Fall at all...

My first race this month was the State Time Trial Championships. Since I was the only woman who did the 40K race (two other women did the 20K race), I not only won my category, I won every female category...By default, but whatever.

We celebrated by having a HUGE breakfast at the Midtown Family Restaurant, complete with pancakes and a HUGE glass of chocolate milk. Apparently, I only race for the excuse to eat all the food.

Later that Sunday, we had our first team dinner at Big Grove in Solon. It was great to meet some of our new team members and to give one of our teammates a hard time. He couldn't make the meeting because he was on his way back from Colorado after racing the Leadville 100. He showed us a photo of him with his feet up and we sent him one back. I love our new racing team.

On the 14th of August, I used up my last day of vacation for the Summer. It was really hot that day, so I went mountain biking in the morning after I FINALLY got my name changed on my social security card.

Playing outside on my bike was a good antidote for having to be practical in the morning. You all know how much I hate to do practical things.

Another thing that happened in August, was that my fat, orange, baby, turned 8. How can he be eight already? Sure, he's big enough to be that old, but he will never be mature enough to be more than a kitten.

I also spent plenty of evenings on the screened-in-porch with an after work beer. Annoying my family by taking pictures of them was just an added bonus.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to the funeral of a friend. She was only 55 years old when she died, which was too damn young. She fell down the stairs and nobody found her for a day or two. It breaks my heart.

She worked at the Felton Place Elevator in Dubuque, so they had her memorial there. It was great to see so many friends and my brother and his wife. My friend Emily gave a great speech about her and we all got to hang out after he favorite bar afterward.

On the following day, we went my friend Harriet's wedding. She is part owner of a restaurant called Leaf. Part of the wedding was a potluck. I have never seen so much amazing food all in one place. Holy cow!

I spent a time hanging out with Harriet in the late 90's and early 2000's, so it was nice to see a lot of my friends from that time too.

Needless to say, it was a very social weekend, which was wonderful, but I needed a week of alone time to recover from it.

The students came back to town in August and so the last couple of weeks have been crazy at work. There is a part of me who thinks it's great to be part of the beginning of so many people's adult lives, and then there's the other part of me who just gets tired by the whole process.

I got six books read during the month. The cats and I still love our upstairs reading room and anticipate much snuggling in the coming colder months.

Thanks for the photo, Angy Snoop.

My second race of the month was my first cyclocross race of the year. As I mentioned above, I'm in pretty crappy shape, and it was ridiculously hot and humid last Saturday, so I didn't so very well. Which I have to come to terms with. I love to race cyclocross, and I can't get upset if I'm old, fat and slow.

I got back from the bike race and then had to get ready to go to John's ex-girlfriend's bachelorette party. One of the younger girls I race bikes with thought it was weird that I would go to her bachelorette party, but I'm friends with John's other girlfriends and his wife. Maybe that's the difference between being in your 20's and 30's and being in your 50's...Or maybe I am just weird.

Finally we had a "lovely" storm last Tuesday with 70 - 85 mile per hour winds. It was not at all kind to our garden. We lost most of our sunflowers and some of our other plants. Of course the squirrels and birds were pretty happy when I put all of the heads of the flowers full of seeds out for them.

Sooo, weddings, funerals, bachelorette parties, races, and big storms. Now you all know why I'm too busy to write. As always, I'll try harder next month.