It's cat Friday on my blog, so the cool guy Archie cat photo has nothing to do with my post, but it's okay, because.....CATS IN SUNGLASSES!

My blog is 10 years old this year. Crazy that I started writing this in 2005. So much has changed, but it's nice to know that I'm still weird and loud and socially awkward. Yeah, so...Here is one of my first blog posts, from when my girls were 11 and 13 and I still owned a car without electric windows or lock or air conditioning.

So, here is one of my first posts:

I have always been a freak magnet. It doesn't matter if I'm in a bar or walking down the street, you can guarantee that the only homeless, no teethed, crack head, psycho who ditched their meds, will come up to me and get all up in my grill. I used to think I had some kind of special sign around my neck that only they could see that said, "Lick me on the face and call me sucker." But today I think that sign fell off of my person and attached itself to the front of my car.

I had just dropped Coadster off at the baseball fields and was heading to the store to pick-up a few things, when I saw a woman standing in the middle of the street just ahead of me. At first, it looked like she was stupidly running in front of traffic, but then she turned around to face me and held up both thumbs. I stopped my car and she put her hands on my hood, then she kept her hands on my car and moved around to the passenger side window.

"Can you help me? I need help." I thought she might be sick or injured but I didn't have a cell phone. We were right by a gas station, so it seemed odd to me that she didn't go there. "I need a ride to my daughter's house over by Sheraton Street. I'm so hot and tired that I don't think I can go much further without fainting. Please. You're a lifesaver." By that time, there was a line of cars behind me. If I had the girls, I would have said, no for sure. But I didn't have them. I used to hitchhike when I was younger, so I felt a little hypocritical not taking her. Although, I would never have been that aggressive about it myself.

"Um, okay..."

"Oh thank god. Shit. I'm on these new meds and they're fuc... I mean, messing with my system."

"Hmm, " I said. I didn't want to have to have a long, tiresome conversation about her meds, so I didn't ask her about them. I was just happy she was taking them.

"You know where Sheraton Street is? It's over by Summit. She don't live on Sheraton, though. My daughter lives on a street right off there."

"You mean SheriDAN Street?" I asked.

"Yeah. Whatever. My daughter lives over by there and I need a ride. Please?" 

We drive a little ways and I go the way I always go to get to Sheridan Street.

"Hey, where you going? I don't go this way. I go a different way."

"This is faster than going to Court and then tracking back. It will still get us to Sheridan."

"Oh, this is Sheraton. You gotta take a left here."

"Left? Okay."

"Now we're back where we started. It should have been right over here. Drive around some more."

"You don't know where your daughter lives?"

"I would, if you'da gone the other way. Just keep driving around." I used to be a huge push-over when I was younger. It was that orphan thing where I thought I was a huge imposition to everyone and it was my job to help people and put up with all their shit. I continually felt like I had to make up for my being alive and breathing someone else's air. I'm finally old enough and have met too many people who were happy to take advantage of me, that I have gone the other way. Now, I push back once it's clear to me that the person I'm dealing with is shot full of entitlement issues.

"Actually, I'm not going to drive around. I was being nice to take you here, but I have things to do. I was going to Hy-Vee, and we were right in front of it, when you stopped my car..."

"So, what? Do you expect me just to walk around and look for the house by myself?"

"Yeah. If you don't know where your own daughter lives, how would I know?"

"Do you know where Summit Street is?" She said this slowly and loudly, like she thought I might have a big learning disability.

"Yes. It's back the other way."

"Okay. Take me there and maybe I can find it that way."

"I'll take you to Summit Street, but that's it. I have things to do." I turned around and headed for Summit Street and two blocks away, she said,

"Stop! That's the street. I know it. It's here." I pulled over to the side of the road to let her out. She picked up her bright pink purse and said," Thanks, so much. You're a lifesaver. God bless you. I'll be sure to pay it forward." And while I'm sure she'll be paying something, I doubt it will be forward, backward, or sideways. I have a feeling it will be straight to her dealer...Er, I mean, daughter.

Don't Look Out, Gonna Break Your Neck

I know it kind of seems like my life is just a series of bike or running adventures, and now that my girls are grown and I have the freedom to do what I want, I guess that's true.

I do other things, of course, but when given the chance and the weather is nice and while I'm able bodied, that's usually what I choose to do. Finally, after 50 years on the planet, I have figured out what makes me happy and I try to do it as much as possible. I'm also lucky that I have enough money to maintain my bikes and can afford to work only one job, so I have the time to ride. I don't take any of that for granted.

So far this week, we did the Monday Night Ride with our friends after work. We rode to 30Hop, had a beer on the rooftop deck, ate dinner in the restaurant downstairs and rode home. It was a beautiful night.

I took a day of vacation on Tuesday to wait for the guy who would fix our internet to show. He didn't get to our place until 1 and then it took him and hour and a half to fix it.It is fixed now. Of course, they were supposed to call and let me know ahead of time when he was coming, and they never did. Instead, they sent me 3 emails at 7:30 pm to let me know a technician was on his way. How helpful was that, 6 and a half hours later on an internet that wasn't really working. Derrrrr.

Is this Buffalo Grass?

By the time the guy left, I was jonesing for a ride. I planned a ride through Amish Country. It's nice to ride on those roads, because cars are used to looking for and slowing down for horse and buggies, so they don't get so upset by bicycles that don't use up as much of the road.

I rode through Sharon Center, Frytown, Joe town and finally headed back to Iowa City. At one point in Frytown, I was confused about which way to go. I thought Angle Road connected straight to The Orville Yoder Turnpike (my favorite road name ever), but all I could see was 500th Street. I tried to stop the high school kid, who was driving his riding lawn mower down the middle of the main street, but he couldn't hear me over the the motor. I know - Iowa problems....I headed the way I thought I should go, and I was right. By the time I got to Jasper Road, I was starting to bonk. I stopped at an old, shady cemetery and ate a Cliff Bar and drank some water, before I finished the rest of my journey. I rode 46 miles altogether.

Last night, I did my first real mountain bike race. Technically, I did one last year, but I was so new to it, that I went REALLY slowly and kept getting off my bike and walking anything that was the least bit scary. So, I guess I should say, I was competitive in my first real mountain bike race.

John raced too. He did the A race, but I did the B race. We both felt like we were spaz riding. We would go way too fast into corners, be sliding out and then have to almost come to a stop, in order not to crash. We both know better, but I think it's the pressure of racing.

MTB photos courtesy of Ben Cottington.

Here's my race report:


My race last night turned out well…for the most part. I raced the beginner race with 5 women altogether. I got there later so I went off last. Which was good, because I thought I’d be slowest and I didn’t want to have a bunch of people passing me on the single track. I passed the girl who started 30 seconds in front of me pretty soon after we started, then I passed another girl who started first out of the 5 of us. Which meant I was going to be 3^rd for sure. Then I started to slide-out on an S-curve I took too fast. I over corrected and fell straight back down a little hill into a sticker bush. Awesome. I was lying there with my legs in the air and my bike on top of me, when I realized the nose of my saddle was stuck in my kit right above my chamois and I couldn’t get up. I started laughing at myself, pushed the saddle away from my bike bibs and got up. Jumped on my bike and headed to the finish. I ended up getting second and have two big cuts on the back of my legs, a big welt on my forearm and am having some serious swelling in my left ankle.
It was good to crash and realize it isn’t the biggest deal and it was good to race against some other women and see how fast I was at mountain biking. I had no idea. Plus, it was sooo much fun.

Thanks Ben Cottington for a great photo.

So, right now. I'm not sure about my ankle. It could be broken, it could be that I bruised something, or it could be that I tore a ligament. I'm going to elevate it, possibly ice and not run on it until Monday. If it's still that bad then, I'll go see a doctor.

On my way to finish, after the crash. All covered in dirt and blood. Pretty. Ha ha. Photo by Ben Cottington.

It's just a damn good thing I have an ortho tech for a boyfriend if I'm going to continue to do all of these crazy shenanigans on my bikes. Jeesh!