Slipping Away

This weekend marked a few noticeable milestones that I don’t necessarily enjoy. First, the evening temperatures have been substantially lower than usual. Actually, I do like that because it’s great for sleeping. Some other noticeable events include the first few glints of change in the leaves, my yard is getting littered with the dreadful acorns from my oak, the local single A baseball team is about to close out their season, and the first college football games are just a few short days away. All of this adds up to summer slowly fading.

I don’t entirely mind the fact that there are only two more days until September. That means winter will be arriving soon and so will the snowboarding season. It’s just that it feel like I haven’t really had a chance to enjoy the summer yet. Fortunately, this weekend I was able to get in a few activities that are very summery.

The weather this weekend was spectacular. The mornings were brisk but by midday the temperatures were in the eighties and sunshine was abundant. I greeted Sunday morning early. The plan was to scoop Cathy, meet up with Brian and Spring, then head to the lake for some waterskiing, swimming, and bobbing around aimlessly. We were on the water by about nine thirty and wasted no time carving up the glassy conditions.

Unfortunately with weather like we had today the water gets crowded quickly which makes for a bumpy ride all around. We all managed to get some time on the skis before heading to a beach to swim and have some lunch. We splashed around for a few hours then decided to pack it in. It was a great way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon. Fortunately, I took home a souvenir that should keep that summery feeling around for a little while longer; a nice solid sunburn.

The Big Send Off

This weekend Scott & Betty had what will presumably be the last big party at their current house. In a couple of weeks they will be moving from the hinterlands of Halfmoon Township and joining the rest of us in the big city. While it wasn’t a large scale affair, it didn’t disappoint.

Things started out innocently enough with families and children playing gleefully in the yard with dogs and other benign activities. Of course, after the sun went down and the parents began to take their children home to bed, things started to go downhill. Then, before anyone knew what happened (or at least me for sure), the bottom fell out. And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

I would, however, like to say to Em that I don’t think this is going to work for me. I’m feeling smothered and need a little space. Sorry you had to find out about it this way, but I think it’s in both of our interests.

A Break

I’ve been really tired lately. It’s as if I haven’t been able to get enough rest to keep me going through the week. I wasn’t exactly sure why I didn’t have any energy during the week but clearly something was off. I seemed to be getting a decent amount of sleep, I hadn’t changed my diet, but Monday through Friday I was having great difficulty dragging myself into the office. Then I realized what the cause of this fatigue might be.

See, on the weekends, I try to pack in as much activity as I can. I get up early, stay up late, and usually do something that uses a lot of energy. Whether it’s riding, yard work, traveling, or entertaining guests, I get very little rest on the weekends. I don’t typically notice that I’m at all tired because it’s my time and I want to use it to the fullest. Of course, when Monday morning rolls around I struggle to drag myself out of bed and into the office and this is typically the case for the next several days.

Finally, this weekend I decided to mix things up a bit. Saturday I was up really early, did a bunch of yard work, went on a mountain bike ride for about three hours, then went to an “End of Summer before the Students Come Back” party. This was a typical Saturday for me. Then on Sunday I decided to do nothing. I mean flat out absolutely nothing. Sure there was a plan for a ride, but it was raining in the morning so I spent the entire day on the couch. I napped a bit, watched some television, and basically did nothing and I’m very okay with that.

Trouble

This past weekend Nate made a return trip to the SC from Montana (with a brief stop for a conference in Pittsburgh). He decided to bring Jared and Bart along from Pittsburgh which meant the weekend would involve riding, drinking, chocolate milk, queso dip, steak, and Sega until the wee hours of the morning. To make matters worse, Brian was also joining in the fun.

Needless to say I have very little energy right now but here is a synopsis of the weekend. I got my ass handed to me on our mountain bike ride, spent way too long downtown, stayed up way to late getting schooled at NHL 95 by Jared, and I’ve been too tired to do much of anything today. I’m just glad they don’t make these visits a regular occurrence.

All Day Long

I woke up Saturday morning at about ten minutes until three (in the morning) from the sound of a car with a poorly attached muffler. This was earlier than I wanted but with the pending day’s events only a few short hours away I decided to get up and begin preparations for what would become one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done. After all, Saturday marked the 10th running of the Wilderness 101.

The weather couldn’t have been more perfect for a race. At about 6:45 in the morning just over 300 people lined up to chase each other around the forest on mountain bikes covering a 101 mile course. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect as I’ve never ridden my mountain bike 101 miles in a day and I wasn’t fully convinced I was prepared for this undertaking. I’m not going to give you a blow-by-blow recap but I will provide a brief synopsis of my day.

I rode just about the entire distance alone and towards the back of the pack. I had several flat tires early that put me behind in both time and in general attitude. The fire road climbs were demoralizing but the single-track descents were pure joy and lifted my spirits. So what was the conclusion to my day? Well, I finished thus accomplishing my primary goal. Unfortunately I spent almost 13 hours on my bike. This was nearly twice as much time as the winner.

A lot of emotions are explored over the course of a 12 hour and 49 minute day in the saddle. The body and mind reach into places that you don’t know exist in order to endure the level of suffering that is required to complete a task of this magnitude. I pushed myself to limits I’d never before explored. When I finally crossed the finish line I was so excited that I wanted to keep riding but instead I decided it would be more enjoyable to get out of my chamois and have a beer.