This Day in History - August 7, 1992

Twenty years ago today, I traveled to Deadwood to be a groomsman for good friends in my National Guard unit shortly after returning from Desert Storm.  I also learned that I'd be walking up the aisle with the sister of the  bride-to-be.  No big deal, right?  Well, twenty years later, she's still a part of my life.  Happy twenty years of "meet cute" Laura - Where's THAT card Hallmark?

Oh yeah, and for those of you who know Russ and Dulci, tomorrow marks twenty years of wedded bliss.  Make sure to give them a shout out!

Train of Thought

My Mom has been in the hospital and it's been pretty emotionally taxing on everybody and coming home from Sioux Falls the other night, I was pretty spent both emotionally and physically.  The simple 60 mile drive was already getting old for a person who bikes everywhere.

I think to keep our sanity up, we started playing the "That cloud looks like .... " game.  After finding a rubber ducky cloud, a My Little Pony cloud, and various others,  The following conversation then took place.

Laura: That cloud looks like a whale whose tail popped out of the water.
Me:  No way! That is totally the U.S.S. Enterprise.
Laura:  Oh I can see that!
Me: *humming the theme song to Star Trek*
--pause for a bit as we rode in silence--
Me:  You know that someday after Big Bang Theroy goes off the air there will be a trivia game about it, don't you?
Laura:  We will totally rock at that!
Me:  No doubt about that.
-- More silence as we drove along --
Me:  Do you have any idea how that whole series of thought tie together?
Laura:  Let's see....U.S.S Enterprise Cloud - Humming the theme song to Star Trek -- Big Bang Theory trivia -- You was thinking about the episode of Big Bang Theroy where Sheldon played the Star Trek theme on that "thingy".
Me:  ABSOLUTELY!  Only you could have pieced that together.  Don't spend too much time in my head, it's a scary place.  The only thing you missed is that I had to think about the name of the "thingy" -- it's called a Theremin -- and that's where I came up with the need for a trivia game.

Do Laura and I spend too much time together?  Absolutely.  We wouldn't have it any other way.

Changes

It's time to change the banner to my blog.  The only thing that remains of this picture is the Grocery Getter.  Oh yeah, and the kid.  A bigger version of the kid.

Going Out in Style

My last post discussed my glorious reunion with my Garmin 305.  Found in a corner, shivering, grasping to life.  We nursed her back to health and she seemed happy to be back with us once again.  I tried to ease her back into society on a short bike ride but she would have none of it.  There was no power to her at all.  I performed surgery to see what made her tick and managed to get her heart started once again.

A couple rides into her recovery plan, she got temperamental with me and turned off in the middle of a ride.  That was the final straw.  The romance needed to come to an end.  After all, I had my eye on a cute little Garmin 500 for some time now.  After a brief conversation with a friend, the fine folks at Garmin in Kansas City shipped me my new love and she arrived yesterday. 

I took her out and checked her out, but I needed to get going on my ride.  The new Garmin 500 wasn't quite ready for her maiden voyage so I decided to allow Miss 305 one last fling.  We took off on our ride and everything seemed normal.  But she knew...Oh yes, she knew.

Somehow, unbeknownst to me, she must have ordered explosives for her one last mission.  A suicide bombing to take me out.  She just couldn't go on without me.  As I turned the corner and rode by the park -- KABLOOIE!!!  She exploded and parts of her bounced off me and I screamed at the horror.  All that was left was bits and pieces of her still attached to the bike and the rest of her was scattered for half a city block.

But she failed.  I'm still alive.  I'll move on with Miss 500.  I hope and pray it will be a long relationship without such a psychotic ending.  RIP Miss 305, it was quite an exit from this world.

The Great Mystery of Early 2012: Case Closed

In the beginning of the necessity that would later become known as "The Great Basement Bedroom Remodel of 2012", chaos ensued. Stuff was moved around, packed hastily, strewn between the laundry room, family room, and the garage. As we slowly unpacked, and continue to do so, it was missing. I cried out to it. Searched everywhere. I was so sure that it became scared and simply ran away.

I couldn't give up.  I searched high and low, calling it's name.  I made posters asking for its safe return.  Made a newsworthy plea that if an abduction took place that I would pay whatever it took for its safe return. 

Still....nothing...after awhile, you simply have to move on with your life.  Accept the fact that it's gone forever.  Think back, and occasionally shed a tear over the good times you've had.

Then suddenly there it was:  A whimper in the corner as my beautiful wife Laura was cleaning the laundry room.  Cleaning the mess that I, in my anguish and pain, had made worse in my frantic search for it.  Stuff strewn to and fro, but that wasn't going to stop Laura.  She dug and dug, following the faint sounds until, there it was.  It had returned to me.  I embraced it immediately telling it that I would not part from it until the end of time.

Welcome home!  May we enjoy many more rides together!

We've All Done It

If you are a roadie and you haven't tried to do this, I'm very disappointed in you. I remember one night it was set up on the road by the swimming pool and kids kept egging me on. It was set at 25mph and I topped out at 29 going by it. I did about eight hard sprints and it was the best I could do. The kids kept saying "C'mon go 30! We want to get a picture of it!" Two more attempts and I finally did it. Then I promptly went home, laid down for about an hour because I really thought I was going to puke.

The Art of Making New Friends

After a very long day in the Dakota Dome working a track meet, a guy who didn't look all that familiar to me, and may not have been from here, walked up as I was unlocking my bike, putting my helmet on, and had the following brief conversation:

Dude: "Why do you wear a helmet, are you that bad of a cyclist?"
Me (quite tired and now agitated): "No, but I've seen people like you drive, so therefore I will continue to wear it"
Me: *Staring at the guy waiting to see where this was going to go*
Dude: *Dumbfounded look*
Me: *Smile and pedal happily away*

Okay, it wasn't my finest moment, but it sure felt good!