Tooth Fairy visits Marietta....News at 11:00

DATELINE: Marietta, GA (Reuters)
This just in: Olivia Brookshire has lost her first baby tooth. The evacuation took place during "snack time" at the Wood Acres School yesterday at approximately 11:15 a.m. The tooth was saved in a napkin and placed under Brookshire's pillow at 8:25 p.m. Authorities estimate that sometime between 9:17 p.m and 3:00 a.m. a hagard winged fairy stole the tooth and replaced it with $1.50 in U.S. currency. Pictures to follow....

On the bike....some

There are maybe 10 people that know about my silly little blog. A couple of them just want to know how the cycling is coming along. In short, it's winter....

I broke my main frame on the trainer a few weeks ago. I've got a lot of bikes, but most of them are old. The good ones I have are my track bike and my cyclocross bike, both of which aren't for the road. Here's where working in a bike shop pays off. Mike has given me permanent loan of a LOOK 565. This is a handmade, full carbon fiber French frame. A really nice ride. It's ultimately probably not what I want to race this year because I need something a little stiffer, but it's what I can get with two pennies to my name.

I've been trying to ride to work on the days I'm at the shop. It gets me a little more than 2 hours on the bike. I'm also trying to get on my trainer a couple of times a week and do some video workouts. Everybody keeps coming in the shop asking when I'm going to race. It's realistically going to be April. I hate the cold and I refuse to race on the road unless I'm in shape. Cyclocross was fun, but I won't stand for getting my ass kicked for long on the road before I quit.

I'm applying for an assistant teaching position here in Cobb County that is to be filled soon. I would take it if offered. It pays more than the bike shop and I get weekends off. I am trying to get into the GATAPP program which will allow me to go back to teaching full-time and work on my certificate. I'm certainly not doing this so that I can race a bike, but it would allow some more freedom with my schedule if I get it. The main motivator is making some more dough and still getting to spend time with Olivia.

When I'm on the bike I'm beginning to feel pretty good. I'm starting to do some upper body work because my back is hurting like always. Knock on wood, I've been pretty pain free this time around. I think this time around that cycling is more of a therapeutic thing than a competition thing. That said, anyone that knows me knows I hate losing :)

Death....

Ohhhhhhhh.... shit......:-(

kickass snowman

Olivia and I sculpted this guy in honor of the soon-to-be-top-5 ranked Tennessee Vols basketball team!

The snowstorm, corn on the cob, and the damn treehouse

I worked 15 hours yesterday as we did inventory at the shop. It started snowing in the late afternoon, a real rarity here in Atlanta. When I got home after midnight, stately Brookshire Manor was covered in a soft blanket of wet southern snow. Like a moron that had never seen snow, I stood on my front lawn at 1:00 a.m. and took a picture.

Olivia was in a good mood when I took her to school this morning. She's excited because she's got a loose tooth. Apparently it hasn't affected her ability to talk my ear off all the way to school.

Unbeknownst to me, we are having a "sleepover" party at my house on July 4th. Olivia is going to cook my favorite food, corn on the cob (who knew?). Sure, I LIKE corn on the cob, but it doesn't register on my favorite food radar screen.

The sleepover will take place in the damn treehouse (see earlier post). I've been thinking about this damn treehouse. I had a plan where I'd take a couple of hundred bucks in materials and a couple of days of labor and probably make something she'd enjoy. Uh, wrong! Apparently the treehouse is going to be big enough for sleepovers for her friends where "it has to be big enough to play Duck, Duck, Goose".

I think the damn treehouse is about to become one of a long line of lessons in DISAPPOINTMENT for Olivia. Hopefully, her mother has prepared her for this. I kid about the damn treehouse, but it's hard for me not to laugh when I think about what her vision is and what reality will be. Anyone reading this knows I'd fall on a hundred swords for my daughter, but I'll probably always be known for things I didn't do. She is, after all, a princess.

This poor tree has no idea what my daughter has in mind.>

Mensa Matters

If I get another call from an Ivy League school about my daughter I'm going to scream! Olivia got her report card yesterday, and, once again, she has left a sea of 5-year olds drowning in her academic wake. My little girl whips other Kindergartners with half her brain tied behind her back!

Seriously, Olivia is doing great in school and it makes me one happy dad. I beat myself up a lot over the fact that her mom and I are divorced, but she honestly seems to be handling it about as good as I could hope. She has her moments, but so far school has not been a problem. I can only dream that one day she will matriculate at the University of Tennessee and eventually claw her way up the corporate ladder and work in a bike shop like her dad....

The Ride

Tuesday was my day off. I decided I'd go for a ride on the Silver Comet Trail - it's a former railroad track that has been paved. Ultimately, it will go all the way to Alabama. It's very well maintained and goes through some beautiful parts of Georgia.

Tuesday started cloudy when I left about 8:45 from the trail beginning in Smyrna. It started to clear a little about 20 miles in. I was feeling good, there was no traffic, and the scenery was much different since the leaves are off the trees. It wasn't until I went through this long, high tunnel that I realized I had never ridden out so far on the trail. I decided to keep riding. I got hungry around 35 miles and saw a sign indicating that Rockmart, GA was about 5 miles ahead. I figured I could stop there to get something to eat. I only had two water bottles and a couple of packets of 'Gu'.

I got to Rockmart and pretty much rode through it - it was smaller than I thought. I kept thinking I'd see a trailside store of some sort. I got to the other side of the town and pulled over to a park bench. I'd been on the bike for almost 2 1/2 hours. I originally only intended to ride that long!

I turned around, went off the trail and found a gas station. It was then that I realized i only had two bucks on me. I bought a huge candy bar and a pack of crackers, filled my bottles and headed back. Up to that point I had really been ejoying the ride - nice weather, lots of streams, ponds, wildlife that I wouldn't usually see.

People often ask me how I took so much time off the bike after racing seriously for a few years. It was easy....because I didn't LIKE riding bikes. I liked RACING bikes. Sure, I grew up pretty much attached to my bike, but it was a means to get from here to there and a source of fun as I jumped it off walls and tore through the woods. Riding a bike for the hell of it as an adult didn't offer a lot. I'm finally learning to enjoy it again.

So, I'm about 35 miles from my car, not exactly happy with my meal and I've seen all the shit since I just rode the same stretch of trail. The ride stops being fun. I trudge on for another hour and start to feel the effects of over 60 miles in the saddle. My knee is hurting a bit, my butt is not so comfortable and I'm craving something good to eat. The last 20 miles sucked. I got to my car, threw my bike on the roof and headed straight for the border - Taco Bell.

I wish I could bottle the feeling I had for the first two hours of that ride. Unfortunately, the ending is what I keep remembering....

Resolution?

Over the last month, no less than 4 people (might have been more - I have an ADD problem) have made mention of the fact that I'm a little angry...a little pessimistic...a little negative. I'm aware that I can be a bit of a cynic, but thought I had done a good job of covering some of the other stuff with humor. I could write a book on why, but instead I'll just let the people know that read this blog that I'm aware of it and am going to attempt to change my attitude. If you are reading this, and haven't just stumbled upon my page, then you should also know that you mean something to me because I haven't let anyone know about this except those close to me.

I read another blog by a guy I've never met in Colorado. He is a bicycle racer, but that's kind of beside the point. He also has an amazing way of showing appreciation for the simple (and not so simple) things in life - he's humorous, intelligent and optimistic. Last week he wrote this:

Live better.
Live fuller.
Live more creatively.
Live with blood in your veins, not vinegar.

Sounds like sage advice for 2008. If you see me acting otherwise, grab me (to make sure I'm listening) and remind me of it. Have a great year!

how much is this?

I couldn't make this up if I tried....

So, I'm in the Dollar Store buying stocking stuffers (and primary gifts for those I don't like, but have to buy a gift for). As the toothless woman is bagging my stuff this oriental lady (honestly, i'm not picking on her because of her ethnicity) behind me asks the cashier "How much is this?".....I shit you negative.

To the cashier's credit, she nonchalantly said "Everything's a dollar". Oriental girl looks happily surprised -Then she asks "Well, how much is this?".... I swear I almost took the dollar spatula I had just bought and slapped her till her eyes slanted vertically. Then I would have taken my dollar ball of twine and tied her up and lit her on fire with my dollar lighter. I would have written a eulogy on my dollar notepad with one of my ten-for-a-dollar pens. It would have simply read: "I died because I asked a stupid question."

This is the world I'm bringing my daughter up in. Please, God, look out for her.

my girl

OK, so I've posted a lot today. It's my day off and I'm trying to avoid Christmas shopping.

Olivia read me a letter she wrote to Santa last night (with help from her mom). I have no problem admitting that I had to wipe my eyes afterward. She is so excited. She's also writing so neatly and she decorated it with stickers.

I bought her a laptop for Christmas, but it's looking like it's not going to make it here in time. It really bums me out. I still think the charity is a great thing - they donate a laptop to a third world country when you buy one for your child. You can only do this until the end of the year, so check it out: http://www.laptopgiving.org/

Here's her pic with Santa:

lord of the pants

I just read that Michael Flatley (Riverdance) got $11 million from some false sex assault case. Apparently, some chick said he raped her in Vegas a few years back. The judge saw otherwise and ruled in favor of Flatley's countersuit....saying the sex was "consensual".

Uh...Here's a news flash -Dude, you're GAY! You dance with your shirt off in tight leather pants - not in a cool "what if Elvis took his shirt off?" way, but in a fluttery "Liberace with abs" kind of way. I don't care that you've had a baby and might have been married at some point. Hell, Michael Jackson got married and I'd bet my mortgage he'd rather have a 10-year old boy share his bed at the Neverland Ranch than a supermodel. Save the consensual sex for us heterosexuals, you douche bag.

Enjoy your 11 mil.....amazing.

(Sorry about that - hope your kids weren't reading this)

the lake

As I stated in a previous post, we rode INTO a LAKE at the Alabama race on Sunday. Here is a picture someone posted on the Bama Cross website. It actually doesn't do much justice. You can see the third rider is about to go into a hole....uh, there were several of these where your pedal would actually be under water. The last lap I figured out a pretty good line. Apparently these jackasses were watching and didn't make the same mistakes I did.

Cyclocross is the dumbest sport I've ever done....and I can't wait until next season.

***EDIT: A friend just sent me the second picture - this is classic, and exactly what I feared doing. Did I mention I couldn't feel my hands.....and they were DRY! Oh, and that it was blowing snow flurries. Poor guy is probably still waiting for his testicles to descend....

I'm phat

The cyclocross season is over. Unfortunately, people take a lot of pictures at cross races. At first, I thought that maybe there were some bad camera angles....but then I realized they all looked the same - I've got a belly.

Admittedly, I'm not riding a whole lot - a couple of times a week, then a race on the weekend. I've got to do some cross-training (no pun intended) and burn some calories during the winter. After 40 years of eating McDonalds, I'm gonna have to do something about my diet, too.

I'm not gonna weigh myself, the numbers don't mean anything to me. Just got to get more toned. If you see me out riding or running, throw me a cheeseburger...

The podium

Ask any athlete - getting on the podium (top 3) is usually a great result. I've been lucky in that just about every sport I've tried I've done pretty well in. I've made podiums in track & field, car racing, triathlons, road cycling, track cycling...hell, I've even won a No-Limit poker tournament in Las Vegas. Today I made the podium in cyclocross. It's the end of what has been an eye opening season.

Jay, Josh and myself made the trip to Cullman, Alabama to race the last of the BamaCross series. This was their state championship and offered double points for their series. Granted, the Alabama series is not as tough as the Georgia series. For some reason their riders just aren't of the calibur we find here in Atlanta. Nevertheless, you can only race who shows up.

Despite my mediocre finishes here in Georgia, I had seen some real progress in the last few races. I honestly went to Alabama expecting to finish in the top 3 - anything less would have been a disappointment.

Jay kicked ass, as I thought he would. We both hit the front from the gun. A side note - it was freakin' cold, blowing snow flurries, and this course was ridiculous. Anyway, Jay and I led the field for the first lap, shaking all but two local teammates. The course was muddy, - in fact we actually rode through two sections of a LAKE! It's hard to describe, but we actually rode in the water (almost up the hubs on our bikes) for about 40 meters. There was a lot of sloshing around, but I kept my bike up today - HURRAY!...it would have been pure hell to fall in the lake at that temp.

Jay's pace was too much and the guys I was riding with were happy with me setting the pace. My hands were nearly unmoveable by the second lap. I was having a hard time shifting the bike. One of the guys attacked and his teammate fell back. I chased for a lap to catch him, dragging his buddy back up. At that point, the other guy attacked and I just couldn't respond. I rode steady for the rest of the race, realizing that no one else was going to catch me if I kept the pace up. I made a lot of time up on the second place guy on the last lap, finishing about 10 seconds behind him. It felt good to feel my endurance returning.

Josh rode strong to finish 7th - a great day for our team. Everyone was referring to us as the "Georgia Boys". Interestingly, we almost didn't go. Our enthusiasm was getting lower the more we heard the forecast. It was bitingly cold. My hands still have a "buzzy" feel to them.

This is a much better way to end the season. It's been interesting and a lot of fun. It was the perfect culmination of an otherwise shitty week :)

Cheaters

No, the title isn't about the (gosh, I'm shocked) revelation today that a bunch of professional baseball players used steroids. It refers to the TV show.

I just rode for a while on my indoor trainer and was searching for something to watch on TV while I pedaled my ass off going nowhere. I settled on 'Cheaters'. Excuse the profanity, but fuck, what has the world come to? It made me sick to my stomach. If you haven't seen it, then you should. You'll consider cancelling your cable or satellite subscription.

This freaky looking goon helps some poor guy or girl find out if they are being cheated on. Apparently, the climax of the show is the "CONFRONTATION" - as in, "Up next, the CONFRONTATION!" It will make you laugh and probably puke, but is a lot like a car wreck - you can't look away. It's a half hour of my life that I'll never get back.