:(

  Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas Mom... I love you and miss you :(

Bike update 2

Bike ride number 5 was on the 3rd of December.

The physical portion was the total opposite of every other ride Ive been on. Gone were the sore knees, the pounding chest, the cramps in my side, and every other ache and pain (except for the damn elbow), and in its place was The. Best. Ride. Ever.
I felt good, I rode good, everything was good. I was happy and excited, not just for how I felt, but also because today was proof that I wasnt as bad as my previous rides had suggested I was. I had even managed on a couple of occasions to catch up to, and keep pace with, "real" bike riders. Yeah, if it were a race theyd leave me in the dust, but for now, I was their equal. And that felt good. But what felt the best was that I was FINALLY able to keep up with Stephanie. I had always felt bad - for me, for her, and physically - that I was always pulling up the rear. But now, I was right beside her the whole way. And for once I "got" what this biking thing was supposed to be.
So what was the difference? Gears. Yep, just the gears. I had been riding with 2 on the left gear and 3 on the right - or on 6 - and this time I went all the way to 3 and 7 - or 21. I had feared doing so because I was a rookie and high gears are "just for good riders", but upon going higher my whole ride changed. Yeah, I had to work for it because it was harder, but it felt good, and I never felt pain.
And for the first time, we managed to ride each way in 45 minutes. And considering we did like 90 minutes the first time and then an hour the other times, 45 minutes was amazing. And once we were done, I was looking forward to the next time for the first time since we started riding.


Bike ride #6 was on the 6th of December.

For the first time CJ was able to join us. Same route. Same times. The only major difference this time was that we decided to eat at a different place. We had some BBQ and it was good, and like the Italian place, it was alot of food. Too much to eat in one sitting and especially too much to eat on a bike ride.
Oh, and on the way back I was riding behind a guy who was in a bike that was powered by just his arms. Not sure if he was paralyzed or just doing upper body work, but he was able to keep an 11mph pace... with his arms. Insane.

Number 7 is on Tuesday, and Ill update you soon after. So, until then...

-- DBW --

I like Bike

  It started out simple.

  Stephanie: "Do you have a bike?"

  Me: "Yeah."

  Stephanie: "We should go bike riding sometime."

  Me: "Sure, why not."

  I had been on my bike exactly one time since I got it two years ago, and that was just a couple trips around the block. Prior to that, the last time I was on a bike was when I was a kid. So I suppose its fair to say that my biking experience was limited, at best. But I figured why not, it would be good to get out and get some exercise, spend some time with a cool person, and maybe even lose a couple of pounds that Ive been collecting. What could go wrong?

  The route we were going to be riding was roughly 20 miles round trip and took us along The Strand, to the Hotel del, through some ridiculous houses in Coronado, around the golf course, under the Coronado Bridge, and then to the Ferry Landing... and then back again.

  Our first bike ride was one heck of an adventure. About 30 minutes into the ride, I was dead. My legs were on fire, my knees were killing me, my head was pounding, my chest hurt, my sides hurt, it was hard to breathe, and when I finally had to stop for a moment, I knew something was wrong. I stood up and had to hold onto the bike because the world started spinning, I wanted to throw up, and I honeslty thought I was going to pass out.

  I got off the bike and literally layed on the ground because it was the only way I could stay conscious. A lady rode by and even asked if we needed her to call 911. Yeah, it was that bad. Call it stupidity or just the desire to not want to quit, I finally managed to get up and continued on my way.

  After an hour and a half of riding we finally made it to the Ferry Landing and I got some much needed rest, some food, and something to drink... all courtesy of Taco Bell. I love Taco Bell. It was getting late, so back on the bike, and after another hour and a half ride through pitch black night during which I lost my water bottle, almost ran into a bush, and almost got run off the road twice, we finally arrived at the truck. 

  My first real bike ride was over, and I can not convey to you just how thankful I was for it. The whole ride was extremely painful, and in ways other than the normal lack of exercise would bring a body. And I wouldnt find out why until the next day.

  After I got home from work, I went out to check my bike and upon hand spinning the front tire I noticed that it wouldnt even complete one rotation. If I was at the Big Wheel on The Price Is Right, I would have got booed. Seriously though, when your tire cant go around one time, something is wrong. So upon taking the front disk brake apart I found out that the thing had been squeezing my tire the whole entire time. Add that to the slight rub my back brake was doing, and theres no wonder I couldnt get my bike to move very well and why my body hurt from head to toe for trying to do so.

  Ride two.

  With the front disk brake completely removed, we set out for our second adventure. I did better, it wasnt as labored a ride as the first, but something was still a bit off.

  Dont get me wrong, I make no excuses for not being able to ride as well as Stephanie, nor as well as Id like. My conditioning, stamina, and leg muscles arent as good as they could be, and thats my fault for lack of exercising. So even if I had a perfect bike, I still doubt that Id be able to keep pace with her. For now anyway. So no excuses. But, the thing is, I dont have a perfect bike, and its only with each ride am I able to find something that needs to be adjusted to suit me.

  Anywho. After a nice, pleasant, and thankfully uneventful ride, we get to the Ferry Landing in a quicker time than our first ride. Not that we could have gone any slower. At the Landing we found this cool pizza place and made the "smart" idea of getting a little snack before we headed back.

  She wanted friend zucchini, I wanted pizza fries, and I thought we could share some garlic knots. What could go wrong? We got small portions of each and they ended up giving us three huge bowls of food. It was ridiculous. She managed to finish the zucchini, I ate half the fries, and we ate about half the knots and we took the rest of them back with us. Ridiculous.

  We got back to the truck sooner than we did the first time, again, not that hard, and with that, our second bike ride was complete. I was sore, and tired, but honestly I felt good. I liked being out, I liked the company, and it great to finally be exercising.

  The next day I looked around the net to see if maybe I had the wrong size bike. I found a size chart, grabbed a tape measure, and went to my bike. Accoriding to the chart, my bike was acceptable for a person my size. But when I was measuring it I noticed something rather important... I had never raised the seat. It was in the default position which is completely lowered, and so for a guy my height, it was destroying my knees. And what sucks is that I found it out by accident and never would have thought to check it. Like I said, each ride I find something new to make my next ride better.

  Ride three.

  SO much better. It really was like riding two different bikes. Still not perfect, I need to raise my handle bars, but already alot more comfortable. We got to the Landing even faster than our second time, and made another stop at the pizza place for another snack. She got zucchini again and I got an antipasto salad which instantly became my new favorite salad.

  Back on the bike, a quickish ride back to the truck, during which I got hit by a golf ball, and our third outting was complete.

  Unfortunately, on the ride out my elbow popped and caused me a good deal of pain the rest of the ride. Its definitely nothing serious, just an uncomfortable annoyance that just needs to be stretched out once in a while. Other than that, I was sore, tired, and again feeling great.

  Ride four.

  This ride almost didnt happen cuz at work earlier in the day I bent down to do something and my knee completely gave out. Im sure there were contributing factors, but Ill just file it under "one of those things" and leave it at that. But it hurt... ALOT... and it forced me to walk with a very noticable limp. I tried stretching it out all day, and just couldnt, so even though I probably shouldnt have gone riding, I thought the exercise might do it some good.

  I wasnt able to raise my bars, so I went out with the same bike set up. One of these days though Ill get my bike where I want it, or need it, and then well see what Im able to do.

  The ride out was mostly pain free. It was actually my elbow that bothered me more than my knee, but it was tolerable. We werent able to eat at the Landing cuz it was already late so we just turned around and rode back.

  The ride back was painful, and I pushed my knee as hard as I could, but there was just no way I could even stay close to Stephanie. Once I accepted that, I set two goals for myself... be back to the truck by 5:10 - which would be our best time - and try and stay at 10mph. Somehow I managed to do both and although from the outside I still sucked, I was thrilled cuz I didnt let the pain get the better of me. I hurt, I was slow, but I never stopped. Small victories.

  Ride five is supposed to be on Wednesday. Hopefully by then Ill have my bars fixed and my knee and elbow will be rested and pain free. Im looking forward to it, I have more to accomplish, I have goals to reach, and I have more antipasto salad to eat.

  Until next time.....

  -- DBW -- 

Ozzy

As I sit here watching the latest Hulk movie, Im reminded of a commercial I saw with Ozzy Osbourne. Really, dont try and figure out the connection, but if you do, and you find it, please let me know.
Anywho, Ozzy goes around town, doing various things - ordering coffee, taking a taxi, talking to a therapist - and in each instance the person across from Ozzy has no clue what hes saying. That is, until he whips out his cell phone and text messages them.
Ok, I can excuse the therapist because maybe hes one of the few people in the world that would have Ozzys cell number, but... the Starbucks guy and the taxi driver? How are they on Ozzys contact list?
I see two explanations: 1) Ozzy is such a great guy that he gives his number to everyone or 2) this new phone has a contact list that includes everyone you will ever meet. Either way, I want in on this thing.

Aight, back to Hulk I go. Until next time...

-- DBW --

Whatever

Ive been... lethargic. Basically, for quite awhile now, I have had no desire to do much of anything. I guess being told by someone that youre worse than the guy that wants to kill her and her family will kinda do that to a boy. So, among other things, Ive let my blog slip. No big deal, not like a ton of people read it anyway, but I have had people ask when I was going to post about my Comic-Con experience, so for yall, Ill try, Really. Ive wanted to write it for a while now, just... havent "felt" it. But this weekend... maybe.

Teed off

Ive come to the conclusion that golf is fake.

Its taken me many years, and four trips to the golf course - 45 holes total - to decide that, but it has to be true. There is no way someone can take a stick, hit a motionless ball laying on the ground, and have it go pretty much where they want it to. Impossible.

My latest adventure, and thus my "mind making upper" outing, happened two days ago. I went to a course I had never played, which, honestly, is most of them, but this one pretty much kicked my butt.
Derek and I planned on playing 18 holes - the first time I attempted such a thing - and we hoped not to make fools of ourselves doing so. Didnt go so well.
We arrived about 45 minutes early and decided we should practice a bit before our tee time, so we go to check in and the guy says "Would you like to tee off early?" and we responded with a regrettable, "Sure, why not." Not that practicing would have made us Tiger Woods, but perhaps it would have made us a little bit less "Sam and Derek."
Anywho, we hop in our cart, and sit patiently for the groups in front of us to go and we actually - jokingly? - contemplated just sitting right where we were for the rest of our time there - the shade was nice, we had alot of water, and we werent exactly anxious to hack up the course. Sadly, the groups finished and the only people waiting to go was us, so I stepped on the gas and we made our way to the first tee.
Before we even hit our first ball, things went down hill. A guy approaches me, tells me his name, and says that he was told to join us. NO! So I smile and say ok and he says "So whats your name?" And I go "Sam... and by the way, we suck." There, right from the beginning, I let the guy know he was in for a world of hurt. I couldnt have been more up front if I tried. So he was warned.
So, after a few misses, we tee off... horribly... and then the guy tees off... not so horribly... and we were left picking our egos up off the grass. And this same pattern would continue, hole after hole, shot after shot, for about 6 holes until the guy finally says to us "Umm... Im just gonna go ahead." Thank you!
So now the dude joins another group, leaving us to fend for ourselves. And Id like to say we overcame the odds, and conquered the course, but that could not be any farther from the truth. I wont focus on Dereks foibles and follies, that would be mean, but lets just say he was right there with me.
As for myself, we played 18 holes, and I lost at least a dozen golf balls. Seriously. They either went into one of the many water hazards, or I hit them so far out of bounds that finding them became impossible. Primarily, its cuz I suck, but on this particular day I just happened to have developed an absurdly ridiculous right hook to every single tee shot. I was clueless how to correct it, so it finally got to the point where I literally starting teeing off hard left, so that when it hooked right Id actually be somewhere near the center of the fairway.
It worked ok for the most part, except for one hole, and one shot, that in theory is impossible, except that it did happen. Ill attempt to explain this... on this hole, if you were to tee off straight, you would have hit directly into woods. So, you either had to try and hit up and over, or try and curve the ball around. Me, not being skilled enough to do either, I figured Id just continue to hit hard left, let it curve right, and hopefully Id be ok. So I step up to the tee, take my swing, and left it goes... then right it goes... and its not stopping going to the right. I realize how stupid this sounds, but the ball almost made a "U". Apparently I was using Australian balls, cuz the darn thing tried to come back to me.

We finally managed to survive the course, and three hours later we pulled the cart back into its spot and went for a much deserved meal. Well, I ate, Derek asked the cute waitress for a doggy bag cuz his tummy was full.

Anywho, golf is fake, and dont try and tell me otherwise.

-- DBW --

Itchy

Guess who --

In recent weeks, Ive been taking the bus on a regular basis, which is kinda cool cuz only on public transportation can a "normal" guy sit in far too close a proximity to lesbian crack whore hookers, a guy screaming in an ancient Aztec tongue, or people who deem it their obligation to loudly share their music with their fellow passengers and sometimes feel the need to sing it to them also.
Which brings me to my point... why is it that people feel compelled to force their music onto others? The other day Im on the bus and Im sitting across for a woman who has a cell phone, and she has the thing turned up as load as it will go, and shes playing some song. Once it ends, she replays it. Over. And over. And over. And shes singing along to it, and I have to add, very badly.
Then today, I take a seat close to a guy who I nicknamed "Rex" for reasons I shall go to Hell for, and he too was playing his music for the world. At least Im pretty sure thats what was going on, but I cant be positive cuz his "singing" drowned out most of the sound coming from his music box. And, to make matters worse, Im literally like 5 feet from him, his singing loudly, and I have no clue what hes saying. None. It was just total gibberish and... oh, I get it, he was probably listening to rap. Makes sense now.
Anywho, dont you people know that headphones were invented for a reason? Its so people like me, who wish to ride in peace and quiet, dont have to listen to your horrible country rap and even worse singing.

Another.....

It also annoys me when I get to the bus stop early, and patiently sit on the bench and wait for the bus to arrive, only to have someone arrive at the last minute and jump on the bus in front of me.
Think about anything else in the world, be it in line for food, for a ride at an amusement park, death row... where else, besides a bus stop, do people feel its ok to just jump ahead of everyone else that was there before them? Thats just rude.

Another.....

I wish that all bathrooms, public and private, would come with either sound proof doors, or some kind of white noise generator so that the person inside can do whatever without fear of embarrassment, and so that those outside dont have to listen to those without shame. Is that too much to ask?

Another.....

If you walk up to a bathroom door, and its locked, it means someone is in there. It doest mean to try and turn the handle again, or push harder on the door, it means wait your turn. Its also very annoying to stand outside a locked bathroom door and do things to make the person hurry up, like coughing or repeatedly trying the door again and again. Doing any of these things gives the person inside performance anxiety and makes you look like a jerk, so just go about your business, let them do theirs, and come back in a few minutes.

I feel better now.

Til next time...

-- DBW --