Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Cheer for Your Team

I'm definitely a BYU fan. But not because I'm anti-U of U or anti-USU. In fact, the only time I really care whether the Utes or Aggies win or lose is when they play the Cougars. I've had any number of discussions with Fans and fans. Fans are people who follow their team all year, win or lose, through seasons good and bad. I've sat next to any number of Fans over the years and have always had a hand shake and good word for them at the end of the game. These people and I get along just fine because they're cheering for their team. fans are those who aren't so much cheering for their team as they are cheering against someone else. I've also sat by any number of these as well. Last year, at the Utah game I sat by some ute fans. As a precaution, I took ten minutes the day before the game to learn their fight song. Seriously - it only took ten minutes. It came in handy toward the end of the game when Utah scored to go ahead and a few of those fans began to revel in the Cougars impending loss (rather than in 'their' team's impending win). As the band fired up the song, I joined them with a rousing rendition of "Utah Man." The only problem was that I was singing the song alone while they clapped along mindlessly. 235 to go.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

It Finally Happened

I've heard the stories for years, but as yet had been unaffected. And then, last night at the Orem Rec center I was there when it actually happened. A kid shat in the pool while I was there. Apparently it wasn't a one and done kind of accident either, but one in which the offending party made his/her way all around the shallow end of the pool leaving gifts for everyone. Fortunately, I was on my way to the pool when it was discovered and not in the water. Unfortunately, it screwed up my best laid plans. In other news, fall perfection is upon us. Last week DR and I road Tibble Fork. The rigid fork on my Serotta made my already tentative descending even more tentative. Despite the perfect weather and trail conditions, I never felt a groove on the descent. Hopefully, this weekend will be better. I've spent a lot of time pedalling, but the combination of mountain biking, road climbing and indoor training has kept my mileage somewhat low. I've now got 300 left to go.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

A Doctor, An Archictect, and an Attorney Got Together

And saved my bacon. Kamika and Angela were indispensible as well, but title was already getting a little long. The luau sputtered on despite the hitches Cindy has described above. With Cindy at the hospital with Cindy, Jon and Mark, the very acme of reliability, showed up 20 minutes sooner than I'd asked. And went straight to work. Miss Cherie held a traumatized Nono while Mark, Jon, Delena and the entire Dastrup clan started trekking stuff up to the park and initiated setup. I arrived and began barking at these, my best friend. Fortunately, they humored me. Ben continued to parcook the chicken and sausages at the house while Kuhia and I fired the grills. Soon, in a flurry Kuhia, Kamika, and I began frenzied finishing of the chicken, sausages and sirloin. In short order we have the chafing dishes full and were ready to start, a mere 30 minutes or so late. I introduced the food to the 30-40 people then gathered and it was on. We continued the frenzid meat production. After a few minutes, I looked back to see a line growing for the food. Soon, the line extended 30-40 yards and was growing. The three of us would periodically monitor the food quantities and throw more of that selection on the grill as needed. Finally, nearly two hours later, things started to slow. I hope everyone had a good time and had as much of whatever they preferred as they would have liked. Next year, I'm locking the basement and starting setup two hours before the event.

Monday, September 01, 2008

Obstacles

Saturday was an epic day. I had neatly planned to start riding at 7:00 before it got hot and return home at 10:00 to ride with Cindy until 12:00. I got to bed early and was ready to ride at 6:50. Except, Dan wasn't. He'd decided to come and brought Tom along. This is the same Tom that made the first trip on the Trail of Tears, which almost ended in disaster but for a timely encounter with a fellow named Beau Hunter. By the time we got rolling, it was nearly eight. No big deal, we'd ride until 10:30, then I'd pick up Cindy at 11:00 and we'd ride until 1:00. I felt steady as we made our way up AF Canyon. Not fast, not slow, just steady. I was able to hold my heart rate low and my legs weren't aching. As we neared the Tibble Fork turn off, I stood up to stretch my legs a little when my right crank went floppy. It felt like my pedal was broken, but it wasn't moving. A first look seemed like my BB shell had delaminated. I coasted home to find the source of the problem. It turns out I'd sheared the outer lip of the BB cup off, which allowed the bearings to move freely with the shaft. No good. Fortunately, Cindy and I had a great ride. I love easy road rides with her. The route was virtually traffic free and the conversation was nice. We made our way up the back roads to Provo Canyon and up the river trail. Good times. That still left me with an 1:40 short of my goal, so I did 50 minutes on the trainer. I'd planned on doing the rest of it after my nephew's fairwell feast, but ended up with pre-form toxin food poisoning. (It's nice having a brother who also happens to be one of my best friends as a doctor.) That laid me up pretty well for the rest of the weekend. The combination of climbing and the indoor riding limited my mileage - 380 remaining.