The glorious sun comes out

It's getting warmer now and with the warmth hopefully comes a resurgence of intellect. As cyclists we are all keenly aware of the past months and their cold winter rides; with the wind blowing and the maybe 40 degree temps. On those rides the chill doesn't just permeate your body, slowing your pedal stroke and the wind doesn't just make each breath a labor, it makes you more stupid. I believe it is the culmination of these frosty rides and the almost permanent chill that the body succumbs to that puts cyclists into a phase of winter time stupor. For instance, this past weekend.

Gearing up for the Dam Race on Sunday I commented to Brad that I needed to get money for the following day's race. "Well you should probably get it tonight," he said. I calmly declined, being quite sleepy after the day's criterium and ready for bed, I'll get it tomorrow. Which brings us to Sunday. Having packed up and ready to leave for Lawrence Brad suggests that we stop by and get the money on the way out of town. "Naaaah," I reply, "we'll get it in Lawrence, that'll be waaaay easier." Of course, upon arriving in Lawrence, I discover I don't have my ATM card and of course I make the chillbrained decision to race back to Olathe to get it. By the time we do get my card it's 10:06am and the race starts in 24 minutes. I'm no rocket surgeon, but if it takes about 50 minutes to get from Olathe to Perry Lake and we've got only 24 minutes to spare, I'm not going to make it. With that deduction made I continue my streak and do the most illogical thing within my power; I change back into street clothes, remove all my cycling tools from the car, and leave my bike in Olathe. I decide I'm going to simply watch the 3's and 4's.

By now, Brad and I have driven back to Lawrence and reach the race well in time for his start at 2pm. Upon our arrival I'm posed with two simple questions that come from two well thawed brains. The first from Dan is, "why didn't you just ask me to spot you?" Well Dan, because I'm an idiot. The second from Britton is, "why don't you just race the 4's?" My answer, because I left everything I need to race in Olathe.. due to me being an idiot. In summation, I missed my start time, drove back and forth between Olathe and Lawrence 3 times, and ended up killing my chances to race in the 4's for the day. What's a guy to do in such a circumstance? I took a nap.

After getting some zzz's I was able to watch Brad defend his points lead, Britton finish strong, and appreciate Dan's earlier triumph in the 5's. Once I stopped and thawed out a bit, I put aside my shortcomings for the day and was able to see the great things that my team was doing. In perspective, me not racing wasn't even an issue, the team had done great and I felt humble just to be there to see it.

Up late before the race..

It's 12:30am, I'm waiting for my kit to dry, and I just opened a can of beans with a knife. Before that I was paroozing new fictions, gamer's guides, and cycling how-to's, over at Border's Books. How did I top it all off? I shaved my legs. To be honest, the shaving cream can is getting a little low.. These days I don't even want to start thinking about shelling over another $5 for Barbasol, entry fees have been breaking my bank and I need it for food. The pantry is a little low and all I've got is a bunch of cheese. Earlier in the week, when I had the flu, mom popped over to Lawrence and dropped off some groceries. In the two grocery bags she brought me were six bags of cheese, she brought me six 8-ounce bags of cheese. That's a total of 3 pounds! I guess the stuff was on sale for dirt cheap. It wouldn't be so bad, but she only brought one loaf of bread and a meager 1 1/2 pounds of meats.. no condiments. Hey, beggars can't be choosers, right? Coincidentally I was out of condiments. Under the circumstances everything I made this week constituted a grilled cheese sandwich. It didn't matter if it was a ham sandwich or tomato soup, there was enough cheese in the recipie, that by law, it had to be called grilled cheese. After all that did I make a dent in my supply? I've still got five bags left.

Right now, the time is going on 12:56am, I'm waiting for my kit to dry sitting in Brad's basement, there's no cheese, just beans. I think to myself, these beans are plain, they sure could use some cheese.