stand down
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008dog found
Archive for the ‘Family’ Category
lost dog
Tuesday, September 30th, 20085500 block of Morgan Avenue South around 7:30am this morning
70 pound yellow lab
very friendly
goes by the name "Truman"
his family misses him
babies
Saturday, September 6th, 2008Mrs. Smithers told me that there is a baby boomlet going on right now.
I asked here where all these babies are coming from.
She told me that they are coming from women’s vajayjays…
I banned her from saying vajayjay ever again.
Priorities
Thursday, June 26th, 2008managing the work, family, race teeter totter is just too much. I can’t put the time in I need to be fast and can’t put the time in to be a good dad.
Ahhhh…the eternal struggle.
It’s easy to live the life of a bike racer when you are single. Other than work and maybe a few dates time is all yours. Ride when you want, as much as you want, race every race on the calendar, no one cares. You have the killer form and can race all season long.
Once you get involved in a relationship things start to change. It’s still possible to ride, and ride a lot, but you start to have to pick some events that you won’t regret missing. That race with the big climb that you always get dropped on, that crit with the sketchy corner, all those time trials because time trials suck ass anyway. Instead of racing you find yourself attending in-law birthday parties and going on vacations without your bike. You still have great fitness but you might find yourself starting the season late or finishing early.
When kids come along bigger changes happen. Even just one weekend day spent all day on the bike is no longer possible. If you continue to care about racing and training you have to be even more dedicated to a training program to make it happen. More races are skipped, you ride in weather that you would otherwise pass on because it’s your only chance to ride, you take advantage of any opportunity you have because your options start to dry up fast. You don’t have the fitness you used to have and you may get frustrated by your lack of results or riding and racing opportunities.
And there it is, you are now faced with the decision. What is more important, being there to support the family or the time on the bike?
There is a difference between exercising and training. There is a difference between being fit and being an athlete. If you have not been there then you don’t know what it’s like to have a compulsion to train, a compulsion to compete, the desire to be right on the knife’s edge and in the best shape of your life. It’s addictive like a drug.
But the question remains, what is more important, being there to support the family or the time on the bike?
The answer is easy and obvious of course, but it can still be difficult to reconcile in your head. Lots of time and energy is spent trying to figure out how you can still stay on top of your game. Late night training sessions, getting up early for big rides, convincing your wife to let you out this weekend for a century ride with a promise to spend the entire next day doing house work. It can work, for a while.
Then your wife gets sick, or the baby gets sick, or you get sick. You have to work extra hours on a project. Something happens, something always does, and you have to cancel your ride or race plans. You get into a hole that you can’t dig out of. You start to lose your form so you train harder with the limited time you have. Then you over train and burn out and that’s it. Your attitude about riding goes into the dumper.
The other decision you can make is that you devote less time to your family so you can keep riding and training. You have the kill form on the bike and keep winning bike races. But your wife hates you and your kids don’t know who you are. You are officially a loser.
Fundamentally, if you want a happy life, it’s a easy choice and the more time you spend at home as your kids get older the more obvious the choice is and the more comfortable you are in the choice you made. Being with your family is more enjoyable than any ride or race. It’s the single most rewarding experience of your entire life and the pay back is far greater than winning some stupid bike race could ever be.
Not to say you have to give up the bike. Riding has its place. Stress relief, exercise and even some time away from the kids is important to keep your head clear. It’s important for both dad and mom so make sure you take extra time with the kids in order to allow your partner to get the same time away. It’s also important to send your kids a message that exercise is important and something that is good to do. Who knows, maybe in a few years they will want to ride with you.
You can even still race some. Just lower your sights, change your goals, be comfortable with being pack fill and sometimes getting dropped. Try something new like racing the track, MTB or cyclocross. If you are new at it you are going to suck anyway so give it a try.
Life lasts a long time and there will be plenty of opportunities later to be an athlete again. Being a parent, and a good parent at that, is a one shot deal. Do yourself a huge favor, don’t miss out on it.
Friday follies
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008Friday morning, I wake up and get the kids ready to go to day care. Mrs. Smithers is going to drop them off for a half day so she and I can get some work done before we go out of town for the weekend.
I get the kids changed, fed and dressed and loaded into the car and Mrs. Smithers is off on her way. She drops off the kids without incident.
Dog Smithers has to go to the kennel for the weekend because we don’t have enough room in the car to bring him with. But before he goes to the kennel he has to go to the Vet becuase all his vaccinations are due and the kennel won’t let him in without an update. So I take him to the Vet and, in the course of his blood checks, he pulls the needle out of his leg twice in his joy at visiting the Vet. By the time I get him out of there he has bandages on both legs and my shirt is covered with blood. I drop him off at the kennel and the kennel employees are horrified at the blood on my shirt. I say nothing, the dog is happy to be there.
Back home I have some quick packing to do before I go to work for a few hours. I also change my shirt. During the course of the packing I realize that I can not get into the front garage door. See previous post. Pissed off, I throw some crap in a bag and go to work.
Upon my arrival to work I get a message from Mrs. Smithers that Toddler Smithers is getting kicked out of day care due to a fever. She picks up Toddler and Baby Smithers and brings them to the doctor where he is diagnosed with an ear infection. As Target always takes 20 minutes longer to fill a prescription than they tell you it will be, Mrs. Smithers decides to drop off the prescription so I can pick it up on the way home.
As she is heading home I get a call from the garage door company. The technician can’t find our house. I give him directions to the house. He then calls back and says that he can’t find anything wrong with the garage. I tell him he needs to check the front garage, not the back garage. Mrs. Smithers takes over upon her arrival at home.
I try and get some work done and then bail for the weekend and head over to Target to pick up the prescription. Once back at home I see that the garage door technician has opened the door and determined the cause of the problem. It seems that the door switch has a "lock" option and, last Sunday when I allowed Toddler Smithers the opportunity to close the garage door, he hit the "lock" button preventing the door from being opened by remote.
Mrs. Smithers and I are now on auto-pilot. We know what has to be done to get out of town and we are on schedule. The kids seem happy and allow us to concentrate on finishing packing and loading up the car. Once the car is loaded Mrs. Smithers opts to give Baby Smithers one last bottle for the road so she will have a full belly and be more likely to sleep.
But now Baby Smithers feels warm.
Back to the doctor’s office (where I took this picture Steve E). Another ear infection, this time for Baby Smithers. Back to Target for another prescription. It takes 20 minutes longer than they said it would so we sit in the parking lot at Subway and eat a sandwich.
We finally get on the road 3 hours late.
Other than that everything went exactly to plan.
Question for parents
Wednesday, May 7th, 2008Why did Chick Hicks pit after the big crash in the Dinaco 400? He was at the front and could have positioned himself in the perfect spot for the lead after the caution laps were over.
Even if he did need tires why didn’t he just wait to pit until after he created a lead for himself as McQueen did? How did he end up in such a horrible position after coming out of the pit when he was clearly towards the front going into the pit?
River’s edge weekend in Wausau, WI
Saturday, July 28th, 2007FamilERob is at Patty Pat’s river house outside of Wausau. Patty and I went for a sweet 2 hr ride with some rollers in the farmland around Wausau, then we climbed Rib Mtn. Nice tempo with getting-caught-up conversation. We passed 9 mile, where the 24 hrs was just getting underway. Some regret on my part that I’m not doing that, but the family weekend takes priority.
We came back for some jet boating, kid splashing, etc. Perfect summer day. Hope yours is as great!
Bridge by my house
Monday, July 23rd, 2007
This is above the downed tree that Smithers crabbed about the other day. Smithers and I live within walking distance of one another, and our families use the paths along Mhaha Creek to get to parks and Lake Harriet.
When I grew up I lived near Miller Creek in Duluth, and I like walking along the creek with my family in all the seasons.
I also like riding around town and having a good time.
If your idea of riding around town and having a good time includes stopping on this bridge, drinking beer and yelling, then throwing empties over the side (and then maybe finding an old TV/computer monitor from a neighbor alley to throw over the side), then we’re going to talk, sooner or later. I’m not going anywhere.
Tour Coverage on Versus
Sunday, July 22nd, 2007One nice thing about the evolution of Versus programming is the unexpected benefit of seeing extreme cagefighting while sitting at the Birchwood Cafe. Never imagined I’d see that in your local, organic, good real food cafe. The flustered looks on the faces of some of the regulars during the he-man commercials was priceless. Almost made it worth having to explain to my 5 yr old son why some guys want to pummel each other. In a cage. While others watch.
