Connectors

A man stuck his head into my office looking for a bathroom. Funny way to start a conversation. Turns out he loves my office which is wall to wall dry erase boards for me to track the stats of my company by person and statistic. He is a motivational private football coach with 5,000 kids he works with. Tells me my office looks like his minus the projector. I invited him to look through the door on the other side of my office which enters a 1,500 square foot training/conference room with a 42 inch flat screen plasma t.v. and ten foot projector system run through my laptop.

Turns out he and I not only went to the same university but knew many of the same guys. He played for Washington State and I watched them lose and win in the Palouse (where the school is).

In my line of work, I figure myself more a special teams coach and mentor than businessman. My other partners and key employees handle the production aspect; the offense, defense, catching and tackling of the day to day operations.

After several minutes of speaking of the past and in jargon that left the administrator in my office head spinning, we parted ways. My already good day, getting better.

Sometimes it's just the random chance meeting of people that can make your hour better, brighten your day or heck even change your life. Like talking to someone in a line and soon after you have the job of your dreams. Like bumping into someone and a year later you're married to them.

Lets keep bumping into each other.

Finally free of Florida

It has only taken me nine months but I am finally free of Ironman Florida. By this I don't mean I have paid off my swag bill. I bought a lot of swag (Just ask Bolder). I am a swag whore. But I used my usual checking account for that.

No I am talking about a car accident I was in the day after the race? Oh I never mentioned that. Well lets just say I backed my rental into a sign pole in the middle of a parking lot. Funny in most states the sign poles are along the street, not behind and to the left of parking space next to the front door. All of us were just fine, I backed in at about 3 miles per hour and as the pictures show, I had no problem partying at the pool with the rest of the bloggers a couple hours later.

Well of course I didn't buy the insurance. I mean c'mon. The car was $26 per day and the insurance another $23 a day.

Mistress did all the calling and paperwork and such with our insurance and the rental company before we had even left Florida. But when we're 100 miles away a day later and they tell us they want us to file a police report back in PCB in person, she just laughed.

I think she had a pretty small monthly payment to them so as not to disturb our normal life. Ultimately this was a lesson learned.

But it's a dry heat

The furnaces of hades finally got a zip code, 85205.

Today marks the day that the Valley of the Sun hit 29 days of temperatures this year over 110 degrees. In a unrelated note, there will be no parades and all party's are required to be around pools.

The devil is in the details and while 'official' temperature gauges are used, anyone who watches the thermometer in their own backyard can attest that where they are at can be hotter or colder than what is reported on the news. Mine certainly is hotter.

Happy Place

My rant yesterday was just frustration. Part of my responsibilities at work are to deal with outside agencies and legal complaints. In two days I had received three complaints. Every one of them a potential threat to our good rating in the community if they are not mediated correctly, except that each one takes no personal responsibility for their actions or conveniently dismisses the very clauses that make their complaints void.

Later that day I went for a run and ended up in a happy place in my mind. Funny enough that happy place looks suspiciously like Bolder's closing, I mean Man Couch with cup holders that perfectly fit a pint of Stephen Colbert's AmeriCone Dream ice cream.

Even though last week had its training challenges this week is looking much better and should be a banner time for me.

Have Fun.

Sharks

My frustration level right now is really high. I want to write about how lawyers or people in the legal field feel they can write their frustrations down, doll it up with a couple of revised codes and legelese and think they can remove personal responsibility from the equation. Of course lawyers are great at placing blame on everyone but their client and when they are their own advocate well lets just throw up this great big wall of obfuscation.

That was so much cleaner than the first five times I wrote that paragraph. I think most lawyers that send me their demands think I will simply roll over, because you know, their big mean powerful lawyers and the little guy should be afraid of court. And of course they tell me, "In good faith if you don't respond in such and such a time, I will file papers..."When I send them responses that illustrates the ridiculousness of their position and finish with, "In good faith please respond by such and such a date, as to the acceptance of my offer or see you in court..." I don't get many responses back.

Guh!

On to better things. Got in a good 90 minute trainer ride this morning. Finished up another season of Amazing Race which I DVR off the Game Show Network. They run an entire 13 episode season over two weeks. I love that show.

Mo has the stomach flu but we got him into the doctor fast enough to stop any advancement. He is back in school today.

Run tonight, hallelujah!

Mt. Lemmon trip

Well there was some great and some not so great doings on the Aztriclub trip to ride Mt. Lemmon. We got out of Phoenix on time but due to a rare early morning rain storm our drive time was significantly longer.

We decided before riding that we'd go to Tri Sport's headquarters and see what they claim is the largest tri store in the world. We were all very unimpressed and quite frankly severely disappointed. Perhaps they are a force online but Tribe Multisport in Scottsdale, my store, is infinitely more impressive is size, vibe and personnel.

Due to time constraints we decided to start two miles up the mountain and ride two hours; each turning around where we were at when 4:30 struck, catching the rest on the next morning. Let me just say that I turned around at 1 hour completely knackered. Perhaps it was the 10 mile run the day before, or already being up 12 hours and driving for six, or maybe I was just not far enough into base training to attempt such a climb at altitude so soon. I got to the point where my rpms for 5 minutes were below 35 and another two minutes below 30. I was sort of just waiting to fall over. While I felt fine for the most part, my legs were simply lead. Whatever the reason its never fun to be the only person to turn back in the group.

Everyone else did really well.

When we got back to the camp, I tried to start the fire with the most rudimentary tools possible. Starting off with dry tinder, some moss and my Light My Fire firesteel. I didn't count on five very hungry and tired triathletes clambering for fire and food and to start flicking matches into my fire pile. Their 3 minute timeline, got counted as far as Jeff and Andy could reach for packets of match sticks. I ended up using my lighter but the prep work was spectacular and given a few more minutes feel pretty confident I would have got it going.
I did get some photo's of my sleep set up, the hammock and tarp. Good set up, I was very warm the entire time and pretty comfortable all things considered. The main detraction is that I am a side sleeper and being forced onto my back without the ability to move my legs and body kept my sleep level at the most minimum. Add to that my already stunted sleep pattern in unfamiliar places, so although my eyes were closed and I know I slept it was not recuperative in the least and heard almost every snore and carried voice in the area all night long.

I have this meditative trick of counting backwards from 100 to clear my mind. I start over each time I go from counting down numbers to a thought that pops in. I must have restarted forty times, reaching zero perhaps twice.

Waking up the next morning, we were all quite tired. No one really got any good sleep but who said camping was about restful nights sleep. The rest all slept in a decent size family tent but the snoring, uneven surface, the issue of moving over men to got take a leak outside and just being outside to sleep at all, caused a lack of rest that night.

We decide that instead of unpacking the bikes we would go into town get a good meal and head home.

We all had a great time. The evening spent around the campfire drinking beer and hearing new stories and repeating old. Teasing and pushing buttons in the way chums do. While I thought selfishly and sheepishly that I would be derided for turning around, I don't think it even came up except for my own self-deprecation. If that is because my team mates know that I have been busting my ass training for three straight weeks or because they know that even good people have bad days, or whatever, deep down I was thankful they respected my failure to complete the ride.

To use my new favorite term, That'll Happen.

Pack Out

Well heading down to Tucson for a ride up Mt. Lemmon, the supposed gem ride of Arizona. Its 26 miles from base to peak with recommendation of starting about ten miles out to get warmed up before the incline. Rumor has it and I hope its true that the incline is about 6%. We will see.

We, that would be Jeff, John, Hardcore Mike, Glen and 'Chili' Andy, are also camping 21 miles up the mountain at a State park. So after the ride we will relax and do guy stuff around a fire.

This has given me the opportunity to pack out my camping kit as if I was going out on a much longer trip. Below is my base kit that would last me indefinitely minus food and water. (And of course all the bike and car camping gear I am taking for luxury which would not being going into the backcountry).

In case this doesn't blow out when clicked on. I will describe my gear with hyperlinks. Starting left top to bottom and traveling right top to bottom.

Total base weight, including all the clothes I would be wearing is 16 pounds.

Left Column: Big Agnes Yampa sleeping bag (Outside Gear of The Year 2004), Big Anges sleeping pad (also GOTY 2004). Poop trowel (the campground has bathrooms though) Green 7' x 9' waterproof tarp, ENO single nest hammock with ENO SlapStraps inside (Outside Buyers Guide 2007). Titanium pegs. 150 feet of 550 cord.

Middle Column: Go Lite Race Pack with 3L bladder inside. In the top pouch is a RSK folding knife and Gerber Infinity flashlight, in the pockets is vaseline lip balm, paper, sharpie, wool watch cap, photon freedom micro light clipped to zipper, spf 35, digital camera case, map case with directions to camp ground and Brunton 8096 Adventure Racing compass. On top are Montrail Namche boots (Outside BG 2007) (REI socks inside) and Black Diamond Spot headlamp (Outside BG 2006).

Right Column: Inside clothing bag which is what I will be wearing after the ride- Mountain Hardware Canyon Shirt and Canyon Pants, extra socks, Ex Officio britches, REI base layer, wool beanie, buff, Cool Max base shirt, buff. Next two bags are REI rain jacket, Seirra Design Rain pants.

At the bottom of the right Column is my red EDC (EveryDay Carry) bag. This is with me 24/7 and I use these items on a regular basis, including and replacing items as I use them. It includes an emergency blanket, Photon micro light, generic lighter, Swiss Firesteel fire starter, quart zip lock bag, gallon zip lock bag, button compass, 3 feet of duct tape, signal mirror, whistle, spark lite fire starter with spark lite tinder quick, 4 Gerber Strike Force tinder cubes, list of emergency phone numbers, $50. Calling card. Gerber folding knife.




With these 16 pounds I would have about 11 in the pack and 4 on me in clothes, boots and gear. Its car camping so no water purifier or Nalogene bottles, but I am taking my Naly bottle with Firefly light. A ten day trip would have the same gear above, adding 16-20 pounds of food and stove/gas, remove the hammock system and add another 3 pounds for a tent. Situationally and seasonally dependent I hope the total weight would be less than 40 pounds, closer to 35 making hard choices.

As I get the sleeping shelter set up this weekend I hope to take pictures of how the hammock floats under the tarp. It would be very cool if I can get some video or photos of me starting a fire using the EDC kit and I will first try without the lighters. But hell worst case scenario, which is what I am practicing, I have a flare in the car if I have a real problem. haha.