One Night in Indy

I'm in Indianapolis for the night through Saturday while attending the Sinfonia Educational Foundation Board of Directors meeting. This is an annual meeting that is held in various cities. This time around, the meeting is virtually in my backyard...when considering that one meeting was held in Las Vegas.

I'm a little anxious about the morning portion of the meeting as I will be presenting an idea to the SEF board. I'm not going to talk about it right now as I think it would be better for a decision be made about it first. I think it is a decent idea, it all comes down to how well I sell it. This is the first time that I will be presenting in front of this particular board. I'll just have to see what they think.

Most of the group went out for drinks and smoke cigars. i might have gone out with them, but the smoky bar scene is just not of interest to me. Of course, we got back from the meeting a little late and the fitness center at my hotel was closed.

Instead of going out to run in a city that I am not overly familiar with, I did the next best thing...climb the stair in the fire exit. In about 25-30 minutes, I climbed the equivalent of 78 floors with a total of 1,581 steps...and that was both ways since the hotel was only 12 floors high.

I worked up a nice sweat and now I'm hitting the sack. I should sleep good tonight.

Century #2 Completed

Two down, eight more to go. Another 100 miler under the belt and I couldn't be happier...or more miserable. The only thing worse than Century #2 was Century #1. Ugh. Fortunately, I had people to ride with this time around.

We started out with Diana Holland, Collette Loehrlein, Diane Bies, Bill Johnson and Cindy Jones. Diana H., Bill and I were the only ones to wrap ot up together, although Diane B. had plans to finish her mileage up later on.

We had weaved our way towards Elberfeldt. The wind was coming from the southeast so going north was a piece of cake. That was about 18 miles. We made a quick pit stop at the gas station in town and headed east towards Lynnville taking Hwy 64.

We were just under 30 miles at Lynnville. That stretch wasn't overly bad even with a bit of the headwind coming from the SE. Everyone stopped again and it ended up being the point where our group split up.

During the stop, Diana, Bill and I confirmed our route and continued eastward on Hwy 64 towards Folsomville Rd...which would take us south towards a SMALL town (more like an intersection) called Folsomville. From there, we headed towards Boonville where we got lunch at Subway. This was about the 50 mile mark.

Bad news about this stretch. The wind turned around and was coming from the southwest. Needing to head west for the end of the ride meant that we had a head wind for the majority of the ride. Both Diana and I were struggling. This was her longest ride of the year and with a small group, there wasn't an opportunity to rest while someone else pulled. Each of us were pullign ourselves which can really beat you down.

We hit a couple of back roads to get to Chandler, where fellow EBC member Bill Voegel, provided us a bonus pit stop at the pharmacy where he works. (Poor guy had to work.) He provided frozen candy bars, cold Gatorage and some energy bars for us. We even ran into Cindy and Diane B. who doubled back to meet Bill.

At this point, Diana and I were at about 59 miles...Bill had accumulated some extra miles by riding before we met...and we were really close to our starting point. Time to punt. Bill was almost done so he headed towards his home. Diana and I headed south towards Newburgh into the headwind to pick up some extra miles. By the time, we circled back to Chandler, we had added another 22 miles.

I got back to the starting point with 10 miles to go. I had 5 miles to get me home so I had to make up another 5 on the way. The Keystone subdivision gave the just the opportunity. Two laps through there and I was home free.

My final odomoeter reading was 99.82 miles and I know that my computer has been shorting some of my trips this month so I feel confident that I was in the clear. Our average speed was embarrassingly low and I'm not going to bother to post it. The good news is we made it. Even though it took an eternity, it still counts.

I'm going to take a nice nap and retire the bike for the night...and probably tomorrow. Since last Saturday, I've accumulated over 250 miles and I have no desire to even think about the bike until the weekend.

Kickin' off an April Vacation

It's Monday and I am not at work. It is the start of a nice little vacation for me.

Some of you may have heard how I started my official vacation as I walked out the door of work on Friday. Just after I closed the door behind me, I lost my footing (it had just finished raining) and kicked my rear wheel as I was trying to regain my balance. I knocked the alignment out of whack and broke a spoke. The bike was unrideable and I had to kindly ask a co-worker for a ride home.

I took the wheel in to the local shop, but since it is spring, they are backed up. I won't get it until Friday. If not for my wife's bike having the same wheel size as mine, I might gave been majorly screwed for my riding plans for the week.

So I got lucky and took advantage of it. Over the weekend, I was able to:
Ride 61 miles on Saturday
Mow the lawn
Do one final layer of mud on drywall seams
Plant five new lilac bushes and two hastas
Plant three rows of beans
Ride another 40 miles on Sunday
Clean and relube bike chain

Many more jobs arounf the house to keep working on. As far as riding, I am figuring:
45 miles on Tuesday
30 miles on Wednesday
100+ miles on Thursday
50 miles (at least) on Saturday
40 miles on Sunday

Let's see what gets done and keep fingers crossed that most of it gets completed (or at least close).

Weekend in Wisconsin

Weekends don't get much better than the one I just had. I was able to have a little 4-day weekend in in Wisconsin...and it was good. (Of course, I once again forgot my camera.)

The trip came to be through an e-mail I received from my fraternity chapter looking for help with their initiation. It had been awhile since I had been up to UW-Whitewater...and taken part in their initiation...so I jumped at the chance. The next day, I was informed it was part of a larger workshop being held on the campus which prompted the question of whether or not I would like to present.

YES! Now this is a business trip. I reserved my car, made some arrangements with friends and family to crash at night and was set to go.

On Friday, I picked up my car rental at the Evansville airport only to find out they had a Toyota Prius on the lot. I ran back in to check its status and it was available. I got it, loaded up the car and headed out.

Fast forward about six hours and I pull into Elkhorn, Wis. where my wife's sister and family live. I pursuade them that we need to go to Whitewater and have the fish fry at Jessica's Restaurant. (Quick note: Leandra and I went there every Friday when we lived in town, but I haven't been there in years.) The food was as good as I remember and some of the staff still recognized me. Pretty cool.

I head over to the Center for the Arts on the UW-W campus and do the initiation thing. In addition to the collegiate members, there were three guys from the Milwaukee Area Alumni Association (all from my chapter) including a XI Pi charter member from 1965. Awesome.

Saturday was a little less stressful for me with the initiation done. I put the finishing touches on my powerpoint presentation and headed out. I met the guys in a lecture hall and set up my laptop. The presentation went well and I had three chapters ask if they could have a copy of it to take back and share with the rest of their chapter (the ones who couldn't attend the workshop).

After the workshop, I made my one last stop of college nostalgia and purchased a pizza and breadsticks from Topper's Pizza. This was one of the 20 food groups when I was in college and it still taste the same as it did. Yum.

Sunday was a different day for me. No fraterniy business to deal with, but I had plans to have lunch with a fratenrity brother living in Kenosha. Unfortunately, that fell through so I continued on with my plan to go to Milwaukee and catch the Brewers/Cardinals game (which was moved to the evening for ESPN).

I stopped at the Pluta's home to drop off my bags (Home away from home #2) and stopped to pick up my comics books at my store in West Allis (still collecting). I was told about a bike expo at Wisconsin State Fair Park and went to check it out since I need some new shorts. It was the last day and I think I was stuck with the expensive leftover stuff. Everything was pretty much out of my price range so I waled out empty handed.

Drove down to Miller Park and met my dad and some of his friends. I ended up getting a ticket in his section and row...but at the other end and all by myself. Bummer, but not a problem. I walked around the stadium before the game and just happened to come across an alumnus from my chapter. How crazy...

The game was exciting. A bit of a nailbiter, but the Brewers ended up pulling out wuth a win in the ninth inning with a walk-off homer. I haven't been that excited at a game since I was at the game that put them in the playoffs in 2008. Oddly enough, that may have been the last game I attended prior to this year.

Monday was a travel day and I left early so I could make it back for Boot Camp. After a weekend of bad eating (fish fry, pizza and brats), I was asking to be punished today. Bad food does not equal good results at the gym. I'm pretty sure I knew that already, but tonight just reinforced the concept.

Too many props to give for an incredibale weekend. I love the Toyota Prius...I want one so bad. My niece is a chatterbox. Who taught her to talk so much? The Plutas are the bomb...always. It was nice to see my dad again...it had been awhile.

Unless there is some weied emergency, I won't be back around my home state until August. I'll have a little more time to spend, but there will be some huge expectations to meet.

A Little Wisdom + New Toys = Progress

What a great weekend. I had the Pluta family in town for a mini-vacation and I it was so enjoyable. I was even able to sneak in a bike ride so I can't complain.

The highlight of the weekend was the roto-tiller that Matt Pluta (the husband of the family) put together for me. He does a lot of small motor repair and on occassion gets something that he can fix up and sell. I had asked him about one last fall and he happened to have one in stock. This would be the "new toy."

My garden has been in desperate need of an overhaul. The "dirt" is very much like clay and is hard to work. For the last two summers I have been working leafs from my huge oak tree in the front yard into the dirt. I get a lot every fall, which I then chop up with my lawn mower, but I have been turning them into the soil manually with a shovel. The "dirt" gets very clumpy and doesn't really mix well.

But just turning the dirt as it was was not going to do any good. (I found that out later on. More on that towards the end.) I needed a means of making the dirt looser and little more fertile than what I had. Spotlight on Tonya McGuire, the Controller at the Fraternity HQ, who happens to be a master gardener. She gave me a "recipe" to use (this is the wisdom):

• One bag of peat moss
• Three bags of top soil
• One bag of sand (I used all-purpose sand, but I think play sand would work as well)

After dumping that on a part of the dirt/clay in my garden and spreading it around, it was time to put the roto-tiller to the test. Needless to say, it was a world of difference. (I wish I had some before/after pictures, but my camera batteries was dead. All I got are after pics.) It wasn't really the tiller that I was worried about, but rather that this new dirt is going to produce a better harvest. Granted, that it is only one day and one working of the soil, but by appearance alone, it looks like I have a real garden.

The other part of my garden is seperated by a strawberry patch and I opted not to make the dirt recipe for this other section. I plan to see how the main area works before I buy into the new program. The tiller was a horse and dug through everything, even though the clay was wet and kind of clumpy.

After we finished, Leandra and Barb (the wife) and Adam Pluta (the son and MY BOY!) planted a couple of rows of peas. It may be too early, but it's been really warm and I thought we could take a chance.

Here's hoping for a good return from what we have been given. I sometimes think that I don't deserve what I get. 99% of the time I'm not asked for anything in return. I'm not much of a religious person so I'm not going to get into the whole "God thing," but I'm fortunate to have the right people around me and I think that they would be satisfied if I can pass on my wisdom that I gain...and the occasional toy...to other people who need it.