Full Speed on Empty

Next to some, I guess the past couple of weeks haven't been so bad for me. I have an entirely new perspective on racing. Racing is a lot easier then having a race. I've volunteered for two races in a row and I'm beat. Now I've got to find some time to recover, train and race myself.

I realize things have been a little lacking around here. Oh well. It's all I can muster. At least you'll get lots of pictures. Ready?

Started Friday with the day off. First on the bill was opening the pool.

Jen said there was no way I could handle this by myself. Ha!

After the pool it was onto the grass. I've been trying for weeks to get
on a Friday cut schedule. Now all I have to do is keep it there.
With the grass taken care of, I had to run over to Paoli to pick up the
car from the shop. I should have just ridden over there, but then I
would have missed this.

Yeah. That's special.
So train ride to Paoli, pick up the car, stop at the shop and
pay for a huge mistake (more on that in another post). Hit the fabric
shop then back home. Back at home it's back to chores. I threw
together our new deck furniture finally.

Too dark to work outside, I moved in to finish up some stuff on the windows. Last week Jen primed our kitchen windows. This weekend it was paint, but first I had to fill in all the nail holes. Yay!

Go to bed and get up early Saturday to head to Granogue to
prepare for the race on Sunday. I guess I spent three or four hours
working my part of the course - marking and taping for direction.

After the work it was time to ride. There may have been twenty of us or so. I felt pretty good and was having a lot of fun on that lap. Then near the end I realized I hadn't been on my mt. bike in over a week and a half. At that point the trail got real hairy and I wussed out. I backed it off a bit and rolled to the finish. The afternoon was still kind of early, so I rolled another lap with Wes. Granted Wes is fast, but he was killing me. I had nothing and lost every little bit I thought I had.

Beat with my tail between my legs, I ran home. The skies were
looking ominous and Jen was painting the windows. I got home just
in time to throw up some protection.

I still felt like ass from the ride. When I finally went to the bathroom
I figured out why. I was completely dehydrated. I hadn't been that
bad in a while. I guess working all morning in the sun without enough
water kind of did me in. It took a good couple of hours and lots and
lots of water to get back to semi-normal. In the meantime
I was finishing up some stuff with the pool when I found this.

This picture is kind of small, but if you look real close, right above the water line, you'll see a crack running from one side to the other. Now this could mean all kinds of things. First thought is I didn't properly close the skimmer (this part) for winter, it got/had water in it, froze and cracked. Overall I lowered the water in the pool adequately below the skimmer for closing. Did the skimmer fill with its own water (from under the cover)? I don't know. I can't say I payed that much attention to the water level in the skimmer when I took the cover off. I was too busy getting it done and not inspecting. The other thing is the crack is above the water. Maybe it's just not that important of an issue right now? The pool is old. Plastic cracks. It may have just been its time.

But that's not all. The skimmer wasn't skimming. It's supposed to clean the crap off the surface of the pool. The surface wasn't getting clean. I put my hand down to the bottom and felt suction, but not a whole lot. Today there's no suction at all. It's done - kaput. Not sure this is something I can or have time to fix. Getting a pool store to look at it, is next to impossible this time of year. I'm going to have to do a little research. Good news is the chemicals are balancing out nicely and the vacuum still works.

That was it for Friday and Saturday. I'm going to have to do a whole other post for Sunday and the race. Maybe I'll shower and sleep first. We'll see. Remember a few weeks (maybe months) I said I need to clean my gear room? Still do.

-b

ps. I still owe Lodi pictures.