Randomness part deux

How long does it take for a water polo player to feel "comfortable" in the so stylish caps that they wear...



I have no doubt that this is a physical sport, but come on... the cute little bow under the chin? There has to be another way to keep the cap on their heads.







Took the dog to the vet this morning. His foot is healing nicely. I'm amazed at how quickly the cut is healing up. Hopefully he will be released from "house/office arrest" by the end of the week and he can start spending unsupervised time outside and by next week we can continue our morning walks. We'll find out more on Thursday when he goes in for another follow up.



We went rode the mountain bikes yesterday and for the first time in the last month, or so, I felt good on the bike and in the single-track. I'm still having mental issues with technical sections, been feeling extra timid since hitting the ground a couple of weeks ago. Mountain bike racing starts back up this weekend... well, not for me as I don't plan on racing the first race (it's too skeery)... but, for everyone else. Maybe getting back out on the different courses will help me get my head back on straight for riding. I still have a couple of weeks before I line up.






Oh well, it's 9pm and I'm tired, so it's off the computer and off to bed.

:~( Poor puppy )~:

We're thinking Shimano fell victim to some metal flower bed edging in the bad yard. I came home from work the other day and found blood spots on the back patio. Checked him over and found that he had managed to cut his foot pad.

It didn't seem too bad and wasn't really bleeding anymore so I went up to the pet store to see if I could find a dog bootie or something to protect his foot. I didn't find anything like that, but did pick up some sticky wrapping tape and planned on just wrapping everything up. By time I got home Alan had broken out the super glue and had sealed the edges of the cut together. Figured that should work-ish so I went ahead and wrapped up the foot for the night.

Next morning I took off the wrapping and found that the super glue didn't hold. Since it was raining, I re-wrapped his foot and brought him to work with me. At the office I could get Shimano to lay still and have better light to check out his foot. Decided that it was a lot deeper than it had looked the night before and he needed to go to the Vet and maybe get some stitches.




Doggie Doc said it was a pretty significant cut (pictures don't really show it that well). Learned stitching the foot pad isn't an option, that part of a dog just won't hold a stitch. So I was on the right track with wrapping up his foot.



Since the wrap needs to stay dry and it has been raining he also gets to sport a stylish neoprene sock to try to keep dry when you just have to go outside.




This could take a couple of weeks to heal. So, we're looking at lots of car trips










and "take your dog to work" days


The back yard squirrels will also get a few weeks of vacation from doggie harassment

Don't know it you can tell or not, but he now has a fluorescent green wrapping because the first version done at the vet didn't last 24 hours. Hopefully, this one will make it until Monday's check up.

Sending him back

Almost time for school to start which means moving Kyle back to Austin. No more dorm and odd-ball roommate - he's upgraded to an off-campus condo and hopefully a normal roommate.

Here's my photo-journal of the trip...

South on Central Expressway at 7:59am
(aren't all these people supposed to be at work already?)





Shadow art

A better shadow

Ha Ha - we're out of traffic and you're not

Out of Dallas



Just for Andrew







Can't get there without going through Waco



"Bruce"

Mmmmmm

Let's ride on the freeway - Brilliant Idea!



Look - there's Alan

Getting closer

Gas stop



Someone's getting a new home

Are we there yet?

What a deal! Get your Home Owners cleaned along with 3 Rooms & a Hall for only $89.95!

Yea!

Our exit


After unloading what we brought down it was time for a shopping trip at Ikea

Wow! We could have used these guys

Ikea style

After you buy it, you got to build it

6 a.m.

It's all relative

Last Sunday we rode OCNP . Since we haven't had in any significant rain in quite a while the trail was dry, dusty and starting to marble (break up) in some areas. It was also one of those days that I wasn't riding all that great, so I was taking it pretty slow. Riding slow works on the flat stuff, but when going through a dip (especially a dip with an exposed root on the side of it) you really do need to carry some speed.

Momentum really is your friend, 'cuz without it you can fall down.

Now being an "experienced" rider/racer I know this. I also know that if you are about to crest a climb, but you are lacking in said momentum and are in the process of no longer being on the rolling surface of the two wheels that your bike has, it can be advantageous to grab any trees that might at the top of the climb. This usually will keep you and your bike close to the top and you can pull yourself, with bike, up to the top and then ride on your merry way. Seems that the tree at the top was not willing to co-operate with me and it took a step back, either that or I just missed it... nah... which resulted in me and bike succumbing to Newton's Law and sliding down the hill.



Just a little scraped up, but not a great way to start your ride. It also brought out my overly cautious side and the rest of the ride included avoiding anything the least bit technical.

During the rest of the ride I noticed that the bike wasn't shifting right and I was getting a lot of chain noise. Ran through the rear cassette, shifting was OK - just noisy. Tried the front shifter, dropping the chain into the small ring and could not get it to shift back up. Great, now I'm spinning like crazy.

Got back to the trail head and told the guys about what happened. They said they heard me yelling, but didn't hear any screams so figured I was OK.

I asked Alan to look at my bike. He found the problem pretty quick:



Now my ride is over and we're sitting around talking to the others. There's a kid there, maybe 9 years old, and we found out that he had hit one of the marbled areas that was right before a bridge and he ended up riding into the creek which was about a 2 - 3' drop. He was OK, no blood, just a little shook up.

So... maybe my little slide down the hill wasn't so bad (at least I had blood).

A little bit later another group of riders come in, walking their bikes - not a good sign; and, one was walking in two bikes - definitely not good. One of their group decided to try to take a dirt jump that was just a little bit, no A LOT, over his skill level and landed on his head. Luckily he was wearing a helmet and it took the brunt of the impact shattering into little pieces in the process. The bike didn't fare much better.


nor did his teeth

or fingers

You really can't tell from the picture, but the right side of his face and especially his nose (broken?) are pretty swollen. There was also a dime sized hole on the inside of his bottom lip.

We could not talk him out of self-medicating, but we did convince him that a side trip to the ER wouldn't be a bad idea. Don't know his final injury tally, but my little scrapes and broken cable quickly became insignificant.