Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Flat Tires


















Back from a nice relaxing weekend in Eugene. After a rough Saturday night of getting used to sleeping next to Mai and two dreams of death (Mom and Mai -eeeek) I still managed to get a decent night's sleep and was bright eyed and ready for the message at my brother and SIL's church Sunday Morning. They had guest pastor, Wayne Cordeiro from Honolulu who was just wonderful. I've already got his March 1st video on demand on "No Neutrality" up on my computer and ready to listen to as I work this morning. I also couldn't leave church on Sunday without buying two of his books. There were quite a few to choose from and as Jenny and I thumbed through them, a friend of Pastor Cordeiro's handed me a particular book and told me I should buy it. Jenny and I looked at the title and the back cover and both shrugged our shoulders and said to each other "not for me" and I put it back. The man picked it up again and put it in my hands and said "I think you should buy this one"...so I did. Hmmm...

Had a good day visiting with the family on Sunday and then had a fantastic 9 hour night of sleep before Dad and I headed out on our bikes on Monday. He had devised a somewhat horrendous bike ride for us. We drove it Sunday and it had two loooong hills that appeared to be somewhat atrocious. It snowed on us a bit so we knew it would probably be a cooold ride on Monday. So, we parked the truck, unloaded the bikes and headed out on about a 2 mile downhill warm -up. We stopped at the grange and Dad noticed my rear tire looked flat. We pumped it up a bit and decided to get to the base of the first hill to check it out again, so a mile later we decided it was definitely flat. Ended up I had pinched the tube, which I thought I had, but couldn't figure out how to not pinch it (it was right at the valve stem and for the life of me, I could not get it to not appear to be pinching it).

Got it fixed and headed up the first hill. I was in my granny gear from the start, but made it to the top with relative ease. I would say I didn't drop below 5.8mph on this stretch and I know that in my mountain bike I would have been at about 3mph or off the bike at some point. I felt fairly triumphant at the top. I waited for Dad a bit at the fire station, but he had told me to go on ahead and he would follow me, so I headed down the hill and it felt sooooooooo good to be flying along...until my rear tire blew! Now, that was scary - going downhill when it blew. Dad soon followed and we fixed my second flat of the day...and with no more tubes with me, I decided to not try to make it down the entire next hill as we knew it was a very rough road going down and Dad was turning back up the hill to follow a different route to finish his ride. I hate riding by myself, however, I did go half way down the hill and then started the climb back up. At one point, 3 humonguous (and I mean HUMONGOUS) turkeys were blocking the road. I am deathly afraid of turkeys. So I had a decision to make - stop and wait for them to move on...and possibly charge at me and peck me to death, or ride as fast as I could UPHILL and not let them get me as I passed between them. I chose to ride, Sally, ride.

You'll be glad to know...

I survived.

I survived just in time to get lost. Yes, why was I out on my own? Dad said no matter where I was, he would be in the truck and he would find me. I think this was under the assumption that when I hit Lorane Hwy, I would turn right, not left.
We eventually reconnected and called it a day. It was quite shorter than 40 miles. I haven't looked at my bike computer yet, but I think maybe 26 miles with two nice hill climbs, so I was happy. Just as we headed back home in the nice warm truck, it started to rain, so I think it was perfect timing :o)

Back later to talk about PDL. How is everyone feeling about the last couple of days in the book? Are you connecting with it or is it getting less interesting? How are you doing?

6 comments:

Anna Smith, MSA, NASM CPT said...

dang girl, what was the book or did I seed read and miss that part???

A Prelude To... said...

OK, I just read your comment 5 times and I still don't get it...
WhAT are you talking about??

:o)

Krissa said...

Anna is probably asking about the book you mention in your first paragraph. You said he handed you a book and said you needed that particular one. What book was it?

:)

Anna Smith, MSA, NASM CPT said...

Thanks Krissa. YEP.

A Prelude To... said...

haha - see, I wrote that this morning before my coffee and then promptly forgot I wrote about the book :o)

Doh.

It was "Leading On Empty" -
it's highly recommended for pastors, soon to be pastors, leaders in ministry, etc.

um? hello? I am none of the above, so you can see why I put the book back down the first time.

However, I find it interesting that on Amazon there is a review from a Craig Chong that says,
"I have known Wayne as Pastor, Boss, and now Friend for almost 20 years and this is his finest work! This is more than a book but a combination of an intimate journal and process guide for those who are going through a MAJOR LIFE TRANSITION.

Anna - A Major Life Transition??? Isn't this just what we were e-mailing about the other day??

Hi Krissa - thanks for unclogging my brain :o)

Anna Smith, MSA, NASM CPT said...

Hmmmm...yep. Sometimes when his hand leads we just have to get out of the way eh?

Cant wait to see what you think!