Wednesday

Good morning!

I need to make this fairly quick. I am meeting a guy at the Store to do some painting this morning. We hired him to do some work because he needed some work and we needed some work done. He's not comfortable hanging outside of our 2nd story windows to paint the frames, so guess who is doing that this morning? I may wear a helmet or something. If I fall, I want to make sure that I land on my head.

Yesterday was an interesting day. I looked at sighing for a while. It's an interesting thing. There are two passages that says that Jesus sighed deeply. That's an interesting thing to imagine. God in the flesh sighing. Once was a sigh of frustration, and the other seems to be a sigh of sadness, sadness because of the fallen nature of humanity.

The summer meals program started at Burris school on Monday. There were 60 something on the first day. Yesterday, the second day, was my day to work, along with Alex T. Word must have spread that I, considered a rock-star-like figure in our community, was going to be present. We had 123 show up! I refused to sign autographs. It wasn't about me.

Last night was Paceline Tuesday! I love Paceline Tuesday. We had a dozen or so riders show up at Spring Mill Park. Tires were pumped up, bottles secured. shoes and gloves donned, computers reset, jokes made, and then it was time to roll out. We managed to anger 2-3 cars in the first mile. I think that's a new record.

The six miles to Orleans was easy and fun, even with the swirling wind. Once on 337 we tried to "lightly" paceline the 10 miles out to the Washington county line. The line never got formed very well. Some were confused and some didn't want to participate. I got in the line, but I was having shifting trouble. Specifically my rear derailleur developed a mind of its own, shifting against my will and not with my will. I was working too hard and pulled out.

It wasn't long until the line fell apart. Bill was pulling and decided it was too windy to keep it all together. I was near the back of the pack, and then to exacerbate the situation, I threw my chain off going up the hill out of the Lost River bottom. At least I didn't fall over this time. Bill helped me fix it, and then I rode nearly 20 mph to the county line. There I made some adjustments, and they worked.

There at the county line we formed into 2 lines. I call them A and B. The B line comprised Tim the Elder, Tim the Strunk, Dan the Man, The Dave of Orleans, and your humble scribe. We said we would go about 20 mph, knowing a headwind was going to be present from time to time. I pulled first and eased up to the announced speed. Slowly we were closing in on Rand the Independent Man. He doesn't like the danger of pacelining, so rides alone most of the time.

As we caught Rand, we persuaded him to join the line, and he did. Once he got to the front he pulled and pulled and pulled, down the Lost River hill, across the bottom, and up the Lost River hill. It was a great pull. I ended up with the last pull that included the hill right before Pat's Plants. I pulled the hill and then, just about a mile from the finish, starting picking up the pace. I think we were going to 26 or 27, when Dan started his sprint to the finish. He was going fast - 29 to be exact, according to him. I responded and went as hard as I could.

Dan started too soon and faded a little, so I was able to catch him a few yards before the finish. I knew what was coming next. Sure enough Tim the Elder came flying by me to win the B line sprint. It was a great ride! We averaged 21.7 mph. The A team averaged 23.3 I think, and Bill won their sprint. If you are interested in that, then you can click here.

After the 32 mile ride, several of us ran 3 miles in the Park. Brick, baby, brick! After the brick, it was time for some refueling and fun at Wendy's. It was a great evening any way you measure it.