Well, Al didn't drown

He actually bought a training pack, so it will be back to the pool with the hopes that my lip enunciation will be sufficient. Did I mention Al speaks only broken english. Shows how articulate Trimama truly is; I am wicked at charades though.

I took half The Tribe on the weekly sojourn to Costco, an atypical Saturday errand, and I instantly recalled why when I hit the parking lot. Costco, the random labyrinth where strawberries stocked next to sunglasses makes perfect sense to some supply chain manager. I'm clueless, except in my own Costco, which makes perfect sense to me, therefore, I can never move. What makes little sense to me is shoppers who discard unwanted items several aisles from their pick up point. I am also clueless as to what compelled the patron with the dual melons to leave them in the toilet paper aisle. What forces of nature prevailed upon a person to drop the melons for the tp? I entertained myself with a tale of woe for the duration of my shopping excursion. At some point she will meet up with the fellow who was carting 6 quarts of blueberries, and only 6 quarts of blueberries, through the parking lot when we arrived. I hope he is making cordial.

Spring has sprung in all it's glory, lilacs, cherry and apple blossoms, hmmmmm. The Tribe pitched a tent in the backyard and intends to sleep under the stars tonight. I'll leave the back door open. Last Saturday I biked 45 miles up hill and into the wind with Tac. Sunday I ran 13 miles up hill and into the wind at the Hastings Apple Blossom run. Today I met up with IronJenny, Iron Nick, Jumper, Robert, Iron Steve and Greg and about 150 other local cyclists to do the first supported century of our tri club. My plan was to do 50. 25 more miles up hill and into the wind and it finally occurred to meet that maybe we should ride the loop backward. Ahhh. Downhill with a tail wind is nice. We were riding a circle, as Iron Jenny pointed out, but there is something to be said for "into the wind to start", "back to the wind to finish."

I rode most of the time with Jumper as my wingman, what a great guy. Our legs were toast when we made the final turn, falling short of the 50 mile goal, but pleased with the overall ride. My new motto "Suck it up Trimama and just do it" I've had to say that to myself a lot lately as I've come to realize that my days of 8:xx min miles and strength on the hills are a thing of the past. 4 months of atrophied quadriceps is tougher to overcome then I could have imagined. So, when I think I suck and feel like quitting, especially when I feel like the anchor around everyone's neck on a group ride, I just say "suck it up and go". It's not going to get better whining about it. It certainly isn't going to improve by quitting on myself. So, I take every opportunity and see it as a building process. With my first tri i(n almost a year) next weekend, I think I'm going to be saying that a lot. This whole Tri thing is a tremendous opportunity that a very small minority have a chance to partake in, I don't want to shame myself by complaining that it's not precisely what I want it to be.

That includes the water temperature. You won't hear a single murmur out me about 52 degree water. Not a peep. My lips will be chattering too hard to say anything at all.

HG just returned from a week in Chicago with her class. It's an 8th grade rite of passage that manages to pack every site seeing adventure in the windy city into 3 days. I was pooped reading the itinary. They had a great time and came back with memories for a lifetime.

School is wrapping up for the year, yea. I find the pace of summer very agreeable. We depart for CdA mid June-totally psyched! Our plans include a dude ranch in Montana, Ironman of course (we are the finish line), Orca Island in the San Juans and wrapping the whole thing up in Glacier National. Road trip baby! I'm looking forward to meeting all the bloggie folks.

I want to compile a map of arrival dates and lodging for everyone so we can make a plan of meeting attack. Shoot me an email and I'll see what I can do to put it all together.

For those of you training, enjoy the final push and for us Sherpa folks, hang in there, it's almost here :-)!

Happy and blessed Memorial Weekend

Redefining Snuggle Time

With me arising at 4 am two days a week to work, and Tac going out at 4 am on the two opposing days, our morning snuggle time has waned. We could adapt if we wanted to rouse earlier, but sleep time is already a commodity. So, this morning, a Tac swim morning, I decided we needed to redefine snuggle time. Not like this though, that's just odd. I don't want to snuggle a perfect stranger. If I wanted to snuggle a stranger, I'd work 80 hours a week. This morning I showed for a rare early am swim session. Sharing a lane as swim support=snuggle time, well sort of. I'm sure Tac was delighted to see me, except he wasn't wearing his contacts so I could just as easily been the 80 year old in the lane next to him. That would have been preferable I'm sure, when I scooped down like the mom that I am and picked up his towel that was lying in the gutter getting wet. The towel that enfolded his beloved iphone. Hey look, an iphone sinks, good thing it's in a waterproof case.

Apparently there is no such thing as a waterproof case for an iphone. Steve Jobs is a moron. (I have to blame someone, it certainly wouldn't fall on the person who brings their non waterproof iphone to the side of a pool, or for that matter the person who carries their phone around in a pocket without protection) I know, I am evil.

I get a chance to redeem myself tomorrow with a new client. New client is hearing impaired but assured me he sort of reads lips and his aides would be in a ziploc bag by the side of the pool if he needed to hear me. I fail to understand how that will help him as he goes down for the third time. I sincerely think if you get Trimama in the pool in her swimsuit you should have to pay more, if for no other reason then my liability insurance is going to skyrocket after this. " Trimama I didn't know you were a swim instructor." I didn't either, but I did a triathlon, so close enough in my managers mind. I get the deaf, drowning guy.

Tac and HG just returned from rugby, so it's dinner time

Put your money where your values are

I travelled to small town americana yesterday on an errand. The Twin Cities are a uniquely vibrant town where a 30 minute drive puts you smack in the middle of no where. Not quite so much "no where" as it was 150 years ago when fellows like Blakely settled in with their ox and families to conjure an existence from a rich but unforgiving land. Blakely must have been a decent fellow as eventually others settled by the Blakely place and now he is a town. I would like to be a town someday. Comfrey was a town as well, until the '98 tornado swept it off the map. Amazing how a force of nature can stop history in it's tracks. My few bucks and prayers go out to the citizens of Myanmar who certainly have a renewed respect for the forces of nature.

I chatted with a client yesterday about events unfolding in the world. We were breaking it down to our level; what can I do? He sells eco friendly cleaning supplies. I suggested he sell "put your money where your values are". I expect a residual check in the mail. I also proffered the idea that if every person in America ate only the calories they needed to sustain their life for one day, perhaps a week; no more then you need, no waste, a definite impact could be made. Consider your latest walk through a restaurant, I see a lot of waste on plates. Multiply that by 300 million. A lean america would conserve immensely. Fuel, health care, food costs, waste, my goodness add it all up. I don't suspect an obese nation will go lean for the sake of humanity anytime soon, but I can dream. The law of unintended consequences leads me to think I'm not a big fan of the new light bulbs. I can't eat native bred fish for the mercury concentration in the water. How about if I only use the lights I need, and turn them off when I leave the room? What if we all only used what we needed?

The law of unintended consequences hit closer to home Sunday afternoon. Tac was gone for the weekend and Chopper takes that as a license to whine and back talk. I'm not a big fan of back talk. More to the point, I'm not a big fan of kids disrespecting their elders. He went to his room. I went to mine for an afternoon recovery from my morning LSD run. Before I succumbed to that delicious sleep of fatigue, I told the Soapinator to free Chopper from his penance in ten minutes. An hour later I awoke, vaguely aware that a voice was missing from the murmur in the living room. Chopper must have fallen into a much needed nap. Good, except for the pile of paper airplanes accumulating at the bottom of the stairs. "mom, cin i com don now?" a dozen times. Perhaps he could have put a finer point on his question if he had landed a plane against the head of his forgetful sister. Chopper is our industrious one.

"Oh, I don't care".
Mom, you say that a lot lately. demanding an explanation. Well, there are questions that require a definitive no, such as, "Mom can I cut Soapinator's hair?" and some that earn an immediate "yes" Mom, do you want a backrub?" Then there are the ones I really want to say "no" to, but for lack of a moral or immediate threat to life or limb or school pictures, I have to relent and say yes. Such as, "mom, can we build a fort in the living room?" Knowing full well that in spite of well meaning promises to clean up after themselves, there will be an aftermath. The Tribe is afterall their own act of nature. Here is where my two interests collide. I don't want more work, but I also want them to play and create and explore. So, in counting the costs, my resignation generally falls with "oh, I don't care"

I had an awesome birthday, primarily because of all the phone calls, texts, comments and etc. Thanks friends and family!

Tac is back, tan and rejuvenated by his time away- huge thanks to Kahuna, Grayhound and Curly Sue for hanging with the Big guy!