The good with the bad

We got a nice surprise a few weeks ago when my Daughter Angela's boyfriend Ernest called and asked if he could marry her. They've been living and working in Tucson for a few years now since graduating college and I sometimes would tease them about tying the knot, so this was a happy moment for me. A week or so later Angela got a new job offer with a 40% pay increase so she gave her two weeks notice. Then they bought a new dog. Talk about changing a bunch of stuff in your life all at once! Anyway, we're both so happy for them and hope to get by for a visit in '09.

To balance out all that good karma the bicycle gods decided this week it had been too many years since I've gotten a close up look at the asphalt. On Thursday I was coasting into a corner and slipped on a wet piece of crosswalk paint. Not much damage besides a few strawberries and a sore hip. Then yesterday about 60 miles into our North shore ride I rode over a rough stretch of road in front of sunset beach and heard a loud crack, followed by my handlebars separating from my bike. I crashed pretty spectacularly according to my friend who was behind me and busted myself up pretty good. The carbon fiber fork tube just sheared off after taking 7 years of abuse. So I'm taking a couple days off from the IM training. Everything is still on track for October 11th though. I heard a good quote once but I don't remember the author. "It's not whether you will have adversity in your life, because you will. It's how you deal with it that counts." I dealt with it by ordering a bunch of new parts to get the old Litespeed up and running again.

On a totally unrelated note. Marianne wanted all to know that our orphan kitty "Cali" is becoming really tame and fitting in well around here.