Unexpected Delights and Distractions

Friday night I came home to find Chris taking apart our television, and Meave telling him what to do via the Internet.

We had a party to attend in about 2 hrs., we didn't know what food we were taking, and as the tv was a mere 6 yrs. old, I wasn't prepared for it to die.

Evidently the heat-sync was going out, and as this tv is no longer made, there was no replacing it.  Good thing I won it and didn't pay for it -- I'd be pretty peeved about that.

So with the back off we watched the last 3 stages of the Tour de France. This morning the picture started to go -- indicating the heat sync's imminent demise -- we watched the end of the Tour (and what a fine ending it was) and decided not to try to keep it alive. We did some research, set a budget, and shopped.

If only it was as easy as unplugging the old and plugging in the new.

The roller stand needed to be cut down by nearly 3".  Chris figured it out and completed the task (with a little help from yours truly).  Then we tried several ways to connect it, all ending in a big fat fail.  We had to buy a special cord.  And voila!  It worked!

We still have to figure out how to hook up the stereo; in the meantime the tv stereo sound system works really well.  The picture is amazing.  I loved that we had that free tv for so long.  And I'm glad we upgraded.

That was the distraction.

The delight was having two challenging, fun rides with Chris this weekend.  Saturday we did a Gordon Valley loop on the tandem -- the headwind on the way out cut our speed down, but the tailwind on the way back made it worthwhile.  Our first tandem ride since July 4th; I'm out of practice -- that 42 mph downhill on new pavement on Gibson Cyn. Rd. reminded me of that.

Today we did the shop ride; 48+ miles in the small chainring, spinning and loving the company, the weather, the newly-resurfaced roads, all of it.

I chose to focus on the delights of the day, and use the distractions to reinforce why the delights are so vital to life.

A promise unfufilled

A couple weeks ago we met with some bikeforums.net and Twitter friends at Hellyer Velodrome, to participate in a Livestrong fundraiser. For $30 we could ride our road bikes on the track. I rode the Diva for the 200 m, the 500m, the kilo, the 2K, and finished well.  Then I rode the TT Fuji for the 3K. There were some issues with the lap counters that confused me but I managed to finish in 2nd place on the last ride.

I never thought I'd enjoy riding an oval over and over again, but the concentration suited me. I had a blast. I loved going from 110 bpm to 160 bpm, loved the focus, loved the result, and cannot wait to do it again. I got a rush from the track unlike any other.

This week I was elected to be my local Association of Realtors (TM) President Elect for 2012.  And I totally feel as though I deserve it now.  I'm fit to be the leader.

As long as I can continue competing and stretching my boundaries I can lead this group into new greatness. I can only  hope this group is ready for me.