End of August 2012

August 30, 2012

I am ssoooo glad that football season is upon us.  Anything to make the time go by.  Go Vols & Titans!!

August 31, 2012

Got to talk to my 99 year old Grandaddy tonight, among others.  Hate to miss the RumiKube, the food, & the fellowship.  I’ll be there in spirit.

Speaking of the reunion, a few years ago Rob talked me into riding bikes from his house to the reunion.  That meant we were to ride from North Jackson to Pinson Mounds, a mere 19 or 22 miles, can’t remember exactly other than it felt like a million.  I was obviously reluctant at first.  Let’s just say I wasn’t at my fighting weight.  Too many hours at the bar, too few hours at the gym, and even with volleyball & softball being part of my regular schedule, I was not in peak condition.  Not to mention the fact that I hadn’t been on a bicycle in about 20 years, aside from the occasional recumbent bike ride at the gym which included conditioned air & a television.  But Rob was persistent, and he talked me into it. It was going to be simple.  We were going to borrow his neighbor’s bike & hit the road early, in order to be at Pinson Mounds in time for breakfast.  The neighbor’s bike was un-ridable, flat tires with no spare tubes.  No problem right, Rob has two bikes!  Wrong! 2 bikes yes, problem was one was a mountain bike, one was a road bike.  And they had clip in pedals.  For those of you who don’t know, clip in pedals are very useful because they allow the rider to utilize the strength of the entire leg, you push the pedals down but by being clipped in you can also pull the pedals back up as they come around.  Great idea for any seasoned rider.  Terrible idea / death trap for an amateur rider who may wish to bail off of the bike after a sudden stop rather than just falling over, feet glued to the pedals and nothing to stop your fall but a slew of profanity. Fortunately he had some standard pedals, but they only fit the mountain bike.  There’s nothing fundamentally different between the bikes other than one is set up to glide smoothly on pavement & the other to crash & bang over rocks,  hills, & mud.  Needless to say, I ended up with the mountain bike with the standard pedals.  I also ended up with an extremely sore backside.  To quote my buddy, McCaskill, “I felt like I got punched in the taint by a dump truck!”  It was bad.  Sore legs.  Sore back.  Sore everything.  And I wish I could do it again tomorrow.

UT begins the season with a win & “they look great.”  Is that déjà vu of so many seasons past? We shall see.