Whining and Bitter Over Having a Great Weekend

This weekend was a little cold, but plenty beautiful. No, like really beautiful. At times, stunning.

So, perhaps it shouldn't have been a surprise when the emails started rolling in asking allt he same things:
are you racing in Salisbury this weekend?
 I hope to see you at the Salisbury CX race!
Even the wife asked, "Are you still planning on going to Salisbury on Sunday?"
Now, I'm many things, but I'm not an utter fool. My son had missed an entire week of school due to illness. We'd spent the previous two weeks doing a massive cleanout of the house, basement and yard and there were remnants of this to deal with. And... I'm off to Alabama on business this week. So, smartly, I said, "Nope! Not going to Salisbury." Wising husband. (Not wise, but working on it.)

So, here's what I did, instead:
FRI - I stayed up way too late and watched The Expendables, followed by Iron Man 2. Yes, I'd seen them before. No, that didn't really stop me from watching them again.

SAT - Chores! I took stuff to the Enviro Center (basically, it's the dump, but for chemicals and computers). I finished 'winterizing' the yard. Then I cleaned and cleared out the basement. This has the added bonus of allowing me to clean up the bike work area. I got rid of a lot of useless tools that I'd inherited. Also, I made a hit list of things I needed and a Lowe's/Sears run with my daughter was soon in order.

Before I headed out, a couple bike-related things did occur. First, I started a conversation with my wife. It went like this:

Me: I wanted to bring something up and give you as much notice as possible. I know it's overkill, but...
She: You want to let me know you want to go to Louisville for CX Worlds in January... 2012?
Me (stunned): ...2013.
She: Okay. Now I know.

Okay, that's freakin' cool. I am, apparently, crazy transparent and readable like a book. Insulting and cool all at the same time. Now, none of this means I'm actually going. Only that it made the mental calendar.

Next, I ran into Barry, who hooked me up with the Autodrop Invitational glasses. We'd forgotten to get ours at the race and I told E, who told Barry, who brought them. Very cool. Joooonyuh had a soda in his with dinner. Me, I waited.

Once in Sears, I convinced myself that I needed these really cool wrenches that had crescents on one side and rachets on the other. Of course, I had to get both standard and metric versions.

Another bonus result of all this basement work was a redesigned tool board for the bike area. Cool.

Note the nice wrench set across the top!

SUN - Sunday was beautiful and I found myself wishing I was headed to Salisbury. I ran into my neighbor, who'd just come back from riding with our pal, Bob. Bob was headed to the race. This did not make me feel any better.

Joooonyuh had been skateboarding and I was taking a little nap, when I heard him screaming and, it seemed, all hell had broken loose. I came outside to see his mouth and hand covered with blood. I brought him inside and started to clean him up when we saw that he'd busted lip pretty badly. He'd taken a fall to a concrete step and we were left to ponder whether he needed stitches or not. Ugly stuff.

Jooonyuh not smiling 'cause his lip hurts.

This was doubly problematic inasmuch as both kids were scheduled to sing at a retirement home in a couple hours as part of the Winston-Salem Youth Chorus. So, we decided to divide and conquer,  with my wife getting Miss Sissy ready and me calling the doctor. The docs were about as available on a Sunday afternoon as you'd expect and I'd still be in the ER or Doc-in-a-box if it weren't for the All-Powerful E, who walked across the street and told us it was all good. Thanks, E!

...which means I was able to hear some Angelic singing! I mean, look at these kids! They look like they'd sing like Angels, don't they? Well, it was all that and better. I was tearing up before the first song was done. Lovely, lovely stuff.
I came home and we had a great dinner, thanks to The Little Lady. We put the kids to bed and I sat down to do some actual workweek work. I became pretty furiously productive, got myself well positioned for my out-of-state jaunt and decided a reward was in order. I dug out my Autodrop glass and made a Krefelder.

Yes, but why is it almost empty?

A Krefelder is a drink I learned about in Germany -- half Alt bier and half Coke. Beer mixing is popular in Germany and, in some places, it is called a Diesel.Sounds horrible, I know. But I can drink it as easily as water. Anyway, after much experimentation, I've learned that Abita Turbo Dog mixes particularly well. Great stuff. And, that's how I ended my night.

It's true, that I lamented my not racing. Some of my pals did and, by their accounts, they seemed to have a swell time. Ugh. It's especially tough to miss a nearby race when it is warmer outside, but it was Goerthe (a good German from Frankfurt) who said, "Things that matter most must never be at the mercy to the things that matter least." The bike isn't least, but there are some issues of perspective that are worth considering. True, I missed the ride, but I had an adventure of a weekend - with my family and some friends. I was productive and efficient, fended off crisis and heard the singing of angels and was reflective over a beer. That's not a weekend, but a microcosm of life.

Maybe I'll ride some other weekend.