The Boss'

At some point, every cyclist must confront the issue of Spandexâ„¢. It’s the elephant in the room, so to speak, when anyone discusses cycling.

First, some background. I’m NOT a cyclist. I occasionally ride a bike, but a cyclist is another creature altogether. Perhaps it is the Spandexâ„¢ itself that defines the cyclist. That may warrant more investigation.

When I was young, I didn’t need an “outfit” or a “uniform” to ride a bike. My outfit generally consisted of a t-shirt, shorts, and shoes (optional). I felt like I got around quite well, not knowing at the time how ill-equipped I was.

The first time I was forced to face the “Spandexâ„¢ question” was in high school. I participated in a 850 mile ride through the Canadian Rockies. I knew that all the other riders would be wearing “biking shorts”, and I knew that they offered many advantages to my plain ole shorts. My solution was to wear biking shorts under my normal shorts. Efficient? No. Comfortable? No. Less humiliating? YES! You see, I’m skinny. Really skinny. Unbeknownst to casual observers, there does exist a minimum weight threshold for Spandexâ„¢, in the same way that there exists a maximum weight threshold for Spandexâ„¢. (The upper threshold is frequently violated but, just because it is ignored, doesn’t make it less real.) While violations of the minimum weight threshold may be harder to spot, they are no less serious, and the psychological consequences of such violations can last a lifetime.

Now, at 34, I must face my Spandexâ„¢ demons once again. In August, I’ll be taking part in the Ride To Cure Diabetes in Whitefish, Montana. Surely, it is a worthy cause. I’m excited by the opportunity to spread the word about diabetes and its effects, and I’m looking forward to raising a bunch of money to support diabetes research. (My son is Type 1, after all) An opportunity such as this, however, comes at a price. I’m afraid that for me, that price may include a public display of Spandexâ„¢. As part of a team, each member receives a “uniform”. Adding insult to injury, the uniform includes not only skin tight, have-you-been-circumcised-shorts, but also a are-your-nipples-pierced, skin tight jersey. The HUMANITY!

After receiving several requests for sizing info, I headed down to Velo City Cycles to determine what size kit to order so that I might reduce, if not avoid, public ridicule. After noting that I had a “very long torso”, the gentleman at the shop suggested I try a pair of “bibs”. My freakishly long torso, he explained, gave the impression that I was sporting some sort of belly shirt, even when wearing an extra large cycling jersey. To go up a size in the jersey would leave it hanging on my frame flapping like a windsock. That is not an ideal fit. “Jersey’s gotta be tight”, he said. “Bibs”, explained the sado-masochistic biker man, “will keep your belly from showing if your jersey rides up.” “What are bibs?”, I asked. He pointed to a pair on the rack.

When I regained consciousness, I politely told him that I didn’t think those would work for me; that several forms of medieval torture looked far more appealing to me than the prospect of wearing “bibs” in public.

Despite the problems presented by the team uniform, I remain optimistic about the ride. I plan to train hard this summer, and, when riding alone, I may even wear Spandexâ„¢. (Under cover of darkness, of course)

That has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

Now is a good time to announce that Lindy and I are expecting a new addition to the family to be delivered in November. November 26, to be exact. That’s right, we’re having a baby! Given Lindy’s history of pre-term labor, I expect to have the new baby comfortably settled at home by Halloween.

The whole family is really excited about this new development. We are madly in love with the four kids we have, and we can’t wait to see what God has in store for us with number five. It’s hard to believe that Anna, almost a year old, will have big sister status by Thanksgiving.

We’ve gotten some strange looks from friends when we’ve told them, but we realize that a large family is not for everybody. It’s also outside of the norm for families today. “A boy for me, a girl for you, Praise the Lord, we’re through”, is the prevailing philosophy. A few years ago, we probably would have agreed, but we’ve changed our tune since then.

How about you? Think we’re crazy?

A quick update on our attempt to acquire new housing.

Our current home was inspected Monday evening, and nothing much was uncovered. I need to replace the wax ring on the toilet in our downstairs bathroom because of a leak, but that is it. A $3 part and a 15 minute fix.

The house we’re hoping to buy was inspected Monday morning, and numerous issues were uncovered. What the inspector likes to call “serious electrical violations”. That’s not what I wanted to hear. Luckily, many of the serious safety issues, are also easy to fix. For some reason, switch plates and wall plates are missing all over. Why would you list a house for sale and have plates missing? The home owner is supposed to get in there this weekend and take care of those issues. More serious is the lack of grounding on MANY outlets all over the house. Worse, some outlets have been replaced with 3 prong outlets, but weren’t grounded. So, you have the appearance of them being grounded, but they’re really not. Nice. In the furnace room a cut off wire was found to be hot…just hanging there hot!

We know that we’re buying an older home, so none of this comes as a huge surprise, but it is a reality check. At first I just saw the house and the barns and was smitten by all the possibilities. Now I know that there will be real work and money required to bring this place up to speed.

Well, it appears that we may have sold our house. We finally received an offer that was worth considering, and, even though we ended up taking WAY less than what we would have liked, we feel pretty good about the whole thing. Closing is set for May 11, with 7 days to move after that. Here’s a brief photo tour of The Farm where we’ll be moving.

Inspections are coming up on Monday, and I’ll rest a bit easier when those are behind us. Financing looks to be all set, but I know that these deals have fallen apart before, therefore I’m describing myself as “cautiously optimistic”. The kids are excited. Especially Ben. Grace really doesn’t know what’s going on, but she’s excited just by way of seeing the other kids excited.

We are anxious to move on with our lives after having our home for sale for more than a year. It’s been a long year, with little activity on our place, and always wondering if the home we wanted would be sold out from under us. I’ll definitely be posting more as the moving process gets underway. I look around this place and don’t even know where to begin.

Amazon.com’s video download service, Unbox, has been universally panned by reviewers. Too slow, too clumsy, too ugly, etc. I have no interest in watching movies on my PC, so I ignored the service when it was announced. Recently, however, my Tivo Newsletter noted an alliance between Tivo and Amazon, allowing Unbox content to be downloaded to the Tivo(s) of your choosing. I thought that this would be an interesting marriage of Amazon.com’s “One Click” buying, and Tivo simplicity. As an incentive, Amazon offered a $15 dollar credit for signing up. I decided to give it a try.

I should say right up front that my expectations were not high. I’d read the reviews of the Unbox service, but I was hoping that my Tivo would rescue the experience. I’m happy to report that I have really enjoyed the service thus far. Is the movie/TV selection great? Not really. Is the picture quality outstanding? Not really. Well, then, what is there to be excited about? Simplicity. It just works. Maybe it’s my lack of sophistication, but when something works exactly how I expect it, I’m impressed. Such is the case with this service. Once you sign up and “attach” your Tivo account by simply entering your Tivo.com login name and password, your Tivo DVR’s show up as potential recipients of the rented/purchased item.

Alternatively, the item can be viewed on a PC or compatible portable device. Sorry, no support for MAC. 1-Click shopping uses your existing Amazon.com account, so there’s no setup there. I’ve used the service a few times now, and each time it has done exactly what I expected. It’s great for when the kids are expecting a movie night, but I don’t happen to have a kids DVD from my Blockbuster subscription. Also, it’s cool to be able to pick up a couple of episodes of an old show like MacGyver, without having to buy the whole series. I just pick out what I want, choose my family room Tivo, and click buy. Later that evening when we sit down to watch a movie, the item is waiting for us in our Tivo’s “Now Playing” list. See what I mean by simple? If I delete the item to make room for that Victoria’s Secret fashion show that I want to record, I can get it back at any time by going to what Amazon is calling “Your Media Library”. Here, you’ll see everything that you’ve purchased via Amazon Unbox, and have the opportunity to send it to your Tivo again if you’re ready for another viewing.

I’m able to overlook a multitude of shortcomings or missing features if a product simply does what it tells me it’s going to do, and that seems to be the case with the Tivo/Amazon.com Unbox partnership.

There’s nothing quite like watching your own children learn to read. This is one of those things that make teaching your own very rewarding. I post this video not to brag about Ben’s reading ability. He’s probably actually behind his age mates that are being schooled in a traditional setting. We’re not concerned with that. It’s more important to us that he enjoy reading, not that he learn to read at a certain age. It is this sort of flexibility that is difficult to accomodate in a traditional school setting. No, I’m posting this video so that you can see the sort ‘firsts’ that you encounter every day when home schooling.

My fundraising campaign for the JDRF Ride to Cure Diabetes is off to a great start! I kicked things off about a month ago, and I’ve already raised $1,325. If you’re one of the many who have already donated, thank you! I have a lot of ground to cover, but I feel like the $4,000 total is within site. Watch this site for more updates.

The weather here in West Michigan has been spotty, but soon I’ll begin my ride training outdoors. I’m looking forward to that. I can only hope that my physical training goes as well as my fundraising.