The Boss'

Last night I went on what I am calling my first official training ride for the JDRF Ride to Cure Diabetes. In less than 3 months I’ll be in Whitefish, Montana, peddling my butt off. My ride last night was pretty meager, just 14.6 miles, but it provided a valuable learning experience.

Based on last nights experience, there are two key ingredients that are missing from my current cycling program.

• Strength
• Endurance

I began last nights ride by doing circles in my drive way, practicing getting my feet out of my pedals without falling. Once I felt that I mastered that, I hit the road. Luckily, there was not a breath of wind last night. I would not have been able to tolerate a head wind. After I had been on the road for a few minutes, I performed a quick visual inspection of the bike because I felt that something was preventing my forward progress. I expected to find a brake dragging or perhaps a flat tire,  maybe even a t-shirt wrapped around my wheel. Finding none of the above, it dawned on me that it was my own lack of strength that was the impediment. A bitter pill to swallow, to be sure, but I forged ahead. Most of my 14.6 miles took me through rolling hills, so I felt like it was a worthwhile ride, given the terrain we’re expecting to find in Whitefish.

There are a couple of other miscellaneous observations worth noting.

• My left foot kept going numb. Not sure if my shoe was too tight or what. It was the first ride for the shoes as well, so maybe they just need to be broken in. It may have been an issue of the socks…I just had plain ole socks, not fancy riding socks. (If there is such a thing as “riding socks”.
• Also, my hands were sore. I got the fancy gel tape on the bars, but maybe some gloves are in order.
• And lastly, my butt really hurt. Like, really hurt. Now, I have nothing to which I can compare this sensation, but is it possible that a colony of fire ants has taken up residence in the chamois of my biking shorts? (Question…has chamios technology changed a lot over the last decade? My shorts are OLD…maybe that’s the problem)

Despite these annoyances, I really enjoyed myself, and I’m anxious to make it to one of the team training rides soon.

A photo tour of  The Farm is coming soon. I promise! No more excuses. Still no high speed connection in Bentheim, but I’m gonna find a way to make it happen. I’ll burn a CD of photos and take it to work to post them. A lot of you have already seen the new place, but for those of you living out of town, the tour should give you a good idea of what the new digs are like.

The “girls” room is now done and occupied. The girls seem happy being upstairs with the rest of the family, though the shortage of electrical outlets in the room is causing me some headaches. Just one of the MANY joys of owning an older home. To say that any room in the house is really “done”, is not really accurate. I expect many ongoing projects. For instance, the girls room has these gi-normous built in drawers, and they don’t slide very well. Grace can’t open her drawer by herself, which is kind of a drag. Obviously I need to develop a solution for this, but it’s pretty far down on my to-do list. 

We also made great progress on the front porch, which will serve as a school/craft/reading room. Photos of that will do a better job of explaining what we’re doing there, and they are coming soon.

My brother-in-law helped me get some plumbing figured out in the shop, and I should be just a few days away from having hot water out there. The electric hot water heater that was in the shop needs two new heating elements, then we should be good to go.

Sorry, no pictures to post…still no high speed connection in rural Bentheim, but it is worth mentioning that Anna turned one year old on May 22. Celebrations are planned for this weekend, but we had some time on Tuesday to grab dinner at The Village Dipper and then get ice cream. For some reason, Anna completely flipped out and was inconsolable most of the way home. It was a birthday celebration nonetheless, and we are blessed to have had a great year getting to know Anna. We can’t wait to see what is in store for this coming year.

(Update…turns out Anna has a wicked ear infection…that would explain the crying)

Wow, what a week it has been. So much has happened. This post is a perfect candidate for bullet points.  So, here goes…

Friday, May 11th

• 3pm – Sold the house in the city.
• 4pm – Bought the house in the country.
• 5pm – Picked up rental truck.
• 6pm – 12am – Pack, pack, pack…

Saturday, May 12

• 6:30am – Get Up!
• 8:30am – Help Arrives and the moving process begins.
• 7pm – Moving is basically complete.

I was off work all week last week, just trying to get settled in and get some projects going. The front porch area of the house will serve as the kids “school” room, with lots of books, art supplies, work space, etc. The carpet in that room was shot, so I had my brother-in-law tear it out while everyone else was bringing in boxes. I then put down a laminate wood floor that should take all the abuse we can throw at it. The result is really pretty good, if I do say so myself. The walls still need some paint, but the furniture in the room is pretty much set up. I’ll post pics soon and solicit ideas for paint colors.

The girls room is another project currently underway. New paint from floor to ceiling with lots of trim to prime has been the focus thus far. Emma and Grace are in a small room on the main level for the time being.

There hasn’t been much time to do anything outside as we try to get everyone settled within. Thankfully my dad has been helping mow the substantial lawn, thereby keeping the neighbors happy.

The biggest change is being completely unplugged. No high speed connectivity of any kind. I tried to use dial-up via my work PC, but it was intolerable. I returned to work today to find my RSS feed reader overflowing with updated feeds. Funny thing is I wasn’t even that interested in catching up with that many of them. I guess I can survive without a 24/7 connection to news and information.

Today is the big day! We close on our house at 3, and on the new house at 4. We had a walk through of the new place last night, and it’s obvious that the renters have a LOT of stuff to move. We’re just keeping our fingers crossed that they are not still snug in their beds when we show up Saturday morning. The picture above is old, but still pretty accurate. Just imagine the lawn about a foot taller and white with dandelions.

Everyone is getting really excited. We see a lot of work ahead of us, but also a lot of potential, and room for growth. The house is solid, but will require updating as we’re able to afford it. I’d like to live there for a while before making any major remodeling decisions. The kids are excited about the barns and the room to run around. It should be a great summer of exploration for them.

There are dark days ahead for the Boss’. I found out recently that when we move this weekend, we will no longer have access to high speed internet. It appears that we may have to make due with d…d…d…dial up for some period of time. I can hardly make myself say those words. No DSL, no cable.

Just dial up. Ugh.

This means that my blog posts may be a little less frequent in the coming weeks. I can easily post updates from work, like I’m doing now, but it will be tricky to include photos and that sort of thing if I can’t post and upload stuff from home.

I guess that’s the price we’ll pay for moving to the boonies. Somehow, I don’t think the rest of the family will miss it much.

I put up a little gallery of Tulip Time photos that we took the other night. It’s not easy managing 4 kids in full Dutch costume, but we managed to have a good time. We watched Klompen dancing and then enjoyed an elephant ear in Centennial Park.