Daddy comes home to the castle, as of tomorrow. Andree goes back to school, so I get to resume full-time parent status. Things have changed significantly (solid foods, longer times awake, etc.), but I can deal with it, and I think my health needs it. The stress of the girls pales in comparison to the stress at work, lately. It's just been a weird month or two since the departure of Joe, Jay, and Carl. I really respect the guys that replaced them, but it'll suffice to say that it's different, and different is the name of the game with kids. So, work changes of all sorts (a manager becoming an owner, a second shop opening, and the expected turnover of employees in such a field) are not as easy to cope with anymore, and my health has, predictably, not improved much.
The doctors claim it to be a mono group virus, which means that the exhaustion I've felt for weeks now will, likely, continue for a few more weeks, at least. Cutting back on the cigarettes and booze isn't cutting it. I'm going to have to go cold turkey, here, as I'm at my wit's end on this one. One ride a week is not enough, and my workouts have completely fallen off. It's killing me. The worst part is waiting to see if the girls picked it up in the few weeks that I was contagious. They've been on mom's milk from the beginning, however, so I'm hoping that their immunity is all the experts say it is.
The bicycle status has me motivated. I just got a Manitou R7 for very little money (they were great about their crash replacement, and it turned out nobody does much, if anything, in forks in the U.S., anymore), an XT crankset, and some XTR pedals on the MTB. The money is now officially paid back on the Raleigh, and it was worth it. The beast looks ready for engagement, and Mike, Greg, and I are supposed to go to FATS trails, near Augusta, this coming weekend for an overnight (my first since the girls were born). The road rig got absolutely swamped last Thursday night in the wettest ride we've done in a long, long time (downpour almost the entire hour and a half). So, the bottom bracket got removed and the shell faced on this one, too. Everything looked great inside (Boeshield and a gun-cleaning kit does the trick on the steel stuff), with only a little water.
FATS is one of the best trails I've ever ridden. We spent around 6 hours out there, and we still didn't get to all of it (we skipped on the Brown Wave trail). Only one flat for one of us, and no spills, even though it's hard not to bomb through these insanely well-maintained and rolling trails. We pulled out our stupid caps and rented a hotel for the evening, Saturday, for $100. We could've camped at a nearby state park for $15, but I bit my tongue since we'd been trying to get this ride (or something very similar) together for nearly 5 years. It makes one wonder about the depth of this friendship, no? No matter, I'll go back with Dave or Garrett next time, and I'm sure it'll be tent city. Besides, there ain't no cell phone or fire alarm mishaps at 6 and 7am in the woods...just the Carolina wrens and pine warblers screaming for sex.
I left the camera at home, as I can't lug the big guy around in the water pack, but I don't think I would've gotten many photographs of interest. As well, there are videos of the trail system on YouTube, if you're interested. They were good enough to motivate me to go. Here's one with tolerable music and that doesn't disorient with shake or bore with footage you don't need to see. You can check out the others for more of the trails. There's even one from the same day we were there (about 95 degrees out and not a cloud in the sky...I probably drank around 150 oz. of water, in addition to the post-ride ginger ale and Fat Tire).
The garden looks good, with the cayennes in the bed with the bells. The blackeye peas flushed with new foliage and keep putting out new flowers and fruits. We have a few oxheart tomatoes, now, and the potatoes are still chugging along, regardless of the summer beat down they're getting. I also planted a little chunk of ginger root, and it put up leaves in about 4-5 days. I'm not sure what species I've got, but check out this flower!
Who wants to have to make a trip to the store just for this infrequently-needed, but essential, ingredient? Turns out, it does just fine here. Next up are the fruit/nut trees. I thought I found a good place in GA, but there are some seriously bad reviews online that made me think twice. Plus, their prices and selection were too good to be true. We're hoping on walnut, plum, and apple, though we may have to go with citrus instead of pomes.
There was an editorial in yesterday's paper that reminded me of something that keeps occurring to me. A local politician was praising our state's investment in hydrogen power and other alternatives to fossil fuels. Fair enough, but it was unfortunate that he was also pushing the job creation angle. I don't doubt that alternative energies could result in more jobs, but what is the point if we retain the profit motive? What kind of jobs should we expect? The jobs will not matter if the same old share holders demand the same old unrealistic growth levels in their investment. There is a new jet part production facility coming to the area, too, and the local press had nothing but glorious things to say. Nevermind that this industry hinges on oil availability and is most likely doomed. I wouldn't be surprised if this facility is gone by the time the girls start high school. It's time to expand the concept of sustainability to include not just the products an industry is offering, but the lives of those that make the product possible. It's kind of easy to get hung up on whether something is organic or produced without mercury or with water conservation practices and forget about the people behind the product. They may or may not be able to purchase the very things they are making to the increasingly demanding standards of an informed consumer base. This is not an argument that we should go backwards on sustainable product standards, only one that we should identify more with those on the other end of our dollars.
The spider is an unidentified orb weaver that lives in our metal wind chime on the back porch. She snagged this blue dasher dragonfly a few days ago. I wonder how sensitive she is to the noise of the chime pipes when they collide and how this affects her catch success. She seems to do just fine, as her abdomen is about the size of my thumb tip. The dragonfly is a Needham's skimmer, I think. It was having some trouble with the malformed wing, and I'm kind of surprised we didn't see this guy in the web. It probably wound up in the stomach of one of the many Mississippi kites that we've seen around the house this summer. They're notorious dragonfly diners. The old Raleigh is Ohio John's. What a testament that this thing from the mid-60's that has been all over the world is still rolling fine on original equipment. A couple of hub adjustments and other touches, and it was ready to roll again.
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