What's New?

It's good to feel the sun on me when I'm out on the road...the heat helps too. It's been cloudy, rainy and cool almost all of the month of May. The sun and heat are exactly what I need to help lift my spirits. Coming off the prednisone took a solid month and I think I'm totally back to normal as of a few days ago.

Rachel had a violin recital a couple weeks ago. It was the first time she played with an orchestra. The piece wasn't very difficult according to her and she really enjoyed the experience. She was sitting next to the first violinist who is also the most senior member of Dakota Valley Symphony. She had some nice compliments for Rachel. I asked if she gave her any pointers but she didn't. Rachel was hoping she might. Here's a video link to her performance. Tammy and I were so proud of her.

The weekend before last was Rachel's dance recital weekend. She did four performances over three days. She's so poised up there. I asked her how she feels being on stage and she said she's not nervous at all and that she actually enjoys it. She was sad when the weekend was over, wishing she could do it all over again. Tammy's parents made their once yearly journey into town for the weekend. We meet them about 90 miles north of the cities and drive them in as Tammy's dad shouldn't be driving the busy freeways anymore.

Last week was a busy outdoor week for Tammy and I as we spent a couple days buying flowers and getting them planted. It's always such a big job but it looks so nice. I should get some photos in a few weeks when they've had a chance to grow some.

We went to see Star Wars over the weekend. I'd never seen a Star Wars movie and Tammy has seen them all. Yes, I was doing it for her. I saw all the hype the show was getting in the media so I imagined it was going to be pretty good. I imagined wrong. Okay, the special effects and all are pretty cool but that alone can't carry a movie. The fight scenes with the light sabers were all the same. According to Tammy it was all too predictable. She was telling me not even half way into the movie how it was going to turn out. She was right and I didn't mind her guesses as it was becoming a bit ho-hum to me.

We also rented The Aviator. That was the one movie I wanted to see in our new entertainment room. It was pretty good. Actually, there's a second disc which comes with the dvd which includes the History Channel's one hour documentary about him. That too was quite good.

Okay, back to work.

Abortion

Here's a song for you by Mat Kearney titled, Tomorrow

I hear a voice crying out from the bellies of their mammas
Hold on for today don't worry about tomorrow
Though the rains of today seem to fall with sorrow
Let me be and we'll see this life for tomorrow

I hear a cry going out in the middle of the night
Under the scatter of the stars from a voice cracked with fright
And as the tears stripe cheeks from pain running south
The taste of salt hits the corner of her mouth
Resting on tied tongues with no breath left to speak
Sick of throwing up with no bread left to eat
Tired and confused from disillusionment
Sunny days turn to grey and away he went
Ripping the hooks out your heart from the promises at dark
The words found their mark as the sheets came apart
Every spoken word broken
As he flipped you a token
Kiss on the cheek as his feet found the open door
What's in store for you he didn't question
Shook his burden to the floor to leave you guessing
About the future and what it will unfold
But your still standing there rockin' it so bold like

Holding on these songs of hope I cannot sing them without you
You can't just point a finger and say it's all right
Make a trip downtown and put it out of sight
Because two came together so strong one night
And two wrongs don't make one right
Giving a voice to the voiceless saying it's choiceless
'Cause they're priceless my princess
I feel the kicks and the chrurns give me a turn
And a shot at this world to fight the fight
To beat my plight and let my light shine
In this dark time with all its ways of wearing crime
And let this world drown in these ultrasounds
Hearing this heart beats speak sweet so profound
From beat down to higher ground
Where hope abounds with love that astounds
Les Miserables this ain't no miserable daugher
Calling you Cossette 'cause God will be your father

A Lousy Week

Here's some blog listening music...Beautiful Love, by The Afters. I'm glad this week is over. The weather was cold, windy and rainy which didn't do much for my depression as I try and come off the prednisone which took me through my headache cycle. Every day was an effort to do anything other than just sit on my butt. It made it easy for me to make excuses for being lazy but I'd rather have the normal me back. There isn't much information online about prednisone withdrawal but they do mention dizziness, tiredness and irritability and I've deffinitely experienced those. I was hoping to find something which would tell me how long I can expect to feel this way before I'm back to normal. It really depends on how long a person has been on the drug and at what doses. My adrenal gland which produces steroids for my body shut down as the drug did its job. Now that the drug is no longer there the adrenal gland needs to wake up and begin production. It's different for everybody. I was hoping that exercize would cause it to kick into action sooner and maybe it does but not soon enough for me.

Anyway, I was able to get out on Friday for a 40 mile ride. It felt nice to be out and I didn't have the nagging feeling I've had lately that I'd rather be home. Although my route throug Prior Lake changed quite a bit since I was last though a couple weeks ago. They've begun a 5 mile stretch of construction which left me with no shoulder at all. I came through the area just ahead of rush hour so I was glad I didn't put this ride off till later in the day. There was a fair amount of traffic out there to contend with and it was no place for me to be. I stopped and asked some surveyors how long the job will take and they figured through the summer. That's too bad because that stretch of road I use quite a bit. I finally had my camera with me to snap a photo of this barn I've been wanting to photograph. It's not far from Orchard Lake in Lakeville. It's a cool looking barn with some interesting signs and decore on it...it's also got some sagging to it which gives it a lot of character. I've never seen it in the winter but I notice they light it for Christmas.

I was a total bum all day yesterday. I was going to get out on my bike but I laid down and took a couple hour nap instead. Most of the guys from Silver Cyclists were racing today and I'm feeling like I really want to get my license and join them. I think I could work my way through the cat 4&5 categories pretty quickly and race with the 3s where I think I could be competitive. Tammy would rather that I didn't...especially after crashing on the group ride a couple weeks ago. I'm sure there would be crashes along the way if I got into racing and that's one of the reasons I haven't I suppose. The main reason though being my knee. I know without question that I would push myself too hard and cause more damage to my knee. It's what ended my running and got me back on the bike. The crashes in bicycling can sideline you for quite a while. It's not a good thing to be throwing a 47 year old body against the asphalt...nothing much good comes from that.

Toby and Allie got me up around 7 this morning. It was so cute on friday morning...after taking the pups out and feeding them around 6:30 I went back to bed with Tammy. We slept in much later than normal and at 9:30 Toby had had enough. He got up on the bed and barked for us to get up. I of course didn't scold him and promptly got out of bed no doubt reinforcing his behavior.

I took the little guys for a walk this morning and made my way to church. Hosanna is working with World Vision to try and sponsor 800 children from Tanzania, Africa. Their's is such a sad story with the pandemic of AIDS which has ravaged the country. Every 10 seconds a child is orphaned. It's a place which doesn't have much of anything to begin with and when you take away a child's only means of support they're litterally left with nothing. We already sponsor a child in Indonesia through Christian Childrens Fund but we felt we had to sponsor another through Hosanna's drive. Our new child's name is Alicia and she's 2 years old. We'll learn more about her and begin to exchange letters with her family. It takes about one month for out letters to reach Anna in Indonesia; I wonder if the letters to Africa will take about as long?

I was very tempted to crawl back in bed after church. It was lightly snowing and the temp was in the mid 30s with a 15 mph wind. All I could hear in my head was to forget the bike but I had to get out. I actually enjoyed my ride even though the weather was crappy. It felt like an october day as I approached the Minnesota River bottom underneath the Cedar Ave bridge. I didn't have much time for the ride so I kept it short at about 25 miles. That's probably a good thing because I'm working till 10:30pm and I know I'm going to be whipped without some rest. I hope the old me shows up this week...that would be so nice.