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Me
A silly Dad and his fatherly experiences in homeschool and leading his family in Christ
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Jul. 8, 2008
The value of a wife Part 1 of millions
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I posted this at MTBMichigan.com, but I thought I would post it here as well.
Many men realize often too little, or too late, the value of the woman God has given them to be their bride. I might be one of them who does, but I still do not see how valuable she really is often enough.
Andrea is an amazing woman. It isn’t the fact that she cooks or indulges me that is amazing. It isn’t how she keeps up the house, bills, or kids that amazes me. It isn’t how beautiful she is. It isn’t anything you would expect…
Andrea is hard on me. As a wife she is my helper. Sometimes she does things I like to help me, but other times she holds me to the fire of purification and forces me to grow to be the best I can be. She never lets up and is very good at taking a step back from herself, and forcing me to take a step back from myself. She makes me look at things form a bigger picture than my own self centered thoughts. She doesn’t let me off the hook.
You might think this is awful, and that my wife is a jerk. Sometimes I do. Unfortunately, I look back at these times and see how she has such awesome insight and how she pointed me in a better direction than I might have gone. She helps me to see where I need to grow and then encourages me to do it. I can’t help changing my thoughts on my wife from thinking about these moments in this way. I go from frustration to gratitude. She has my best interest in heart and wants me to reach my full potential.
I am sure I have written about my wife before, but I am not sure I have ever written about her in this way. I write about it because I am grateful that she cares so much. Thanks, honey.
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Jun. 29, 2008
Another Test at my site
Jun. 22, 2008
Heaven Bound
Jun. 17, 2008
I Don't Intend to Go Anywhere
I just wanted to make sure people know I don't intend to go anywhere. I made mention in a recent post that I am working on another website. This is true. I have had a website for a long time. I have been using it as a testing bed for other sites that I make. I use a content management software package called Joomla. I have gotten pretty good at the older version of Joomla, but the new one is really tricky.
I guess it would be good to explain the premise of the other site. It was the Michigan home of Believers On Mountain Bikes for a long time. you can find BOMB at www.ridedirt.com I got very involved with the MI biking scene. Finally after a point of doing too many websites and getting burned out from the MI biking organization I pulled my site and used it for testing. Well, after three years of testing and recuperating and most importantly paying for the domain, I decided it was necessary to use the space again.
At this time I have no plans on how I intend to use the other site. I am still learning the new version of Joomla and am in the middle of building a new church website for someone else using Joomla. This means that the other site will not launch any time soon. What I am thinking of doing is just using it for personal use such as putting all my RSS links there to read, a place to put all of the main weblinks I go to, and a place to ftp web information with other people I am working on projects with across the country.
That means I will be keeping my blog at HSB. In plainer terms I plan to blog here at HSB. I enjoy the community and the blogging relationships we have formed over the years and don't intend to go anywhere else.
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Jun. 11, 2008
I Posted at my Website Finally
As you may know I have had a website for some time. I have been using it to test things for other websites I have been doing. I felt that was a waste of my money since I have the site, so I am working on putting up a blog there. The bugs are definitely not worked out but I am starting to get things going. I posted over there and thought I would share it over here.
Here is the post
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May. 31, 2008
A Baseline Update
Well, I am not sure how many people would really care to hear about my riding experiences or my health and fitness, but it is an exciting thing to me to share with you, so I will.
As you know I have been working for months on my fitness and health. It has been an uphill battle and I am not a good climber. Let's just say it has been a little discouraging. I have been trying very hard, though, to keep this up so I last a little longer in this world. A few posts ago, I wrote about my first ride at Novi and mentioned that I would be using that as a baseline for the year.
This past Tuesday I went to Novi to ride. I was supposed to ride with members of my team, but they were all getting out of work a little late and I had gotten out a little early. I heard the voice of my wife ringing in my head as I unpacked my gear, "be careful." I don't really like to ride alone without some sort of protection like a Spot, but Andrea doesn't seem to see the need for something like this at this time. I had this time of 1:15:00 sticking in the back of my head as that is about how long it takes me to ride the 11 mile course. I wanted to push that limit, but felt caution against doing so. I decided I would just ride and see how I felt. I hopped on my Soul Cycles Dillinger and took off.
The 11 miles of the Novi Lakeshore Trail are very technical. Though it has very little climbing it is a very tough trail with many twists and turns. The climbs that are there are most always found right after a technical turn. There are no major descents to recover on and not many flat straights to open up on. Basically put, the only way to go faster on this trail is to get fitter. The trail seems to break up into four major sections.
On section 1, I decided to push my limits a little to get my lungs and heart working. I rode smooth and seemed to feel good. I didn't do anything out of the ordinary as far as riding, I just pedaled. The section has some twisty off camber climbs and seems to be one of the rougher sections of the trail. I worked through things well. I decided to stand and push harder gears during the climbs as they weren't very big climbs. A quick check of my cyclocomputer and I see that I am keeping on track of my normal pace.
I move into section 2. It is a pretty flat section and the most smooth of all of the riding at Novi. In the back of my head I heard the words of my buddy, Andy, telling me to push the big ring on the flats. I decided to take his advice. I felt good in doing this. It seemed to help keep my heart rate even, rather than pumping it up and down out of any turn. I rode across the bridge out of section 2 and saw the time on the computer looking pretty good.
Moving into section 3 you find some really rough riding. A few of the bigger and more technical climbs are here. Keep in mind that none of this is unridable. Novi is a moderate trail and can be ridden at any level. the difference is how hard you are pushing. I was pushing hard through this section.
As I moved past the technical, rocky climb and into the twisty rolling terrain I had an encounter. Out of a hairpin left turn and over a log I heard a major quacking and commotion of little baby ducks. "What would baby ducks be doing out here? Did I just run one over? I am doing really well on this ride, I don't want to stop. If I do stop, I am sure to get attacked by an angry Momma duck. Better keep on going..." These were the thoughts in my head after the incident. I ended up thinking I broke one of the little fuzzy things necks, so I had to check. This cost me about a minute. Oh well.
Back on track and into section 4. This section is different from the others, as well. It has a couple of smooth sections that are straight, few climbs, and many turns. Looking at my computer told me I was doing good and dropping a couple of minutes off that 1:15:00 was going to be a reality barring no more duckies. I decided to put some thought into how I ride. I used some of the bike handling skills I learned in BMX and downhill into my cross country riding. I found myself slightly off the saddle on off camber turns, standing more in climbs, getting the front tire over obstacles more confidently, working the corners more, and having a lot of fun in the process.
As I rolled into section 5 I decided not to look at the computer because I was sure I had ridden faster in the previous section, and I knew I was ahead of schedule by at least a minute. I heard two noises that made me want to ride as fast as I could. One noise was that of another biker. I hate getting passed on the trail. I had no idea where this rider was or whether he was faster than me. In this section of trail there is so much trail packed into so small an area that this noise could mean he was anywhere from right behind me all the way to a mile back. I did not want to get passed on my best ride of the season so down the head went into focused riding. The other noise was that of my front disc brake breaking in. It was letting off an annoying squeal, telling me that I will need to adjust it as soon as I got back to the car. The high pitched howl made me angry and not care if my lungs and heart exploded! I must get this thing out of here now!!!
I hammered as hard as I could through the last section and threw the bike into the big ring. I was not looking at that computer until I stopped. I pedaled as hard as I could back to my minivan and slammed on the brakes one last time! What was my time. I think I might have made up about 3 minutes. I looked down to see that I had done the trail in 1:07:00! I just took 7-8 minutes off of my average time there! I was excited!
NOTE: This is not a "great" time for this trail, it is just a personal best in my current state of health. I have buddies who can do all 11 miles in about 50 minutes. I am pretty excited with my time, and now have a new goal to push for. I really think by the end of the season I might be able to get my time down in the high 50 minute mark.
ANOTHER NOTE: I only put the links to products for your information to identify with what I am riding. That being said, I do appreciate the support of Soul Cycles for our racing team.
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May. 22, 2008
12 Hours of Addison Oaks
Last Saturday I had the opportunity to race with my team, MTB-Life Racing. This was a team that I co-founded with my buddy, Nate, back in about 2003. It originally started as a downhill racing team, but not long after we started downhill racing went away from MI. On a whim, several years ago we decided to try a four man endurance race. We won it. From there on the team has raced the last three years as a cross country endurance team, and showed complete transformation by winning the Michigan Endurance Cup last year.
Enough for the history lesson. This was a the first race of the season and I was really excited to be able to race with my buddies again. Since the switch to this format I have not been a really good contributing member as I have been dealing with my weight and health. I had been on the trainer all winter, so I wanted to do this really bad.
I also wanted to see if the boys would like it. I tried seeing for a few weeks if they wanted to do it and had mixed reactions. I thought my oldest was going to come unglued at the thought, so I made it mandatory (a parental mistake).
Well, the morning came and we packed up the minivan and headed off to the races. Packed up with bikes, helmets, gear, lawn chairs, water, a million peanut butter sandwiches, the three of us found a way to fit. We got there and it threatened rain. No matter, we are men (insert large eyeroll). We got there and got our gear unpacked, and worked with our team members, Nate (the team manager and other Co-founder), Andy, and Justin to get our pit area put together.
The boys were all signed up for the Advanced Mens Open class in the six hour format. I was signed up with my team in the 12 hour format. The time came for the riders meeting and the start and we were ready to roll. The team formats took off at the same time. We elected Andy to go first, and go first he did.
Nathan, my oldest was a little intimidated and lost in the event. He ended up missing his start and taking off with the solo riders.
Nathan is the rider in the center of the frame, farthest away from the lens.
Andy's mom came and helped us with our pits for a good part of the day. She counted lap times and made sure everyone had what they needed for prior tot heir laps. She also provided cheering and cowbell support as our riders went on through the start/finish area.
Andy did his first two laps in about an hour. Nathan did his first lap in a little less than an hour. I think he learned early that the option to ride mom's bike, which was over ten pounds lighter, might not be a bad idea.
Justin went out for the next two laps and pushed hard.
 Justin races endurance races as well as adventure races. He is an excellent rider and a great guy to hang around with.
Jordan went out for the boys. He had a blazing lap for being the littlest rider out on the field. He turned in a lap at about 40 minutes. Keep in my mind that my team was averaging 31 minutes a lap.
Nate followed Justin out after his laps. Being a new father seemed to energize Nate as he had to show little Cooper and his wife how it was done.
From there, it was my turn. Each of the guys on our team turned in two laps a piece, but we felt it was best I only did one as none of us were sure what I would do. I think I did good for my lap as this shot was taken of Andy just before I came up!
I turned in my lap times in the low 40 minute range. This was really a highlight for me as it meant that all the winter trainer time paid off. Yes I was the slowest rider on our team, but I wasn't so slow that we were out of contention. We battled for the lead all day long. At some point the other team battling with us got a little lead, and I am sure I was part of the difference in that, but our team had three consistent riders and only one slower rider.
Nathan and Jordan had a great time. They ended up doing 7 laps in 6 hours. I think that was a pretty good start for them as it was unlike anything they had done before. They ended up with both of them riding moms bike and pulling a low 40 minute lap, then Nathan took his bike out for the last lap they could get in. In the end, they were awarded a third place.
As the race wore on we found ourselves about five minutes out of the lead.
We all worked as hard as we could. Our teammate Eddie was not able to race with us at this race as it was his daughter's birthday. He did come to support us however, and this seemed to add a real energy to the whole team.
 Eddie jumped in providing tech support and moral support. He kept us informed of every lap and up to the minute stats of whether we were picking up time. This was a big plus. It allowed us to chip away at that five minutes knowing exactly what we had to do. Each rider left their lap knowing how much time the previous rider had made up. As Nate left with somewhere near an hour left in the race he worked as hard as he could actually changing the tide of the race. He gave us a one minute lead!
Andy and Justin were able to capitalize on this lead and keep us ahead coming in to the final minutes of the race.
Near the 11:58:00 mark Justin came in, keeping us about a minute up we thought. Andy went out as hard as he could. 11:59:00 came and no sign of the team now moved to second. 11:59:30 came and still no sign. 12:00:00 came and still no sign. We had the race won! The other rider came up almost 2 minutes out of being able to send another rider on the track.
In the end I could have taken the last lap as it was just a victory lap, but it was great just to be on a team like this. Eddie's support really drove home that it was a total team win as every one of us had a role in this win. It was a great way to start the season and a great time for us as a group.
I would like to thank our team for letting me compete in this race with them as well as we, as a team, would like to thank our sponsors, Soul Cycles, WTB Tires, Synergy Broadband, Trails Edge Bike Shop, FSA, E-Load, and The Rehn Company.
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May. 21, 2008
A Counter Thought on Socialization
I am currently in a blog fog. I thought I might get out of it, but it appears it is going to linger around a little while. I thought maybe I would get hooked up on a couple of meme's to see if I can come up with ideas, but most of the meme's are started by moms and are usually only for women. This is a little bit of a bummer. Actually this is a big bummer. Because of that I have come up with a list of meme's I am officially launching today!
Memeless Monday
Textless Tuesday
Why Blog Today When You Can Blog Tomorrow Wednesday
ThoughtlessThursday
Fruitless Friday
I plan on participating in these blogs daily until I come up with something better. You may feel free to do so as well. Just put a Mr. Linky on your blog letting me know you didn't post so I don't have to read it.
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May. 7, 2008
In a Cynical Fog
That is about where I am right now. I am in a fog, and I am overwhelmingly cynical. I don't think the two go together as I have been a little crabby about things since the late fall and I have only been in a fog for the morning.
I feel as though I am coming down with a cold. I am not sure if I am, but I feel that way this morning. My spine is cold and I can't get warm. My head is cloudy and I can't think straight. I can't seem to type to save my life. Maybe I am coming down with something, maybe I am just staying up too late. I have been doing a lot more at school, though I didn't do anything but watch Sense and Sensibility last night with my sleeping wife.
I felt a little out of it yesterday at my ride, too. Novi is one of those trails where a fat guy can't really get a lot of recovery because it is so twisty. I almost crashed twice on somewhat technical turns and I couldn't get my breath to save my life. I did, however make some changes to the bike that I really liked, and am starting to get the feel for riding cross country again. I ended up with a 1:14:00 on the 11 mile course.
This is a good segway into the cynical. It gets pretty depressing to be so slow. It gets pretty discouraging to work out all winter long and be so fat. My boys think it is funny to slap my stomach when I least expect it and tell me how I need to lose that fat. I don't think they realize I may one day slip and hit them back out of reflex.
I don't have any desire to do my job right now. I think it is a combination of all of the changes and our state. We are just in a very oppressive state right now and I think it is weighing in on my enthusiasm.
I am also cynical lately as I look out at my friends. I took an inventory of where I was last year at about this time and I was tired but excited. I had a very optimistic sense. I had friends and we could share each other's burdens. Today I look out and wonder where all of those friends are. I don't even know some of these people anymore. This is really hard for me. I flip through my cell phone and see names of people who just drifted away. It is sad.
Some of these people I literally don't know at all anymore. Some of them are people I looked up to. I could go to them and talk. Now I can't even get a hello when we do see each other. Some of them were friends. We did a lot together. Now.... Crickets. It leaves me wondering if we were ever really friends at all.
There are other things that weigh in on this. It is like a weight. Maybe cynicism isn't the right word either. I am not sure what to call it. It is a little of everything. Some of it is disappointment. Some of it is looking at my own life. I am praying about planting a church and excited about the vision I believe the Lord has given me, but at the same time I am realizing I am just a moron and should be the last dirtbag sinner to even be allowed in a church, let alone running a church. In some sense, though, this has been healthy, even if it doesn't sound like it. I am taking a hard look at my life and putting things into order.
I know, this is one of the more depressing things I have posted. I agree. It is. I am crabby right now. I feel like I am getting a cold and therefore I am venting. I think my imagination is worse than life. I must be like a middle aged man version of Anne Shirley, imagining the worst of everything. This is one of those places you can read about in many of the Psalms. David was always surrounded by problems. I think he could relate to my little issues. He had much bigger problems than I do. He wrote about them, even sang them to God. He was never afraid to vent...
But there was something awesome about David for all of his venting. He would go through a number of verses like, "my enemies are camped about me on all sides," but he would also remember the amazing love and comfort of the Father. If David's enemies were everywhere, he knew the Lord would prepare a banquet table for him in the midst of his enemies. He knew he could hide in the shadow of God. He knew he could drink from the streams of rejoicing. He knew the Lord was his peace.
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