Well, At Least the Bills Won!

TOP: Tom flying down the road, long before the storm came.

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Today Tom and I decided to ride to Buffalo. He had tix to the Bills game with his kids, and I just needed a long ride to clear my head after my birthday bash. We started early morning, with a light chill in the air and not a cloud in the sky. Plans were for me to ride about 2/3 of the way with him, then we would split off, he going on to the football game, and me riding back to our starting point.

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We had a great outbound ride; no discernable wind, almost no traffic except a few farm vehicles, all on a backcountry road with a huge shoulder. It really doesn't get any better than that, and what a great way to start year #51.

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After a few hours, we said our goodbyes and split off. I rode back for a while, and decided to stop in nowheresville (batavia) at a Dunkin Donuts for a coffee and bagel. When I pulled into the store people were in queue out the door. Pickup trucks stuffed the parking lot, most with grills and massive coolers in their bed. It was the Bills tailgate party in full swing, and ya just can't tailgate without some DD coffee!

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Anyhow, after a bit of a wait, I get my coffee and bagel, and go find a semi-quite spot in the parking lot to imbibe. While I'm sitting there, suddenly the clouds roll in, and the temperature drops probably 15 degrees. Holy stormfront batman! I finish up quickly, hop on my steed, and start pedaling back, trying to outrace the storm.

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Of course, as luck would have it, I've now gotten a chill and my legs have seized up after having been standing around for probably 30 minutes. So, I can't get up any speed. Then, a few miles from town, I flat. Now, as cyclist know, you only flat on the rear wheel, so it's a real PIA to change it. As I stop and pull off my rear wheel, the rain starts. Did I say rain? I meant it turned into monsoon season. It was pouring buckets, and here I am on this backcountry road, with literally hundreds of drunk or soon-to-be drunk Bills tailgaters driving by in their pickup trucks, every one of them feeling the need to honk their horn and yell demoralizing crap out of the windows at me. I get the tire changed, check my odometer, and see that there's only 12 miles or so to go...I know I can get through that, even in a monsoon.

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Bad thought on my part; it was time for Mr. Wind to come visit also. It kicked up into about a 20-25mph headwind, so now I'm cold, wet, and fighting the winds. Man, it was one heck of a long last 12 miles back to the car that day. I jumped into bed when I got home, turned on the mattress heater, and slept for 3 hours. But, that's ok, because I'm 50 now, and I need my afternoon naps!

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"Whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger" Lumpy out

Birthday Boy!

TOP: Kyle gives me my bday card with his hard earned 50 pennies. He gets one for every waking minute that he doesn't speak...this was the accumulation over his 8 years! Note Tom in the back pretending to be an Italian tablecloth

2nd: You need a "50 hat" so that everyone knows who the birthday boy is

3rd: Jan (my OVER 50 FRIEND) had put significant work into providing me with an over 50 birthday kit...reading glasses, geritol, hair dye (how she knew even what that was is beyond me) and a toilet lift assist to name a few of the goodies

BOTTOM: The coup de grate, a birthday cake made entirely out of adult diapers. They actually work surprisingly good after a bottle of wine!

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Well, I finally got to my 50th birthday today. Unlike a lot of people, I'm actually kinda proud that I made it this far; I was voted least likely to make 30 in grammer school! 50 is an interesting age...you can see retirement on the horizon, you're typically in your prime earning years, and your health typically starts to noticeably deteriorate. I've been pretty lucky thus far on all 3 fronts. This past year off-grid has given me a chance to get my health back in shape, it's re-energized me, and short of the recent wall street collapse, didn't hurt me too bad financially. On the negative side, your family is starting to die off (5 close friends mothers, including mine and Kathy's this summer alone), your friends are having health issues (cancers, heart problems, joint replacements...), and the kids-in-college drain is in full swing for those that went that route.

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I feel quite lucky for all that I've had the chance to try and accomplish, be it athletics, tourism, marriage, or work, and I don't feel too bad about the things I've missed; kids, my doctorate (always a dream of mine), climbing Alpe d' Huez, being thin...

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But now, time to head back to work somewhere, probably for another 5-10 years or so. I'm going to look into both the health care, alternative energy (wind and solar), and life sciences fields this time around. Health I know pretty well; alternative energy and life sciences is where the money is going to be made in the next decade I believe. We'll see how it all plays out over the next few months. I've really learned a lot this past few years about work-life balance, and what really matters as you kick on over into the 2nd half of your life. Hopefully, I'll be able to play out those lessons in the forthcoming years.

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"Today is not a good day to die" 50 year old Lumpy out

Hair Today....Gone Today

Hope they never think I'm a serial killer....more like a "cereal killer"!

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Well, my trips are over (I still owe you readers a write-up on 2 of them...the Utah/Montana road trip and my Sierra hiking trip, both of which will be forthcoming), I'm turning 50, and time to head back into the workforce.

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I expect that this will be a most interesting journey back to employment; the economy is in a shambles unlike anything we've seen since the Great Depression, the Boomer population is finally aging-in, so my last vertical - health care - is under enormous cost pressure, business travel has become inordinately expensive, and now I'm officially part of the "over-the-hill gang"!

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Lot's more to come...but first, PARTY TIME!

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"Now gaining 1 lb. a year" Lumpy out

Fall Cleaning...After 85 Years!

OK, does ANYONE get the incredible irony in this pix!

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So, following Mrs O's funeral, Kathy and Mary get hard at work doing the painful deed; cleaning out her apartment, and her 85 years of memories...and stuff. Kids pix, report cards, paper mache' alice cooper art projects, just tons of stuff that accumulates over the course of a lifetime.

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They're over there today, emptying a dresser, and when they pull the dresser drawer out, a "massive alarm" goes off. They quickly push the dresser drawer closed, wondering why their late mother would have the dresser alarmed. Maybe that's where she kept her Bingo winnings...

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5 minutes later there's a pounding on the door; When they open it, the hallway has lights flashing, alarms going off, and a crew of fireman in full gear. Turns out that each elder resident has a "ripcord" fire alarm in their bedroom in case they can't get out of the apt to pull the traditional hallway fire alarm. Mrs O had just stuck the ripcord into the dresser drawer; the girls never knew it existed.

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OOPSIE!

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"Fire Marshall Bill" Lumpy out