It was just like "A Christmas Carol" without all the ghosts and Victorian crap

For the first time that I can remember, I had an Ironman dream. Most of my sport related dreams are swimming dreams, but I think I've turned a corner with this dream.

I was in Hawaii and MM, FL, Bree, GG, Kerrie, Ian and Charisa were all there. I'm sure you'd all like to know who is associated with the various characters in "A Christmas Carol" but, as I stated in the title, there were no ghosts and no "Victorian crap" including "Victorian people."

Anywho, I was in Hawaii and there was an Ironman race the next day. It wasn't Kona, it was another IM distance race at another time of the year (it's a dream, people. I know it doesn't make any sense.) Everyone was there to do the race so everyone was encouraging me to sign-up and race. (Again, I know you can't sign up for an IM race the day before. Can we all just suspend disbelief for awhile here?) I explained that I hadn't been training, but they all assured me that I was in plenty good shape to finish it. I explained that I didn't have any race clothes and suddenly people were offering to lend me stuff. I had no excuses. Against my better judgment I agreed to do it. Then, as I was walking over to sign up I realized, "I don't have a bike. I can't do this without a bike." And then everyone agreed, "Yes, you would need a bike to do this. I guess you can't do it. That's too bad."

Then I woke up.

This morning I received a reply to an email I sent my coach. I am giving myself about six weeks to get back in shape so we can start training for the 2011 race season. She has a lot of work to do. Let's get started.

OK! Now, I really AM Angry!

(That title was again for Kiet, but I actually mean it this time.)

I swear this time I have a legitimate reason to be angry. Look at my house!

What the FUCK!? Where did this come from!?


















It came from this son of a bitch! We can hear him pecking and it's driving us insane. (Some of us literally insane as my wife repeatedly answers the door thinking someone is knocking and then she blames it on some kids playing "Ding Dong Ditch" but replacing "Ding Dong" with "Knock Knock" even though it doesn't have nearly the same alliteration. The dog is not fooled and makes no move when he hears the pecking - "Stoopid humans.")

He has his fricking head in my house!

Here's the damage he caused in about 20 minutes of pecking.

(OK, truth be told we have tremendous dry-rot in those locations of our trim and it really needs to be replaced, but does nature have to rub salt in our wounds by making our place look so painfully ghetto that our neighbors are giving us dirty looks? Apparently so.)

I swear I can hear him as I write this.

I AM SO ANGRY!

(That title is for Kiet.)

I'm not really angry. I am actually quite happy. Actually, I might be a little angry that I don't have anything to be genuinely angry about. I was in San Diego last week doing more recon for my little tri-store endeavor. It was pleasant, fun, enlightening really, really, REALLY hard work that left me physically and mentally exhausted. It was, in fact, like working in a salt mine and doing the New York Times crossword all day.

 

(Not really, but what am I supposed to tell my wife? Again, she's going to Haiti. I have to make it appear that I have a cross to bear.)

Even all my flights and airline employee interactions were pleasant and helpful. It was kind of surreal, but I'll take it.

Again, I won't bore you with the businessy stuff or the stores I visited. I'd rather write about the fun stuff the left my hands blistered and my head aching.

Thursday, I stopped by Hi-Tech Cycles and met Beth. She was helping with a beginner triathlete seminar, so we only really got to say, "Hi," to each other and didn't really get to talk. I have to say that I had an incredibly cool conversation with the owner, Hank, this guy really knew every detail about all the bikes on his floor. I think he was a little irritated that I was there doing recon and I sincerely apologize for that. He is an incredible wealth of knowledge. (If anyone knows Hank, please send my deepest apologies if I offended him - it certainly wasn't my intent to waste his time or "steal" any secrets or ideas.) 

I played FB tag with Noreen Howard and in the end didn't get a chance to meet. Next time. (Because there will be a next time.) Charisa and I played Twitter tag and then she mentioned that she was going to go for a swim over lunch. I was excited because I thought it would be an ocean swim, but alas it was masters in the local pool. Not at all disappointed when I got there - it was outdoor, 25 meter and salty. I don't think I mentioned, it was 85 - 90 degrees there. And BEAUTIFUL! horrible and miserable.

I find the pool and am signing away my life and paying my $6 and there is this cute chick standing next to me. The receptionist asks what city I live in and when I say "Edina" the cute chick says, "TODD!?" (Who the fuck are you? Am I that famous/notorious?) "I'm Marit!"

So super fun! I got to unexpectedly meet another FB/Twitter/Blog friend. Marit is from St. Paul so we talked a little about Minnes-OH-ta. We also talked about her Afghanistan based helicopter flying hubby who is now done flying and will be home for the holidays! Yeah, baby!

I then hopped in the pool and proceeded to swim 4,000 meters when I haven't swam in about a week and the last time I swam 4K was probably four months ago. I did a surprisingly good job keeping up.

Later I went to dinner with Charisa, her husband Steven, Ian, Marit, their buddies Kevin and Brian. We had awesome Mexican food. (When I told my wife we had Mexican, she said, "I thought you didn't like Mexican," "I don't like bad, Minnesotan Mexican," Truth is, we're too lazy to find a good Mexican place in town.)

The night was about to get fun. First, five adults packed into Charisa's Mini Cooper. It was a like a clown car. I got to sit next to Charisa (she smells nice. At least I think it was her - it definitely wasn't me.) We were a little early for the reservation and stood talking on the sidewalk waiting for Marit to arrive. Ian was telling some story and we were all laughing and some guy walks up, sticks his face in the group and says, "witty, heh heh heh." We all look at him like, what the fuck!? Then he looks at Ian and says "Air Force." Ian looks at him and announces, "MARINES!" The guy mutters something, steps through the group, between two parked cars and proceeds to skip across four lanes of busy traffic. It was surreal and hilarious. Ian's response was priceless.

Dinner was fantastic. There was much laughing and discussion/descriptions of various Marine airborne gun platforms. We learned a lot about Ian's dad Vietnam experience, Marit's husband's helicopter and Steven's budding competitive eating career.

After dinner we went back to Charisa and Steven's place and sat around while Ian told hilarious stories. Actually, the stories may not have been so hilarious, but Ian's way of telling them sure was. I've always been a fan of Ian's but after a few hours with him I requested that the next time he's over just sitting around shooting the shit, I need to be called and put on speaker so I could listen in and laugh my ass off.

This concludes my store recon and my travel for the year. I am still amazed and incredibly grateful to everyone who has been so helpful and supportive. As I move forward I'll continue to provide updates. I'll also try to be less angry in future posts. There really hasn't been much to be angry about, let's see if the momentum continues.