Seven 6/18

CORRECTION: I realized that I made an error in a previous report and I must make the correction. As I am beginning the Edwin Hubbell biography, early on I may have erred with the connection and association with good friend Walt.

Here is the skinny & full disclosure of the error.

Working my way thru the first 100 pages, Edwin finishes high school and enters the University of Chicago. Odd, I says to self. No mention of Walt’s alma mater New Albany High School in Indiana. So I go back to wikipedia, my original source of the connection (I know, everything on the internet is correct right?).

Well, MY ERROR was quickly discovered. Edwin Hubbell TAUGHT science at New Albany for one (1) year and I think it was 1914 if memory serves me which by this time I am humbled. But then again, as a former US secretary of state once said, under oath, ‘what difference does it make?’

I did mention it to Walt & being an astronomy buff, he had the book and so far it is a very interesting read. There is a short (paragraphs) about the President and opening ceremonies at a large exhibition in Chicago at the time and the President was McKinley. That description was enlightening, educational and entertaining.

Next bike news is the big wreck of yesterday. You may recall it was a 104 (65m( endurance ride and it was over, I mean at 103.3 km very close to the cloud when it happened?

OMG,DID YOU GET HURT, ARE YOU ALL RIGHT, HOW DID IT HAPPEN AND HOWS THE BIKE ?

One at a time por favor

.

Best way to describe the event is probably I lost focus and concentration for a moment from fatigue near the end of the long ride. I pulled off to the right out of the traffic lane on Lake Forest into where a side street makes entry onto Lake Forest.

I checked and looked at the ‘computer’ and apparently looked too long for the next thing I saw was curb and I was down with a sick, crisp crack of plastic on sidewalk with part of my head in the ground cover.

Stunned, NOT in shock but shocked none the less, I gathered my wits running thru the injury and triage protocols.

I could see, my mouth was intact and then the annoying little pains started to register as I sat upright.

I had a strawberry on the right knee which was going to be the image but declined & rejected later.

Anyway, I survived and that’s enough of that. I rode the bike home and everything seems fine.

I WILL ride again. Today or overnight the condition improved but one (I) can tell some things are amiss with the aches and little pains in various places seemingly unrelated.

My time was good and I redeemed myself from last Saturdays debacle in the high winds. I COULD go 104k (65M) without stopping AND the elapsed time was a shade over four (4) hours which was suberb and encouraging as I has a couple or father a FEW safety stops for that hour of the day with traffic.

SAFETY ? WHAT’S THAT ALL ABOUT?

You heard me. Safety THIRD (3rd) is a sarcastic jab and those that preach it like ‘common sense’.

Of course safety is important but what kind of IDIOT needs to be CONSTANTLY reminded?

If one does, they DESERVE what they get.

My respect for the helmet has changed slightly however. One time when I NEEDED it, I was WEARING it. There is a small crack in the plastic and a small chunk missing and NOT my head.

Moving on …

First Friday Mass today. This morning I really needed it. Wrestling with the MAST Planning Committee participation. Not sure what to do or how to proceed. Fragile egos, personal feelings, reputations and the all important ‘future considerations’ all must be carefully considered.

I was hoping for some direction, guidance or a solution which was successful. Not completely however I feel I did make progress and have a tentative plan set up & ready to pull the trigger. I drafted an email but did not send. Yet. Think some more, revisit and possibly soften it up a bit more lessening any perceived harsh tone(s).

I got this.

While at the local Shell station for petrol, the ‘smart car’ locked my keys on the inside. This caused me to lose an hour of my life as I had to walk home in the sweltering heat, in flip-flops. No mercy.

As I walked, I felt I should be ‘fuming’ however when I opened the aperture, a change came over me. I suddenly became THANKFUL that I was able to walk in spite of the throbbing strawberry, neck ache, wrist and ankle pains or bruises.

I reasoned that I COULD BE waiting in an ER someplace, waiting to be ‘worked on’ with a broken bone or needing stitches.

After getting home and starting to settle into the cement pond, I get an emergency text for assistance from my friend Robin from SOHO. I went down late afternoon and helped her with design, lay out and cutting out a pattern for a cape. She had a sketch and we worked for about an hour transforming a scalene triangle (an odd triangle, think NO equal sides) using classic Greek geometry and Euclidian methods settling on a more isosceles triangle.

It was kind of an ordeal but we got thru it. I was able to disguise my own challenges (think demons)

cutting straight lines as she readily confess to.

We got thru it.

Returned home after a quick pit stop at K-Roget. I was dangerously low on cerveza, not a good situation or condition to find oneself in with the w/e right around the corner.

My goal for Friday, THIS day again was and will be to stay put, enjoy the casa and all the amenities of this Mediterranean resort. I think today I will pretend I am on the southern coast of France and will expect a visit from my friend Claude and we will spend the hot hours of the day painting and discussing the finer points & techniques alternating dips and biere.

I guess that’s about all. Quite an entry … so I am now expecting to take those ‘couple days off’ as Huey Lewis proclaims in the finest of styles.

Life is grande.

Don’t FORGET it.

You ARE LUCKY for conditions, developments and situations could always, ALWAYS be worse.

THINK MUCH worse.

done.