Aging right before my eyes...

So this morning before my first cup of joe, I noticed my two year old playing with a stuffed panda bear....he was calling it "my doggy"; I was correcting him as follows: "Ryan, this is a polar bear. Can you say 'polar bear'?"

Thankfully, by lovely wife handed me a cup of coffee and asked me if I was sure it was a polar bear.

MAN, I'm getting old. Unless there's evidence of black and white polar bears, of course.....

BTW, pay no attention to crap kitchen floor....we'll get to THAT project soon enough...

Time....or lack of it.

I never reeeeeeally thought that managing my time effectively was that much of a chore, challenge, task, etc for me. Generally speaking, I've always considered myself relatively organized and able to "fit it all in". Given my schedule these days, clearly I had WAAAAY too much time on my hands!!!

One of my desires/goals post grad school was to become much more engrained in the lives of my children. As a lifelong average athlete but lover of pretty much all sports it's important to me to engage and introduce these things to my children. If they become little Mia Hamm's so much the better, but my goal is to get them in the fresh air with their friends and enjoy the competition and the sweat. To that end I volunteered to coach both soccer and softball. What I didn't realize was how much that absolutely is cutting into training time! While I once laughed at some of the multi-sport athletes in my club for dawn patrol rides, I realize the absolute necessity of them! With Saturday mornings gone (soccer), Sunday afternoons gone (wife working), Mondays shot (need to be in the office in Boston all day), Tuesday nights shot (softball + wife working), Friday nights shot (wife working), there appears to VERY little "Scott time". Add to this that my wife is taking on the 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk and is training for that, my schedule is suddenly JAMMED. I've already had to eliminate a couple of races that I really wanted to do.

PHEW, ah well. The sacrifice is definitely worth it (Meghan and Caitlin are loving their sports and I can't ask for anything better), and to be honest, it shouldn't be that hard to start getting my ass out of bed at 4:30 for pre-work rides. Gary gets up that early to go swimming a few days a week (I mean gimmeamutherfingbreak....SWIMMING AT 4:45am???? All SET, thanks....).

I now need to figure out how to Ryan (he's almost 2), to forego ball sports altogether and take the Steve Wright route to athletic fulfillment.....

I'm running out of names for posts....

"Random is as random does?"

Whatevah....here's a new list of silly noticings and musings for this week:

-It bothers the ever loving shit out of me on the commuter rail when I encounter double-wides; a double-wide is someone that takes up the space of two commuters side by side when exiting the train. You've seen them, the people that are too f-ing lazy to have a regular work bag or backpack, they have to use a rolling bag to carry a laptop. One word: gimmeamotherfingbreak.

-My new niece Cameron is gorgeous! We just did the Skype video thing so that we can talk with Jere and Stacey (they're silly Charlotte folk now....I'm sure my brother will be wearing a NASCAR team hat soon enough). Technology rocks.

-My back is still sore, but gradually less so each week. I think the physical therapy is working, thank god, 'cuz nothing else has!!! Funny thing though, on the bike, it never really seems to bug me. Bending over to pick up the little dude is what hurts the most.

-Speaking of the bike, training's been good. For the first time ever, I'm sort of on a "program" that has been good. So far the fun aspect of riding a bike is still there (though I haven't been on the mountain bike yet). I did get smoked in a super windy race this past weekend, but I'll chalk that up to some tired-ass legs.

-My yard looks like shit which is depressing. Said gimpy back makes a hard core spring clean up tough to fathom right now, and let's face it, with the economy being what it is, outsourcing that just ain't gonna happen. I'm thinking of doing it in "stages". Divy the yard up into quadrants and sort of have it one section at a time. It depresses me that I'm breaking down so quickly at sub-40.

-We just got our tax return and we need to gear up for the one big project we'll likely do this year, which is the kids' bathroom. Big one for a bathroom, we're going to expand it a bit by stealing some of the guest room closet so that I can install a double sink vanity. Man does that room need it because the prior owners, god love 'em, did a crap job.

-Did 24 throw absolutely EVERYONE for a loop last night or was it just me? I mean, C'MON, Tony can't be a bad guy. There MUST be something more here that we're not seeing yet. And BTW, was Kim Bauer smokin', or what????

-Listening to U2's new one, No Line On The Horizon, and it's growing on me. Not as dynamic as the last one (which was a FANTASTIC album IMO, right up there with J-Tree and Unforgettable Fire) but still good. Can't wait to hear Dave's new one....in fact I need to remember to download the new one tonight.

-Lovin' the new job so far, but hating the fact that I need to be in Denver next week for training. The fact that I'll be missing two consecutive racing weekends plus leaving my poor wife with the kids during school vacation week sucks. This too shall pass.

-The Spring Classics are behind us, and once again, one of my personal favorite pro riders of all time, George Hincapie, had some bad luck. Here's hoping that he can gear up for another year or two and win one of his personal favs though admittedly, his time is running out. But how SWEET would it be to see him on the podium for the Ronde or hoisting the cobble over his after a victory lap in the velodrome?

Random crap...

Just some random randomness.....

-I'm not sure how or why, but my almost 2 year old son loves to watch NASCAR.

-Skype is cool-my brother (who lives in Charlotte) and his wife just had a beautiful baby girl. We hooked up a webcam and have gotten to see our new niece first hand! We even have my folks on it...as long as big brother ain't watchin', all good.

-I've started seeing a physical therapist for my back....it's still REALLY sore pretty much every morning that I wake up (and requires sort of limping around the house for 30 minutes before it starts to loosen up), but the prognosis is good. It's weak abs....we knew that.

-Having fun being on the bike more and more lately. Really trying to be more structured and efficient this year. Duty calls as munchkin soccer and farm league softball coach.

-While I love winter I'm just so damn ready for shorts and flip-flops.

-The high of the new J-O-B took a bit of a downer today when 10% of the sales staff nation-wide got whacked today. When will this madness stop???

-After two back to back killer workouts (y'day I did two hours solid, avg HR about 155 trying to chase Smudger and company around; today I did LT intervals solo) my legs are dead. Good thing tomorrow is an off-day!

-Wonder how the Bombers are going to be this year??? On paper they look great, but not too confident in Burnett's health and Sabathia's longevity. Should be an interesting summah.