Lobster

Over the weekend, we enjoyed some fresh lobster from Maine. Our neighbors ordered it, it was caught on Friday, shipped overnight, and we enjoyed it on Saturday. Steamed it in the neighbors back yard. Good stuff!

BIrffday Ride

Twas a birthday ride for our fearless leader, Art and the weather was chilly! It was bar far the coldest day of the fall so far, at right about 43 degrees for the start. Nearly everyone was in long sleeves and tights. The rider turnout was really small too, no more than 15 or so (instead of the usual 40). And to make things worse, the wind was howling. Fortunately, that jacket I got on sale a few weeks back is windproof, so I was comfortable. As snug as a bug in a rug.....reminds me of the new CD I got this week: The Pride Of Cleveland. 11 cool songs from early 1980s. Sweet. 

Off To The Races...

Went to the big race Saturday night in Concord (Charlotte). We have a neighbor and his son who enjoy going to the local track races. They are from Brazil and have never been to a Nascar race before. So we invited them to come along and enjoy a race with us. Ian is friends with the boy so that worked out well. 

We threw our bikes on the truck and were off to the race early Saturday AM. We got to the track by 11:00 AM and found our usual parking spot along Speedway Blvd. Then we unloaded the bikes and road over to the airport to say hello to my friend Steve. He always takes us on a golfcart tour of the airport, shows us some interesting aviation tidbits.  We then went to the race shop/ store for Roush Fenway Racing and showed the newbies around. They have some cool things in there but the most interesting is a mangled race car from the 2004 Arca race in Daytona. Right next to the car is a big-screen TV showing the video of the crash taking place that mangled the car. It flipped over so many times, you'd be amazed the driver survived at all let alone walking away with no major injuries.

The race was good for a number of reasons. First, the weather was about perfect: cool and breezy. Second, we were sitting in the first row between turns 1 and 2. The action was really close. Jessica Simpson gave a little concert pre-race which we missed. She sang the national anthem as well and she did a pretty good job with that, considering the acoustics suck and that's a difficult song to sing. There was a nice flyover by a C17. During the race, there were a number of different drivers who lead and right up until the last 25 or so laps, it was anybody's race. (Jeff Burton edged out Casey Kahne for the win). Alas one disappointing note was that our main man, #22 Caterpillar Toyota, Dave Blaney had a terrible night. The car sucked. The team just hasn't been able to put it together consistently this year. Very frustrating! 

We got to see some action too, as Junior's tire exploded right in front of us and he slammed the wall just to out right. Later, Montoya slammed the wall right in front of us. I don't know if the TV showed this but later in the race Denny Hamlin was sideways in turn 1, hit the wall in front of us and somehow managed to keep moving along without wrecking. Amazing. He must have had flashbacks of his wreck the week before at Talladega. BTW, Blaney drove Hamlin's car in the Nationwide race Friday night; finished 17th. The Brazilians were amused by the druken exploits of the fans and frankly so was I. Its like 50% racing and 50% people watching!

The good news is that on Sunday we stopped by Blaney's race shop and had lunch with him and the family. He and his wife Lisa had a nice spread for us. Even his parents were in for the weekend. Got to chat with some other hard core Blaniacs, a few of whom I have met before at other races. Dave is kind of down about the way the season has played out. He's still unsure about next year but hoping for the best. I am too. On to Martinsville!

I'm not with him!!!

Had to ride solo on Saturday (some people will just cancel at the last minute). But it was nice and warm, breezy and 70's. The shorts were on and things were going great, except for my nagging left knee pain, so I was comfortably cruising. Next thing I know, this guy passes me on his bike. The guy doesn't say "hello, on your left, look out fat loser" nothing, not a wave or a grunt or a look back to say "catch me if you can".  Before the guy gets more than 50 feet away, here come two riders up the hill in the opposite direction. He snubs them. I overcompensate by waving hysterically, not wanting them to think I had anything to do with unfriendly guy. At this point I actually want to yell out to let these guys know that i'm not with this guy at all, in no way, shape or capacity am I linked to this guy. He's snob guy and I'm friendly guy. I' a friend to cyclists and animals alike. Did I mention there was a rooster out by the lake that day? He was cock a doodle doing like it was sunup (it was 1:00 PM). Once past the lake, here comes unfriendly guy #2, zips out of the woods on his MOUNTAIN bike, passes me on a slight uphill grade and turns into the county park entrance road. OK, so he passes fat guy with a bad knee on a short uphill! So what? I finished the 30 mile loop. Did he ride 30 miles Saturday?? Probably not! Did he have a sore knee? Nope! Has he overweight by 25 pounds(minimum) no way, Jose! So take that, snobby bike riders!

Crash!

The wind was howling yesterday with 20mph winds, gusting even higher. Heading north over Jordan Lake was really a chore, but after we turned west off the lake the tailwind quickly increased our pace. This is where the boys usually pick up the pace anyhow.
A couple of idiots were fooling around and one ended up swerving. He caught the wheel of the guy behind him (and directly in front of me!). That poor guy did his best to stay upright, giving me a second or two to swerve left to the centerline. In the end he did go down , falling right. Unfortunately, my man Bill, bike mechanic extrordinaire, had no place to go but right over the guy now on the ground in front of him. Bill rolled over the guy and went down hard on his left shoulder and head. He was really pissed about the whole thing, as he should be. He was riding a brand new bike, a custom-made steel Kirk that he waited over a year for. Bill doesn't ride with cheap hardware either. He told the guy who caused the crash that he was looking at $800 minimum to repair this brand new bike(and I assume thats without any labor cost). Another ride gone bad. BTW, the first guy to go down just ended up with a little road rash. Bill thinks he may have cracked a couple of ribs.

Eclipse

Did you see that eclipse last night? Ian and I went out to check it out about 11:00 last night. It was a really cool purplish-red color with a crescent of white along the bottom edge. Brilliant. I was going to take a picture, but I knew I couldn't do it justice with a little tiny picture. If only we could have seen the exploding satellite being shot by that missile!

Representin'

In the lingo of the hood, this past weekend, the Matthews was representin'. Allow me to explain:
Our Bible study group decided to have a weekend get together at the beach. It would be a guy's only weekend, a time for bonding, worship, fellowship and.....COMPETITION! Now you may realize that I was not at all comfortable with that last part. I'm the Un-sportsman if there ever was one! No skills, no interest. It was suggested that we bring along a few of the older boys, and this included Ian. As it turned out we had 16 people there, 12 men and 4 teenagers. Greg has a huge house at Holden Beach and we rolled in there Friday evening, just in time for a fabulous barbecue chicken dinner. Good praise and worship session after the meal: we really have a great bunch of guys.
Saturday AM we drew lots for teams: Ian and I ended up on what I felt would surely be the "losers" team. The events would be 2 men on each team run together, relay style. The second group of guys couldn't begin until BOTH of the previous guys crossed the finish line. The run was an out and back run on the beach which totalled 1-1.5 miles, per the estimate of the runners in our midst. Ian and I were the 3rd pair in our group to run. By the time our team got back to the finish line, the competition's 3rd pair was already on their way out. We were already 100 yards behind before we started. Ian was confident we could catch them however, so off we went. Before I realized what was going on, we were in a full sprint down the beach. About half way to the turn around point, we were closing in on the other team. We caught them at the 3/4 mark. Ian was saying "lets pass them" while I was more like "let's hang just behind them for a while and prevent a heart attack". That strategy paid off, because at the turn around point, the other pair slowed down even more, while we kept up a brisk jog. About 3/4 way to the finish line, I was ready to puke, but the cheers of the team provided an extra burst of strength (as intended no doubt) and we finished our leg more than a minute ahead of the other team. With that lead, our last pair of guys headed out and handily won the relay for our team. So the Matthews' leg went from 100 yards behind to more than a minute ahead: we had won this race for our team!
Next up was a 2 man kayak race. Most of the guys had little or no experience in a kayak. I sugested that Ian and I race in the last leg, as I suspected we could make up a deficit if it were needed. It really wasn't needed: we started our last leg of the race with a good lead over the other team. We were half way back from the turn around point when we passed the competition on their way out to the turn around. Several people asked us "how did you get that thing to go so straight?" Another victory for our team.
The next event was a 2.5 mile out and back bike race (on montain bikes). Once again, Ian and I easily created a huge lead over the opposing team that handed the competitors their third consecutive loss!
Next came a basketball game and a volleyball game capped off with a beach flag football game. I wanted to sit on the deck and rest after the bike race, but I wasn't allowed. Our team lost the first two ball games but won the football game and the overall sports competition. Ian was so psyched that he secretly called his mother to tell her about our sports domination. I could not have asked for a better day for us. Did I mention that Ian was not thrilled to go on this weekend in the first place? Those guys really showed him some love and I think he summed up the weekend as "awesome".
Although I wouldn't change the weekend for all the world, I don't think I have ever been this sore in my life. My quads, my shoulders, my lower back, the soles of my feet (from all that sand time). I'm too old for this!!! We have already decided we need to do this again, but I'm going to try and figure out what we can do BESIDES sports. Any ideas???

Sucked again today..

Another crappy ride today. I rode with a group of folks that I don't normally ride with. I joined the ride because it was listed as 15-17 mph. I figured that would easily fit my riding style at this point in the year (middle of winter, holiday pounds still hanging on). I had heard some talk that this group liked to occasionally pick up the pace on some rides, dropping a few people in the process: even though its advertised as a "15-17 mph", no drop ride.
I was able to hang for the first 20 miles and that was it. I knew where I was at that point, so I rode the last 10 miles solo, I took a shorter flatter route back, to finish the 30 miles with a pace of 17.3 mph. I would really like to kwow what the average of the group was at mile 20!
There is another local ride with a faster listed pace at the very same time as this ride. I just can't figure out why these guys don't just go to the faster ride to begin with??? Maybe it makes them feel better to see a dropped rider like myself come straggling in? The beauty of it all is that only 2 guys in the group new I took a different route back, and I ended up hitting the parking lot mid pack with the original riders anyhow. Boneheads!

Blizzard of '78

I have been reading with interest the news stories about the big blizzard of Jan, 26, 1978. While I remember that winter was especially cod and snowy, I don't remember that we had a "blizzard". I remember no power outages, no property damage, no school closings. But then again, maybe I just don't remember it well!! Two days later, on Jan 28th, I was off to Australia for a year as an exchange student. It was quite an adventure, as I recall. First time on a jet, first time away from home on my own (there were no chaperones: I was alone until I got to a hotel in San Francisco and met up with the rest of the students). First time in California. As cold as it was in Ohio, it was 63 degrees in San Francisco. It was even warmer in Honalulu( but it was the middle of the night). When I finally got to my final destination, Perth, I think the temperature at 10:00 at night was about 90 degrees! No wonder I don't remember a blizzard.

Inflation!

People complain a lot about the high cost of health care, and in particular the high cost of drugs. I agree that both are expensive.
In order to deliver health care to you, I am obligated to get an annual license, which runs about $400 per year, and pay about $13,000 per year for malpractice coverage. It's so affordable because : 1) Idon't deliver babies and 2) I have never been sued.
But there is a third item needed: a DEA license. This is from the DEA, and allows me to write prescriptions for narcotics. I don't think there are many new narcotics on the market since I started practice in 1990, if any: just a few reformulations and strength changes.
So every 3 years you have to check off the reapplication questions. Were you convicted of a felony? Were you involved in ilegal drug activities? Has your license to practice been revoked or sanctioned? No, no and no. Same name, same address, same license #, same categories of drugs I have been prescribing since 1990. The ONLY thing that has changed is the cost of the 3 year license.
In 1990, I paid $60. Today, I filled out the form online and printed my own certificate (both should reduce the DEA costs, right). Cost to renew my DEA today: $551. Now THAT, my friends, is inflation! And to think that Medicare thought we deserved a 10% pay reduction for 2008. Hmmmmmmm.

New Years Ramblings

Greetings to all for the New Year. May it rule for you! I wish there were a bigger gap between Christmas and New Years. I mean we pretty much have obscured the celebration of Jesus with the commercialization of His birth, but then once the last present is opened it's "hey, what are we doing for New Years?". Someone check out the possibility of moving New Years back to February 1st and get back to me.

We had a fairly low-key holiday really, hanging with some neighbors. One neighbor, Chris, is a chef and he whipped up a dinner of filet (I had to pass on that) seafood ravioli and sauteed shrimp. Then he created 3 different sauces to go with the entrees; superb! As good as any restaurant I've been too.

In our old age, it seems that staying up for the stroke of midnight gets harder. In fact, ALL of our neighbors left the party early. We then felt obligated to stick around for the big acorn drop (that's right: forget a ball dropping. Here in the City of Oaks, we have a giant acorn!) But at 12:05 or so, home we headed. I had to rest up for the 15th annual Spin Cycle New Years Day ride at 10AM. The weather was sunny and cool and this brought out about 200 riders. We laid down almost 40 miles out around Jordan Lake at a "social ride"...."winter pace"of almost 18mph. I think the regulars enjoy showing the occasionals how fast they can go. Any way, it was a good way for me to start the new year off right.

2008 will be the year of healthy choices for me. Stay tuned....

Another one gone....

I was saddened to learn yesterday of the passing of musician Dan Fogelberg. Actually, I am always bummed out when I read that someone who has made great music dies, (Bob Marley, Frank Zappa, Robert Palmer, Nicolette Larson) but this is especially tragic. Like many of us, I was drawn to his music in the 70's and then his album "The Innocent Age", in the early 80's really increased his popularity. XM played his song "Same Old Lang Syne" often on their Christmas channel "Holly". My wife asked about the song last weekend while we were doing some painting and the song came on. We talked about how we liked the song and wondered if Dan Fogelberg really DID run into an old lover in a gracery store. News accounts suggest that he did not: he said that although his music had a mellow, brooding quality to it, that was not really his personality. In fact, he said one of his best friends was Jimmy Buffet. I"m going to miss this guy. I plan to download his greatest hits from the net.

Winter is here!

OK, I know I'm not having to put up with snow, or even with freezing rain. Nevertheless, Iknow that winter is here. How do I know this? Because of the boxes of Kleenex scattered about the house for the past 2 weeks. Some of those viral bugs people bring to my office daily have gotten to me. I was down for 2 consecutive weekends, just too weak to go out and ride (or do much of anything else, for that matter).
I did finally get a ride in this AM with my neighbor, Jukka. I scanned the weather channel website just before I left: not a speck of green to be seen. A light rain started less than 1 mile into the ride. Where did that come from?? Since it was quite cold (43) and real windy, it made for some less-than-desirable riding conditions. But hey, it was still a ride!

Thanksgiving

Once again, I ate too much. It's almost impossible NOT TO! Ther is just so much good food about, and you have to try a little of this and a little of that. Next thing you know... We spent the day with some of our neighbors. It was different, but it was a lot of fun.

I'm glad that there is nothing I need (or want) bad enough to get out of bed in the wee hours of the day and stand in line outside a store just so I can get a deal on something. I like getting a deal, just not that much. I got 2 new cell phones today BOGO free, $19.99. I also just picked up a new pair of shaped skiis. I got last years model for 46% off the original sale price. I think they will shred the gnarly stuff and plow through the powder just like this years model.

It was 77 yesterday and that made for a sweet pre-turkey ride. Tomorrow's high will be 51. Brrrrrrrrr! That's still better than 42 and rain. Later!

Great Riding

Five adventurous riders from Ohio made the trip down to NC last weekend for some winterish riding. The boys were in great form as we followed a nice loop out through the wetern fringes of Wake County up over Jordan Lake and back into downtown Apex. Although the weather was cooler than normal and the wind picked up, we had a pretty decent ride of just over 52 miles.

Sunday, we joined the local bike shop ride of 40 or so riders on the regular social ride. Two of the boys decided to run with the A group and all I knoe is that they finished the ride and did it faster than the rest of us. The remaining four of us stayed with the main group of B riders. I was amazed to see Bud pulling on the front for so long. He was followed closely by "Shoeless" Kevin B. on pulling duties. And not to be outdone, Todd finally let his legs do the talking by hammering up the final climb (which I still can't stand) to take the KOM honors. Give that man a polkadot jersey!

In between rides, we enjoyed some NC barbecue, a little Moe's and subs from Rudino's. The highlight of the weekend however was the Ohio State Buckeyes trouncing those pussies from Michigan. Ah, we had fun watching that game, didn't we???

Since its almost Thanksgiving, let me say that I'm thankful to have, among other things, a great group of riding buddies! Ride on.....

Rules of the Road

I've been thinking about the rules of the road lately. That is, the bicycling rules of the road. I've decided that most of them are unwritten, and most are learned by observation, trial and error. There was a guy on last weeks ride who had been disinvited because he broke the off-the-front rule. He rode most of last weeks ride...off the front. The response of the group was ultimately to pretend he wasn't there. If he was interested in riding at a faster pace than we were riding, 18mph, he had the chance to ride with the faster group. He CHOSE to stay with what he knew was the 18mph group. So why then act like we are going too slow for you, bro??
Another unwritten rule was highlighted last weekend: don't ride near a guy with a creaking bike! Chaz bought some high dollar Zipp wheels for his bike, but his front wheel was making an awful clicking noise. It was hilarious to see how someone would ride near him, realize HE was making that noise , then slowly drift back away from him like he had a disease. A wise mechanic decided it was an extra long presta valve stem that needed a little electrical tape to keep it from knocking on the rim.
Never ever ever talk on a cell phone in the peloton! This seems obvious to me but its amazing how many people try to do this. Apart from the huge safety issue, I don't know how you could hear with the wind screaming through your phone.
One of the most dreadful things I have encountered is a dropped water bottle. Especially when you're in a group with 30 plus riders at a good pace. Someone usually screams "Bottle!!!!!" and then the panic sets in and the collision avoidance maneuvers occur. If the bottle doesn't take you down, any number of people trying to miss the bottle can take you down just as effectively. And the WORST case senario is when the person who drops the bottle brakes hard like they are going to hop off their bike and pick up that bottle! Good grief! Dude, there are 25 people beind you going fast: now is not the time toi ris life and limb (yours or mine) to save a $5 watre bottle.
Then there is Dick (a perfect name for him) aka loud talker guy. This guy talks so loud that I know hes a financial planner, he has a lot of doctors as clients (really impressive, right), he is single(I suspect his wife left him) and he is thinking of retiring in the next 5 years and moving from his 2 acre lot to a low maintenance condo. Not that he's ever spoken DIRECTLY to me. He just likes to talk and he talks loud. I am not happy that I know all this about him but its like he forced it upon me. Kind of like second hand smoke.
There are lots and lots of other rules, but I'll save those for another post. Ride on!

Pain in the Rear

For the third time in the last year or so, I have been rear-ended by a woman. That is, my car (truck) has been hit from behind by a woman not paying attention. The latest was a 19 year old woman who hit me while I was going 35 mph in a 35mph zone (very heavily patrolled by the cops). I had my cruise control set so as not to attract the attention of the donut eaters, when WAM! A sleeping Ian bolted awake (it was 4AM) and asked "What was that?". I pulled over and the latest crasher pulls to my side, rolls down her window and asks "did I hit your bike?". There wer 2 bikes on the hitch rack and indeed she hit one of the bikes. She also smashed my Rhode Gear bike rack. At first she tried to leave: I insisted she stay. Then she wasn't sure if she hit me: the cop showed her the big dent in her bumper, and I had plastic shards fron her car sitting on my bumper! She agreed to settle for 250 cash and we wouldn't involve her insurance company. She was supposed to pay up by Friday. If she doesnt have a check in tomorrow's mail, her insurance company will be called: then she will get to pay with a higher insurance premium. I guess she too inexperienced to realize I'm doing her a favor by allowing her to pay directly. Incidentally, Yakima has taken over Rhode Gear so if I have to deal with her insurance company, I will take my smashed Rhode Gear rack to the bike shop and replace it with a Yakima equivalent, which goes for 300-350! I would have replaced my rack with a generic one but if she's not helping me, I won't help her (or her insurance). Stay tuned.

I'm Back!

After a not so brief period of time away from my computer, I have now returned. Moving gets a lot harder the older you get. I guess adjustment in general becomes more difficult as we get older. You'd think it might get easier, as we try more new things, have more experiences upon which to draw but that doesn't seem to be the case.
Seventy five days! That's how our summer has been. That is, we have had 75 days this summer where the mercury hit 90 degrees or better. It's been one of the hottest summers Raleigh has seen. The previous record for 90 degrees plus days was 73, set back in 1953. August was collectively the hottest month ever recorded in Raleigh. The high 2 days ago was 101: another record heat day. We have had many heat records broken. The high today was ONLY 86. No more 90 days forecast for the immediate future.
We still need about 20" of rain to make up for our rain deficit. We are only supposed to water our grass on Wednesdays now (5AM-10AM). Don't tell anyone but I have a whole bunch of law-breaking, habitual grass waterers in my neighborhood.
The hot weather has put a slowdown on bike riding too, and that's a real shame. I have spent the last month however, riding the streets around Holly Springs, getting to know the local roads. I have a number of potential routes plotted now to take visitors on. We do have some hills here: in fact, you can't get ouit to the west side of town, for good in-the -country riding unless you chug up a few hills first. Never fear though: we will set a nice easy tempo through these areas. That's it for today!

A foot fetish??

Recently, I had a patient asked me a question I've been asked before, in a numberof roundabout ways. She was a middle aged mouthy sort from New York (a place I don't love...see above). Anyhow, she said "why did you become a foot doctor- do you have a foot fetish?". I replied with the following: first of all, there is no such thing as a foot fetish. A fetish is defined as sexual pleasure derived from an INANIMATE object. The foot of course is not an inanimate object and therefore one by definition cannot have a foot fetish. About this time, Miss Mouthy was turning red as she realized how insulting her question was. Next, I explained that I had no sexual interest in the foot whatsoever (she got even more red). Finally, I explained that I just happened into the specialty due to a convergence of circumstances. Any more questions, lady??

I Love New York

No, not the show with Flavor Flav and those chicks from the hood! But the promotional phrase on coffee mugs, t-shirts, magnets and any other cheap, made-in China souvenir you could imagine. Anyway, having just returned from the Big Apple last night, I have to disagree with the sentiment. I don't love New York. Maybe its the traffic, the noise, the crowds, the concrete, the high cost of living. Maybe its all those things. I guess its an OK place to visit, but I sure wouldn't want to live there. In fact, I feel sorry for the people who have to live there.
I'll take Holly Springs any day. Give me an acre or .4, where I can watch the dog chase a ball, or some streets I can walk down without being hit by a bus. Or some country roads where I can hammer with 50 or 60 of my closest bike riding friends on Sunday afternoons. By the way, since this will be the first post on this blog, welcome. I hope you return often to read other posts. Let me know what you think. You can sign up to be alerted via email when a new post is added. I might post once a week or so. Thanks!