Time Away

It's been since Saturday that I last touched a tube and it feels like an itch I can't scratch. It's been a busy few days, between work and and extra-curricular activities. No complaints re either, but they haven't left me time to go into the shop.

Last night I was volunteering in the Kitchen at the Curling Club. Its our annual meeting and dinner, after which the season is officially over. That's probably good because curling doesn't wear off the pounds like riding. I've become big this last winter. And, I don't mean famous.

Tonight I'll be going to a Captains Meeting for the MS150. The Illinois Chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society uses this ride as their biggest fund-raiser for the year. This is my third year participating and my second as a sort of junior-assistant captain of the Wheeler Dealers. Traditionally we raise the largest total dollars of all the teams, but a couple of other teams are now nipping at our heels. This could be the year we get knocked off our pedestal (that's a good problem).

Chad Smith is the Captain of my team (he's also the guy in the bright jersey pictured with me). He's a good guy and his wife is a real sweety. A few years back Trish got diagnosised with the progressive form of MS (this is a form which only gets worse rather than having remissions). In spite of this, she's an upbeat, friendly, charming gal. So having got connected to she and Chad as part of my first Tour de Farms (MS150), there's no turning back.

Anyway, there's a team captains meeting this evening which Chad can't attend, so I'll sub for him. I've attended these before, and it will be a lot of fun, even though we have some serious work to accomplish.

By the way, if anyone would like to help me reach my fundraising goals, click on the link which will take you to my MS150 page where you can learn more and contribute. Any and all contributions are appreciated, go to a good cause, and are efficiently spent.

This gap in my work may be good. It gives my respirator and lug pins time to arrive - both of which should help me to work better. I've also been discussing technique with a few folks off-line, and have some new tricks to try.

It's time to move on to some other work, so I'll end this here.