GreenEye Wire

Yes, I did get the new place, and the more and more I think about it, I almost want to nix it and keep my old place. There are ups and downs to both sides:

Pros: old place

1. Location: This is the biggest one. I am right across the street from Nico’s, the grocery store, the CVS that carries Hagen Das ice cream and the really good pizza place. While I’m not *that* much farther, at the new place, it is still something to consider when I want ice cream NOW NOW NOW, or just need to run over to the grocery store for something quick.
2. Sebastian’s doggie friends are here at the old place.
3. The fact I don’t have to move. I hate moving, but this time I am going to use some movers.

Cons to the old place:

1. The management sucks.
2. My apartment is smaller.
3. There is no tennis court for me to work with Sebastian off leash. This is actually a big one as I have no fenced in area to work agility with Sebastian. Yes, there is a greenbelt right out back, but with greenbelts come bunnies and a dog who takes off. I just can’t compete with a live squeak toy that plays chase..

Pros New place

1. Larger apartment with more storage for not that much more money.
2. Kick ass loft area for the bedroom and a really tall 2 story ceiling for the other living areas of the house.
3. Tennis court for me to work with Sebastian off leash on agility stuff.

Cons New Place

1. It is a longer walk to get to the grocery store, the CVS and Nicos. I will actually miss being right across the street.
2. I’ve learned that the reason my new apartment vacated is because the person living there is now incarcerated on drug charges.

That last ‘con’ worries me the most. I have no idea what kinds of drugs he was selling, but I did hear one of the people in the office say something like “Now is that apartment the one where the Texas Rangers would come over to party?” I peeked inside the window and the place was trashed and one of the windows had plywood over it. Hopefully the apartment will be vacant long enough that the clientele of this guy won’t be coming over to get their fix. I think just to be safe, though, I am gonna work with my Beecher’s Bible at the range. (And if you don’t know what a Beecher’s Bible is, you don’t know your civil war history very well.)

Thing is, I’m even debating just staying here. After all, I love love love the location of this place, but the tennis court thing is what is really swaying me to move. I’ve not worked with Sebastian since I’ve moved here, an I really enjoyed the doggie classes we attended.

I go back and forth, and honestly, I haven’t made up my mind. I might just keep this place.

Of course, I always purchase the party pics from the photographers assigned to take pictures at the event. I haven’t found my bicycle shot, but My bicycle shot is here. And, I was thrilled that there were two photos of my run. And, they show an interesting story that happened at the end of the race.

In picture one, you’ll see me at the end of the race. Look how happy I am.

In the next picture, you’ll see me looking not so happy, and I’m sort of twisting my body. You’ll see the guy behind me is sort of looking to the camera’s right side.

Here’s what happened. As I was running into the home stretch, there were some people to my left (camera’s right) who said “Great job.” I replied with a smile and a “Thanks!” thinking they were talking to me. (That’s when picture one was taken.) In actuality, they were talking to the guy behind me. I know this because I heard them say “NOW GIT HER!”

My reply to this was “F$CK THAT!” and I dug in and sprinted to the end of the line. The picture number two was taken right when I dug in to take my first big step.

To the delight of the crowd, he and I both raced the last 30 yards to the end of the finish line.

And, by a hair, I came in before him. (If the distance had been even 5 more yards, he would have beat me.)

[added later] Oh WOW! Bill just pointed out to me that the man running behind me in the photo has the same bib number that I had last year. TRIPPY![/added later]

The cool thing about a triathlon, though, is that everyone is supportive of everyone else. At the end of the race, we shook hands and congratulated each other on a great race.

And I think that is why I like triathlons. It’s a great race if you finish.

There is a saying in the tri world that really explains the overall spirit of a triathlon:

DFL > DNF > DNS

‘Dead F*cking Last” is better than

“Did Not Finish” is better than

“Did Not Start”.

People cheer as loud for the last person to come over the line as they do for the first person. On the runs, everyone is saying “Good race” and encouraging those who appear to struggle by saying “You’re almost there, you CAN DO IT.”

It is the most helpful, most caring atmosphere of physical contest I’ve ever witnessed. And you don’t have to be a size 2 to do it. I’ve seen men and women who appear to struggle with their weight giving it their best. And nobody, I mean *nobody* makes fun of them for the sheer and simple reason that they gave it a shot.

I’ve also seen people of all ages compete. There was a 9 year old boy who finished in this race, and I was passed on the run by a 77 year old woman. (Let me tell you, she looked no more than 55 AT THE MOST.) Last year, I racked my bicycle across from an 86 year old man. When he crossed the line, they played the theme from “Rocky”. He said he decided to do triathlons in 1987 when his doctor told him to get more exercise. (He was 66 for his first tri.)

The overall attitude is “Hey, DFL is *still finishing*”. You can crawl over that line and people will cheer. And I love that.

In the Iron Girl Triathlon in Irving last year, I learned of a very cool tradition that has evolved over the last several years. The winner of the Iron Girl goes back to the end of the race when she’s done and runs the last half mile with the last person and encourages her along. Sometimes, she does this for more than one person if she sees someone really struggling. You just don’t see that in other sports.

I wish I knew about the spirit of triathlons years ago. I’ve avoided contests of physical ability simply because I always hated PE class where someone got picked last — usually me — and for that reason, picked on. I had no idea that there were contests of sport where someone didn’t get humiliated.

In fact, you don’t often see a contest in general that doesn’t result in humiliation for someone.

I think that is why I will continue in this sport for the rest of my life. Not for the exercise or the fact it will do me good, but simply to experience the spirit of the sport.

[added a little later] Here is a link to my 2007 race results.
2008 race results

Well, tomorrow is the ‘Tri the Rock’ Triathlon in Rockwall Texas. When I picked up my race packet on Friday, I was told that this weekend was also the same weekend as the Hotter than Hell Hundred in Wichita Falls.

[sidenote]
The Hotter than Hell Hundred is a 100 mile bicycle race held in Wichita Falls, Texas every year in the 100+ degree heat of the Texas August. (There are also races for 100 km (about 62 miles), 50 miles, 25 miles and 10 miles.) One would believe that nobody would be foolish to do this, but the little town of Wichita Falls, Texas usually has 10,000 riders from all over the US and world who participate. And, really. If you can survive it — and I do mean survive in the literal sense here, as many people end up in the medic tents with IV’s in their arms — it is indeed something to brag about.
[/sidenote]

I also heard when I picked up my race packet that there were people racing the HHH on Saturday and then running the Rockwall Tri on Sunday.

I am just not that much of a die hard. In fact, many people who participate in triathlons look at the Sprint races as ‘not real triathlons.’ I simply don’t care. I like sprints as I don’t have to train FOREVER to do one, and I still enjoy it enough to do a triathlon again.

A sprint triathlon is usually 500 - 1000 meter swim, followed by a 20K bike and then a 5 K run.

Anyway, I’ve up picture of the stuff I take. I’m hoping this exercise will help me so I don’t miss anything vital.

A. My trusty backpack which will hold everything except the balloon and bike.

B. My helium filled balloon which I will attach to the bike rack so I can easily find my bike when it is racked next to 400 others.

C. I wake up in the morning and get dressed in my tri suit and comfy pink slip-on shoes.

D. I eat breakfast and take some salt tablets so I don’t cramp up. (Gatorade screws up my stomach.)

E. My directions to the race and race packet.

Drive to race. Leave here at 4:30 for 6:45 meeting. This will give me an hour before the race and meeting to get my stuff laid out and drive the hour to get there. Will also leave enough time for me to get through registration and get decent parking. Hopefully I will not get lost on the way.

F. My mini mag flashlight because I will get to the race before sunup and have to dig my bike and backpack out of my car and assemble my bike in pitch black. (I learned this one the hard way last year.)

G. My race number and race belt which I need at registration.

SWIM

H. Swim goggles, ear plugs and required race hat in the water.

Transition 1: Get out of the swim, run to bike rack for bicycle segment. Remove goggles, hat and ear plugs.

I. Get to the rack, use water bottle to wash gravel off feet, towel off face, etc. Put on race belt with number facing back. Put items (J) on in this order: socks, cycling shoes, spray on sunscreen, gloves on, sunglasses on, helmet on.

Bike.

Transition 2: Rack bike, remove helmet, gloves, cycling shoes, sunglasses. Spray on more sunscreen if needed. Replace sunglasses, turn race belt so number faces front. Put on Running shoes (L) and do-rag to prevent head from burning.

Run.

M. End of race. Pay money to nice massage lady for massage.

N. Change of clothing for ride home, (or not) Green stretch leash if massage lady is busy and I need to stretch sore muscles first.

Ah, I’m glad I did this exercise. I need to put my purse with ID and phone in bag as well so I can get registered.

Anyway, I’m gonna have some pasta.

OK, my friend Teresa aka Mivox who is nothing short of a goddess with all things graphics showed me this cool ass tool that makes it easy for graphics impaired people like me to match colors and find good contrasting colors. (Sadly, Teresa has a horrible web site that does NOTHING to show off her talents, so I linked you to her flickr account which has some really innovative stuff.)

My favorite thing she made is here because every time I look at it I laugh. Here’s a great set where, since she had a large trench in her back yard dug, she decided to take pictures of herself wrapped in a sheet and “dumped”.

Anyway, enough about T. Here is the tool.

I also wanted to show you a picture of Sebastian. He is moping today because he doesn’t get to see his girlfriend, Izzy Lou. Kristine is at the SES show in San Jose, so we weren’t able to have our typical ‘eat a meal and watch Project Runway’ night. He has been on his pillow all night and occasionally, he sighs loudly when I glance his way. He is *so* melodramatic.

OK, I’ve not posted for several days, and I just looked at the calendar and realized that my one month mark is up. On July 19, I vowed in this post to write a blog post every day for a month. While I did miss a few days here and there, I am still going to call this a success. I’ve even inspired a fellow writer to start his own blog and pen down some thoughts about his day.

The past week, I’ve come to realize that I need to fine tune some goals and actually schedule my time such that I will write for myself every single day. If I know for example that from 5 to 6 PM I have to write, then I’ll make time to do it. That time goes only to writing. Otherwise, I’ll allow other things to crowd that out and I’ll end up not writing at all. Such as with the last few days where I didn’t write at all.

What I have been doing is Feng Shui-izing my life. A couple years ago, I picked up a book on Feng Shui, but I never quite got around to finishing it. On Saturday, I happened to look at it and was drawn to pick it up and read it all the way through. I am now hooked, and will use layout principles in my new place. I’ve also, to a lesser extent put some Feng Shui ideas into my apartment here. One of the basic tenants: KEEP YOUR SHIT PICKED UP. And, I have to admit, after picking stuff up and getting rid of clutter, I do feel more positive in my space.

Also, today I find out today if I get the other apartment. I can’t wait!