Monday, April 20, 2009

Sweet Sunshine...where HAVE you been?

This weekend was so nice that everyone I encountered was giddy – I think it’s because we know it will end in a couple of days so we are happy as all get out! My friend Matt said he could go for 30 days of this weather and I told him that’s called August. We’ll see how things go, the showers keep showing up in the forecast, but that tends to change on an hourly basis!

Small Group Service Project & Fellowship

Due to the economy and the number of church members losing their jobs, Felida ended up letting go of the janitorial help (less money coming in time to cut back). Since then, church members have taken over the cleaning duties. I remember many years ago when we had no janitor and were cleaning and now we have come back to it.

As a service project the small group that Tom and I are a part of signed up to do cleaning duty this past Saturday morning. It was a gorgeous day out and even though I wanted to do other things (ride my bike) this opportunity was for our small group to work together and hang out with each other. With all of us (10 total) working together, by taking different areas to clean, we got the church cleaned up in under a couple of hours! I have to say that even though Tom and I were cleaning the bathrooms in the lower building, it really was a pretty good time. We had our moments of silliness, but that is to be expected while we were all together trying to figure out where things were and getting things done.

Probably the funniest thing is that in the men’s bathroom in the lower building you will find the old patio furniture that once was in the entry outside of Worship 2. Tom and I were having a hard time understanding WHY there would be two patio chairs in there – in close proximity to the stall, but there they were! At our group last night after extensive discussion over this we all had a good laugh about those chairs. I wish I had a photo, but in reality WHO would want a picture of the inside of the men’s room? Good times!

Following the church cleaning Dani, Jenni, Kristen (w/ son #1) and I went to Starbucks for coffee and a snack. It was nice hanging out with my buddies and Mr. Brayden, although he may have been getting bored as he kept urging us to watch him and his tricks. He’s a good little man and fun to have around. It’s amazing that he will be 5 this year…time flies! It’s not very often that I want to go and hang with my friends, especially my girlfriends…I really need to be more social! I do best in one on one visits, must be my A.D.D. kicking in, too much to keep track of. These friends mean a lot to me though, they were there during my cancer stuff, but THAT is quite a different post! Even though I might be kicking and screaming (on the inside) I always am glad that I go and hang out with my friends.

Cycling Fever…

Before the thought of going to coffee was discussed Kristen and I tried to pull together a riding plan for that afternoon. Since she is training to do triathlons she was thinking riding and then running afterward. I really need to start doing that, but Tom and I went to the track the previous evening and did speed work and I wasn’t up for riding THEN running just yet. So we planned to meet and ride a quick ride (as quick as possible) and then call it good. Turns out that Matt planned to meet someone at 1:30 to ride, so we had to be back as close to 1:30 as possible so a ride/run was not possible anyway need more time! 18 miles later we went our separate ways and still had the rest of the afternoon to enjoy.

Yesterday in between worship and BX time we made a last minute plan to ride with another friend from church. Tom and I met Adam at the Salmon Creek Trailhead and took off for an awesome 28 mile ride – my hilly route that we wanted to take Mark & Robin on for Mark’s birthday, but ran out of time. Anyway, it’s always fun to take people on a new route that goes by the more quiet parts of Clark County. This particular ride includes riding 199th Street from Delfel Road to 61st Avenue and overlooks the Columbia River. A very cool sight! Adam enjoyed the ride and the hills and had not ridden that far north until yesterday. Considering that I was the lone female I had to keep up with the men…it was good though, we shaved off 9 minutes from the previous time that Tom and I rode the route...9 MINUTES! I was a little motivated to say the least. I hate feeling like I might be slowing other people down. Tom and Adam visited while I was grinding away, but it was all good as we have a couple of organized rides coming up and I need to really get serious and ride with purpose while still enjoying the scenery.

We have only had a couple of opportunities to ride with Adam and I hope there will be more he’s a good sport and he’ll ride just about anywhere! Also, it’s very easy to spot him and his super bright green Klein and matching jersey. Wowie Super Bright! I am thankful that his wife, Jenn, is very understanding and Adam gets to come play with us now and then. Maybe one day in the future she’ll come with us too!

All of our rides, whether we ride with other people or just with each other, end up at a Starbucks. Saturday mornings at the Salmon Creek Fred Meyer Sbux can be busy with the soccer/baseball fields and the indoor soccer facility are both about a mile away from that particular Starbucks, but we don’t mind waiting and have fun people watching. Plus the Vancouver Bicycle Club meets at the Fred Meyer parking lot on Saturdays so it’s fun to watch the club ride get going. Anyway, after enjoying a refreshing beverage and each other’s company we head out. Sometimes the caffeine just give enough boost to get us home – a big whopping two and a half miles!

Yeah, so if I could have I would have ridden more, but planning is good too and I would not have traded our weekend for anything else. I have missed riding with Kristen so it was good to hang out with her and I love riding with Tom and when we can get others to join us it’s even more fun!

This last weekend feels like a taste of what this summer might be like – a lot of riding and a whole lot of hanging out with good friends, whether it’s an organized event or just getting some people together. I’m afraid to find out how many others are roadies out there…I know of a few at church and a fair amount of people at the fire station…

Seriously, we need a bike club!

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