Back to work

I went back to work at Fleetfoot Messengers last Wed. the 10th and again today. On the tenth I spent SEVEN hours cleaning, sweeping, picking-up tools, mopping, and taking out a month and a half woth of trash and recycling cans. Today I was pleasently suprised to walk into the shop this morning to find it CLEAN! Tools were put away and the recycling was in the recycling bin and the trash in the trash can! I was able to actuall wrench on some bikes and place parts orders without spending the first two hours cleaning up after the KIDS/slobs. I was asked by the owner, Gary, if I could work more hours. I told him I would as my leg permits and he allowed me 20 hours a week if I want them. My friend, P.J., quit today and is moving to Reno to work in a bike shop a friend of his owns. P.J. did all of the wrenching, ordering, and billing before I came on board and took over as the WRENCH. Also another good friend and total slacker, Cully, is no longer working at Fleetfoot. Between PJ and Cully being gone the shop should stay much cleaner now. I will miss them as friends but not as co-workers...
The family is good. Abigael is getting HUGE and is so advanced for only being two years and two weeks. The other day in the post office she was looking at a box and she said "P!!" I looked over and sure enough it was a "p" then she said "U!!" but it was a very sloppy written "u" and I said Good girl Abigael. On the side of the box it said UP with an arrow and she read the letters without my prompting. The I promted her to read the letters of a sign that said "Please" She stated them all only needing help with the "L". A lady in line asked how old she was and Abigael said "TWO" with two little fingers held up and you could see the amazement on the ladys face!! She is my little Princess for sure!!
Still looking into the buying a house thing, GGGGggggrrrrrr!!! In the class we took a few weekends ago they told us that with a 0 (zero) down homeloan we can expect to pay for our monthly mortgage payment $80 per $10,000 of the total purchase price. For example a house in King Co. for $229,000, a total fixer upper sweat equity investment, will cost $1832 per month!!! Tuff when houses in the low to mid income range run $350,000 or more on average. Time to budget, budget, budget!!

Not much happening round here....

Sorry it has been a week plus since I last posted. I have been slowly recovering and I am up walking around. I can even walk some without crutches (weight bearing is good for healing according to the docs) and I have started driving when I need to go somewhere. I have a doctors appointment with the Infectious Disease docs on the 11th and another ortho doc appt on the 24th so I should know more soon. It looks like a new bone graft sometime the beginning of June. Abigael has been staying, during the day, with the Westbrooke's. George and Mary Beth reached out to me to offer their help while I am healing. George and I went through the Skyway Fire Dept. recruit academy together and they live in the Skyway area (which is on the way to where Christie works). Mary Beth (MB for short) stays home with their two sons Nathan and Connor. Nathan is in kindergarten and Connor is in pre-school. It has been a great experience for Abigael to play with kids around her same age and also play with rough and tumble boys! Let me tell you, Abigael can hang! Today is the first day Abigael and I are home together with out anyone to help us out, so far so good!!

Last Friday the family went out to watch the second night of pre-season track racing. The team had three people out racing Todd McMeen, Craig Etheridge, and Lara Thorenson. Lara got brutally spanked due to getting placed in a category to hard for her level of fitness. Todd and Craig again raced the Cat 4's and after warming up in the first race Craig exploded to win the next race and place 2nd in the final race for an Omnium place of 2nd for the night. There were again about a half a dozen friends and teammates out watching and cheering!! There was a cheering war between the AVA/Counterbalance team in turn two and the Joe Bar team in turn one which made for an exciting night at the track. Soon the entire AVA/Counterbalance Bicycles team will be racing at the track and the "cranberry train" will be a rollin'!!! Jeff Middlewood has been very consistent on the road placing in the top ten in the Cat 4's at every race! As well as Craig and Kris Lepine in the Indie mountain bike series!!! Great job team!!!

This weekend will be Abigael's second birthday weekend, she turns two on the 15th!! That means family galore coming into town!! On Christie's side mom, dad and grandma are coming out from North Carolina. On my side I have my mom, dad, sister, niece Emma 2 1/2 yo, and baby nephew Matthew 6 months old. We were going to have a small party on Sunday but the realize it was Mothers day some people might not be able to make it so we are moving it to Saturday. I think we will take everyone out for brunch on Sunday since all the mothers will be here! As a treat for my wonderful wife that has worked so hard to support us and take care of me through this crazy leg thing I bought tickets for us to go see Cirque du Soleil on the 25th of May at 4pm and then I am taking her out to dinner afterwards. We need a night out without Princess Abigael.

I recieved an email from an old friend, George Santucci from Boone, North Carolina, yesterday. He and his wife, Annette Bednosky, are doing well. Annette is an awesome endurance runner winning the Western States 100 in 2005 but, she has been injured since Nov. with a hamstring injury. I totally sympathize with her plight, as we are both very active people that can't stand being laid up on the couch itching to GET OUTSIDE and exercise!! George is well, his work as the Executive Director for the National Committee for the New River, working on New River conservation is great. We both are jonesing for another grand mountain biking adventure, hopefully next spring!! Glad to hear fom you guys we miss you all so much!!!

Well, I dream of mountain biking glorious trails, hiking this summer, and racing my ass off at the track BUT, it will all have to wait until next year..........