Back to Biking

After a short hiatus, due to many work hours, I have resumed my semi-regularly scheduled cycling commute. I used to ride about 5 miles 2x day to get to and from work (added to about 10 miles of Public Transportation). Now, because I start work at 0530, I am trying to manage 3-4 days per week of a 12 miler to get home only. Part of my difficulty in completing this task is that I have to pick up Cassidy at school after camps and other functions, some days we have to be at tourneys shortly after work, so I am not consistently riding like I would prefer.

The days I get to ride are treasured, as the Denver area has some great bike routes, and with gas prices as high as they are, cycling is loads cheaper. I will confess that the dreaded goat head thorn took its toll on me 2 weeks ago. Now there are great expanses of gravel path with vegetation throughout the metro area. Most of it is out of my way, but when I can, I like getting a little “off-road.” On Monday I completed my commute and went through a little gravel. Wednesday, when I began my commute home, my rear tire seemed sluggish (more than usual as a knobby on pavement). Not wanting to get stuck on one of the more majorly traveled roads with a flat, I began the process of investigating the tire. As with ALL of my flats in Denver so far, a goat head thorn is the culprit. So I repair the flat, and prepare to resume when……front flat!!!!! &$(*@#$@#$^!!! Now, I eschewed getting a pump when I bought my 29er, since there is a large volume of air needed, I was gonna be lazy and use CO2 to get me home, then use the compressor. I will tell you right now that I am no longer a CO2 kinda guy. Of course I did not have enough CO2 to fill the front tire and was resigned to taking the bus the rest of the way home. I believe that Murphy hates cyclists also! As I was walking from the light rail station to my house, .75 miles, the lightning, thunder, and the obligatory hail started pouring. Not my happiest memory. Needless to say, I purchased a pump later that afternoon.

I would like to mention at this point that www.denvertrails.com has a proven to be an invaluable with their maps listing trails and roads that are bike friendly. I have planned all but one of my commutes with their information, and the lonely trip without their guidance was a total bust.

Family Time

My Family is doing well, but we have a VERY busy summer ahead. Of course, it all revolves around Cassidy; everything Dee and I do is for him. So of course we are just working long and many hours at our resepctive jobs. While Cassidy has a perfect 13 year olds summer.

Cassidy recently finished 8th grade and will be freshman in the fall. He continued playing basketball throughout the spring with is B-Ball and Beyond team, finishing as the #2 seed in the post-season tourney. Due to several difficulties, they were unable to complete the tourney. He is continuing with this team for three tourneys this summer. The first one was in Colo Springs this past weekend. Not a great tourney (2-3 officially 3-3 overall), but a great learning experience. He was also selected as one of 12-15 freshmen boys to participate in 2 tourneys for the high school. The first tourney was at Metro State, and they ran the table going 6-0 as a team and winning their age group. Cassidy was spectacular with (these are guesses and not really exaggerated) 10 ppg, 5 blocked shots/game, and 8 rebounds/game. I guess there are some advantages to being 13 and 6'5".
Sports camps started today, and will run M-Th for the rest of the summer (7 am start all summer ugh!) 2 FB and one BB, plus practices for his rec league team. Busy Busy.
Since he will turn 14 this summer, Dee's cousin, who happerns to be a paint and auto body man, has appropriated a vehicle for Cassidy. It will take a couple of years to get it all ready, but Cassidy is excited to have his own car. It is a 198? S-10 Blazer (fwd, 2dr, and will have a custom flame paint job) but he will have LOTS of sweat equity built into it. The only problem is that he is sheduled within an inch of his life for the summer and will not be able to work on it much until winter/spring '07-'08. The bright side is that he can't even get a permit until15.5 years, so we have some time. He has worked hard to keep his grades up and now has some additional motivation to keep them up!!!

As always we try and sneak away for a few days each summer, but this busy summer will see us on only one long trip to MN for a family reunion. It will be a short trip, on 4 days (1 full travel day each way) but it will be good to get to see lots of family I haven't seen in 5-9 years!!!!

Hopefully there will not be a giant lag like this again.

The Thickening Slows
There has been little time lately, but I suppose an update is in order. In typical government fashion, a minor glitch did not allow me to be on the "cert list" for the last officer position. It was a combination of bureaucracy and an innocent error on my part. Needless to say, any one who has over 12 years of law enforcement experience shouldn't have trouble making a cert list...but the government has their own rules, cest la vie! I will say that many of the HR people have gone out of their way to help me understand the selection process, not that I agree with a lot of that crap, but any place that has a 2 or 3 pronged system for even getting an interview, will have some issues. I have recently finished the final rough draft of our new SOP and have been invited to all the Officer training, even though I am not one of them yet. There is a consensus from the "head shed" that my wait will be short one another position opens. One officer is going to a county department and another is going to the "corporate office" in D.C. Dates are not firmed up yet, so I wait!

As June idles by, the offer from my previous employer has not yet materialized despite the assertions of my former boss. His boss just got a promotion, and that leave administrative gaps, which in turn, create larger daily "grunt" work gaps. The carrot dangles still! So I am presently in a holding pattern, which isn't bad. Nothing happens quickly in the government, mostly {I believe} because it would cause thousands of employees to become confused almost instantaenously. The decision now will seem to fall on whomever gets me an offer first. The officer job issues are not as horrid as I thought {rotations by shift also go by days off, and rotating every 8 weeks not 16, still the great benes and pay}. So I am a little more free to make my decision.

I will try an be more dilligent in the future, things are getting into a more regualr pattern around here, just a few more loose ends.