General Jackassery

This started off as more of joke than any kind of reality, but I’m starting to feel more and more that I want to be involved in politics.

I know the last post was long, but if you read it, it very briefly described a gap that is developing in the ambition/motivation of American people vs. the rest of the world. I think there are a lot of drivers to this, but fundamentally this one is squezing us from both sides. Our parents have told us that we can do whatever we want to do. They’ve told us that they’ve worked really hard so we wouldn’t have to. As a result of this we don’t feel like we have to work anymore we’re already there and no-one seems to realize that you have to work to stay at the top. Actually you have to work harder to stay at the top than you do to get there.

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Several months ago the ASCE at UAH had an alumnus come in and talk about his years as a member of the ASCE and also the company that he started after working for NASA for several years. One of the things that has stuck with me from his talk was the statement he made about other schools and their dislike for UAH. He said something along the lines of, “Other schools hate UAH because we’re so much better than them. They can’t figure out why we keep beating them. They think it’s all given to us but they just don’t get it! They’ll never know why we beat them, they don’t get it!” The reason UAH was so dominant in the past is not because we were any smart or any better. The reason is because we decided that we wanted to win and we out WORKED everyone! If they were sleeping we were working. If it was raining and cold and they didn’t want to practice, we did! The reason we won is because we worked when other schools wouldn’t!

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So, we went to North Carolina to celebrate my Dad’s birthday with him and on Saturday we drove up to The Great Smokey Mountains National Park. Sarah liked this picture.

Sarah was reading an article on newsweek the other evening and she said she had to look at the author to make sure that it wasn’t me. Apparently someone had written an article in which they stated that someone had asked them what their foreign policy would be. Their answer was that their foreign policy would be something that didn’t seem like foreign policy at all. They would implement an energy plan that emphasized the use of alternative forms of clean energy that reduced dependance on foreign sources of oil. The reason being is that eleminating our countries dependance on the rest of the world would be the single most empowering thing an administration could do for our country.

Think about how many hundreds of millions of dollars we send to the middle east each year for oil. Think about what our current trade deficit is. Simply eliminating oil consumption would wipe out our trade deficit.

Just a thought. I’m not saying that you need to sell your car and ride your bike every day, but I am saying that we should ALL start doing something to reduce the amount of energy we consume.

Really annoyed the last two days. We don’t seem to know how to make small sacrifice’s in this country. Think about it, if everyone would drive slower and make an effort to reduce the mileage they drive by planning their trips a little better we could probably reduce the demand for gasoline by 10% easy! It wouldn’t take that much if I drive 70 instead of 85 I get a 4% increase in gas mileage, so all I have to do is reduce the number of miles I drive by 6%. A 10% reduction in demand would equate to a much larger reduction in cost.

So, yesterday I’m on my way home from the gym and I decided to drive by Sam’s on the way home, just to see what all the hub-ub is about. People are freaking out because they might have to pay more for gas. So what do they do? The rush to the gas station and increase the demand for gasoline 10 times, thereby driving the cost of gasoline up and CREATING the price hike that they were so afraid of. Whatever floats your boat. Me, the Camry staid in the garage today. I’m tired of complaining about the price of gas and I’m tired of hearing people complain about the price of gas. I’m riding my bike. I figure I can ride the bike to work and that will save me 125 miles/week of gas and give me 125 miles/week of additional training. It’s a win/win situation.

I’ve also come up with the newest cycling advocacy program. T-shirts that say, “I’m saving you money! Ask me how!” I figure that by riding my bike, I’m reducing the demand for gas, decreased demand means decreased prices. I’m keeping my car off the road which reduces the wear and tear on the road leading to less need for maintanence and less tax money spent on road repair. I’m getting in better shape which leads to improved health, fewer doctor visits and fewer medical bills in general. I’m reducing traffic on the road, while people may have to slow down to pass me, I take up much less space on the road on my bike than I do in my car. You can fit six bikes in the space of one car. This reduces the need for huge parking lots and increased overhead for companies which reduces the cost of goods. Removing cars from the road makes more room for truck transportation, fewer traffic jams and in general would speed up shipping times, reducing shipping costs and reducing prices. Reducing gasoline consumption would decrease the trade deficit, increasing the value of the dollar and making it cheaper to travel to foreign countries. I could go on and on, but I think you get the point, it may not equate to a measurable amount that I save you, but I AM saving you money and you could save me money by riding your bike! Even if it was just one day per week it would be a vast improvement!

I’ve done a lot of things in my life, but I’ve never done a triathlon. Yesterday, I competed in my first ever mini-triathlon. The Rocketman Triathlon at Redstone Arsenal. I decided that I would do it less than a month ago. It was one of this, “just do it!” kind of things and I figured that I would never do one if I didn’t sign up for one now.

I really had fun, despite the pain! I had very low expectations for what I would do. My only two goals were 1) Finish and 2) not be dead last. My third goal was to finish in less than two hours. Now for anyone who is an athlete, taking two hours to swin a half a mile, bike 13 miles and run 3.2 miles doesn’t sound like that difficult a feat. Put all of those together back to back and add 85+ heat and very little shade on the course and you have a tough little race. Even more so if you’ve never done one of these and barely trained for this one.

So, I’m happy to say that I more than accomplished both goals and I’ll be doing another one of these as soon as I get the opportunity. What was my time?

0.5 Mile Swim: 20:05 Swim Rank 14/17
13 Mile Bike: 43:35 Bike Rank 10/17
3.2 Mile Run: 37:37 Run Rank 13/17 (The run really killed me.)

Total time elapsed 1:41:17

Overall I was ranked 203 out of about 241 competitors.

The bike time included the transition area times to change from swim attire to cycling, and cycling to running. I think I could have easily cut 2 to 3 minutes off of that time. I think with some training I can cut up to five minutes off of my swim time. And I think with training I could cut atleast 5 minutes off the run. So, if I was able to cut a total of 13 minutes off of my time I would have ranked5th of 17 overall instead of 13th of 17 in my Clydesdale division. Overall that would have moved me up into the 150’s probably. My goal next year is to finish in under 1:20:00 total time. So the goals will be 15:00 Swim, 38:00 Bike, 27:00 Run. I’ll let you know what happens this time next year!

I got back in from a ride about an hour ago and I’m still trying to cool off. This with my fan sitting on my desk, aimed at my head and on full blast!

So I just checked the weather channel and the heat index is 104 degrees here in lovely Huntsville, Alabama. I sincerely feel sorry for anyone that lives where it’s even hotter. Fortunately the weather peeps are calling for a cool down and by this weekend the highs should be back in the 80’s. Much more bearable.

Anyway, the riding is going well. I met Sarah at the Aldridge Creek Greenway on Saturday morning and we rode down it and back. That’s 10 miles total for Sarah. I know you’re thinking it’s wierd for me to say that I met Sarah there, but that’s because I rode and she drove. I left an hour before her and rode the 26 miles to the trail head. So 36 miles for me is now the longest ride of the year.

I’m looking forward to getting back in better shape because the local cycling club has several group rides ever week that I would enjoy. I’m just not quite there yet. Their average speeds are much faster than what I can do right now.

Other than that, life is pretty much the same as always.

So that’s my update for today.

Later.

So I’m sitting downstairs in the cafeteria watching the Tour de France on OLN when I get this call from Sarah. She’s wanting to know what time the shuttle launch is supposed to be and if I had set it up to TIVO. I told her that I wasn’t sure and that I hadn’t set it up to TIVO. However, I was going to ride my bike at lunch so I could just run out to the house and set it up to record. 26+ hard miles later I had ridden out to the house, set-up the TIVO and ridden back to work. When I got out of the shower and came upstairs I found out they had scrubbed the launch.

On a much brighter note the NHL will have a season. They have finally reached an agreement in principal!

For those of you who don’t know, in my last post I refered to the RHOLMFw/FH getting engaged to his RH woman. RHOLMFw/FH is Anthony. He is the Red Headed Oppie looking MF with Facial Hair and he’s now engaged to his Red Headed Woman Heather. So Congratulations to the two of them.

Life has been pretty interesting. As those who have read Sarah’s Blog know, her parents are going through a rough time with each of them going through two major surgeries in the last month or so. Her mother has recovered nicely from her surgery and would have improved dramatically had it not been for the stress of Sarah’s Dad having to have a major surgery of his own. Unfortunately what he anticipated being a minor hernia repair turned into a much more serious ordeal when the Doctors discovered a very large cyst growing on one of his kidneys. Needless to say he’s not a happy camper right now and I’m sure that Mr. Yeldell would appreciate your thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery. Sarah’s parents are very good people and they don’t deserve to have to go through this. Life has it’s ups and downs and this is definitely a down for them right now.

I’ve been back on my bike pretty regularly lately, atleast three days a week once I got over my sinus infection. I did nearly 20 miles of rolling terrain yesterday with a pretty stiff wind. I’m not in as bad shape as I thought I would be, but I have a long way to go to get back to where I was two years ago.

I couple of things have been really hitting me hard lately. I look at our national debt and I think it’s indicative of the way we as Americans live daily, way beyond our means and we’re always struggling to keep our head above water. It’s the same with how we eat and live. Our bodies are like a bank, everytime time you eat a fast food meal or drink a coke it’s like taking a loan out or buying something with a credit card. In order to pay that debt off every month you have to excercise like an animal. Unfortunately just like our finances most of us don’t pay back the full amount on the loan we’ve taken from our bodies and we carry more and more of a balance each month until we struggle just to pay the interest.

I keep thinking about what I’m going to look like when I’m 40 and I have a 10 year old kid who wants to play catch or ride bikes and I’m scared to death that I won’t be able to keep up. So the time is truly now. I don’t want to be the average american that’s 10 lbs overweigth and $9000 in debt. I don’t want to be a part of 30% of Americans that are obese. I don’t want to live outside my means anymore.

I don’t believe that one person can change the world, but I believe one person can change theirself and that can have a huge impact on the world around them.

So I ask those who read this blog to keep Sarah, her dad, and her mother in their prayers, and I ask you to do the same for me.

I heard yesterday that congrats are in order. One Mr. RHOLMFw/FH is engaged to his RH woman! Congrats! Oppie!