Who am I?

There was a message on the answering machine when I arrived at the office today ... "Hello, this message is for Pastor Brad ..."   Pastor Brad?  I'm not offended ... in fact I find it kind of funny.  For some reason people have a problem getting my name right.  I don't know why.  I've always thought it to be an easy name ... though I guess there are variants on the spelling ... Brian / Bryan / Bryon.  And of course the misspelling ... Brain, which was on my cake at my 4th birthday party where HoHo the Clown was the guest ... but I digress.

I can understand the Brad, though, it starts with the same two letters as Brian ... so there could be some aural confusion.  What I've never figured out, though, is the stage I went through shortly after starting Cornerstone Community Church that people called me Rick ... "Hey Pastor Rick!"  To which I just responded, "Hey!"  So I guess I perpetuated it.  The odd thing was it wasn't just one person, it was like three or four.  To this day, my friend Faith still mockingly calls me Rick. 

The one that threw me the most, though, was the time someone thought I said my name was "Brown Black".  Really?  Brown Black?  You really think my parents would do that to me?  You really think that anyone would name their kid Brown?  Shortly thereafter I learned of music producer Brown Bannister ... I guess it was possible.  Surely it wasn't my Okie accent.

So, there's this week's story and this week's three thingy (I really need to come up with a name for this). 
1.  Brad
2.  Rick
3. Brown
So what about you?  Any odd/strange name variants? 

Report time!  It was a "meh" kind of week as far as workouts go ... still trying to shake a nagging cough.

3 workouts are better than none, but I need to do better.  My Saturday ride was a killer, though ... 20-30 mph winds!  I worked like a sled dog that day.

Good news on the scales with only three workouts.

A pound a week works for me.  By the way my goal is to be under 200 by my first triathlon of the season on June 12th.  You're thinking "that shouldn't be a problem", yet I seem to plateau at 200.  We'll see what happens in a few weeks.

Well as the old saying goes, "I don't care what you call me as long as you call me for dinner."

Sincerely,

Rick

Spring Break 2010

Spring Break 2010 has come and gone.  We spent part of our break in the quaint little town of Fayetteville in south central Texas.  Fayetteville is a town of about 260, approximately halfway between Austin and Houston.  Every year the the town hosts the Fayetteville Stage Race ... a bike race that winds through the rolling hills of the nearby countryside.  Luke was "super-excited" to be racing at this year's event ...

To be fair, he'd been running a fever the day before, was wracked with congestion, it was raining, the temp was about 47, and the wind was blowing 20-25 mph ... not a great way to get excited about a race.

We stayed at Lake Fayette about 5 miles from town.  Nice, clean, little campground.  Of course we stayed in the Palomino Palace.  The epitome of redneck luxury ... at least we were civilized enough to spread a table cloth.  Six of us lived in the Palace for three days and nights.  Six people sharing 126 square feet.  We were cozy ... needless to say.  Friday was beautiful ... Saturday was cold and rainy ... Sunday was cold and windy.  But all in all we had a good time.

Of course this caused me to think about the fun trips I had with my family as a kid.  Here are three of my faves ...
1.  Texas road trip with my Dad (1971) ... Six Flags, Lion Country Safari, Inner Space Caverns, Galveston ... we made the rounds and had a blast.
2.  Summers at Lake Tenkiller with my Mom (1976-81) ... water skiing, swimming, tubing, canoeing the Illinois River, riding in the back of the pickup all the way there.
3.  Nashville and Branson with my mom (1972) ... the original Grand Ol' Opry and Silver Dollar City before Branson was what it is today.

What are your three favorite trips as a kid?

Alright ... time for the report and it ain't good.

Yep ... Zero, zilch, nada workouts.  I was sick and then break started and I was busy trying to get everything ready.

It didn't hurt me too bad on the scales.  I put a 1/2 pound back on, but I'll probably burn that off this week.

Enjoy your family time ... it goes by fast.

bb

50 bucks

I could do without weeks like this one.  It started the way last week ended ... sick.  Lemme splain.  I went on a bike ride last Wednesday afternoon where I ended up being colder that I thought I was going to be.  Apparently I "caught my death of cold" or something like that.  While I don't believe cold air makes one sick, I do recognize that when your body is fighting to stay warm it doesn't have all the resources it needs to fight guys like this ...

Anyway, I missed only my second Sunday in over 8 years to preach/teach at Cornerstone.  Mild headache, low grade fever, cough, congestion ... the whole ball of wax.  Monday morning I was still feeling puny so I went to the doctor to make sure I didn't have a tumor, cancer, strep, etc.  The PA looked down my throat and said I had apparently caught some little bug but I wasn't dying.  She offered me a shot and a steroid pack thingy, but I am an avoider of drugs unless it's an absolute necessity ... so I declined.  "If you don't get better soon just let us know ... that will be $50."

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the price, the care and attention, or anything like that.  I like my doctor and his staff ... I think they do a great job.  But here's what happens ... I spend the $50 and I feel better the next day.  Nearly every stinkin' time!

So here's my new plan:  The next time I get sick, I'll wait a couple of days and then shuffle my snotting, sneezing, coughing self down to the convenience store and plop $50 down for lottery tickets.  That way I'll have a chance of getting rich while I trick my body into thinking I paid for medical care.  (I really think this might work if my doctor's office sold lottery tickets.)

All of this made me think about things I'd rather have spent $50 on ... so here's the Weekly Three:
1.  Dinner for the whole family at Chili's
2.  A new transition bag for my triathlons
3.  A fish pond for a family in a third world country

What would you rather spend $50 on?  Let me know!


Due to the "$50 Virus" (that's my new name for it), last week's workout wasn't that great (this one won't be so great either) ... but here's the report:

 I did manage to make some headway on the scales despite the lack of working out (probably due to the Chicken Noodle Soup diet):

Another pound ... yea!

Watch out for the $50 Virus ... it strikes when you can least afford it!

bb

The Palomino Palace

With the start of bicycle racing season upon us, it is time to dust off the Palomino Palace and get it ready for travel.  The Palomino Palace is our home away from home during racing season.  It is a 1986 Palomino Hard Side Pop-Up.  It sleeps five pretty comfortably ... it just doesn't hold the junk of five very comfortably.  We decided a couple of years ago that it would be cheaper to buy and use a camper when we go to races instead of staying in hotels.  And so far it has worked out.

On our way home from Colorado last summer the roof vent on the Palace finally had enough of the wind and broke.  So for the rest of that trip (and one more) we used good ol' southern engineering to hold the vent down ... duct tape.  Well I finally took the Palace up to Floyd's RV and had a new roof vent installed.  I'd like to do a complete makeover on the Palace, but that will have to come later (does MTV have a show for that ... like Pimp My Pop-Up?)  We needed an awning last summer so I got a tarp from Wal-Mart, a length of cable from Ace Hardware, and a couple of old tent poles from my brother-in-law and voila! we have an awning ... can you say "redneck"?

This brings me to this week's "three things" list ... name three things you know you really need to work on but you keep "putting duct tape on it" instead.

Here's mine:
1. The Palomino Palace ... a real awning, new paint, new upholstery, new tires, a refrigerator, etc
2. My garage ... I just keep "stacking" things off to one side thinking that will be okay until I can put it where it really goes.
3. My desk ... I just keep "stacking" things off to one side thinking that will be okay until I can put it where it really goes. (is there an echo in here?)

Be sure to let me know your "three things".

Now to something I actually do work on ...

Yep, I got six workouts in last week, so I will accept the "awesome" description from Dailymile.com this time.  Over 2800 calories burned ... not bad, but I'm ready for bike riding weather so I can get outside and burn that in one ride.



"But what about the weight?" you ask ...

A pound and a half!  Now that's more like it.  I'm almost back down to where I started the first of the year ... after two days of a stomach virus.  Progress is nice.  I know I can't expect this much every week, but I'll take it this week.


Now put away your duct tape and go do something!

bb