Obsession Plate

Sometimes life seems to be a series of problems, obstacles, and broken shoe laces. I don't think this is unique to anyone and I don't think anyone is immune to problems. We all have them from time to time, more often than not they're few and far between enough that we don't feel overwhelmed by them. But sometimes they pile up and I think that's where people get the idea that they have a lot of problems or someone else doesn't. More accurate is the idea of how people deal with adversity or even normal life. If you let things build up and eat you, it feels like you always get buried. Otherwise things are just there. Life goes on and they usually work out or fade away.

I feel right now on the edge of being overwhelmed with "stuff". Not problems per se because some of it is my own, not something life threw at me. I'm going to list them all for the sake of thinking out loud. When I'm done it will either be obvious it really isn't that bad or conversely that I should be hooking up the Valium IV drip.

The biggest issue is that my wife has a "thing" in her breast which may or may not be a simple clog or mastitis. The fathers of breast fed children will be familiar with this. So she went to the doctor Monday and he wants her to get an ultrasound, but not until Friday. She felt like crap Monday, and we're thinking if he's that concerned we want to have it taken care of ASAP. So this is the main thing bugging me right now. It's like when you add a great starting pitcher to the rotation your previous ace becomes the #2 guy and so on down the line. It magnifies the rotation. When you add a big problem it makes the other ones that much bigger.

My shoulder is item #2, so this week we really have 2 things that would normally not be on my plate. There's really not much to do here but let it get better so in a sense it's not a tangible problem at all, any more than getting old is. But then at the end of work Monday it started to really rip in pain again, which isn't thrilling. So now a small part of me is thinking, should I go get it checked out? Nah, let's sleep on it and go from there. Well this morning it doesn't hurt too much but it's pretty sore/stiff. I'd say this plane is in a holding pattern.

The broken spoke on the Dump Truck, also an added annoyance. The solution is to get a new spoke and put it in. When do I have time for this? I don't know. Thus the annoyance. Mental note: buy more than 1 when you get it this time. In fact I should just buy 10 of every spoke size that exists. I now have 10 wheels in the basement. That's just silly. I brought the wheel into the basement this morning after the ride, took the tire/tube off, and pulled off the cassette. Even though it's on the drive side it looks like I need to take the disc off to get it in properly. Two more things of note. My rear wheel weighs an astounding 5.5 pounds fully assembled. The second is that I had 2 flats this morning. Make that 6 now with the Blue Grooves. But since these are slow leaks I'm just going to ride them this weekend. I'm not made of money. Regarding the weight of the wheels I may need to pick up that custom set for Christmas. That will end up saving me quite a bit of weight and they don't cost a ton. I digress.

I have my tent setup on the back patio and it needs to be seam sealed. But the local outdoor place was out of it, and they seem to have forgotten that they said they would order it for me. You wonder why people go to the big retailers. So I need to get seam sealer, then seal it, then water test it the next day and see if it worked. I have 2 weeks for this but the days leading up to the race will be hectic enough so I want to get it out of the way.

The bike food question, which is, what to eat on the bike in 2 weeks? Well right now the answer is whatever I damn well feel like. I'm leaning towards brining everything I can find in terms of liquid energy. Heed, Perp, Accelerade, Gatorade, InfinIT Nutrition, and maybe some Hydro-Boom and Powerbar Endurance drink. On top of that all sorts of salty ass foods like burritos, pizza, sandwiches, and egg sandwiches as well as pie and cake. So this isn't so much a problem as it is a consideration of what to do. If I didn't have the other issues I would be all over this one. But as it is I'm just going to bring everything I can think of.

There's my usual obsession with where to ride this weekend. I was supposed to go out for a Ringwood epic but it seems I've already changed that plan. The group Sunday is probably a bit slower collectively which is a good thing for me. I don't need a 4-5 hour crushing ride 6 days before the 24 hour race. Instead I'm looking at. 3-4 hour ride with a much easier pace. I need to start thinking: slower, slower, slower. It's the only chance I have to keep it rolling. My main concern with regards to riding right now is, don't go OTB. I just can't physically afford to take it on the shoulder again any time soon.

The bike build is all but on the back burner for now, even though several packages should be coming this week. So that's not even on the Obsession Board currently. Having said that I would like to get that thing together for the 24 hour race. Why? I really don't know.

There's also actual riding I need to do. At this point sleeping in sounds like a much better idea than waking up at 5:00 to ride a bike. This morning I hit snooze twice and got out of bed at 5:00. It was probably 5:20 by the time I got rolling for a quick hour plus in temperatures in the 50s. Not feeling invincible at all out there right now and the chilly air doesn't help. I just have to hope the rest week will work out like it did last time.

Of course there's work, which starts with 3 days of training this week. It's impossible to actually get anything done these days yet they want it all. I find that work is just better off ignored in the grand scheme of things. I simply don't have any effort left to care at the moment. I go in, do my thing, then leave. Any more than that is asking for trouble.

Ironically I still need to schedule my vacation days. I have like 15 days to take and it's almost September. So we've been trying to figure out how to use them and have no idea. Added stress about taking a break from the stress. My productivity at work is suffering right now. I really need a break.

Well now that I lay it out there it makes sense. There are 4 more things on the plate than normal. Items 1 and 2 are the things that amplify the rest of it. And right now the house is a bit of a mess. So I'm thinking I need to look for that Valium IV. But I won't. We did manage to get things cleaned up a bit last night and my wife was feeling a little better this morning, so that's progress. The child is sleeping really poorly these days which means we all do. My FGI is going to suffer this week because I really turned the screws Sunday and did a John Goodman on my kitchen. When I'm not rested enough I find it damn near impossible to eat reasonably. Sprinkle in the shoulder and when I do sleep it's not all that well.

As Natalie Merchant said, these are the days to remember. Without adversity life is a series of mundane events in rapid and indistinguishable succession. As long as my wife is OK everything else will take care of itself. She's the ace in our rotation so we can't have her going down.