new wheels

Remember this dreaming post? We made it come true and this is my shiny new precious. Well, it's not super shiny and not brand new but it is awesome. I was sick the first day I had it but managed to wring a 20 minute test ride out of my tired body. I was pretty nervous that it wouldn't feel different enough from the old ride to justify the expense. Sometimes I love being wrong. I can't believe I waited so long to try a new bike (10 years to be exact). The old one served me well but it was never quite right. It took me a whole season to get used to and was always too stiff and sketchy on the downs for my liking. It did climb like a dream though.

I don't know how to explain it but this one just tracks right. The weight is in the right places and it behaves when I point it somewhere. Not that I've pushed it much yet, I may rescind all of the above statements eventually. Here's a fun thing - despite the extra bit of weight I cleaned a short climb today that I never managed on the old Kona, must be a traction thing. Or a stoke thing.

I got one of the best calls ever today. I wrote about the women's mountain bike camp I'd like to attend but didn't do anything about it. I answered the phone and it was a pre-Ezra riding buddy asking if I'd like to join her and a few other Summerland women at that exact camp. Um...let me think...YES, I'd love to. I might have to wean the little guy by then or figure out some alternate arrangement but I am very, very ready to have a weekend away. I always get jitters when I say my goodbyes to the little ones but it passes quickly and I know I need the break. Just thinking I'll probably go to this will do wonders for my fitness and motivation to ride. It's a good kind of pain.

The back story:
My bike was getting very weary. Forks pooped out and drivetrain in rough shape. We tossed around the idea of fixing it up - the frame and many parts are fine and it would be fiscally more responsible of course. Jeremy was kind enough to keep an eye out online for me though, just in case. Bikes like this in my size aren't that common so when one came up on pinkbike we paid close attention. I sat on the fence for over a week until he scored a very sweet new bike on ebay. I have to keep up with the Joneses you know. Suddenly I was committed and planning a trip to Nakusp.

me too

I'm going to keep a link to this reasonable request and use it on my boss someday.

sanity

Or a lack thereof.

Jeremy's done a great job of capturing Ezra's cuteness and insane demands so I won't elaborate too much. Suffice it to say he (Ez, not Jeremy) saps almost all of my time and energy. Otherwise known as my mojo. He makes the girls look like angels but I'm frustrated by how little I have left to give them.

For the record I don't think I'll ever bother posting about the eczema issue again. Partly because although it's important to me it must be unbelievably dull to read about but also because at some point between the time I hit "publish post" and the time it shows up on a feed it takes a dramatic turn for the worse. I spent the day in doctors offices again yesterday and it sucked.

Given the above two paragraphs, here is some light reading on stupid things I've done as a result of this state of mind. I had an evening "off" to hang out with a dear friend and was anxious to get an early start to meet her. I knew the car on "empty" though so I started the outing at the gas station. It had a lineup of vehicles desperate to pump that liquid gold into the tanks. So I backed out and headed to the next one down the road. It didn't have pay at the pumps which always irritates me because I have to guess how much I'm going to use and pre-pay inside. I walked back out and started filling but it kept clicking off unless I slowed it to a trickle. I used to work as a gas jockey and tanks like that drove me nuts. It didn't occur to me that I've never had that problem before until gas splashed out all over my hand, car and feet. It cost me $4 to TOP up the tank and bathe in gasoline. On a normal day I would have noticed that Jeremy had driven the vehicle and filled it up a few hours earlier. I had to go back in, red-faced and stinky to ask for a refund because I didn't actually need gas.

Yesterday I hustled Ivy out the door before she was finished chewing her lunch because we were late for her class. I had to pack up Ez and take Ella because Jeremy was in a phone meeting. Everyone was feeling grouchy and rushed and there were sharp words all around. We showed up at the class and something was wrong...all the other students were still outside and her teacher wasn't waiting at the door. I STILL didn't figure it out. I walked Ivy up to class after getting the other kids out of the car and finding a parking spot. The classroom was empty except for the teacher calmly planning her lesson that wasn't going to start for another 15 minutes.

I'm used to feeling at least baseline competent but these two incidents have shaken my confidence. I've been late to appointments and meetings more often that I would like since having #3 but I usually have a pretty good grip on the actual time. I know sanity will return. I only hope it's sooner rather than later and that I don't do something really damaging before then!

4 in 1

A normal person might blog more often and craft this into at least 4 separate posts. You're not so lucky and get in all in one big spew.

- All that good stuff I wrote in the update to the Eczema post ended up being a pipe dream. Ezra got better for about 3 days and then it got bad again. That cycle continued - a few days up and a few days down but the lows were getting lower. Last weekend I was nearly in tears, at night I had been awake for an hour pinning his arms to his sides so he wouldn't rub his face raw. By morning he was bleeding anyway. I took him to the walk-in hoping for fresh insight from a different doctor and was rewarded. The reason nothing was working was that he had a bacterial infection on his cheeks for almost TWO MONTHS. Not sure why my doctor didn't pick up on it. I'm not a fan of the overuse of antibiotics but I was so relieved to find a way out of the mess. In the afternoon I went to a health food store and got some supplements to support our immune systems in general. We only needed the antibiotics for a few days and his cheeks are looking lovely a week later (apparently it's not the kind where you have to take the whole course to make sure it's effective). He still has underlying eczema but it's not nearly as bad as we thought. That's something to be thankful for.


Doing:

- During spring break I took the kids up to Apex for a sleepover at a friend's cabin. It was a short vacation but it was really fun. The girls got to play with buddies and I got to stay up late chatting with a friend too. I'm pretty sure we stayed up longer than the kids but I can't guarantee it.

- Starting to clean out garden beds, rake, pick up sticks and distribute compost/manure. I also went to the local Seedy Saturday today and picked up some garden seeds.

- Jeremy and I got out on a date today (thanks Dianne!) and I attended my first Fest of Ale after running taxi duty last year. I was pregnant anyway so I wasn't too hard done by. I've confirmed that my favorites are all brown ales. Mt. Begbie's Tall Timber Ale and Fernie Brewing' s First Trax Brown Ale were my picks. Crannog Ales is the most fantastic brewery. It's organic, most of their beers are awesome and they are working towards a "zero-waste" system. While we were there we happened to catch a performance by Get Bent Belly Dancing. It made me miss those drop in classes but I can't do everything!

- Not enough exercise. Hockey ended on Easter weekend and I've only been out for a few walk/runs since then. On the upside I did fix my bike tire and took the kids into town in the trailer this week. The goal for tomorrow is to ride Giant's Head.


Reading:

- "Ecoholic" on a tip off on A Life In Progress. I agree with her assessment that it is overwhelming - there is no realistic way for me to make all the changes I'd like to right now. It is great to keep in mind that there are alternatives to the way we shop though. When we do need to make a big purchase (mattresses come to mind), I'll use the book as a buyers guide to do my research.

- I've got a few books out on permaculture again, the most interesting read is "Food Not Lawns" published by Chelsea Green .


Courses/Camps I'd like to sign up for:

- Devine Ride's Women's Mountain Bike Camp

- Kootenay Permaculture Institute - Intro to Permaculture

- hockey camp