First 1/3 Tri

Last Saturday Andrea and two of her buddies competed in their first triathlon. Andrea did the swim leg of the 10th Annual Quad Cities Triathlon, and her friends Sarah and Leann did the bike and run legs, respectively. Team name and motivation? "Just Beat Rob!"

I did not run this time - instead herded kids and took pictures - so they couldn't compete against me directly (thank goodness) but they had a set of times from my last triathlon in Galena to shoot for. They did all right. I think it was a little harder than any of them anticipated, and they didn't finish last, but they finished. I'm proud of them.

Andrea starts it all out with a leisurely plunge into the lake. They started the swimmers out by two's, so it was a while before Andrea got started. She immediately discovered that swimming in a lake is a little different than swimming in a pool and never really felt like she got into a rhythm. As a result her time for the 600 yard swim was a lot slower then she wanted and a whole two seconds slower than my swim time in Galena. I'm empathetic on the outside, but smiling on the inside.

Swim, momma, swim!

All done but for the quick run up to the transition area to hand off the timing chip. Run!? You've got to be kidding, that wasn't in the job description!

Sarah is the spinning instructor at our gym and is in excellent shape, but hasn't really raced before. She did a good job, dispatching the 15 mile out-and-back course in decent time in spite of headwinds.
Leann took off next and crossed the finish line after a winding 3.1 mile loop over a mix of grass (mud), gravel and asphalt. Go Leann!

The team, post race, happy to be done.

Whoops, lost my head!

The other day Paxton did the classic Follow-The-Ball-Between-Your-Legs trick. He ended up looking like this.

Can you bend down and set the top of your head on the floor?

Mr. Stitches

Wet Bicycles

As we splashed through the puddles and dodged the spray from the bike ahead of us under cloudy and threatening skies, one of the more seasoned members of our Tuesday-afternoon biking group wiped the water off his glasses and declared,

"The nice thing about bikes is that they dry quickly and they hardly ever shrink!"

(photo from bikefriday.com)

Anthony: 1, Window: 17

The first time my wise father saw our little house with its classic French windows in the dining room, he said "You should replace those windows with tempered glass or a little boy is going to put his hand right through one of them!"

That was eight years ago. This evening Anthony was skipping across the dining room, tried to stop, and put his hand right through one of them.

I was cooking supper for the boys while Andrea was at the gym and I heard a crash and a cry. Not just an ow-ow-I-bonked-my-head kind of a cry but an ow-this-hurts-and-I'm-not-sure-why-and-I'm-BLEEDING-I'M-BLEEDING kind of cry and sure enough he'd opened up a couple of nasty looking gashes under his right forearm. I got him patched up a bit and had him put some pressure on the deeper of the two cuts and off we went to the prompt care, Paxton alternately scared because his big brother is crying and mad because supper is going to be delayed. Andrea came and took Kenrick and Paxton home and I sat with Anthony in the waiting room, bloody rag on his arm, where he asked repeatedly if he was going to have to get stitches and stated soberly, "At least I didn't break my arm."

A couple of hours later, after x-rays, swabs, shots, probing, prodding, cleaning, fishhooks, monofilament, lollipops, stickers and band-aids, we said goodbye to the nurses and took our seventeen stitches home to show proudly to Mommy and big brother. "This is fun!", exclaimed Anthony halfway through the visit. Sorry little buddy, this isn't my idea of fun.

Witness the wreckage:

Blood on the shirt? Check. Massive bandage? Check. Broken window? Check. Lollipop? Is this how we reward disaster? Check. Oh, and notice the second missing tooth? It fell out two days after the first. Not related to the window incident, but thought I'd throw it in anyway.

So, all is well again. Except for the window that I'm going to have to replace...

Middle Boy: Middle Toothless

The other morning we discovered a new tooth pushing up behind one of Anthony's four loose ones and so decided that it was time to give the little wiggler a tug. A quick pull and a pop and Anthony's perfect little smile is temporarily interrupted by a pause in the pearly whites! He couldn't be more proud.

Sir Paxton

Beware Sir Paxton, Black Knight of the Crooked Table!

Rain, rain, go away...

After 6.6 inches of rain in April and 5.7 in May, we're feeling a bit waterlogged out here on the prairie. The total precipitation for those two months was about 4.6 inches more than normal. The rain has delayed crops, flooded rivers, and turned acres of fertile corn fields into waterfowl habitat. I took a picture of one pond that I pass by on my way to work; it appeared sometime in March in a low field next to the road and doesn't seem to be in too much of a hurry to retreat.

Last year this view would have been all green and corny. This year we have to look out for bird watchers with their cameras and spotting scopes eyeing White Breasted Loons or migrating Short-billed Dowitchers or whatever.

Anyway, it's raining again...

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