June 2008 Archives

I will not be racing this weekend at the Reston Town Center Grand Prix but for those that will be there is an opportunity to do some good for a great cause. Evolution Cycling has set up a raffle to benefit the Raisin Hope Foundation. The Raisin Hope Foundation was setup by Saul Raisin who, like Evolution Team member Craig "Doc" Clark, received brain trauma in an accident that occured during a bike race. Doc was injured in a crash that occured during a race in Wilmington, DE a few weeks ago. You can track his progress on his care page.
Raisin Hope was put setup to raise funding for brain injury research. To develop a support network and a source for education for people effected by brain injuries as well as to promote public aweareness and understanding of people with disablilities caused by brain injuries.
Evolution and Raisin Hope have managed to a great job at hitting up sponsors so that your hard earned raffle money has a chance to win you some good loot. Here's the prize list as posted on Gamjams:

• "Tour De Life" book about Saul Raisin, signed by Saul
• Authentic Credit Agricole cycling cap, signed by Saul
• HealthNet Team "Collection" -- Jersey, Cycling Cap, and Matt Cooke Racer Card signed by Matt Cooke
• $50 Gift Certificate to Bicycle Pro Shop
• 10 GamJams Water Bottles
• GamJams Featured Photo Prize -- Get your Featured Photo on GamJams for one week

In addition to the prizes listed above the first 75 people to enter the raffle will get Agricile Racer Cards that have been autographed by Saul himself!

Mike at Gamjams.net puts it pretty well in his recap by saying this:

• You will probably not win at Reston, but this will make you feel good about your day anyway

So if you are out there at the race, dig deep in those pockets and put some dough out for a good cause. If you arent there you can donate to the Raisin Hope Foundation by contacting Mitch Ferro.

I just came across the web site for a Medieval Festival in Gloucster, VA that will be happening July 19th.  Sounds like it might be a lot of fun.

From the site...

"With one step you leave behind all that you have known and with the next step into a world where Myth and Legend are Reality.  A place where Ladies walk hand in hand with Knights in shining armour, where Musicians sit under shaded tree and weave stories of lyrical wonder.  A place where Merchants offer treasures from far away lands, and foods are offered that are both new to the eye and pleasing to the palette.  Enjoy games and diversions of great merriment, while Performers entertain you with their cleverness and skill."

It sounds like the VA Beach Sportsplex Training Criterium Series may be extended!  The City has approved the following dates July 9th/16th/23rd and August 6th/13th/20th.  The race day has been moved from Tuesday to Wednesday.  Even better... there is rumor that they may have it worked out to reduce the registration fee from $15 to $5.  Now $5 is a price I can handle to go out and race knowing that I am going to get spit off the back of the pack.

Gas 3.76 per gal bp @ holland & dam neck

Posted from my Palm Centro

So…. I am contemplating doing the Hagerstown Challenge Crit on July 12th.  We were planning a trip up to that area to visit my son anyways, and what better way to spend a couple of hours on a Saturday morning?  I haven’t been to Hagerstown, MD for years and I can’t really remember the downtown area that well. 

I have heard that those racers up North don’t know how to ride and I guess it should be up to me to go up there and single handedly teach them the proper racing form. Ok, that was me being sarcastic!

Does anyone have any opinions of that course and what it is like to race?  I really don’t want to make the hour trip up there to Hagerstown from where we will be to race on a course that is nothing but a crash fest.

If my son, Devon, was a cyclist I could hear him telling a story very similar to the one the TerribleCyclist has posted on his site about a great crash.  Well that is if a crash could be great.  No one was injured and there were boobies!
Check it out...TerribleCyclist: Funnest Crash EVER!!!!

Every once in a while you come across something that tears at your heart just a little.  Today I came across this story someone wrote about a neighborhood tomcat that they called Ugly.  Seeing as I have always had a soft spot for animals it kind of got to me.  It reminded me of the ugly tomcat that I used to feed at my old townhouse.  Maybe I could have or should have done more.  I fed this poor cat that was beat up and abused.  Kids picked on him, but despite all that happened to him he only wanted someone affection.  Finally after weeks of suffering with an injury that appeared to become infected he just disappeared.  I wonder if I had just shown a little more care and concern if maybe he would still be around today showing me some unconditional affection...

Ugly The Cat
Everyone in the apartment complex I lived in knew who Ugly was, Ugly was the resident tomcat.  Ugly loved three things in this world: Fighting, Eating, and shall we say, Love.
The combination of these things combined with a life spend outside had their effect on Ugly.  To start with, he had only one eye, and where the other should have been was nothing but a gaping hole.  He was also missing his ear on the same side.  His left foot appeared to have been badly broken at one time and had healed at an unnatural angle, making him look like he was always turning the corner.  His tail had long since been lost, leaving only the smallest stub, which he would constantly jerk and twitch.
Ugly would have been a dark gray tabby, except for the sores covering his head, neck, even his shoulders with thick, yellowing scabs.  Every time someone saw Ugly there was the same reaction.  "That is one UGLY cat!!"
All the children were warned not to touch him, the adults threw rocks at him, hosed him down, squirted him when he tried to come in to their homes, or shut his paws in the door when he would not leave.
Ugly always had the same reaction.  If you turned the hose on him, he would stand there, getting soaked until you gave up and quit.  If you threw things at him, he would curly his lanky body around feet in forgiveness.  Whenever he spied children, he would come running meowing frantically and bump his head against their hands, simply begging for their love.  If you ever picked him up he would immediately begin suckling on your shirt, earrings, and whatever else he could find.
One day Ugly shared his love with the neighbor's huskies.  They did not respond so kindly, and Ugly was attacked.  From my apartment I could her his screams, and tried to rush to his aid.  By the time I got to where he was laying it was apparent Ugly's sad life was almost to an end.
Ugly lay in a wet circle, his back legs and lower back twisted grossly out of shape, a gaping tear in the white strip of fur that ran down his front.  As I picked him up and tried to carry him home I could hear him wheezing and gasping.  I could feel him struggling.  I must be hurting him terribly I thought.
Then I felt a familiar tugging, sucking sensation on my ear.  Ugly, in so much pain, suffering and obviously dying was trying to suckle my ear!  I pulled him closer to me and he bumped the palm of my hand with his head.  Then he turned his one golden eye towards me, and I could hear the distinct sound of purring!  Even in the great pain, that ugly battle scarred cat was asking only for a little affection, perhaps compassion.
At that moment I thought Ugly was the most beautiful, loving creature I had ever seen.  Never once did he try to bite or scratch me, or even try to get away, or struggle in any way.  Ugly just looked up at me completely trusting in me to relieve his pain.
Ugly dies in my arms before I could get inside, but I sat and held him for a long time afterwards, thinking about how one scarred, deformed little stray could so alter my opinion about what it means to have true pureness of spirit, to love so totally and truly.  Ugly taught me more about giving and compassion than a thousand books, lectures, or talk show specials ever would.  For that I will always be thankful.
He had been scarred on the outside, but I was scarred on the inside, and it was time for me to move on and learn to love truly and deeply.  To give my total to those I cared for.
Many people want to be richer, more successful, well liked, beautiful, but for me, I will always strive to be Ugly.

Here's the original version:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y134/Tarathiel/ugly.jpg
  

Trevor has finally posted his pictures from the Va Beach Farm Bureau Crit.  He even captured Jeff riding something he doesnt have trouble getting clipped in to!
Here's the link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/trevor.weiland/2008FarmBureauCrit

This weekend I am missing the Go Fast Turn Left Race and the State Time Trials. Both of them are awesome races put on by some great people and supporters of the cycling world. Family has to come first though and this is the last weekend that my son will be with us for a while. He has chosen to go spend the next couple of months in West Virginia with his maternal grandparents. They are the best of people and when he is there he gets to be a real boy. Unlike being stuck here in Va Beach playing video games all day and not getting outside to play much. He will be swimming, riding bikes, and climbing trees like boys on summer break should be doing. Him being up there ialso gives me an excuse to plan some trips up in the not so distant future to enjoy the scenery, get in some hill climbing, and possibly even race with some of those people that think they now how to race with MABRA.

What could be better than a smoothie on a hot day?  A FREE ONE!!
That's right, FREE!  Tropical Smoothie is giving away free Smoothies to anyone that comes in to their stores on June 21st wearing flip flops.

Lets see there is one on General Booth Blvd, from there I could head up to Great Neck Road, next, down to the one on Kempsville Road, then Princess Anne Road on the way back home.

Check it out:
National Flip Flop Day - Tropical Smoothie Café

Lots of posts today.....
I made a post in May about DZ Nuts Chamois Cream being released.  It had Dave Zabriskie's name associated with it and it was being marketed fairly well throughout the cyclist/blogging community.  All the hype was great and many cyclist were talking about DZ nuts Chamois Cream.  Here it is months after the release and the stuff is virtually impossible to find.  What good is marketing if you let the fires burn down and don't provide the product.  The only place I have been able to find it is Competitive Cyclist.  They give it a pretty good review, but I am wary of spending $23.00 plus shipping on a 4 ounce tube of something that no one I know has tried out. 
For now I am sticking with Brave Soldier Friction Zone.  At $19.00 a bottle this stuff is great.  It is has a weird creamy/oily consistency and you apply it directly to the "goods" and it stays on.    Unlike other chamois creams that dissolve and absorb in to the pad Friction Zone keeps you good and "lubed" up.  Brave Soldier Friction Zone also contains Tea Tree Oil and other natural ingredients to give it some antibacterial and antifungal properties.  Even better I can get it locally, Fat Frogs Bikes keeps it in stock.

Josh Goyet has made a post to his blog about his frustration with the successful promotion of races in the area.  His frustrations have led him, and his wife, to start thinking about the promoting a racing series in our area.  To do so we need to show him and his potential sponsors our interest and support for the race series.

I for one would participate in a Va Beach Wheelman race series especially if it meant some crits on more challenging courses.  Oh… how about a road race!

Head over to his blog and post a comment to show your interest and support!

http://firebike.blogspot.com/2008/06/little-pissed.html

Hopefully the fruits of my labor will actually make it to the net this time!…

Since my dismal performance this past weekend at the Langley Speedway Criterium I started to re-evaluate my training program.  I felt really strong starting out the season and my finish results were showing it.  Now as the season is progressing my performance seems to be getting worse.  Maybe it’s the other racers getting stronger or maybe it’s me leaving something out of my training program.

Throughout the winter and into the beginning part of the race season it was getting dark before I was getting home from work.  That meant I could not get in a ride on the road so I opted for a trainer ride with my “friend” Coach Troy and his Spinervals DVDs.  For those that haven’t done the Spinervals program, they are a high intensity interval workout program for cyclists.  Coach Troy wanders through the group of cyclists in the room encouraging them to eek out that last little bit of energy to take it to the next level.  All the while he doesn’t work up a single drop of sweat!  I hated Troy, he was mean and made me hurt all winter long!

Despite my hatred of Coach Troy I think I am missing his structured intervals and coaching during my workouts.  When I ride by myself on the road I have a hard time getting the same intensity or duration out of my intervals as I did riding the trainer.  This lead me to a solution: put Coach Troy in my iPod and make him suffer on the road along with me. 

Monday night I sat down at my trusty iMac and fired up Handbrake, my favorite “ripping” application then inserted the Spinervals DVD Enter the Red Zone.  The one I use to only make legal backups of DVDs that I have purchased.  Handbrake has an intuitive interface that made it super simple to convert the DVD to an iPod friendly size. 

Last night was the first attempt at Spinnervals on the road.  I left the house to head out to the Pungo Loop with the iPod playing some good tunes and got a good warm up.  To appease the “safety police” it was of course set at a volume level low enough that still allowed me to hear traffic.  At the intersection of Sandbridge Road I swtiched the Enter the Red Zone video on and went down New Bridge Rd doing Coach Troy’s high cadence warm up.  The turn on to Muddy Creek had me in 105+ RPM one minute intervals with  15 second efforts at 100% the end.  It was amazing how much of a difference having someone constantly telling you to keep it up makes.

I was doing good with this workout until Troy said “get off the bike to do squats”.  I forgot about that.  I was not about to get off of my bike and start doing squats in front of some red necks house in Pungo.  I could just hear it.  “Hey Momma, there’s some queer out there in the yard bouncing up in down in them gay spandex shorts.  Must be some new ritual they do.  Should I get out the shot gun?”  Then again maybe I would have done the squats if I knew which house belongs to the bike loving Va Beach council member Barbara Henley.  It would give her even more to talk about! 

Back to the ride… I made my way around the loop being tortured by Coach Troy in various ways when I made it back to Muddy Creek Rd.  This is where I would make a left turn to head back home.  This time I still had more time on the “DVD” so I made a right turn and went out to do another loop.  This is unusual for me, normally I feel burnt out and tired of riding by this time and am ready to go home.  Maybe the sadist in me was actually enjoying being tortured by Coach Troy.

The rest of the ride went well and I finished up feeling like I had a good workout.  Tonight is a night off to go hang out with the folks from Beach Eye Care at Shorebreak Cafe, but tomorrow night it’s back to Spinervals with an attempt to get through Suffer O Rama!  Hopefully this training will help me get in to better shape so I can place well at the upcoming Tour De Port and Tour De Chesapeake.

Lets see how this works.  Instead of Scribefire I am going to try something else.  I was really liking Scribefire but there are too many little “issues” that seem to be coming up with it.  The problems may very well be with my install of it so I will try straightening it all out once my level of frustration settles back down to normal.

GRRRRRR!!!! Lesson learned!  Backup!
This was supposed to be a nice long post written here about my revelations on my training program.  When posted through Scribefire plugin everything was lost!  It did it on the previous results post for the Langley Speedway Crit as well. 
Oh well.... back to the drawing board.... only this time in Google docs with a copy and paste to something else to publish the post.

The results were posted to the Virginia Cycling email group for the Langley Speedway Challenge.
In case there are some folks out there that dont have access to the group heres a link to the results: Farm Bureau Insurance / Fat Frogs Langley Speedway Criterium

Following in pedalnaround's theme of gay posts today.  Here's one for the lady crowd.  I don't know where this one originally came from but it was posted on the Fat Frogs board a little while ago. 
This is why bike shorts are always black.....

I almost forgot to mention.... today is the official release of Firefox 3 and they are trying to break a world record on the number of downloads.  The release is so big that it slowed and/or brough down the Firefox servers.  Read the whole article here: Firefox 3 'Download Day' Cripples Mozilla Site - Yahoo! News

I have been using the beta version of FF3 for a while.  It's nice having similar interfaces across Linux, Mac, and Windows.  The way bookmarks are handled has improved as has memory usage.  The good list of the biggest improvements can be found at Lifehacker in their list of the Top 10 Firefox 3 Features.

Download it here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/products/download.html?product=firefox-2.0.0.14&os=win&lang=en-US

Harold has uploaded over 700 pictures from the Virginia Farm Bureau Fat Frogs Langley Speedway Challenge to his gallery.
Here's the link: http://solo-fed.fotki.com/2008-races/virginia-farm-burea/

This article was given to me this weekend by Karen Hanson this weekend at Langley Speedway.  I do not recall exactly where she got it or who the original author is.  Either way it is very good reading and should be read by anyone intending to go out on a group ride or participate in a race.  This article can be downloaded in .doc format here thanks to my darling wife who took the time to type it up so I could put it up here on my little corner of the internet.

Riding the Pace Line

Prologue

A pace line is a group of riders who trade off the lead to share the effort of riding in front so that the other riders can rest in the draft that is created. Some of the benefits of a pace line are safety, efficiency, and speed. Pace lines that lack discipline can be annoying and even dangerous.

It's early but so far the only shots I have found online are those from Bob and BJ....
bobandbj : photos : Farm Bureau Criterium- powered by SmugMug

Keep an eye out for shots from these folks...
Harold http://solo-fed.fotki.com
Trevor Weiland http://picasaweb.google.com/trevor.weiland

Track races, humidity, rain, heat, and criterium races...
It was a fun day of racing, but I did not do too well. The first several races of the day were track events and they were a blast! The track was wet for the 200m TT and the first the scratch race. My rear tire skipped and slid on the track in both events, not fun. When my tire slid out in the scratch race and it felt like I was "drifting" through the turn I dropped out. It just wasn't worth it to risk me wiping out in race that didnt even offer up points. For the third race I dropped my tire pressure down from 115 to about 90 psi. That made all the difference in the world! I would probably have done much better than I did on the TT if I had only gone with 90 psi. I also found out that my 48/15 gearing was just not big enough. For the next race I think I will try something a bit bigger so I dont spin out so easy.
The next several hours were spent out in the heat and sun waiting until my next race at 3:30. My legs were cramping and I was not feeling real well despite taking in lots of fluids and eating throughout the day, so I was doubtful of how well I would do in the Cat 5 race.
3:30 finally came around and we rolled out. We were moving a at a pretty relaxed pace when Richie and another rider tried a break away. They held on to it for about a lap before being taken back in. There were a few more break aways throughout the race. One of them was Wick. He took off and was looking strong, but couldnt hold on to the lead by himself and ended up getting pulled back in as well. After what seemed like an eternity the lap count was finally down to to go and I was feeling pretty good. Unfortunately my head was telling me I was feeling better than my legs would actually perform. A couple of people took off as we crossed the line with three to go. They got about 200 yeards out and two Coastal Racing guys took off to catch them. I hesitated to go with them, but finally decided to give it a shot. I took off by myself and caught the Coastal guys. No sooner did I get their wheel they dropped off and left me in the front to pull. We caught the break away and my legs told me NO MORE!! I struggled to hold on to the front part of the group through the last 1.5 laps, but ended up just basically throwing in the towel before the sprint seeing as I wasnt going to place in the points.
Lessons learned this weekend:
Ride a bigger gear on a track race than you would on the road.
Do plenty of stretches after the race to prevent cramping.
Dont do stupid crap and blow up your legs three laps before the end of the race.
Oh, and a couple more...
Dont forget to restart the officials finish camera before each race.
Make sure your Macbook's hard drive has enough room to actually hold the finish recordings.

Today Amber and I decided to wander around Pembroke Mall in booming section of Virginia Beach known as Town Center. As can be expected from visits to bustling, booming, metro areas there will be some folks that might not "fully up to speed" with the real world. These people have to work too, and what better place than Pet Go Round in the mall. Heck you dont need to be a college edumacated person to sell over priced puppy mill puppies and sick kittens. This sign was a perfect example of what you may find as the results of the hard labor of these highly educated people. I bet that sign even went through the spell check feature in whatever word processor was used to make it! You gotta love it! Just remember that there dogs our super cute and love to play and are really healthy and they will even grow up to look a certain way depending on the way you raise it up and feed it but you have to trane it properly and feed it only the best of your taible scraps. no education needed - Vox

I know it really makes no difference what so ever, but it's still cool... I am currently ranked third in Virginia on the USA Cycling Mens Cat 5 rankings. It helps build up some incentive to go out and train that much harder when you see that all the hard work is paying off at least a little. I noticed that the results from the April 13th Fat Frogs & Farm Bureau Insurance Crit at Langley Speedway are not listed. I wonder what happened there.
This weekend should be a blast at the Fat Frogs & Va Farm Bureau Langley Speedway Challenge! Several track events in the morning then the criterium at 3:30 with a bunch of "officialing" mixed in the middle. I might have to call in sick on Monday!

On another note, notice one of the other tabs opened in the screenshot my browser window: Bike Widow She made a couple of hilarious posts and got me hooked. Now she is slacking and not making any posts. What's up with that?

I came across this by way of gwadzilla.
The cartoon was originally done by Jim Borgman.

This post is more for my future reference than anything but if it helps someone out then great.....
After much hair pulling with a couple of "techs" we finally got our new Ricoh 2500 setup to only distribute incoming faxes by email and not print them out.
It is a multi-step process that seems to be a lot more complicated than it needs to be. The first step is to get the general smtp and fax settings properly. This can be tested by scanning a document and sending it to an email address. Next set up the email address in the address book for the destination address that you want to send the faxes to. For example fax@somedomain.com. The destination address must be a valid email or distribution list address that can receive email with attachments. The next setting changes are only available in the fax machine, for some reason they are nowhere to be found in the web management interface. The first setting is to enable the forwarding functions. Access it by User Mode/Settings > Fax Features > Forwarding. Highlight the "On" setting then "Ok" Next setup the destination for forwarding, this is the important part. Choose to display destination list and select the destination address that was setup in the previous step. Click "ok" The last steps are to prevent faxes from printing. Go to Fax Parameter Settings and select Electronic Output in the Destination Type Priority option. Finally the parameter setting in the machine itself for "Printing Memory Transfer Files" has to be turned off. Its SW11 option 6. Now all faxes should forward off to email and not print anymore!

In a previous post I mentioned how I went home right after my race to shower and cool down.  The picture shown to the left that was taken by Demoncats.com is a pretty good example as to why I had to do that.  I could be a like Kyle at Pedal'n Around and talk about how hot I looked sporting the sweat band or how awesome my physique looked glistening in the sweat, but the fact was I was hurting and overheated!  
Enough about me and my suffering, here are the links to the other galleries from the Tripower Senior Crit Race at the Scorchplex....

Some awesome shots from Bob and BJ's Smugmug.com Gallery...
bobandbj : photos : Virginia State Senior Criterium- powered by SmugMug

And the always sweet shots from Demoncats.com. Kevin came all the way down from DC in his big "boat" of a Chevy Caprice just for our little Scorchplex race!
http://velophotos.phanfare.com/album/608513/861499#imageID=40115926

riDe it Like ya Stole it !!!!!!! has a pretty big gallery of pics from a couple of the events from Tripower's State Senior Crit championship this past Sunday. Hopefully the Fat Frogs Racing Langley Speedway Crit isnt as hot!

The gallery: live2rideride2live Scorch Plex Gallery


The picture shown is one from his gallery.

It's been a little slow recently as far as the cycling scene goes, but I finally had a race this past weekend. Tripower Cycling Club hosted the Senior State Crit Championship at the Virginia Beach Sportsplex (aka Scorchplex) and man was it HOT!!! My race started at 11:30 and it was already in the 90's! The racers that started later in the day had the pleasure of riding in temps above 100! Pure insanity!!!
As for my race... it was a typical Cat 5 race. Lots of squirrley new riders in a field of approximately 30 riders. One rider that stood out amongst the group was none other than the famous Casey Crit "Don't Touch Me" guy! If you ever see this guy, somewhat young, skinny, tall, and at first glance looks like he should be really fast.... STAY AWAY FROM HIM!!!!! The first couple of laps had him riding in the middle of the pack doing bunny hops and chanting. I think the chant was something about everyone around him doping or something like that. Then there were a couple of diliberate nascar style swerves. Maybe he thought that would help warm up his tires. Later in the race he flatted after drifting in to one of my team mates wheels. He was on the left side of the course when the tire blew. Rather than going off to the left side he locked up his brakes and went right across the entire pack to go in to the gravel parking lot on the right. Riders were locking up and sliding every which direction to avoid him. He did at least announce to everyone at the top of his lungs as he was skidding through that he was "DNF and flatted" I am sure it was our fault that his tire flatted because we are all doped up!
There were a few other instances with riders not holding their line and other typical Cat 5 adventures, but overall it was a pretty fast and fun race. Matt Keane and someone from Tripower succeeded in a break away that had them about 30 seconds ahead of the peleton until Matt overheated and had to drop out. Poor Matt! The last lap had another wreck in the third corner of the course. This was, I think, the third accident of the race in that same turn. All of which were caused by the same thing: riders going in to the corner thinking that they were going too fast and drifting out in to other riders. Luckily I was clear of the mess because it occured right behind me as I started my sprint towards the finish. I finished fourth! My computer showed an average of 23.6 mph for 16.5 miles during the 40 minute race. I do not react well to too much heat so immediately after the race I packed up and headed home to get a shower and cool down. Otherwise I would have been hurting the rest of the weekend. This was almost a BIG mistake!
I learned that it is not good to leave before results were posted because..... mistakes happen. As it turns out the finish camera malfunctioned and did not record the finish. To make matters even worse no one had been hand scoring! Luckily, my sister, who happens to be a USA Cycling official had been watching the race as a spectator. She caught the fact that the results were hosed up and protested for me. The initial results listed Matt Keane, who dropped out, as finishing in first and I was not even shown as finishing at all! I could have potentially done all that work and sweating for nothing! Fellow Fat Frogs team member, Matt Williams, whom was positive he finished in the top 15 was not listed anywhere either. So this weekend taught me a few lessons: avoid the "Dont Touch Me Guy" and don't ever leave the race before the results are posted!
It felt good to be racing again even if it was way too hot!!!
On an unrelated note.... my three week old Mini Cooper S isn't new anymore. An 87 year old lady who didn't know her own phone number or address plowed in to the side of it on First Colonial Rd on Friday afternoon. Amber was driving it home from work when the lady pulled out of a parking lot and ran right in to the side of it. Then didnt even want to stop because she didnt realize she hit the car! Luckily no one was injured and the Mini was still driveable.

Every once in a while I have to get up on my soap box to vent and this blog is the perfect place to do that.  The minimal number of visitors to this site probably don't want to hear me vent.  Much less vent on a serious topic such as euthanasia, but I am going to do it anyways!  That's why I have this blog!

What started this is an article published at news.yahoo.com about people going to Mexico to purchase pentobarbital.  They purchasing the pentobarbital in Mexico then taking the drug home for safe keeping in the event that they ever become terminally ill.  That article deals with one of the few topics that has always gotten me fired up. That is euthanasia. Overall the article was a fact based typical news report on the topic of the availability of the "the Mexico option" but there was a quote at the end of the article that really irritated me. The quote was made by Lori Kehoe, a representative for the New York based Right to Life Movement. She said "We shouldn't treat people as animals are treated. Every day of life is to be valued as a gift".
How can someone possibly think that allowing a person the choice to end their suffering can be treating them like an animal or taking a gift away from them. Not being able to care for myself and having to have someone else do everything for me is more like being an animal than a human. For example, a person that is terminally ill, suffering constant pain, can not breathe on their own, can not get up to go to the bathroom, and has to be fed by a tube or by an assitant. How is that a dignified life? How is that life any better than that of an animal? That person should have the right to choose whether or not they go on suffering.
I watched my mother deteriorate for several years. Towards the end she was suffering constant excruciating pain and could not breathe on her own. She had to be assisted with everything she did. She had absolutely no quality of life, she was suffering. At this stage near the end I unfortunately did not discuss with her her personal feelings, but I can fairly accurately say what they were because we always agreed on the topic of euthanasia. She would have wanted the right to end her misery. She was suffering. I am sure she felt that she was making her family suffer. She knew that there was no hope for a recovery and she would not have wanted to have family remember in this way. She would have wanted family to remember her as the loving and caring person that she was before being bed ridden and miserable.
I have always wondered why people are not given the same rights as animals. The only reasons I can fathom are: That the family members are being selfish trying to hold on to something rather than letting it go and religious beliefs. Neither one of those reasons is one that should prevent someone from having the personal choice to end their life. We will allow a pet to end it's misery and suffering by allowing it a painless end. Yet, a person who is suffering is sentenced to an extended period of indignity and torture. I for one would not want force my family to suffer with the task of taking care of me for months or years while I have no quality of life. Those that would make me suffer in this state are being selfish.

Here's the link to the article that got me started... Euthanasia tourists snap up pet shop drug in Mexico - Yahoo! News

I had some fun taking pictures of some very bored children, mine included, this weekend. These were some of my favorites. Clicking the pictures links to the larger sized version.

Our 6th Anniversary Party

The Kids at Ocean Lakes Elem School 6/2/08