Neighborly, 1 by water, Philly sports nirvana, Scratch and itch
Saturday morning I once again buzzed around the house both to clear out Sunday and even part of Saturday afternoon since we had a neighborhood get together to attend. Luckily the cooler temps and lack of rain in the past week stunted the grass growth so I could skip that large chore.
Ali spent a large portion of Saturday watching the broadcast of the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon. She has really dove head first into the triathlon scene and she was really into watching the world’s best compete. I caught bits and pieces of the broadcast. It is truly amazing what the human body is capable of doing.
About 6 months ago I started a community email list in our area. I posted a sign toward the front of the street with a bunch of flyers in a tube with information on how to join it. It took awhile but now we have almost 30 families on the list.
The list has opened up communication lines were none existed before and has been helpful on various occasions. One of the people on the list suggested that we have a small get together so people could put faces with names. The get together was held at her house.
On the way there I told Ali I was thinking that name tags would have been a good thing since both of us have a real tough time with names. The turn out for the party was pretty good with around 20 people there. It was cool to see the people behind the email addresses.
I found out there were a couple computer people in the group. The host is a graphic artist and there is another woman that has her own pc repair business. Everybody there seemed to get along relatively well. There was a lot of exchanging of information.
The party was a quick hitter, only scheduled to be a couple hours long. Ali and I were one of the last ones to leave a half hour after the posted finish time. We talked about having a holiday get together as well as plans for an area garage sale in mid-November. It was nice to get to know some of the neighbors.
When we got home we worked on some other stuff around the house before digging into the mountain of Tivo material that is backing up. We could literally spend an entire day doing nothing but watching Tivo. Our schedule right now just does not allow for time to digest it all.
Sunday was our wedding anniversary. We got married back in 98. Evidently we will be sharing our anniversary with a lot of other folks since getting married on 10/10/10 was very popular this year. We had a day that most people wouldn’t think of as enjoyable for their anniversary.
We talked about going to the water park to do a bike ride and swim which has become a staple of our weekends the past month or two. Sunday morning I threw out the option of riding our bike TO the water park. I wasn’t sure if Ali would immediately reject it or not. She actually wasn’t against it after punching the route into Google to see the distance involved. The route we wanted to take would be almost 16 miles one way. The longest distance Ali has gone on her road bike has been the 17.25 mile Publix ride. This ride would be 30+, a huge jump. Well Ali said she would do it.
We had to both don back packs to carry stuff for the waterpark. We also made sure to load up on liquids for what would be the longest road bike trek either of us have done. Ali had been complaining on recent rides that her seat was bothering her. I swapped her seat with the upgraded Bontrager seat I had on my Dawes bike. It is a gel seat with the center cut out for comfort. Ali said the seat felt much better.
One thing we had going for us was the cooler temps and lower humidity that has been in our area for the last week or so. When we pulled out a little after 9 the temps might have just crossed 70 degrees. At first Ali was in front on the ride. After a little while when we started hitting some wind and I asked her if she wanted me to go in front to break some wind. She said she didn’t care.
Ali really impressed me during the ride to the park. I maintained 17-18 mph for most of the ride and she stuck right with me. By far it was the best I had ever seen her do on her bike. We covered the distance to the water park in less than an hour.
Ali and I “rested” at the water park by swimming more than a mile in the pool. The distance was a personal best for me. I broke it into 400 segments with a minute or two break in between. My next progression is to make the segments longer, 600’s, 800’s or more. I managed to keep my total swim time under 36 minutes for the 1600 distance.
After the swim we recuperated with some lunch and relaxing on lounge chairs. The park was practically a ghost town. I guess going to the water park is not on people’s minds on a mid-October Sunday afternoon. There were almost as many staff as guests. It was actually almost a perfect day for the park.
As we laid there both of us started dozing off. I didn’t want to lay around too long knowing we had to pedal back home as well. A little after 1 we changed back into our bike gear and mounted up.
By this time the temperatures had risen considerably into the mid 80’s. We decided to take the shorter but more hazardous route home, directly up Immokalee Road. The first section of the ride was done mostly on the sidewalk. There was no bike lane or shoulder to speak of, the sidewalk was the safest option by far. Bouncing over all of the joints in the sidewalk is not exactly enjoyable however.
Eventually we got to a portion of the road where traffic was less dense and we were able to get back out on the road even though there was still no real bike lane. The ride back was considerably shorter, almost 3 miles less. It was a much tougher ride though. I again was in front being the windbreaker. The higher temps had kicked up more wind. I was working hard to maintain 16-17 mph most of the way.
I was pretty sure that Ali would be dropping back during the ride since she normally struggles mightily with headwind on a bike. To my surprise she was with me almost the entire way. She was close enough to get some benefit from my wind breaking. We pulled into our driveway as sweaty messes. It was a tough ride. The most painful part of my body was not my legs but my ass from being on a hard bike seat for 30 miles. It really gets uncomfortable after awhile.
We wanted to go out for an anniversary dinner. I suggested to Ali we go to Iguana Mia. It is a mexican place that is anything but fancy but Ali has always liked it and we hadn’t been there for awhile. Just like the water park, the restaurant was pretty dead, maybe a 1/4 of the tables had people sitting in them. It didn’t matter to us, we got faster service.
Ali got a fishbowl size margarita. I got something different, crab and shrimp taquitos. Ali enjoyed her bean burrito as well. Ali’s favorite part of the meal however were the chips and salsa. Having a big basket of them in front of her is like crack to a coke head. She loves them.
After the big meal we headed right back home, we had two big Philly sports event going on. Unfortunately the Eagles game and the Phillies playoff game were scheduled for basically the same time. We had about an hour and half before the games were scheduled to start. I suggested we lay down and take a nap. We were both wiped from the combo of extreme exertion followed up by a big mexican meal.
I didn’t get much of a nap in. As I laid there my face started itching. Just a spot here and there. However as time passed the itching got worse and worse, everything on my head itched. As the night went on the itchiness continued. I was scratching various parts of my head almost non-stop. I theorized that possibly I had some kind of allergic reaction to what I ate although it would be odd to have it isolated to just above the neck. I took benadryl later and it seemed to calm down.
So once we got up I flipped on the game. Throughout the game I was constantly flipping back and forth between the games. There was such a contrast between the two Philly teams. The Phillies have been consistently good. The Eagles are consistently inconsistent. The swing back and forth wildly, causing their fans all sorts of headaches along the way.
Cole Hamels closed out the Reds with a masterful complete game shut out. The Phillies pitching staff is the best in the playoffs without doubt. I also learned that Hamels is another one on Ali’s top secret hot list. She was constantly commenting on him all night. Hamels joins Don Henley and Gordon Ramsey on her the list.
The Eagles game was very frustrating to watch, even though they won in the end. On the good side Kevin Kolb had a strong game. It was a nice FU to the stupid fans that wrote him off as a failure after a half game as a starter. He made throws short and long and for the most part looked in command. leSean McCoy had a great game except for the stupid fall down late in the game short of making a first down that would have cemented the game.
On the bad side is the defense and special teams. It may sound odd to criticize a defense that had 5 takeaways. The takeaways were indeed a big positive but for me it doesn’t erase yet another defensive collapse down the stretch. Much like the Detroit game, the defense allowed the 49ers to score quickly late in the game with very little resistance to make what should have been an easy win a nail biter instead. No lead ever feels safe with this team.
The special teams are basically a joke. The kick coverage last night was awful, just as it has been most of the season. Time after time, the 49ers special teams, who are pretty awful themselves, gashed the Eagles for huge run backs.
But hey, a win is a win. I’ll take it. This season is still all about rebuilding for me. I just have to remind myself of that while I watch some of the crap that goes on.
Oh the cherry on top was the stinking Cowboys losing yet again to give them a shiny 1-3 record. Haha.