Quick, 2 wheeled tank

Man Dexter season 4 is getting incredibly good.  I only have 2 episodes left and I can hardly wait.  I was up till 11:30 last night watching an episode and a half.

Yesterday I had what I thought was a good idea.  I was going to make reservations for Ali, Mom and I to have dinner aboard the Naples Princess.  The Princess is a small cruise ship that offers daily trips out to the gulf that last around two hours.  Besides the beautiful view of the sunset you also get a nice meal for the price of the ticket.

After verifying there were still spots available for Saturday I called Ali to confirm she was up for it, which she was.  I then called mom but got her answering machine.  After waiting about a half hour I called mom back, evidently she was in the shower when I called the first time.

I asked her if she was interested in the dinner cruise.  After offering up some concerns about weather, she agreed.  While she was on the phone I loaded the site to buy the tickets.  All of a sudden the status for the Saturday trip was SOLD OUT.  Mother f….  Evidently the last few spots were reserved during that half hour lag.  Shit. Sunday was sold out too.

We reformulated our plan.  Now we will be picking mom up on Sunday and we will go out to dinner at the Snook Inn in Marco.  Mom will stay over Sunday night and then be able to watch the dogs while we go time the Memorial Day Race.  I figured we can wrap up her visit with a lunchtime Memorial Day “picnic” on the pool deck.

Of course the weekend will have additional chore items included as well.

Last night we went out riding around our area so Ali could do some more practice on her tri bike.  Still she is paranoid about doing much at all on the bike, she keeps flashing back to the crash.  She even uttered something about the possibility of selling the tri bike which vaulted over the line of sanity for me considering all the BS that led up to it’s purchase in the first place.

Ali said something about digging out her old mountain bike to ride on a bit.  I rode back to the house and dug it out of the shed.  The bike has not been ridden since the Muddy Buddy two or three years ago.  After throwing some air in the tires it was ready to go.

The mountain bike was what I taught Ali to ride bike on in her early 20’s.  Compared to her tri bike it probably felt like a full size SUV.  We went back down the side street and Ali was able to do some simple things that she was afraid to do on her tri bike like a 180 turn and pulling one hand off the handlebars.   Sure the old bike has a more neutral riding position with bigger, less inflated tires but I think the biggest difference was in Ali’s head.  It wasn’t the tri bike.

The hope is if Ali can once again gain some confidence on the mountain bike it will carry over to the tri bike.  I emphasized to her that the only way to overcome the fear of the new bike is to ride the new bike, a lot. Right now she has a Steve Sax complex going on.

I am planning on foregoing the club run tomorrow.  I would like to not have to get up at 4:45 am more than necessary.  Instead I am planning a monster brick for Sunday morning.  I am thinking about riding my bike to the water park (16-17 miles), running the 7 mile monster square and then swimming 1200-1600 meters.

Monday I get to enjoy a hellishly early wake up call to time the race.  One of those a weekend is enough.