Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Riding in All Weather
Well, I have 1 1/2 weeks training under my belt, only 6 1/2 months to go. I did consider this the "easy" part - training mostly at the gym and only occasionally actually getting out on my bike - that was until Sunday. The temperature was 42 degrees and I somehow inspired my friend Laura to join me on a jaunt. What we didn't know was that the weather man had forcasted snow. Within 20 minutes, the temperature dropped 10 degrees and a snow squall started shedding snow on my not too warm fleece shirt. Laura and I saw the writing on the wall ( or the slush on the road); our ride was going to be cut short. Somehow we got home not being able to see with snow blowing in our eyes and practically getting frost bite on fingers and toes. I do remember the Sea to Sea website encouraging us to ride in various weather conditions to prepare us for 2 weeks in the elements. Fortuneatly, I don't expect to riding in "the white stuff" in August, but I am sure we will see and feel snow's cousin in the form of rain.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Home on the Range
Howdy all,
Yes, you didjust receive a semi-cowgirl greeting - I refuse to use the conjunction ya'll even if it would have completed the package. This greeting sums me up somewhat. I dreamed as a youngen that I would marry a sheep farmer in Australia or a rancher in Montana ((none of these options were reasonable since I grew up in Florida) and would ride horses all day as I checked out the boundaries of our ranch. Instead, I was led to New Jersey to live in a semi-urban area and drive my car around all day getting groceries and carting my children to activities. I did marry the man of my dreams, though he ended up loving trucks (and me, of course) instead of horses. So, I still hold onto my cowgirl dream as a part of me, but realize that my life is very different than I imagined.
Why all the long dissertation on a simple greeting? I guess I'm in a remembering mood as to my younger days. And in my younger days in college, I fell in love with bike riding when I took a Physical Education course I took at Calvin College on biking. It was either that or another semester of raquetball where I was pegged in the head by ball after ball as I blindly sought to return my oponent's serve. So, biking it was. With tests on bike parts and a biking log in to fill out if I wanted an A, I biked around miles of Western Michigan, to and from classes, joined the bike club and entered a few short bike races, and even kept it up in New Jersey until my children came along.
Now I find myself confronted with a different kind of biking challenge. I still am planning on renewing my knowlege of bike parts and filling up a new biking log over the next 7 months, but my goal is not an A in a college course. This time my goal is to help the CRC and their partners to bring hope and the love of God to those who are poor. I think this may be a huge lesson that I need to learn more than anything else I learned in college - to care about those who are close to God's heart. I realize my heart needs just as hard of a workout as do my legs as I prepare for this bike tour. Please pray for me (a person with a very weak Mercy gift) that my heart will grow along with my leg muscles.
I am excited, by the way, to learn we are starting from Calvin College on this last leg of the bike tour. I will probably be pedalling some of the same ground as in my college days, at least for the first 20-30 miles.
Yes, you didjust receive a semi-cowgirl greeting - I refuse to use the conjunction ya'll even if it would have completed the package. This greeting sums me up somewhat. I dreamed as a youngen that I would marry a sheep farmer in Australia or a rancher in Montana ((none of these options were reasonable since I grew up in Florida) and would ride horses all day as I checked out the boundaries of our ranch. Instead, I was led to New Jersey to live in a semi-urban area and drive my car around all day getting groceries and carting my children to activities. I did marry the man of my dreams, though he ended up loving trucks (and me, of course) instead of horses. So, I still hold onto my cowgirl dream as a part of me, but realize that my life is very different than I imagined.
Why all the long dissertation on a simple greeting? I guess I'm in a remembering mood as to my younger days. And in my younger days in college, I fell in love with bike riding when I took a Physical Education course I took at Calvin College on biking. It was either that or another semester of raquetball where I was pegged in the head by ball after ball as I blindly sought to return my oponent's serve. So, biking it was. With tests on bike parts and a biking log in to fill out if I wanted an A, I biked around miles of Western Michigan, to and from classes, joined the bike club and entered a few short bike races, and even kept it up in New Jersey until my children came along.
Now I find myself confronted with a different kind of biking challenge. I still am planning on renewing my knowlege of bike parts and filling up a new biking log over the next 7 months, but my goal is not an A in a college course. This time my goal is to help the CRC and their partners to bring hope and the love of God to those who are poor. I think this may be a huge lesson that I need to learn more than anything else I learned in college - to care about those who are close to God's heart. I realize my heart needs just as hard of a workout as do my legs as I prepare for this bike tour. Please pray for me (a person with a very weak Mercy gift) that my heart will grow along with my leg muscles.
I am excited, by the way, to learn we are starting from Calvin College on this last leg of the bike tour. I will probably be pedalling some of the same ground as in my college days, at least for the first 20-30 miles.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Just Put One Foot (I Mean Pedal) in Front of the Other
I started this blog (my first ever)with the intention of bringing myself back to sanity (they say writing is good for your psyche), or maybe with the hope some of you will help me regain my sanity. Why my latest claim to have lost my mind - yes, I have claimed this before=)?
Well, yesterday was the last day to sign up for the Sea to Sea Bike Tour that the Christian Reformed Church is sponsoring in order to raise money to "end the cycle of poverty" around the world. And guess what, I found myself faxing in my registration to ride the last leg of the bike tour from Grand Rapids to New Jersey after only a week of considering the consequences. I know what you are thinking if you know me - isn't she really busy with a family, new dog training business, work at the animal shelter, volunteering at church, and living with a kitchen that is under major renovations? And, yes, you right in all of these observations.
I figured God knew all of these time obstacles too. He also knows about my 4 knee surgeries. But, despite this, He must also know that He wanted me to join this bike tour, because I found myself regularly "needled" (yes, I mean needled sort of like the victim of a voodoo doll) with the thought, " I should do this." He must also have prompted me to call my friend Sandy a week ago to chit chat (I am not a chit chat person on the phone), knowing she would invite me onto her blog about her decision to join the bike tour. This conversation and blog reading started the process which led me to send the before-mentioned fax registration. Lastly, God knew that my husband would have plenty of very legitimate questions that I could not answer, but would ultimately send me to my destiny at the fax machine with the words "If your going to do this, don't do it half-way. You'll have to train hard!" That's my husband's way of saying he's behind me.
So here I am on the morning after a restless night - it didn't help that half my family including myself have fevers and coughs. I'm sitting here at my computer and received blessed confirmation from a cartoon my 2-year old is watching that my decision was the right one. On Sesame Street, Maria is standing in the center courtyard with all the Sesame Street gang riding around her on bikes, tricycles, etc. She cheerfully states that "This (referring to the activity around her) is a great way to get shape." Elmo comes screeching to a halt on his tricycle and exclaims, "Ride a bike today!" Guess that's God's way of telling me to stop hanging out feeling sick in my jammies and go work out at the gym. Off I go to begin many miles of pedaling.
Well, yesterday was the last day to sign up for the Sea to Sea Bike Tour that the Christian Reformed Church is sponsoring in order to raise money to "end the cycle of poverty" around the world. And guess what, I found myself faxing in my registration to ride the last leg of the bike tour from Grand Rapids to New Jersey after only a week of considering the consequences. I know what you are thinking if you know me - isn't she really busy with a family, new dog training business, work at the animal shelter, volunteering at church, and living with a kitchen that is under major renovations? And, yes, you right in all of these observations.
I figured God knew all of these time obstacles too. He also knows about my 4 knee surgeries. But, despite this, He must also know that He wanted me to join this bike tour, because I found myself regularly "needled" (yes, I mean needled sort of like the victim of a voodoo doll) with the thought, " I should do this." He must also have prompted me to call my friend Sandy a week ago to chit chat (I am not a chit chat person on the phone), knowing she would invite me onto her blog about her decision to join the bike tour. This conversation and blog reading started the process which led me to send the before-mentioned fax registration. Lastly, God knew that my husband would have plenty of very legitimate questions that I could not answer, but would ultimately send me to my destiny at the fax machine with the words "If your going to do this, don't do it half-way. You'll have to train hard!" That's my husband's way of saying he's behind me.
So here I am on the morning after a restless night - it didn't help that half my family including myself have fevers and coughs. I'm sitting here at my computer and received blessed confirmation from a cartoon my 2-year old is watching that my decision was the right one. On Sesame Street, Maria is standing in the center courtyard with all the Sesame Street gang riding around her on bikes, tricycles, etc. She cheerfully states that "This (referring to the activity around her) is a great way to get shape." Elmo comes screeching to a halt on his tricycle and exclaims, "Ride a bike today!" Guess that's God's way of telling me to stop hanging out feeling sick in my jammies and go work out at the gym. Off I go to begin many miles of pedaling.
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