Deflated

I went to another session of my summer school last night. I had put a new rear tire on since last week and it was all good to go. Good to go until I actually got to the race and was starting out on the pre ride lap. The fellow I had met and was riding with asked me casually, 'do you always ride your tire pressure so low'. I looked and sure enough, my rear tire was almost flat. See super crew, I knew I should have left well enough alone and stuck with my 3 year old tires and Stan's combination. I had NO tire problems in over 3 years and now twice in one week!! Luckily, there were EMT's on hand. Emergency Mechanical Technicians. I need to tell you that Tommy from Surf City Cyclery is amazing!

Tommy fixing my rear tire

http://www.surfcitycyclery.com/

 

Once the wonder mechanic threw a tube in my 'tubeless' tire and got it back on my bike, he discovered my dirty little secret. My bike was not shifting smoothly, more like barely shifting. I was planning on fixing it later in the week and figured it would just make me work harder. I guess, he discovered that I wasn't prepared for the nights 'exam'. In less than 10 minutes I had a new rear cable and cable housing installed and was sent off to pre ride.

I wasn't a total slacker all week and had done some homework. I had practiced cornering on tight, downhill, off camber turns and was glad the course was almost the same as last week. When it came time to start I was at the back of the group, just like in a real classroom. I learned quickly that this is not where you want to be. At this type of school being a keener in the front is a good idea. Next time. I was able to stay with the sport group and around several sport girls for the first two full laps. I was sitting in third position until halfway through the third lap. Then, just like my rear tire, I went flat. All the air came out of me and I was passed by three girls. My legs told me that I had asked an awful lot of them in the last week and that they had delivered, but now they were DONE. I ended up bringing it in looking much like a party balloon a few days after the party as it floats down from the ceiling. Completely deflated!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

My good friends Cherry and Tony are getting married in less than two weeks. They are a fantastic couple and I am blessed to have them in my life. Yesterday the girls got together and we did a bike ride to celebrate. It was my seventh day on the bike in a row, and I am counting it as important training. All bridal showers should be this much fun!

Brides Bike Ready to Ride

We all got to be Cherry's bridesmaids for the day and the bride was radiant in her thrift store gown.

 Ready to start the bridal procession

The Peloton

Here Comes the Bride- she's on a breakaway

Everyone Loves a Bride

Trialing my Leadville outfit.

We managed to make a splash in quite a few watering holes along the way and did some interval training on the dance floors. Not sure how to classify this ride in my training log. It had some strength elements, cruisers are heavy and going uphill was challenging. I got some technique work maneuvering with balloons in my face. There was the endurance, had to pace myself, there are quite a few dive bars along that stretch of coastline! At the end of the day, it was just FUN had by all. I may have to wear the pink boa at Leadville to remind me that I just wanna have fun!

Summer School

School is out for the summer for most kids. Last night was my first night of classes. My school is unique in that it is occurs outside, on dirt, riding nubby tires on a cross country course. There were many subjects covered last night, and I tried to take good notes so that next week I can show the teachers that I am not hopeless, and am capable of learning.  I'll share what I took away with you by topic.

Physics - I observed the law of gravity over and over again.  F=Gm1m2/d2. Or, in the context of my lesson, big guys go downhill WAY faster and easier than I do! Note to self, to improve downhilling ability increase mass. Trust me, there were many times when I was getting passed by a bigger fella that I contemplated a beer and Krispy Kreme diet. I changed my mind when I got to the law of motion. F=mass x acceleration. The same fellas that had the assistance of a larger gravitational pull on the downhill were working way harder to overcome their mass on the uphill. Passing them on every uphill made me kiss my fantasy life of eating bon bons on the sofa goodbye.

Sociology- The mountain bike society is one of friendly fun loving people. These people all like to have a good time in the dirt and share some laughs afterwards. What a great culture to be a part of. There is a hierarchy involved and people are in classes. I happened to be in women's sport. In the caste system we were below pro and expert but above beginner. The guys getting all the respect were in the men's pro category. We all got out of the way and gave them clear trail when they lapped us.

Math- I learned some simple math. The equation was this, if the lead girl is doing each of the three laps in just under 20 minutes and I am doing my laps in 23 minutes the final result is I am over 10 minutes back at the finish. I did manage to keep all of my laps even. Was happy that 13.5 miles didn't fatigue me. My advanced math skills say I just have to be able to go for 90.5 more miles at Leadville.

French- Rather than receive a french lesson I gave one. On my practice lap I rolled my rear tire off the rim on a fast downhill corner. It went back on with a severe wobble but not before I had shown my extraordinary gift for the french language. I managed to get the tire bead reseated before the race but there was still a good wobble to it.

Geology- We were given a chance to observe rocks and soil in various formations and classifications. I paid particular attention to the establishment of  deep rutted sandy areas. The off camber corners posed a different kind of study and approach. I need to do some cramming in this area before next weeks class! Maybe when I have a tire that is not likely to roll I will be able to enter these areas with more confidence.

Chemistry- I had a private lesson in this subject. When my tire briefly came off the rim, the sealant was released. When the sealant was exposed to air a chemical reaction took place. Sadly, I did not get to use a Bunsen burner! The other part of the chemistry class was that certain molecules attract others with magnetism. My fast moving rear wheel was able to attract many a guy in the 50+ category, it became a chain of reaction.

Health and Hygiene- At this particular academic forum being covered in dirt at the end of the day is the goal. If you have a little blood on you, that is even more admired.  During the race public spitting and snotting are acceptable behaviours, but after the finish line is crossed the rules change.

Home Economics- When it comes to fashion some people choose to conform and look like the rest of the crowd. A few individuals like to put their own flare on things. I give you exhibit A.

He wears short shorts!

Sadly, I can't use the better picture I have as I want to preserve his anonymity. Although, dressing like this he might prefer to be shown. Maybe he got lost on his way to Venice beach? The last lesson I will share was from Psychology.  I learned that motivation comes in many forms. I was particularly motivated to not let Mr Poser beat me! (I was successful by the way. Passed him on a climb. He might have more power than me, but he also had more weight!)

Solstice on Soledad

To celebrate summer solstice I rode my bike up Mt Soledad.  I rode up the steep way, 823 ft in 1.5 miles. I had rung in the New Year of 2010 with the same ride and I was happy that it seemed easier this time. The views at the top are spectacular and yesterday was indeed a day to worship the sun. June gloom burned off earlier than usual and I had a fantastic day on the bike.

Landmark Cross at top of Soledad

Last night while sleeping at 9060ft (where I've been for a week now) I had some great dreams. All I can tell you about them is that I am glad that Shakespeare said of summer solstice 'whateveris dreamed on this night, will come to pass'. There could very well be a nice silver belt buckle in my near future!

Buzzing Noise

A theme has emerged for my rides in the last few weeks. At least once per week I encounter a swarm of some sort. The first meeting was with the locusts. This was kinda gross as they were splattered all over the road and they stung when they hit my bare legs and arms. Also, I had to keep my mouth closed while going through them to maintain my vegan status. The next week it was gnats. These suckers were extremely annoying and this swarm wasn't one you could just go through. The gnats followed me so that I was the center of the movement. Let's just say I wasn't feeling honored to be held in such high regard that they would follow me to the ends of the earth! For those of you keeping score, I managed to get through without ingesting any gnats. They were making me annoyed enough that I considered chomping down on a few!! Last week I got intimate with another type of swarm. The ride started out great. By great I mean climbing right away and having an elevation gain of 4000ft in 9 miles. That kind of great!

Flowers Blooming in June

Surprisingly, the hillsides were still quite green (for Southern California) and flowers were blooming everywhere. The air was fragrant with the smell of blossoms and this made me a happy rider. Guess what? I was not the only creature happy that there were flowers and pollen in abundance! From a distance there was a steady drone, that I could even hear above my breathing. After turning a corner the source of the buzzing was revealed and it was not a power line! As Winnie the Pooh so wisely said 'that buzzing noise means something. If there's a buzzing noise, somebody's making a buzzing noise, and the only reason for making a buzzing noise that I know of is because you're a bee'.

Bee Swarm on Trail

The picture of the swarm is a little blurry. Trust me, there are bees everywhere in that picture. I was not going to tempt fate and plow on through. There wasn't time for me to explain to the bees that I mean them no harm and that I don't even partake in eating the sweet nectar that they work so hard to produce. I think bees sting now, think later! The buzzing noise was quite ominous and the bees were not on the move. They were working very hard at whatever they were doing , but staying in the same location. I surrendered to my formidable opponents and retreated back down the trail. I may have squished a few if I had rode through but they would have won the battle with one sting, I am allergic.

Climbing

I'll be back to ride this trail because I still need to see the top. The bees have done me a favor by increasing the suspense. A nine mile climb is a great place to work on being relaxed and smooth on the bike. I do hope that this week the swarm that I will inevitably encounter will be quieter and softer. Perhaps, I will be lucky enough to see some butterflies migrating! Then, like Muhammad Ali when I am doing Leadville 'I'll be floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee'.

Going in Circles

This week I decided it sounded like fun to go and ride my bike in circles. (fun for me, that is. you can decide your own way to have fun!) To do this I went to the local weekly criterium workout. For those of you loyal readers who aren't sure what this means I give you the following definition. 'A criterium (also called a crit) is a bike race held on a short course on usually closed off streets. The length of each lap is usually less than 5km and the length of the race is determined by time, usually one hour. The average speed and intensity are high and the winner is determined by the first rider over the line who has not been lapped.' The local crit is more a workout than a race as far as I could tell. It is held in a giant empty parking lot. To say I was nervous, would be a slight understatement. After all, all the real roadies show up for this and they go HARD. I wasn't concerned about being dropped or lapped, that was a given. I just wanted to make sure that I was out of the way when the inevitable happened. I got myself there, despite the numerous reasons I had to not go, the front runner being I had just washed my hair and it would get sweaty. I contemplated taking my mascot off the bike for fear that the roadies would send me packing but I needed her constant reminder to suck it up and not be a pussy.

Riding westwards in giant parking lot.

There was a chance to do several warm up laps and I impressed myself with my tight cornering ability. Seems a lot easier when there are no gullies to drop into, giant rocks to go up and over, and more than 6 inches of trail surface. While I was patting myself on the back I may have gotten passed, hard to tell what that sucking wind feeling was;) After a warm up, everyone congregated and then we started. A clock was put out and we were told to ride for 50 minutes. The first few laps were to be warm up laps. I guess the guy on the front did not get that memo, I refuse to admit that his warm up pace could be my ovaries to the wall pace! Luckily, this was not a race and I am not a professional cyclist. I made a few tactical errors early on and got slung off the back of the second pack.

Imagine if you will the ever present conga line that forms at some point at every wedding reception. You know how there is always some guy with no rhythm that inserts himself into the middle of the line. As the line picks up speed and the moves get more intricate he is off time and before you know it loses contact with the person who's waist he has been clinging to. Now, the rest of the line behind him is also slung off the back. In this particular conga line I was the drunken uncle with no rhythm. As the people behind me scrambled and closed the gap I was left lurching and flailing to my own beat! Luckily, for me, the line came back in my direction and I was able to scramble back on. When I would start to feel contact slipping through my fingers I knew that if I took the next corner tight at full speed that I would get right back into the bunch. At least that is the line of bull I kept repeating to myself, and I'm sticking to it!

View from off the back

Turns out that when all you can hear is the pounding of your heart, and you are focused on following the wheel in front of you that an hour can fly by! It was the most fun I have ever had at a threshold effort. I wish I could have taken more pictures, as much as my hands free riding has progressed I'm not sure that the group would have celebrated my abilities! I hope to be a regular at these workouts for the rest of the summer, with the goal of making it longer before being- A) dropped by the second group, B) lapped by the front group. I now have a new song for my play list as well. Three Dog Night must have done their weekly criterium. Why else would they have sung 'Going in circles,  don't really know, Where I have come from, where I will go, Going in circles, been here before, Dumb to the sorrow, Numb to the pain, Going in circles'.

Broken Record

Now that I am riding the trainer several times a week to do my fancy altitude training, I am also using my ipod often. It hasn't been used much since my marathon in February and sadly I have not made any new play lists. I need to do that. It is essential to my training that I create a few new trainer play lists. I am finding that the songs I have are mocking me during my workouts. Let me provide you with some examples of what I am dealing with.

1) The Tragically Hip keep asking me 'are you ready, are you ready, are you ready..?'. Quit taunting me, you know the answer is a resounding NO! If I were ready I wouldn't need to be on the trainer with this mask strapped to my face, come on boys, use some common sense!

2) Freddie Mercury making comments about the size of my butt. 'fat bottomed girls you make the rockin' world go round, Get on your bikes and ride'. Dude, what the heck do you think I am doing! and no I'm not gonna take you home tonight, you just told me I had a fat ass. Plus, not too sure you liked the ladies;)

3) White Snake seems a little sympathetic to my cause. At least they tell me 'Cos I know what it means, to walk the lonely street of dreams,  An' here I go again on my own, Like a drifter I was born to ride alone'. Just the fact that they keep saying, here I go again makes me think that they like to rub it in that I am once again going into oxygen deprivation.

4) Bono likes to remind me 'its a beautiful day, don't let it get away'. Hey Bono, I can see that through my window, I'll get out there as soon as this suffer fest is over.

5) Amy Winehouse tells me 'yes, I've been black but when I come back you'll know, know, know'. Is she referring to bruises on her hips from falling off her bike? Makes me think of my bruises and how at least I haven't fallen off the trainer, YET!

6) Janis Joplin actually gives me a bit of a pep talk. 'and each time I tell myself that I, well I think I've had enough, but I'm gonna show you , baby, that a woman can be tough. I want you to come on, come on, come on and take it, Take another piece of my heart now baby'. This is the point where the pep talk ends and I notice how fast my heart is beating and begin to wonder if I am missing a piece.

7) Pink shows me no respect by asking me 'So What?' when I am proud of accomplishing yet another high altitude session. I think what she is trying to say is, you have many more to go and it is nothing to celebrate until you complete the real altitude session on August 14th. Come on girlfriend, let a sista revel in the small victories!

8) Meatloaf doesn't seem to think the burn I am feeling in my legs is intense enough and knows how to remedy this 'and I wanna take you out of the frying pan, And into the fire. Out of the frying pan and into the fire'. Okay, message received load and clear, work harder, burn harder, I got it, I got it!

9) Sheryl Crow sympathizes with the cuts and abrasions on my legs from my off road adventures. She assures me that 'the first cut is the deepest, baby I know, the first cut is the deepest'. Wonder if she knows how long they should take to heal?

10) Nickelback brings my attention to the difficulty (slight understatement) I am having breathing by wondering 'would somebody help me breathe, would somebody help me breathe?'. Get over it, no one is going to help you breathe, suck in, blow out!

11) Flo Rida knows that by the end of my workout 'you spin my head right round, right round, When you go down, when you go down, down, You spin my head right round, right round'. Yup my head is spinning round alright, and that race I'm doing all this training for is 'going down, down'!

Even though these songs are razzing me during my workouts, they are providing a warped sense of motivation. I have heard these play lists so many times that they have become like a broken record that just keeps replaying over and over and over and over. I need new songs to taunt me while I experience the simulated rocky mountain high. Readers, send me your favorite songs and I will make a special Leadville play list. Please, you can see 'it finally happened, I'm going slightly mad'.

Dizzy Blond

One of the extra benefits, besides the princess canopy bed look, of the altitude training system is training at altitude. That's right, I get to train at altitude without leaving the comfort of my home, or my bedroom since I am too lazy to move the generator around. The unit came with a special exercise mask and instructions on workouts to do.

Air Reservoirs

I hook up the tubing with the air reservoirs to the generator unit. I can then choose the altitude that I wish to work out at. The first three weeks I am to workout at 9000ft. I then hop on the bike trainer, since I am training to bike at altitude that seemed the best exercise of choice. After a 5 min warm up I put on the mask.

Mask as it goes towards me

As seen from the outside

Now that the neoprene face mask is strapped to me with velcro, the real workout begins. The whole system reminds me of work because it sounds like a ventilator or CPAP machine. I have to drown it out with tunes, that is until I am working so hard I can't hear! The instructions all revolve around maintaining a certain oxygen saturation at different stages. Very technical for a girl who doesn't even use a bike computer! I am committed to doing this though, so I follow the guidelines. In order for me to know my oxygenation I am required to wear a probe on my finger. Yes, I feel very much like a lab rat during this time. They also explicitly say that if you are emptying the reservoirs you are breathing too hard. I keep a close eye on those, at least as long as I can. Once I am seeing black spots there is no focusing. I haven't even come close to being able to empty them. Perhaps, a challenge to work towards.

So far the sessions on the trainer haven't been too hideous. I only have to drop my saturation's to 86%. I have already noticed that I am having to ride a harder gear at a faster pace to do this. I guess that means it is working. If nothing else I am expanding my lungs while gulping for air. The sessions are also only 30 minutes at a time, to be followed by an actual ride outside. I can only imagine what it would be like to ride outside in traffic or on a technical trail while experiencing lightheadedness! Pretty sure it is going to be extremely uncomfortable when I progress to the final three weeks. At that time I am to be over 12,000ft and drop my saturation's to 74%. When that happens I hope that my old instincts don't kick in and I start to bag myself and prepare for intubation!

For now, I am putting my faith in the experts and believing that this will prepare me to race at elevation. The blond isn't real and I don't want the dizziness to be real either. I would hate to end my day as the dizzy blond!

Days Like This

Today was one of those days, a day of the good, the bad and lots of the ugly! When I got my altitude tent I was warned that I wouldn't be able to work out as hard for a couple of weeks. The literature said that it was common to have to back off a bit while adjusting to the altitude. I was cautious at first but have been in the tent a week now and have been cranking out awesome workout followed by awesome workout. Until today. Today the accumulation of mileage, intensity and altitude all came crashing down on me. I may have stayed home if I had known what was in store for me. Instead I had planned a rather ambitious workout of climbing on the mountain bike. It all started out great. Beautiful weather, great scenery and just me and my bike.

View back down the the bottom from 1/3 way up

Too bad the good was so short lived. About 1/3 of the way up the 12 mile climb it started to get bad. Seems that they were doing road work up ahead. The rumble of an engine working hard to climb the hill would get louder and louder and then the dust storm would be upon me. I got passed by several water tankers and dump trucks. I was breathing pretty heavily at this point, I had been climbing pretty hard cause things were still good. Sucking in the exhaust fumes and dust while riding through the deep sand on the side of the road, soured my mood!

One of the many trucks that passed me, luckily this section wasn't too dusty!

At the half way point of the climb I came upon the construction crew. I wasn't sure they would let me through, but not only did they let me through they promised that there were no more trucks up ahead. I got about 10 minutes up the road from them and what do you know, they drove their construction truck up past me. More dust! Around about this point my left glut- who am I kidding, my ass started to cramp up. I changed position on the bike, altered my pedal stroke and it wouldn't loosen up. Now, to be fair it had worked pretty hard in Pilate's class yesterday, and it had let me know then that it wasn't happy. I didn't listen to it last night, so it made sure I heard it loud and clear today. I had to get off and stretch a few times but I was determined to get to the top of the damn mountain! Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, I hit the tree line and the gnats arrived. Head down, don't let them get to you. Who was I kidding? I was beyond being able to deal and was so physically and mentally wiped at this point. Finally, I crested the top and was able to descend. Today was a day where the reward did not erase the pain or tribulations from my mind.

Even though it was a day where the ugly was more prevalent than the bad and really outweighed the good, I still will reap the training benefits. I was working my butt off (it wouldn't have been screaming so hard at me if I wasn't) and my mind was put to the test. Undoubtedly, if I continue to push my limits there will be more days like this. I'll take a bad day on the bike any day over a bad day off the bike!

For those of you keeping track, I am now sleeping in Park City, Utah. I did make a stop for a few nights in Colorado Springs.

Blood, Sweat and ...

This past weekend I put in some good hours on the bike. So many good hours that I am now sporting lovely biker tan lines. Ladies, you know the biker girl girdle, so attractive. Saturday was a long, hilly, and hot ride. This is where the sweat came in. It was well above 90 and during one climb we were up against a rock face with no wind. I was covered in salt, resembling the rim of margarita glass. I wore it as a badge of honor, proof that I was working hard in the heat. Luckily, Jen, I did not need to recycle!

Sunday, I took to the mountain bike. I did not crash on Sunday but the cuts on my legs from my crash over a week ago took a beating from the bushes. Fresh blood was drawn. My mascot and I now had visible proof that we are not pussies! Just look at her face.

Evidence that I have lost blood in training!

I have never been so happy as I was on Sunday to have gears on my bike. I can't believe that some people choose to ride a single speed. If it weren't for the granny gear there is no way I would have made it up several of the climbs yesterday. My legs were worked from the day before and I was using all my gearing.

Trail goes up over far left of picture

As mild as this hill looks it took all I had to get up and over at the midpoint of my ride. I can't believe that I will have to climb up over the powerline climb in Leadville at mile 80. Oh boy. That is going to be another day for blood, sweat and gears!!

Road Kill

Riding a bicycle along the side of a road often brings you up close and personal with the animals who thought they could out run the vehicular traffic. Yesterday, it seemed that the animal kingdom had been watching too many WWII movies and decided that they all wanted to be kamikazes. There were carcasses scattered everywhere! Going uphills on a nice hot day meant we weren't blazing by and we got to get up close and personal with the casualties. Often, too up close and personal! The visual and olfactory assaults were not pleasant. I didn't stop to take pictures of any of the bloated bodies, thought I would save the image for my readers imagination. Plus, I was trying to get by as quickly as possible, pedalling as fast as I could while holding my breath!
The genocide reached greater heights  when we came upon the locust swarms. Now, rather than witnessing the aftermath of the killings we were part of it. One on one a grasshopper is a cute little insect that as a child I loved to watch and play with.

Pretty cute grasshopper

They lose their cuteness factor pretty quickly when the are flying at you from every direction. All we could do was put our heads down, pedal and keep our mouths closed. If we were going to kill any of them, we were not going to eat them! It went on for about a mile of being pelted and bombarded. There was no way we could avoid hitting or running over them. It was a giant cloud of insects. I tried to get some pictures, while riding. The blurs you see are the locusts and the brown line on the road, well I'm sure you can deduce what that is!

        ' You have failed noone grasshopper, only your own ambition  '

In retrospect a road kill scattered ride was great training for Leadville. It forced me to ride hard with my mouth closed and often holding my breath. Hypoxic intervals. Now to just be able to ride the whole 100 miles in that state! The saying goes that a sensei is just a grasshopper grown up. In 10 weeks I hope this grasshopper has learned patience and grown into the sensei she needs to be.         

Into Thin Air

As I may have mentioned in a previous post or two, the Leadville trail 100 occurs at altitude. The town of Leadville where the race starts is at 10,152ft and the highest point of the race Columbine mine is at 12,500ft ABOVE sea level. I live at sea level, which means I also train at sea level. There is a big difference in the percentage of oxygen in the air up there compared to the 21% I breath down here. My holding the breath method of acclimating has shown only mediocre results thus far so it is time for plan B. Plan B arrived two days ago in the mystery package. My rented altitude simulation tent is now set up and in use. Every night while I sleep I will now be training, this is the most awesome kind of training ever! Now, if I want to sleep late or go to bed early I have the excuse that I am training. Ingenious. Of course, what girl wouldn't want one of these over her bed?

 My Princess Canopy Bed

http://www.hypoxico.com/

Last night I slept at 5000 feet. I prefer to think that I slept in Lima Peru. It was quite comfortable and I strangely liked being the girl in the bubble. Lets hope that by the time I work up to 10,000 feet I am still finding it comfortable and enjoying it. Normally, I wouldn't go to such extreme measures for a race, but this race is extreme and not normal. I plan to do this race once and I need to do everything I can to ensure success in the preparation. I am relying on the tent to take me into thin air each night while I dream.

'can you take me higher, up high I feel like I'm alive for the very first time, Set up high I'm strong enough to take these dreams and make them mine, can you take me higher'.

Lady in Waiting

That's right, today I got to live out a fantasy and be a lady in waiting (cause really, every girl dreams of being the princess, why not the maid?!). However, I wasn't waiting in a fancy parlor surrounded by opulence. I also wasn't waiting on a queen, just a princess with four paws, but that I do everyday. Today I was waiting on a package. A very important delivery from the UPS man that required me to be home. The time frame for delivery was rather broad and I didn't want to risk missing the drop off. That would mean having to spend another day in anticipation so I settled in for the long haul.

Taking a bike ride was far too risky of a venture, or was it? Not if I set my bike up in the yard on the trainer and got my workout in. I was still outside and I could see the UPS truck, PERFECT! Of course, that only killed 15% of the vast delivery window. During said torture fest I was sure that the driver would show up, don't they always arrive when it is inconvenient. A few times during my harder intervals I sent out telepathic messages 'now would be a good time to show up' ,  'I am not sure I can hold on any longer, please save me' and 'SOS'. NO response, I need to work on my relationship with the UPS man!

My mystery package did arrive and I was here to receive it. I also got a lot accomplished today in the process of waiting. Ralph Waldo Emerson asked the question 'How much of the human life is lost in waiting?'. I can honestly say that this lady in waiting lost nothing, and some spring cleaning got done - and I still have 20 more days of spring:)