Time for a check

Since most of us are out of doors on a regular basis, and sweat like pigs which dilutes or removes sun screen, its time for a skin check.

Skin cancer isn't anything to play with or ignore as many of us are finding out. My teammate Katie is one of them. She has had melanoma removed. This is serious stuff.

One of the best marathon runners in the world, Deena Drossin, has also been affected. And today on cycling news, Amber Neben. http://www.cyclingnews.com/riders/2007/interviews/?id=neben_nov07

I've been trying to get an appointment to see a dermatologist for awhile now. The earliest appointment I can get is late April, and most of them aren't taking new patients unless they have a diagnosis of cancer. That in and of itself is cause for alarm. Get checked. One of my former bosses died of melanoma.

Thanks
Karen

Angels Amongst Us

Have you ever seen such a haul! Too bad I didn't get the "ta dah" picture, which was a huge trailer, with all the bikes in it.
It's amazing what a few people can do to make the lives of someone else better.

















From our HR dept.-
The Angel Tree campaign was a great success due to the kindness and generosity of our employees. You will be happy to hear we sponsored 110 angels providing clothes, toys and special items from their wish lists. This included 24 bikes! It took 2 pickups, 3 SUV’s, a car and a trailer to get all the gifts to the distribution center.




















Now if I could only ride my bike to work! (no bikes allowed on the Wiley Bridge. Grrr....)

Serious Eye Candy

And yeah, I stole the picture, but it's worth it...

Is he tasty or what?

Thats Michael Lovato, tri- guy, nice guy, funny guy.

My idea of a perfect combination (except for that swim stuff.)

Bikes Begone!

No, thankfully, not my bike. But... sometimes I'm as dumb as a post, and last night it could have been my bike.

I went to Endorphin for our Cycor computrainer race night, and had the pleasure of inviting the best urologist/biker in Richmond to ride on a trainer next to me. We love Ike, and if you ever have pee pee issues, he's the go to guy. Needless to say, we rode hard, and I was soaking wet, and whipped when I got home. I went inside, got the dogs in, and jumped in the tub, then went to bed.

Thankfully, when I went out to go to work, Dottie my Lapierre was still on the bike rack where I left her. Thats the joy of living where I live. While I won't say that there is NO crime in Goochland, there is significantly less crime than in the city or surrounding counties. I can pretty much guarantee that anywhere in the City that if I had left that bike on the rack and went inside for more than 10 minutes it would have been gone.

I look at Craigslist a couple times a week, and check out the mountain bike forums on Richmond-More. Sadly, its just about daily that bikes are stolen. Stolen from garages, porches, from inside locked vehicles. Leave a bike on the porch and run in and get something you forgot, yeah, its gone.

So thank my lucky stars Dottie is still with me. I'm going to have to make one of those signs that all my friends who have garages and bikes on the roof rack use. You know, the flip down sign that says, "STOP!!! Bike on roof!" Mine will go on the front door... "STOP! Bike on rack! Go GET IT!!"

The Joys of Kid's Bikes

I'll say it again, I work at a fabulous place. Colony is a huge believer in "Give Back" and while we normally adopt about 10 families, the new HR manager decided that we would adopt an entire Angel Tree. That's about 200 kid's for Christmas.

No sweat. I got my Angel, and had a blast buying clothes and toys. For someone who doesn't have kids like me, it was a fun way to get in the Christmas spirit.

Ok, not fun. The guys in the mail room came hunting for me. Seems that everyone went to the big box stores and got kid's bikes that need to be assembled. So of course they immediately thought of me. You know, the chick who is constantly getting those huge boxes that contain bikes and wheels and other goodies.

Too bad I didn't also get the case of wine that should be here any day from my wine club. I could have used a bottle or three while trying to put these things together. Have you ever tried to put together one of these pieces of crap, um, bikes? Nothing works. I spent an hour trying to get simple cantilever brakes to actually lie flat on the rim. One rim. I finally had to bag the whole deal and go back to work. Face it, exactness and kids bikes just don't go together.

So all thru the land, little kids will wake up on Christmas morning to their first bikes under the tree.... Slapped together by yours truely. It's a frightening thought.

Thule ROCKS!

I have a wonderful Thule 4 bike hitch. Love it, love it, love it. One of the rubber straps broke, and I couldn't find the right replacement part on the website.

If you've read some of my posts, bad customer service really chaps my ass. Really good customer service, is a great thing. Thule wrote the book on customer service. Not only was the chick on the other end of the phone happy, and helpful... when I told her what the problem was, she put it down as a warranty issue and is sending me all new cradles for the bikes. Then she told me that they are tight, to use dishwashing liquid to get the cradles on the bars.

I think I have a new best friend. She went skiing in Vermont this weekend, was impressed that we were still riding here. Its a fabulous thing to have customer service people who use their own products, know them, and know how you use them. I'm pumped.

So if you need a bike rack, buy a Thule. They rock.

The Bravest of the Brave

Ok, I don't necessarily mind riding in the rain. Its a pain, you have to clean your bike real well afterwards, and the chances of flats goes up, but what the heck. You race in the rain, you'd better be used to riding in the rain.

All bets are off when you are talking about winter. Riding when its cold and rainy just totally sucks. J and I still talk about the Jeff Cup we did in the rain which actually didn't seem so bad at the time, until the end of the race when we couldn't shift or brake on the way back to the van, and then had to help each other get undressed as our fingers wouldn't work. (6 guys just got that dreamy look on thier faces and started a low chuckle...) I can tell you it wasn't such a fantasy for us, more like Nightmare on Jeff Cup Street.

So when it started to rain on Sunday, I was pretty sure that no one would come for the women's ride. Wrong. Three of us made it, and it was exactly the three that I thought. I had called J and told her not to drive the hour up, so I knew she wouldnt be there, but Katie and Jenn, were there ripping to go. And like most things, once we got started, it got better. Then it just flat out got fun.

I love riding with the guys, but every now and again its a blast to ride and have girlie talk. We did some season planning, discussed pt stuff, and other stuff you cant print. Jenn is pumped for the season and is getting stronger all the time. Now that she and Katie have figured out that they live within spitting distance of each other, they can help each other out. Its a match made in heaven.

And having Jenn around... I cant rotate pictures, and Jenn is this amazing graphic artist. When you see our new team stuff, its going to be Jenn's work. Finding her was one of my big accomplishments for the year. Not to mention she does great things for my ego. I've been doing my best to loose a pound or twenty, and having her go Wow! makes those efforts worthwhile.

Now if only I could get that Jillian chick from the Biggest Looser on the team. I'd like to know how she gets people to loose 20 lbs in a week. Crap, I'd like to loose more than one a week! I bet she'd scare those pounds right off of you... This year I'm not going to be an "Old Chick who gets fat and slow in the winter!"