a very, very fast night at the oval

i am currently executing my charge of caring for one kyra. kyra is my cousin's dog. i get to house / dog / fish / some form of rodent (gerbil maybe?) / plant sit. i'm having a good time up here in cedar rapids.

spent yesterday with grandma and the family in park view. brought the aforementioned rodent-dog down with me. chloe was absolutely baffled by this creature that resembled a dog, yet refused to play with her or even acknowledge her attempts at friendship. it made for an amusing day. chloe was visibly confused. kyra, i couldn't tell. but, to both of their credit, they behaved most excellently. we had us a nice little dinner and some games. a good way to recover from sunday's mud fest.

today i brought the golf down to iowa city for golf-fixage! verdict: no worries. the good people at carousel checked it out and even put in a recalled hazard switch, all for free. quite nice of them. i'm a fan. plus, it's comforting to know that the golf is fine.

post golf-fixage, returned to c.r. and joined ryan in picking up his bike at northetowne, he is now the proud owner of one cannondale in a great paint job of dark grey. sharp bike ryan. soon enough we'll have to have us a sugarbottom ride.

i have turned brent and sharon's house into my personal bike cabinet. i'm keeping the mtn bike in the garage, as it's dirty, but the single and roadie are resting in the hall. my bike clothes have taken over the kitchen counter, and tomorrow i plan to re-space the single for to fit andy's wheels, so i can fix it finally. then off to the oval for to have my arse handed to me repeatedly.

the oval tonight was what i call "stupid-fast." a bunch of fast guys showed up and thus made some semi-fast guys ride with us in the not-so-fast-group. it made for a de-moralizing evening. but, jeff and john joined me, and the burlingtoners showed up, so that was all sorts of fun. and to jeff's credit, he hung out with the fast guys, while john and i put for some seriously half-arsed efforts in the slow group. those jokers can sprint. john threw down a foolhardy challenge, and we both took off way too early on the first lap for a 1 point sprint of a snowball race (ascending points for each lap go to the leader), and had our precious point robbed from us by a sneaky fellow with one heck of a sprint right at the finish line. i hung on for about half of the miss-and-out, john hung on for significantly more. i think i may have gotten a couple of points on one of the 4 sprints during the points race, but i may be in error. we'll find out tomorrow. i missed most of jeff's races as i was busy panting for breathe and questioning why i submit myself to such self-inflicted punishment as road racing.

other notable moral victories:
-john and my astonishing last and second to last place finishes on the so-called "vicious" race which sent both fields into and out of the littlest 1/8 mile oval twice and spat us back out onto the big 1/2 mile oval 3 times.
-john and my super-awesome-way-too-late-we-planned-it-that-way sprint at the end of the little gear race. we actually sat up and let 2 guys roll by us for our plan to roll across the finish holding hands. last minute that plan was scrapped when john observed our sketchy bike handling, and i challenged him to a sprint to the finish. we were neck and neck till the end, but i think i pulled ahead by a millimeter or so at the last second. we got a few laughs from those standing around the finish. i guess it's relatively uncommon to see the last 2 riders sprint for the finish during the little gear race. i think that is a shame. what the bike racing world needs are many, many more little gear sprinters.

yeah. good times were had. oval = good practice. a nice chance to learn how to try (albeit unsuccessfully) to hang on to breaks, (again attempt) to catch back on, sprint, sprint, and did i mention sprinting. plus always a fun crowd. although tonight was more serious and thus a bit less fun that last time. but, i'll be back again in 2 weeks. i'm a sucker for punishment.