Fifth Circle and His Infinite Wisdom

I threw a surprise birthday party for my Dad this weekend. It went off without a hitch and everyone had a great time. It started last year when I realized that I was turning 30 and my Dad was turning 60, just 3 weeks later. So I started talking with my Sister, Aunt and Uncle about doing this. My Aunt and Uncle began the process of getting names and address for people all the way back to High School that know my Dad. I sent out about 60 invitations, and some couldn’t make it for one reason or another and sent me cards to give my father.

Everyone gathered at a bar and grill at 6pm. My Sister, her family and my Stepmother got my Dad to the location just past 6:30. He walked in and looked at me. Then he looked past me. Then he recognized some faces and everyone started yelling and cheering. He turned red and just started laughing. From then on, it was just a nice time with everyone talking and catching up. Some of these people started off their careers together (teaching) about 35-40yrs ago!

If you are ever thinking of doing this for anyone, just do it. Make it simple and invite everyone to a place like I did and get enough appetizer food to keep them entertained. I spent a grand total of ~$400 on the entire deal, and that included a big sheet cake, invitations and food. I guarantee he will always remember his 60th Birthday!

If you don’t have one, you wouldn’t really understand. It’s kinda like the “Jeep Thing” but in the world of today, (SUV’s are like assholes, everbody’s got one) that doesn’t even make sense unless you actually off-road in your jeep. The reason I like motorcycling so much is hard to explain. If you have ridden an ATV, it might make sense. Riding a motorcycle feels like being part of the road. You don’t just turn a corner, you lean and ride through it. You don’t plod along with the cruise control set, you adjust your throttle constantly with your right hand to keep speed. If you need to stop, you don’t just push on the brake, you have to cut the throttle and squeeze the brake with your right hand, pull in the clutch with your left hand, down shift with your left foot and finally moderate the rear brake with your right foot. Sounds complicated, but with a little practice it becomes second nature. The best part is feeling the road and nature around you. The only air conditioning is the sweat evaporating in the wind as you ride. In the evening, you will feel the temperature changes from hilltop to valley, and if you have to pee you will dred the valley’s. Smells are a x10 and -10. By this I mean that when you drive past anything from a dead skunk to a feedlot to a field of fresh cut hay, the smell hits you 10 times as hard and fast as in a car, but it also leaves ten times as fast. You smell the little things like a row of pine trees. One of my favorites is in the spring, when you can smell the fresh plowed fields. Nothing better than the smell of dirt.

Now this all seems a little wierd to those that don’t ride, or maybe just started. If you get the chance, take a ride on the back of someone’s bike on a nice warm spring day. Or maybe plan a trip with a friend that is willing to take you along. For this reason, I would someday like to have a sidecar rig. I know there are plenty of friends that would love to go, but the whole “butt to nut” thing really is kinda wierd once you get past High School.

Riding a road can make the most undesirable drive a wonderful ride. I don’t know many people that like to drive accross Nebraska, but I do know quite a few that like the ride. I’m not talking about I-80 either. If you get off the interstate and take some roads like scenic Hwy 2 up through the Sandhills, it can be epic.

I will shut up now and just leave you with a couple pics:

This is NOT a New Year’s Resolution!!

A couple months ago I started thinking about working out, cycling, going to the gym and swimming.  Not really sure what sparked it.  So I went to the gym for the first time in almost a year.  I swam for a while, then did a little light weight lifting.  Lifting weights bores the holy hell outta me!!  I understand that some folks like it, but really, it does me no good at this point.  You see, at 6ft tall and weighing in at ~240lbs, I am definitely in the Clydesdale category. (that’s 6′ or over and/or 200lbs or over in the cycling/triathlon community) I do not need more muscle, I need less fat.

I need cardio.

I need cycling.

I need swimming.

I need to run!

Well, if you mix it up a bit at the gym, you end up doing basically three things for cardio fat burning, sweat in your eyes and water up your nose workouts.

Swim - Bike - Run

This is a Triathlon.  First you swim across a lake, then you jump on your bike and pedal your butt off, finally to run a little and cross a place marked “Finish”.  Sounds like fun to me….

So I started looking around the superduperinterwebby and found a bunch of local triathlons that take place in the summer.  Some are fairly short, consisting of a 500 meter swim, 10mile bike, 5k run (3miles).  “I could do that” I thought to myself.  So I have set the goal of doing at least one triathlon this summer.  The first available is April something in North Platte, NE.  It’s earlier than the rest because the swim is indoors at a rec center pool.  Lake swimming in April would be juuuuust a bit cold here!

I have been going to the gym regularly over the last 10 weeks and am starting to see some improvement.  I can swim good, but really need to start working on my technique. The distance is easy, and once in the groove, I could swim for an hour without stopping.  It’s not fast, and I can’t do flip-turns for crap, but I can swim.

Cycling is the easy one for me.  Not that I am super fast, but a 10 mile ride on the flat will be a piece of cake compared to the run.  So I have not been into “24cycle” (spin class) yet, and may end up going soon.  Either that or I will buy a trainer for my bike and plop it in front of the TV and watch movies while riding.

Running is where I need the most work.  I know it’s just do it more and more and I will get good, but it isn’t easy.  I have never liked running much at all.  I ran track in 7th grade and sucked at it.  I played football, basketball and tennis in High School, but that running was always warm-up or sprinting.  Flat out running to run is boring and hard on me.  I wanted to start this off right, so I went and got a nice pair of running shoes.  I was fitted and tried on several pair.  This helped a ton.  No pain in the knees and no shin splints.  I couldn’t believe it.  So after a few weeks, I am now running (with some walking) for 4 miles at a time on the treadmill.  I even just did the elliptical in the basement for an hour.

So who wants to do a Tri with me?

-5th

So, it’s the first post of my second blog, in the eighth year, of the new millennium.

What to talk about…..

I have several hobbies.

Only a few goals.

Many interests.

A hangover.

My ears are ringing.

I am hungry.

So there I was, in the balcony at the Sokol Auditorium last night at the Nashville Pussy / Reverend Horton Heat concert. This was my second time seeing “The Rev.”, and the first time I had seen Nashville Pussy. Let’s just say, it was maybe the best concert I have been to!

…..I’m back. I know you didn’t notice, but I went and made myself some eggs and toast for breakfast. This makes me think I need to work from home. I could deal with that.

So back to the concert.

Lets start off with Nashville Pussy. This is a unique band. They are some sort of southern punk country rock. It’s really fun to hear live, and I will be picking up their stuff asap. The lead singer looks like an overweight balding trucker. The guitar players are both chicks, the bassist is a tall punk rock type and the lead guitarist is a little shorter with LOTS of curly blond hair. They both make the show even better than I could have imagined. I couldn’t really see the drummer, and it’s a guy so who cares anyway! They really got the crowd pumped up for Horton, and I would have paid $20 to see their show alone. I will be keeping an eye out for them to come back!

Next up was the infamous REVEREND HORTON HEAT! Most youngsters know his song Psychobilly Freakout from Guitar Hero II. Yes, that’s a good one, but far from his best. If you like that song, I would suggest picking up a greatest hits CD of theirs and giving it a good listen. To me, I just can’t think of a better combination of “surf guitar”, stand-up bass, and one helluva drummer. Jim Heath, lead singer and master of the 6 string, is much older than any fans that I saw there last night. It amazes me that he can go out night after night and play, sing, repeat, for all the tour dates that they have. I saw them here last fall, and they have been on the road with an average of 3 shows/week since then with no end in sight. Jimbo Wallace, playing the flamed out stand-up bass guitar, is somewhat captivating. Most of the time, he is making as much eye contact with the crowd as possible. When he looks over at The Reverend, they grin and do something fun. He will set the bass down and stand on top of it and act like he’s surfing (during the song “I can’t surf”). He and The Rev. will get next to each other and half switch instruments. What I mean is, one will be strumming their own guitar, while the other hit’s the cords on the opposite guys. It’s fun and really gets everyone going nuts. One guy that seems to be underrated ( at least I hadn’t heard much about him) is the drummer. Paul Simmons is simply THE MAN! I was watching him and even during the “normal” songs, he was out-preforming most drummers that I have seen. They played a few songs in a set they called “The History of Music”. A couple covers that were really fun, one of them being a Black Sabbath tune. Drums a blazin’, Paul ripped that song and during the encore (I think…I was a 6pck deep by then) the drum solo was superb.

I’ll quit now, but if you get a chance to check out either of these bands, don’t miss it!

http://www.myspace.com/reverendhortonheat

http://www.myspace.com/nashvillepussy

I have some video on my crappy camera phone, I will try to get that posted…..if I can figure it out.

-5th