There's an old country song...

Willie has done it and others, "Ain't it fnny how time slips away". When I started this Blog I was really going to be hot and heavy ....which to me means I was going to post once a week - HA! Then life happened...
Work has become almost entirely all encompassing...which is good that I have a job and I still like it most days, but I would like a personal life. I work for IBM and the project (like most in IBM anymore) has people in Hiafa Isreal, Bangalore India (we call it bang-a-whore, but that's another story), there is a group in China, and shore to shore in USA. I am in the Central Time zone, which I guess is really not that back, except I am NOT a morning person and meetings start around 7:30/8:00 AM ...my usual wake up time - My eyes still can't focus, but that is only because I stayed up late the day before working on code and debugging problems and writting up problems and blah blah blah...just got boring. I think I even forgot my point :-)
but anyway it just hasn't left anytime for the things I like to do. Like going to Hippie Hollow, although I have a friend and he and I have played hookie one Friday a month to go swimming and have some fun later (wink wink)....
I also play bass with a group at church, if it weren't for mandatory Tuesday rehersal's for only 1 hr. I would get NO time to practice the music before Mass. I use to practice one or two time more before Sunday, just so I'd be comfortable with the music. I haven't played bass in 30 years - since I was a teenager playing with a group. Since that time, I mainly played guitar and it really is different. I forgot how different, when I was young it was no big deal switching from one to the other and singing at the same time. Now I feel challenged to walk and chew gum at the same time. It's coming back, although slowly...but I like it and I think I am getting better - don't know how everyone else feels ...hummm
And finally, Riding my bike, but I do think I have resolved that one....after the morning mtgs on Wed and Fri....I am usually just a little frustrated as to why I really have to attend all these stupid meeting just in case there is 'one' question that might come my way AND why I had to wake up earlier than normal so I could focus on the computer screen...I was really having a problem this morning, with allergies and all. But I rode my bike in from Round Rock to Austin - about a 10+ mile ride, NOW I am getting exercise which my pants have been telling me I drastically need to attend to and the stress relief is really the bonus....when I get to work (after a pleasing shower at work) I am ready and renewed to face the frustrations of working with computers that don't want to cooperate with you...like NO ONE can understand that - lol!
I had been taking long rides on Saturdays since my Tennis partner has kinda pooped out, he is traveling more again and everything is busy for him too...and it has gotten warmer and he is not in the best of shape.
I actually rode my bike to a friends house on 51st in Austin, not a bad ride. I had scouted out the route in the car a few weeks earlier and it seemed like a piece of cake, but on the bike I thought I was climbing the Alps ala Lance... mere speed bumps to him- haha . anyway I made it there, had a 'fun' shower with him then we went to lunch, visited for awhile, rode home and lived to tell about...no haeart attack, no stroke, and no wipeouts...
Yep, that happened two wks ago, Thruday nite was stormy lots of rains and wind, my bike route goes through a major road construction area for new toll way and the path was covered in mud. I ride a Mtn. Bike and it picked up a ton of mud, I was coming down a slight hill, but still enough to pick up some speed....when I noticed the right hand side where the road Tee's and I make a right hand turn had standing water.... so I move a little left and try to make a sharper than usual turn....I kept my speed cause I saw a car half a block down the road and I knew I had plenty of time ...well plenty of time on a dry road... since I had to make a sharper turn and with the mud and water on the road the bike just slid out from underneath me. I almost stood up, but got a little road rash none the less on my elbow and forwarm (more like a burn than a scrape) and a couple of dings on my knee cap...after the embarrassment of having the car have to stop and go around me I had to decide....i was 1/3 of way to work, do I tuck my tail under and go home and doctor myself up and take the truck in or go on to work and just get a bandaid from the company nurse... being the he-man (ie. idiot) I am, I chose work. Took my shower and cleaned the wounds with soap as best I could - honestly was surprized it wasn't more sore or tender, but 7 miles on the bike probably the injured area was in shock.... I went over to Security to find where the nurses office got moved to, only to find out that IBM does staff a nurse locally - bit by downsizing again...the nurses are only in New York, convenient. But they do have a First Aid kit and they call the security person with medical approval. I should have known I was in trouble when it took 20 mins for them to locate the first aid kit. All I wanted was some anti0biotic ointment and a bandaid. He said he was not approved to dispense medicine, but could give me alcohol wipes and bandaids. Oh yes, that is what I want on a scrape and burn - an alcohol wipe. He said if I was really hurt, then just call EMS. I toughed it out and did wipe around and over ever boo-boo and got my bandaids, but what an experience! I think I will just go to HEB and get my own ointment and bandaids....if I had the truck I would have had first aid stuff, but if I had the truck I would not have been sprawled out on Bratton Road either, geeze.
Oh well, I was a dumb ass for trying to out run the car when the tires were muddy and it was wet on the road...probably would have qualified as a dumbass even if the road was dry and there was no mud.... OK, so I got a little reality check - damn it, I am not invincible!