{Not} Living Vicariously

I'm fine

but my bike is toast. I had a gazillion things I wanted to do on Saturday. However a friend invited me (and my bike) to head up Northwest of Nashville to try a greenway out by Ashland City. We'd heard good things, I needed to ride, company makes it better. I let her talk me into it. I head over to her place that morning, we pull ourselves together, and head off. It takes about 45 minutes to get there and we were just about to turn on to the road where the trailhead is located. We are stopped behind a car turning left, with his turn signal on, and we have our turn signal on. When we hear screeching tires. And feel a bump. Then hear more screeching tires. And feel a second bump. Once that is done . . . the first words out of my mouth were "My bike!" As we were in her car and my bike was behind hers on the bike rack on her trunk.

We get out of the car, and go to look at the damage. The pickup that hit us is already on the phone reporting the accident to the police and the pickup who hit him is checking out damage as well. To the casual eye, my bike doesn't look so bad. The other bike appears to be in much worse shape and the trunk of the car has some damage. Once the police arrive, we are interviewed, the report is written, and we are told to go enjoy our bike ride. The police didn't realize the bikes were not rideable at that point. They did add that into the police report. We head the 1/4 of a mile to the parking lot at the trail head and report to the insurance company what has occured. Then we drive back to Nashville to get an estimate on the damage to the bikes (and the bike rack). That is when we discover that my frame is bent and it would cost more to fix than to buy a new bike.

We had a lovely scenic drive out and back . . . The bikes took the brunt of the damage keeping the car (and us) from feeling more of the jolt . . . I'm getting a new bike out of the deal . . . Trying to look on the bright sides here . . .

Just goes to show though that I shouldn't overplan my days.

Let's try a new restaurant he said.

Since my brother is out of the country, and I don't think he reads my blog anyway, I'm going to tell a story on him. I moved to TN in Feb. of 02. In June of 02 my father and brother drove the rest of my stuff out to me, enjoying a road trip out on 40 and back on 10. Since I wasn't along for the trip . . . I won't have all the details correct, but the (extremely short) story below makes for a good family joke.

They were probably about Texas by this point, and spent the night in a hotel. The next morning they got up and were considering their breakfast options. There was an IHOP, a Waffle House, and some other breakfast type place around, that was also widely available in CA. My father asked my brother where he would like to eat and my brother answered, "Let's try the Waffle House. I haven't been there before and we might not see another." We might not see another.

Well, since there are more Waffle Houses than I care to count within 3 miles of my house, this statement cracks us up. My poor brother was teased by my father the rest of the trip to my place . . . every time they passed a sign for one on 40, it was something along the lines of "Should we stop and eat there? After all we might not see another." And still to this day, I'll pull that out occasionally while around the family. "Hey, let's eat at the Waffle House. After all, we might not see another."

I'm not sure why we are quite so fascinated by the Waffle House phenomenon. But for some reason we are. Like I said earlier, I almost never actually eat there. But I love to talk about it. Must be the drama and the show.

I got good news, that might be dangerous.

One restaurant that I really miss, no longer living on the West Coast, would be California Pizza Kitchen or as I normally call it, CPK. There used to be one in Chattanooga, yes I’ve road tripped there to have lunch and dinner before driving back to Nashville. That one closed. There is still one in Louisville, KY and we’ve driven up there for lunch as well. There is also one in Birmingham, AL which I’ve considered visiting and of course, I can always drive the 4+ hours to Atlanta, GE if the craving gets too bad. However, I don’t understand why Nashville isn’t considered prime CPK territory. After all, they have one in Indonesia.

There was a time a few years back that rumors flew about saying one was coming to Green Hills. All my friends were very excited for me, kept talking about how wonderful it was and that we’d eat there every day for a week. Then the new restaurant was unveiled and it was a Cheesecake Factory. And I was not so excited. I’m not a huge fan of their really long waits, expensive prices, and oversized portions. So I went back to planning a road trip once a year to indulge my cravings. (My favorite would be the Tostada Pizza, no chicken, extra salsa on the side, thank you very much!)

However, I got a phone call last night from a friend who was driving through Green Hills and there are actually signs up saying Coming Summer 2007 – California Pizza Kitchen. Since there are actual signs up, not just rumors, a wish might be fulfilled. It isn’t up on their website yet so I’m not holding my breath. But my fingers are crossed. Although the dangerous part might be the weight I can gain if I indulge there too frequently. Great food, not exactly what I call good for you. I can have will power, right?

Drama at the Waffle House

I had company in from California a few weekends ago. One place we had to eat, for the pure Southerness of it all, was Waffle House.

I only eat there about twice a year, but I have fond memories of my first breakfast there back in 2002. I had flown out for my job interview and good friend M. Bryant told me that I had to visit for the pecan waffle. One of the last places you could still get one. So I took myself over there one day (not difficult to find one, they are in as many places here as Starbucks are in Los Angeles) and ordered my breakfast. While there, and enjoying the show, the server found out I was from California and asked “Now, sweetie, I heard you can’t smoke in the bars out there. What are you supposed to do?” In dead seriousness, I answered that since I don’t smoke it doesn’t cause me any problems. But that I’ve seen people standing in the door of a bar with the hand holding a cigarette outside and the hand holding a drink inside. As you can’t drink outside and you can’t smoke inside. And that was my introduction to Waffle House.

Now this past visit was a very crowded morning as it was rainy outside and everyone seemed to be craving some Pecan Waffles. We waited our turn and sat at the counter. It was a bit of a mess, but then our server came by apologizing and clearing up. She said, in a not so subtle voice, that there was one server who wasn’t pulling her wait and it was causing everyone problems. We said it didn’t matter and sat back to watch the show. And what a show it was. As there was a server who was slower than turtles crossing. Not only did she have to write up six tickets for one table, when it came time to call the order in she paid no attention to what was going on. One server was already calling, and the other was waiting her turn. But she just started asking questions and calling out her orders. Oops. They also have two coffee pots and she used up the last of one without bothering to start a new pot brewing. Didn’t bother hitting the start switch on the washing of the glasses. Couldn’t be bothered to help at the cash register. You get the picture. So the other two servers are making fun of her and the cooks are egging them on. Not nice, but very funny.

And it gets better. This guy walks in. He’s sitting there waiting when our server notices him. Starts a conversation that unfortunately we could not hear all of as I’ll bet it was a good one. In the middle Server goes and gets her car keys, brings them out to Boy. Then another dramatic interlude and Server goes and gets her credit card, but Boy has already left the building. So she storms out of the building after Boy. Not quite sure how that all ended, but Server did come back inside and finish serving her customers. By the time we walked out, it was hard to contain our laughter. And I still get the giggles sometimes just thinking about it all.

Weather Woes

So I meant to post this earlier, and forgot. Oops.

I'm sure some of you actually wondered about my temporary craziness and if I returned to sanity or not. Some emailed and asked if I did complete my ride on Saturday. A few emailed and asked if the ride was cancelled due to the fact that weather in Tennessee became a bit "rough" this weekend. They don't cancel rides. However, after much agony and debate (we couldn't even decide if D should bring her bike out or not, but ended up deciding might as well), and obsessive checking of three weather websites and watching of the weather channel on tv, we decided about Oh Dark Thirty of the AM that due to the torrential downpour, winds of miles of I don't know what but my trees are bending over, and lightning/thunder that woke me up at least four times in the night . . . that maybe we didn't really need to prove that we could complete a ride today. So we cancelled on them.

Instead we went back to sleep, got up several hours later, and decided to sight see. After I took the dog for a short walk between raindrops and D got ready to go, we headed out. Skies were not cloudy and weather was not bad. We started to get upset. Had we just been wimps?!?!? Luckily, as we got closer to Lynchburg (we'd decided to do the Jack Daniels Distillery tour) it got greyer and greyer. By the time D started to recognize areas we'd have been riding through, the rains were coming down again. Sometimes so hard it was difficult to see. So we were once again glad that we had opted to Not Ride. Unluckily, I had forgotten that the JDD tour was a walking tour from area to area and yes it rained through the entire tour. Stopping as we reached the end. But at least we weren't trying to ride through the stuff.

So, as it now stands, I've trained for a ride I didn't do and am looking for a new ride to see how I did training (I will continue to train). There are several coming up in the greater Nashville area so I'm not worried about finding one. I'm just wondering if the weather will cooperate . . .

PS - for anyone who is curious, the weather was absolutely beautiful once D left. Sun shining, temperature in the 70s, and no wind. She didn't get to see the nice bits about living here. She'll just have to come visit again.

Dragon Dreams

Hi, I'm Tracy and I love dragons. I own a huge collection of books, for various ages, about dragons: fiction, fantasy, science fiction, picture books, folklore, etc. Several people, knowing my feelings for dragons, recommended Naomi Novik's His Majesty's Dragon (being lazy, not linking, go look it up if you are interested). Lisa, you were the first, but not the last.

However, reading the blurb about the book told me it was an alternate history fantasy and if I am not a fan of something it would be alternate history. I leave the love of that to my Uncle Terry. I claim that I don't know enough of our real history (can I blame Mr. Ikeda for that? no? why not? actually he was one of my two favorite teachers in high school, better not blame him!) to understand and enjoy alternate history novels.

However, a local friend, thanks W, handed me the book and another friend, thanks M, told me about a book club at an almost local library that would be focusing on HMD for April. So I decided to give it a try. Wow. I devored the book. It was so so so enjoyable. I have to read the sequels now (trilogy). . . and then wait impatiently for what appears to be book 4 in the trilogy (tee hee that always makes me laugh!).

So now I thank all the friends who kept recommending this one to me. I should listen to you more often! Oh, and Uncle Terry, if you haven't read this one, move it up in your stack!

Smarter than your honor student

Okay, maybe my dog is not smarter than your honor student, but she is definitely an intelligent dog as far as treats and toys go. Reading up on the basenji breed, I knew in advance that she would be a puzzle solver. However, I wasn’t experienced with dogs that like to play with toys so I wasn’t truly prepared for what to expect. We started out with a classic Kong. She quickly figured out how to remove any food items from there. She has also managed to chew off part of the first one and I had to move up to the Extreme Kong “for tenacious chewers”. I then found the Hide-a-Squirrel from Kyjen and she has loved that toy so much that I bought the extra squirrels. We now have 6 squirrels to play with. Also from Kyjen we purchased the IQube and I’m considering the IntelliBone. She enjoys the cube, but the balls were not as sturdy as the squirrels. I had to “make” more for it. I’m concerned the plush rings for the bone will also prove not as sturdy. So this past Christmas, I tried for something that was advertised as taking hours for dogs to solve. I bought two, one for Lindy and one for her cousin Shiloh. The Triple Crown Everlasting Treat Ball. You’ve probably already guessed it. It took Lindy about 30 minutes to figure out how to remove the treat and eat it. When I filled both sides of the ball, which is supposed to make it even more challenging, well, not for her. Again, about 30 minutes later she was enjoying the treat. I need more complicated (and sturdy! she is a definite power chewer) toys for this girl. Any suggestions?

O Happy Day

So today we celebrate. We celebrate the fact that Lindy Basenji (or Lindy Hop or Lindy Girl or Senorita Lindita or any of a million other names I call her) has lived with me for three whole years. She is a wonderful dog. Very independent and strong-willed. But also very loving and fun to have around. She isn't who I was looking for when I went to the adoption place that day. But she is the one who stole my heart with one look at those beautiful eyes. She has had a tough life in the past, has some issues with most other dogs, but who can blame her? According to the vet, she has scarring from being attacked by another dog. I'd have issues as well. She also can be scared of men, but once she knows you, she loves you with every ounce of her body. She is not the most cuddly of creatures, unless she is trying to convince you that she deserves something more, but when she is in the mood to play she acts just like a puppy. I went a long time between dogs. After Callie died I needed time to grieve. And Lindy just shows me each and every day that she was well worth the wait! So today we celebrate!

Temporarily Crazy

I am not a spontaneous person. I do very few things without thinking them through. But I have a friend, Deb, who can talk me into doing things that I have no interest in doing. I always have fun doing them, which is probably why it is so easy for her to talk me into new things. But sometimes I sit back, shake my head, and think “how did she talk me into this one?!?!?!?” Right now, that is where I’m at. Just over four weeks ago, she suggested I join her in an organized bike ride down in Winchester Tennessee. The Dogwood 100. She has been doing organized rides for a while now, but my bike hadn’t been touched in over three years and had two flat tires. Nevertheless, since she was willing to fly out and visit me, I decided to give it a try. Now I knew I was not going to even attempt the 100 miles over a hilly course. There were several other options though, and she talked me into training for the 60. So, I went in to work, spoke with a serious bike rider, and figured out where to start. I started by dropping my bike off for a much needed tune-up. And promptly got so sick I would have had to die to feel better.

After I decided to rejoin the living, I got my bike back and started riding. It was fun. I had forgotten how much fun it can be to ride. Especially with some additional props, like a pair of padded bike shorts and a camelpak for hydration, both on loan from the bike riding co-worker friend. I’ve now spent the last three weeks riding as much as I can, without dropping my other responsibilities. I still think I’m crazy, but at least I’m having fun. However, I reserve the right to change my mind the day of the ride and not do the 60, but one of the shorter courses. It will all depend on A. just how hilly this hilly ride is and B. how hot it is that day. On a cool day with a flat terrain, I think I could actually do it and not hate myself the next day. But this is Tennessee in April, I have less than two weeks left to train, and I’m nowhere near my goal.

So . . . talk to me on the 15^th. See if I’m still able to move. And I’ll let you know how much crazy fun I had.