Saturday, August 2, 2008

A Bicycle Built for Three and a Party

I finally got the Burley Paso Doble freshened up enough to ride. I put brand new tires on it last fall but we never got out to ride it. Since my shoulder surgery in February, I didn't feel confident wrestling with the bike until recently. It really is like driving a semi with no power steering, and a weak shoulder is a real detriment. So, after installing the attachment for Katie's Chariot (for real--that's what her trailer is called) to the rear axle of the tandem, we set out for our first cycling triple threat.

Katie loves cycling (whew! my prayers were answered), so we set her up with her Camelbak (see my previous post with video footage) and some teething rings (3 down, only 17 to go! at least as far as baby teeth are concerned) and set off down the road. Soulmate looked back after a few minutes, and sure enough, Katie was fast asleep, head bobbing side to side with every bump.

We should have turned back after 30 minutes, but she looked so comfortable (if that's possible while sleeping in a semi-seated position with no neck support to speak of) that we pressed on to certain tragedy. Or at least that's what Katie wanted it to sound like when she woke up suddenly after an hour and a half and started crying inconsolably. We still had 30 minutes to go before we got home, so I decided to change my plans.

I had planned to ride leisurely with the family, which I had done up to this point in the ride, then I was going to go back out on my road bike and do 2 short time trial intervals as part of my training for my first (and last) race of the season, a time trial in early September. I finally got the OK from Bones, my orthopod, to race, and I thought I'd ease in with a time trial, which doesn't require riding in the peloton where crashes happen most often.

Back to the tragedy at hand: with Katie in full-throated cry in the Chariot, I worried that the County Child Protection Services people would follow us home and bust us, so I decided to combine my two 5-minute TT intervals into one long one, and get us home ASAP so I didn't lose my hearing and Katie didn't lose her voice. I got in a very good quality 10 minute interval well above my lactate threshold due to the very high motivation I had to finish the ride. Katie and my legs both survived the ordeal, and to celebrate, we attended the first birthday party of Yasmin, the daughter of one of my partners at the clinic.

As an aside, Yasmin's daddy is several years older than me, though her mommy is somewhat younger than Soulmate. As our daughters grow up together, they'll be able to trade stories about how senile their old man is getting. Neither one of us can retire, since the girls will still be in high school when we reach age 65. For all of you at my office who are already sick of me, good luck--you'll be seeing me around for a long, long time.

Anyway, the party was at Lake George's new community center and splash pad, so it was really fun. Katie loves having other kids around, and she really loves Yasmin. They were kissing and hugging each other like they've been girlfriends forever. Here are a couple of photos, more to come:

The "Hello Kitty" party hat is the first head covering of any kind that Katie has allowed on her head for more than 5 seconds. She left it on for the entire party, and looked disappointed when we took it off her head at home. I'm a little worried, because Hello Kitty is not one of my personal favorites as far as designer labels are concerned. I'm absolutely certain that Soulmate doesn't own a single item in that line. Oh well, we didn't have anything in purple or pink for 25 years, and those are the only colors Katie has in her extensive wardrobe. Change is good...

2 comments:

Jonathan said...

She's looking great, and so are those two parents of hers!

BTW, you'll find a lot of children "designer labels" like "Hello Kitty" (a favorite of your 8yr old niece here), Dora the Explorer, (all the princesses (ie, Cinderella, Ariel, etc)) And yep, mostly pink, purple, light green and the like will flow in the wardrobe.

Just wait until you get to the makeover stages, including manicure and pedicures....especially if they take place in your kitchen!!!! (Yep, just experienced that, including green gunk on the face that "clears the pores") LOL

Doc said...

Sports massage for daddy--yes. Mani or pedi--no.
Green gunk on the face?--what were you thinking????