My fan club took some pictures

Rolling off the express lanes toward the end of the bike ride a week ago. Caught on my bike in spandex. Some things just should not be allowed.
Finishing a few seconds behind a woman half my age. Every finisher receives a medal. No chocolate.
When she sees water, she goes in it, no matter how small the pool.
We ran around this artistic landscape.The cones mark the run course, out on the right and back on the left. This is a fun place to play.
As another more famous cyclist said recently, no matter how creaky and old I feel when I get out of bed or walk up and down stairs, I still feel great when I ride. I may not ride as fast as he does, or have such a fancy bike, but riding is still fun.

Something to celebrate

There may be lots of things wrong with the world, but we still find reasons to eat cake and ice cream. This week, the reason was commemoration of my son's completion of his eleventh year.

I let him bake the cake and design the decorations. I handled putting things in the oven, taking them out and spreading white icing. If she sits here long enough, looking pathetic, will she get some cake? It sure smells good, but all she finds in her dish is dog food. Of course those squirrels over there are sort of interesting too.
Lighting the world on fire, one cake at a time.
Going, going . . .
Gone!

Watch the guy on the yellow bike

The local 13 and under set had some bike races today. I am sure this is exactly how Lance got his start. They clustered the kids by age, and somehow the boys in my son's group were joined with the ones a year older, making for a large peloton of riders who have never raced before. Note the really cool surfboards on the cycling jersey.
They all engaged in some calisthenics to prepare for the ride. I am positive this is what the boys do before they hop on their velocipedes in France.Here is where one might expect pictures of the boy racing along the course, but there was this incident on the first lap. He and another rider took a corner too close to each other, and my boy went down. I rushed over with bandaids and a cup of water (which I was waiting to hand him after the second lap, per his instructions) and administered first aid. He remounted his bike with a lap deficit in a four lap race. I never did get the camera back out to capture the much bandaged child. In the remaining three laps, he managed to pass one other rider. There is another race next week. We will see what he can do if he stays on the yellow bike for the whole race. Of course his cross country running season is starting next weekend as well. I hope the cycling injuries do not interfere with the running abilities.

Whatever floats your boat

My boy and I went for a paddle down the Little S river today. We were with a group sponsored by the city parks and recreation department, even though we do not live in the city and the river does not flow through the city. Here is a nice smile from someone ready to paddle as we get going down the river.
It was a beautiful sunny day, the air was warm with a light breeze. Swimming is not allowed, but at near freezing temperatures, even I was not tempted to jump in.
Mrs. Moose was happy to entertain the passers by.
Somewhere down the river, paddling was too boring, too tired, or too something. Mom paddled the whole way, even though boy gave out after a while.

Finishing shot