El Sombrero de Queso Pequeno Rivera

We found a kitten.

He was outside making a nuisance of himself, like desperate cats will do. Dogs won’t. Quite a smart thing. If he was scooped or inched in willingly, i could not tell the difference. He was happy and eating within moments. Odds are against him at our house, but better than they were.

This title could never be his name. Kitten names must be morsels. but if I start mucho grande i might negotiate down to Eduardo. Or Jesus. Or Arpaio. So many difficult choices. Like how to explain to Genevieve her role in our smuggling cartel.

Me: You’re going to have your dvd player on, really loud, with ‘Bolt’ or ‘Tom & Jerry’.
G: What did you say about the bag?
Me: Don’t think about the bag. Think about your dvd, and laughing really loud. But not too loud.
G: he won’t like it in the bag

G is fatal to a conspiracy, but we had grand fun scheming about it for 3 whole days. That we pulled it off is a tragic indictment of the Customs Bureau and Border Patrol.   If they can’t stop a kitten and kindergartner giggling babbling ‘there’s nothing in the bag, bro‘, we are destined for nuclear winter or zombie apocalypse. I’ve got back fat for the former, cardio for the latter.

Beckie says I’m a pessimist, but I prefer to consider myself wary and prepared. I had to work all weekend steering an e-commerce train wreck of myopia and acquiescence just long enough to not get fired. Surprisingly, being filled with charity and simple warmth and fuzziness, it was one of our best trips evah!

Alana woke up and said ‘Cybro’s home!‘   It was so sweet in a pet cemetery way.

we still luv you Kila

kite taking Alana for a walk

6 times i parked outside the sports bar and covered my TPS report. All my riding was to the stoop outside the bar, with my laptop. A pic would have made a nice capture — me sitting in the dirt ganking signal on the day i decided i’m quitting PayPal, but this was much less wallowish:

G spent her time constructively. handwriting has gone to shit in a month, but summer adventures help her discover writing.

smugglers

Yakima Windfall

I can put 6 bikes in my big-ass truck!!!!!   Or 2 adult bikes, 2 kids bikes, a kayak, and a bed full of THINGS.

I have had one of these.

Its paid for itself and the hitch it rode in on many times over, freeing mileage from the truck, drag from roof rack, or a deteriorated trunk. Ray and I drove to Rancho in faux-leather and dual climate-controlled comfort and $50 savings 2 weeks ago. Its probably saved on the photo radar tickets too.

One of the wheel trays cracked, and its fixed to the bike carrier. The good people at Yakima have a lifetime guarantee, and would send me a $100 part to replace my $10 essential plastic part.

They sent me this, i guess cuz it was sitting in the warehouse. Damn nice of them too.

So now if I buy a $30 2”-1.25” reducer, and for $100 buy this:

and find a wrench, and some duct tape, I can have a 4-bike carrier off the truck 3 days a year. Shit, son, that’s $100 saved per day, and karma stirred with elegant efficiency. I can only smile. I might have to start shuttling Mt. Elden, just because me and my 5 friends can.

Favorite Thing

a simple title for a simple truth. I told G today that riding them home from school is pretty much my favorite thing to do in the whole world. And that is pretty much true.

2 hours sailed by. We were richer by 6 golf balls. We play a golf ball hunting game of hot-and-cold, rolling down hills, examining birds nests and anthills. My kids are accomplished wilderness poopers and ball-washers. We 3 lose ourselves in the ride.

and there was this great ThNR the night before. I carried a $13 beer 25 miles. Its fine opening act along the Rio Salado and canal and greenbelt in summer.

shred on, tinyNightRidert! i like Alana’s commentary.

pleasant conversation

cyclist-equestrian peace summit at Westworld

Refresher

i have not written about kids’ awesome days in a while. They take so much work, i’m behind at work, and i don’t have time to write about kids’ awesome days.

Genevieve rocks soccer and doesn’t throw a fit, Alana rides hills! Everyone enjoys ice cream and the dog is furminated! #kids#monsters#fml

if only life was tweeted, time-management would be so much easier.

We were recently at the pool, me still so amped about work bullshit it’d be better i’m not there at all. I’m stressing about no signal, hurting their feelings, parading my resentment at their fun, ruining childhood. I’m on the trainer now, no surprise. I’m working, no surprise. Its not enough i facilitated from 4 to 11:27pm. If I don’t remember special moments, eventually they didn’t happen. all that is left is the sludge and detritus of the next under-scheduled flashflood, bowling balls falling from the sky. Finding myself in the crack between work stress and life stress, i remember the reason for the moment. If i can dig it out like a splinter in my fingernail, it sustains me through the next deluge. Its worth the time taken tenfold…

Genevieve’s first soccer practice with a league coach. $15 a session, but dayum those guys coach well. I never saw kids run so hard and so happily for 90 min. I took Alana to the playground where she climbed and explored with independence rarely seen. She demanded attention too. I scoped the practice from afar, getting a tingle to run with the tight pace while G streaked in and out of view.

I think my coaching pushed G’s buttons the wrong way. It wouldn’t be the first time i brought a woman to tantrums, where ‘sorry‘ is simply too late. But dayum those guys coach well. I have a talent for making the simple complex.

G dominated. Watching her 1-on-1 is like episodes of Spartacus. mebbe a slight eggsagerration, but its the same high as enjoying a righteous ass-whooping in bloody 3d.   Eventually other kids will catch her fitness and aggression.   Having the best kid on the field right now is bliss. The coach was asking all about her. It made me tickle.   She was engaged without noticing to run stronger than ever before, and she rose up. G’s lack of skill and balance were exposed immediately, but the practice was game-like enough she found her strengths enough to feel good about herself. G is all about positive reinforcement.

We talked about thirst, and hunger, and stopping to refresh in the AZ inferno. How feeling tired halfway through practice is normal, how tuning into yourself is essential, how getting the most out of yourself is reverential. How fitness and thin are not the same. Complex topics for a tinyAthlete, but simple enough.

We got home, ate, recharged. We got Kila out, and Alana pedaling. She is getting antsy watching from the back of the pack, opts out of her seatbelt in the Chariot, but is still shy of pack-paced adventures. A trip to the Eagle fired Alana up. G didn’t need gear or notice, she cooled down to lazy circles & pleasant conversation. She gave Alana someone to chase, out of joy and jealousy.   Alana charged 1 degree up, Alana shredded 1 degree down. She is hard to coach, but sometimes all that makes her high maintenance makes her so easy, the fixativeness fixating on the reason for the moment. Sometimes I think G got the best of me, and Alana the worst of me. I have a talent for making the simple complex.

A few boosts aside Alana rode up up up to the front door of Bashas where she understood positively reinforced ice cream. I do not remember G riding anything at that pitch at that age. G rode to the Pink Park, a long gradual descent, and a climb that understandably broke her, but no slope that grabbed her butt or lifted her stomach even for an instant. Alana stood up on the cranks of her 12 inch pink princess bike. I’ve never seen her do that. She completely controlled the roll down. She wrecked on the flats in front of our home, when she didn’t listen to my instructions. She said she understood her mistake. G explained to heed the tutelage of Chollaball. Alana said she understood her mistake. It took her 1 ride to finally understand braking, we’ll see how long to understand curbs.

3 hrs later I’m still spinning and working, and enjoying my comfy full belly from good coffee and Bagel Day. Software is fun, and addicting. And so is money. They are still addictions.

I found a horizontal move at work that would have saved me 10 hrs a week.   My dooshbag egomaniacal Indian manager torpedoed my move. I called HR, I may get   shot out the back of the company. Work can be better than aimless wandering and disingenuity, if i find the cracks between work stress and life stress.   The bureaucracy of workaholics and climbers and feigned smiles I can tolerate when my workload abides and there is Bagel Day. Software is fun, i show up in big games, i aint worried.   Check out the new turbo checkout on ebay when you Buy It Now.

I may move on. I may stay. I will make a point of not thinking about work when I’m not at work, which will make it seem like I am working less. There is noise between my paycheck and my kids, and i will find a way to detach it.