Praying and processing

There are some posts that I just don't know how to begin. Amy and I had a particularly hard meeting with Shel this morning at church. As hard for him as for us, I'm sure, especially since he's beginning a six week renewal sabbatical this week. I'm sure he'll probably wrestle with what we talked about almost as much as we will. He has been our biggest critic and greatest support over the last two years and I love him for both.

Some of what was addressed today was how I have not been quick to grow into the charismatic style of worship leading that Mercy needs in order to be true to the identity that Mercy had as a church plant. There are times where we see glimpses, but the consistency isn't there yet and I wonder if I'm able to grow into it or not.

Issues of calling and anointing come into play. I've wrestled with my understanding of calling for the last four years and this just continues to prove that I don't have it figured out yet. How much of what is going on is due to my lack of ability and understanding of charismatic expressions of worship and how much is a simple lack of anointing from God for the task? How is it that we've experienced success in the past, but seem to struggle so much now? The last time I felt like a truly anointed leader for an entire Sunday service was possibly the Sunday that we interviewed with Mercy. There have been some good mornings since then, but that one stands out as a full on, completely abandoned act of worship that I don't think we've experienced to that level since.

One of the prescribed courses of action for the season ahead is to have Amy lead from the congregation in the 2nd service instead of from the front. That's a particularly hard thing for us to do for any number of reasons, but something that we will do in the hope that God will teach us through it. One reason that it's hard is that we've always done this together. Amy is not only the love of my life, but a musician that I trust to provide a framework for transitions and color for the sound of the band. Not having that will be a challenge and I can only begin to grasp how the change in roles makes her feel. I know she feels rejected. It's hard to have music be such a large part of your identity and have it taken from you and have it not be personal. At the same time, the first service, which she leads in a traditional style, is growing and she gets a lot of positive feedback about the job she's doing there, but it doesn't make things any easier for her.

While I have experienced a lot of "applied growth" in areas of evangelism that I never had in full time ministry, I am struggling to grow in areas of worship and general theological understanding when I don't have ministry as a full time vocation. I would say that this lack of development is a large contributor to the current situation and I'm at a bit of a loss as to where to begin to address the issue. Conferences, continuing ed, reading, praying...?

Ultimately, we'll seek to continue to be faithful in the roles we are called to at this time and diligently seek after the heart of God to see if I can finally grow into the kind of leader that Mercy needs or if I need to love the church enough to step aside and allow God to work through someone else. We will definitely not make any hasty decisions, but something's gotta give.

Ready for some down time, and some tropical temps

I must admit, I had it easy last month. My schedule at the store made it so that I rarely worked more than three days in a row and really didn't have a lot of extra stuff to worry about. This month, my men's cold weather shop has taken off, I had to do pre-orders for the bikes we'll get in January-May (which historically has been a November thing rather than a week before Christmas thing) and I've had to work a normal schedule. Tomorrow will be my first day off since last Wednesday when I spent three hours at the store working on the bike program.

Fortunately, things fall somwhat in my favor over the next few days with Wednesday/Thursday off (heading to Yankton), work on Friday before heading to Mom and Dad's, and home again Saturday night with Sunday service at Mercy and the rest of the day off. After that, it's back to the normal schedule with the advantage that I will go back to having to work only one Sunday a month. They don't let me do that during the holidays which is not an issue for me.

I've talked to a few people going on trips to warm places over the next few weeks and will have to patiently wait for our trip to Jamaica in March. I won the trip through the store by making my "trip goal" in sales. My bike shop also qualified me for a trip, but I get a bonus in lieu of a second trip which means we'll have enough cash to pick up some t-shirts for the kids and maybe go on a few excursions while we're there.

Jamaica seems like a dream with as cold as it's been. Between fresh snow and blowing snow, I have been outside with the shovel every morning for the last week clearing something and the temps have been anywhere from 14 degrees to -15 with a -49 wind chill factor. It's not been pleasant, but what do you expect in South Dakota. Every day the weather gives me an excuse to day dream about all inclusive, tropical bliss with my baby poolside. Less than three months to go.

Mitchell Christmas

Seems we cannot have a normal Christmas outing. We were just a few miles from Mitchell when Maia started throwing up. Amy pulled over on the interstate and we did the best we could to help her throw up in the trash can and not all over herself, her seat and her clothes. We did the best we could to get her cleaned up, but needed to stop at Kmart to pick her up some new pajamas that she could wear.

We arrived at Casey and Heidi's 15 minutes late, but luckily we didn't have to suffer through any more sickness. We had snacks, gifts and conversation in a too brief evening. It was good to see everybody, but we weren't able to leave until I was done with work and had to get back in time to put the kids down, so we were definitely a bit tight with the schedule. Maia got her first Hannah Montana Barbie from Rylie, Xander got a Bionicle from Chase and we each received the gift of green from Dave and Marie. Thanks to all!

We arrived home safely and Maia seems to be on the mend, so hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for her.

Hoping to be a bit more communicative

I had coffee with Aaron this morning and he mentioned that he hadn't checked out my blog in awhile. I told him that I hadn't posted anything in awhile and that I thought it might be awhile before I actually have much time to do it. I finally decided to look into mobile posting options and should be able to text stuff to my account which might prove to be a better time killer than the video games that I've got on the phone now. I could have written a couple of posts while waiting for the car to be serviced this morning or while waiting to pick up Maia from pre-school.

Now that I have this option, we'll see how much I actually use it.

Trek's belt driven commuter bikes on CNN.com

I came across this story yesterday which talks about a few of Trek's products going "chainless." Instead of having a chain drive the system, it is belt driven which is a lot quieter, easier to maintain and potentially less messy. The bikes are geared toward the commuter crowd and have a pretty high cool factor.

I had a chance to see the District in August at Trek World and it would be my personal "If I could buy one bike this year just for fun" bike. It's got a great look to it and suits my evolving "lifecyclist" approach to bikes quite well. If only I had an extra $850, room in the garage and a valid reason to buy one other than the fact that it's cool.

Choice Day

I had a chance to go to Xander's school and do a "choice day" activity about bikes. Choice Day is an opportunity for kids to sign up for different activities that are led by ACE (All City Elementary) parents. Each activity is open to 2 kids from each class and they have to commit to it a few weeks in advance.

The challenge for me was that my activity involved me brining both of my bikes, Xander's bike (We the People Bold 18"), my work stand, snacks and swag. I was hoping to get in a few minutes before the activity to get set up, but the classroom was still full of kids, so I brought it in and set it in the hall. I think it took me four trips to get everything. Once the kids were released to their activities, I finally had a chance to set up with the kids already there.

I started out with a presentation on issues facing our world like obesity, pollution and access to clean water and talked about how the bike is a simple solution to these complex problems. I took my cue from John Burke (President of Trek Bikes) for this section and added a few things of my own. The hard part was making it applicable to kids from kindergarten to fifth grade.

After that, we talked about how we can have different kinds of fun on different kinds of bikes. We talked about the differences in the three bikes that I brought with (BMX, single speed mountain and road) and how each bike can be ridden. We talked a little about safety and I showed them how to properly size a road/mountain helmet and a BMX helmet. We talked a little about maintenance in regards to tire pressure (how to check and fill) and chain care. The kids were able to get a little hands on with the pressure gauges and bike pumps and asked a lot of good questions.

We then broke for snacks and I handed out swag that had been provided by Trek Bikes (socks, buttons, stickers, pencil bags made of recycled inner tubes) and Scheels (water bottles and MirraCo promo posters). I was fairly happy with how it went and know a few things that I would do different if I were to do it again. I think the fact that we ended with snacks and a lot of free stuff for the kids to take home made it a hit with them.

For more info on bike advocacy and how the bike addresses problems from obesity to global warming, visit Trek's advocacy site www.1world2wheels.org.

Sport Rant Follow Up

After not getting to watch Broncos or Vikings for a few weeks, yesterday brought on the other difficult scenerio of having both on at the same time. I spent the entirety of the early NFL schedule flipping between Atlanta where the Broncos played a close game and won and Tampa (City of, not the Bay because it's hard to play football underwater) where the Vikings played a close game and lost (congrats Tim).

Interestingly enough, the Colts (my third fav) were playing at the same time as these early games which meant I was totally invested in early games but not in the late ones except where division and wild card standings are concerned. I did get to watch the last few plays of the Colts win when CBS cut to the game, but would have loved for one of the three to be televised in the later time slot. Oh well. The Steelers/Chargers matchup was a hard fought, entertaining substitute and I enjoyed watching the Chargers fall to two games behind the Broncos.

First "Winter" Commute

Okay, it's not officially winter for awhile yet, but riding in the snow and wind to work yesterday sure seemed like it. I don't mind winter riding too much because with the right bike, tires and clothing, you can still enjoy it and know that almost everybody else is stuck inside spinning in one place bored out of their minds. Granted, I'll do a fair amount of that myself soon, but would like to continue to commute whenever the schedule allows.

Yesterday when I got up, I was very much on the fence as to whether I would ride or not. Temps were hovering around 30 which is no big deal and it was still fairly wet from the previous night's snow. We got just enough snow to cover things up and give the impression of winter, but I didn't have to scoop the drive which is always a blessing. Again, the right gear and even the wet conditions wouldn't be unthinkable to ride in.

The thing that gave me pause was the wind. Every once in awhile it would gust, howl and whistle in any window or door that gave the slightest hint at not being completely sealed in a way that was reminiscent of storms from the depths of winters past. The prospect of riding directly into such an adversary was not a pleasant one.

I spent most of the morning in a state of limbo where the ride was concerned. I did have a little work to do on the bike installing a new stem and I decided to spend a little time working on a presentation I'll do for a few kids at Xander's school next week about the bike being a solution to many life issues like obesity, pollution, access to clean water in third world countries and access to markets for poor farmers in remote areas of the world.

As I revisited so many of the thoughts that others have had on the topic and looked at studies of obesity rates and automobile pollution, the idea of riding to work took on fresh meaning and sticking my nose into the wind became an act of rebellion against my own culture of comfort and against a society that thinks that just because gas prices have dropped a bit means that giving thought to bike commuting is no longer a necessity.

So, resolve renewed, I got dressed, packed up the back pack and headed out. I opened the garage door and big flakes of snow were just beginning to fall again. In the wind protected cul de sac where we live it was an idyllic scene that carried a romantic association from some of my winter rides from last year.

The one advantage of the wind is that many of the streets and areas of the bike path that I ride were fairly dry with only minor drifting. I had opted to keep the standard knobby tires on my Gary Fisher Rig (single speed mountain bike with 29" tires instead of the more standard 26" tires that you usually see). I do have a set of studded tires that are a little thinner that I will break out once drifts harden and ice becomes more of an issue.

Things were plugging along well as I rode the bike path along the southeast part of town. The trees took the brunt of the wind and I actually found myself a bit too warm. Once I got off the path, the wind had a clean shot at me and I began to pay for my efforts. To add insult to injury, the beautiful falling snow transformed into sleet that was driven into my face as I methodically pushed on. By the time I got to the store I was greeted by the incredulous nature of my coworkers as they greeted me with what could only be described as varying degrees of pity and admiration.

I seriously had to towel down when I hit the rest room to change. This was one of those occasions where if we had a shower at the store, I would have used it. I had purposely dressed a little warmer than I originally thought I should believing that I needed a little more time to allow my body's conditioning to the cold to develop. After all, I did ride 30 miles in my summer kit (short sleeve jersey and shorts) less than two weeks ago. What I didn't factor in was how much harder I was going to have to work against the wind and how much heat I would personally generate. I was a sweaty, gooey mess. It didn't take me too long to get myself presentable again and I set about the day's tasks.

I was quite pleased to see that when I left the store at 9:30, the wind was still out of the northwest, still blowing hard and knew I'd have an easier time of it on the trip home. I had forgotten how different it is riding at night with snow on the ground. Areas where my little 12 lumen commuter lamp barely outline the path and obstacles during the summer were quite well defined due to the luminescence of the city reflected off of clouds above and snow below. It was really an enjoyable ride home only lacking the soft snowfall which would have put me in winter commuter bliss.

So, the first test passed, my goal will continue to be to ride to work whenever the schedule and my personal safety will permit it. The payoff is always better than the cost on days like yesterday and I hope to see a lot more winter riding this year.

Brief Sports Rant

I have watched more Cowboys and Giants games this year than all of my favorite teams combined. Not that there's anything wrong with the Cowboys and Giants mind you, but neither team is remotely regional and there have been numerous times where either team has been featured when the Broncos were playing a late game on another network that was showing some crappy, third rate sport was shown instead. They have been pre-empted by beach volleyball (only watchable during the olympics), rodeo (sorry Marilyn) and today's offering "slamball" (really!!!???).

My beef is somewhat with the network, but mostly with our local CBS affiliate who decided to claim Kansas City as our local market instead of Denver after YEARS of Broncos football. It used to be that Chiefs fans had to put up the rabbit ears and pull a signal from Sioux City to watch the Chiefs, but now we get to watch their cover-your-eyes-awful team play as the local franchise. Granted, the Broncos haven't been much to brag about either and are currently struggling against Miami, but at least they have a winning record.

In the past, I would work around the non-airing of Broncos games by tuning in online to their local radio affliliate and listen to streaming audio for free, but the NFL shut that down two years ago and now I'd have to pay to even listen to them. Direct TV's monopoly-esque Sunday Ticket is not the ticket for me either because of the cost. We don't even have cable, opting instead for broadband internet.

Of course part of the issue is my work schedule as well. I am scheduled every other weekend, although I only wind up working one Sunday a month. I know of at least two Broncos games that I've missed due to work this season and I wind up missing the Vikings almost every weekend that I work (they are the local Fox affiliate's NFL franchise).

Oh well. I guess I'll take a nap through the rest of the current NFL sweethearts' matchup. Giants/Cowboys... I couldn't care less.

New Glasses

My time is short this morning, but I told Mom and Dad that I'd get some pics posted of my new glasses today! Josiah told me he was ordering some prescription Oakleys and that the deal was a good one, so I opted to update as well. My last pair was about three years old and showing a good amount of wear and tear from daily abuse.

I opted to go with two pairs; one for daily use and one for days when I am commuting. I usually wind up having to take a second pair of glasses with me to work when I commute because my everyday glasses are a little too small to get adequate eye coverage on the bike. With the commute glasses, I'll have something sporty enough to wear on the bike, but still decent enough to wear all day at the store.

Speaking of, I'm off to do my first commute in the new glasses...

Last big ride for the year

At the beginning of the year I set a goal for myself to ride to each of our parents' houses from Sioux Falls. Mitchell was easy as Sioux Falls/Mitchell was the first scheduled day of the Tour de Kota. Yankton finally happened in July and again in August since we just happened to be headed that way anyway.

That only left Prairie Hill Farm where my folks live, south of Hartley, IA. I anticipated it being the longest ride of the three and probably the most difficult to schedule because it would take the bulk of the day and a quick turnaround for home that night wouldn't give us any time to visit. It also usually is a route with the most amount of headwind. I decided to schedule a vacation day on Friday for the ride and stay through Saturday night with the fam.

Thankfully, the ride itself proved a bit more friendly than I'd hoped with temps in the 80's. Definitely more hills than any of the other rides, but they were mostly in the first twenty miles. The wind, which had been probably 10-30 mph out of the southeast on Thursday (which would have been a headwind the entire way) shifted and lost a little intensity so that I was probably riding in twenty mph winds out of the south/southwest. This meant I still had stretches where I had to fight it, but the headwind sections probably averaged out at about three or four miles with the longest being six miles.

I made stops in Rock Rapids, George, Sheldon (my hometown, for lunch) and Primghar, taking my time resting and refueling as much as I could without dragging the ride out too long. The only bad stretch I had was from about Archer to Primghar (about eight miles) where I just sort of hit the wall. I realized right before Primghar that I hadn't taken my Sport Legs supplements when I stopped for lunch like I had intended. Sport Legs are supposed to help stave off the production of lactic acid so that you feel fresher longer and I definitely think they help. I've said on a couple of occasions that if they are a placebo, then they're a placebo I'll continue to take.

I got my second wind and finished strong, rolling into the farm after 3:00 where the folks were sitting on the deck outside the studio waiting in the pleasant warmth and breeze of the afternoon. We sat on the deck until Dad had to go to an art show opening that he had a few pieces in, at which point I headed into the house and cleaned up. Amy and the kids arrived sometime after 5:00 and we had a good visit. We actually slept in on Saturday, had a lazy day with the family and gigantic buffalo steaks for dinner.

Schedules when school is in session make it almost impossible to do any real riding, so I'll be amazed if I can scrape together even a handful of 30-40 mile rides until next spring, but I was happy to have a good ride and achieve a goal that seemed doable with a little work at the beginning of the year.

A season for new music

I decided that I needed to dig into a little new music for use at church and received a few iTunes gift cards for my birthday last month to assist me in my endeavors. So far, I have to say I'm pretty disappointed in my options where corporate worship is concerned. It's not that there isn't some good music being made, it's just that so little of it seems to have application for where I'm at.

I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to have to set to work and write what I can't find. It's not a new revelation to me, it's just that finding time and energy between one full time job, two part time jobs, volunteer commitments with both kids' schools and simply trying to be husband, father and friend is proving to be a difficult endeavor. I'm only able to write anything today because Xander is home sick from school and Amy's recital is this week. Not a good week for her to be around sick kids.

But, I did find a few things worth commenting on...

The first is John Mark McMillan's "The Medicine." I have to thank Hal Swift for indirectly putting me in touch with this artist since Hal loaned me a CD from another artist that included McMillan's song "How He Loves" which has been working me over for the last few months. We decided to introduce it at church about a month ago and in the process of tracking down resources, I came across McMillan's site which includes a music player with songs from his new album. I waited patiently until the album became available on iTunes (again, the gift cards) and downloaded it. Easily my favorite of the latest round of acquisitions including offerings from Charlie Hall, Matt Maher and Coldplay (all of which have merit of their own).

The thing I love about McMillan is he has a great sense for poetic lyricism set to creative melodies. The production is at times, raw and visceral, at times eclectic and experimental and at times simple and straight forward. At times I'm reminded of Mason Jennings, at other times Waterdeep. Certain songs continue to roll around in my head either because they stuck melodically or because they ignited a thought in me that simply needs to be meditated on. There are even a few that I expect to see us incorporate into our worship settings at Mercy.

Today brought another great find. This one for free!!! Phil Whickham has become one of my favorite singer/songwriters in modern worship and he has released a free album of live acoustic settings of some of his best songs mixed with traditional hymn interludes that I'm listening to as I write. Singalong is free just for signing up to receive email updates from Phil and is a great, low risk introduction to his music. "Singalong" is a great showcase for the songs and is a good resource for anyone looking for songs for acoustic worship.

If you like what you hear or wonder what the songs would sound like in all of their envisioned, studio glory then definitely check out his self titled album and "Cannons" which I think are two of the better artistic efforts in the worship genre in recent years. "You're Beautiful" has become one of our favorite modern anthemic hymns and "True Love" is still the song that I wish I would have written. Absolutely stunning imagery.

If anyone has any other suggestions (other than Michael W. Smith or Chris Tomlin) for me to check out in pursuit of great new congregational songs, then please feel free to leave a comment.

A lot of catching up to do

August was a blur. I had a trip to Trek's Backstage event in Madison, WI, school started, we had our big Mercy Celebration at church, I made the jump from running youth cold weather at work to running men's cold weather and I'm sure a bunch of other stuff happened.

The highlight was probably the trip to Wisconsin. I got to go ride cool new stuff, meet some folks including Gary Fisher (one of the fathers of mountain biking) and get a first look at the stuff that we'll be selling next season. The demo day that we had in Waterloo at Trek's headquarters was definitely the most fun. We had a chance to ride some killer trails and I took the opportunity to ride a few bikes including Trek's Top Fuel 9.9 SL which is their best of the best, full suspension, race bike. It weighs about 20 pounds and just begs to be ridden faster and faster. We also got to demo road bikes, so I took a Trek Madone 6.9 Pro out for a spin with Bontrager Aeolus 5.5 wheels and Shimano's newest version of Dura Ace (so new the Shimano boys were actually installing it on the frames at the event). I absolutely loved this bike and only regret that I was so slagged from the mountain bike demo that I really couldn't throw too much into the road demo.

Another highlight was our Mercy Celebration at church. We moved the service outdoors, had free food, played about a 45 minute set in the afternoon and had inflatables and yard games. The turn out was pretty decent and the amount of advertising that we did has carried over in terms of first time visitors into September. We're loving things at Mercy and are excited to see what the next season will hold.

The move of cold weather departments at work was one that I had considered previously and when I heard that Kalie was leaving to take a youth ministry job in town I decided to put my hat in the ring. I really enjoyed running the youth section but it really begins to ramp up in late July into August which means that I lose a lot of focus when it comes to running the bike department as well. Men's cold weather really hasn't even hardly started, so in terms of seasonal flow, the switch to men's should compliment bikes quite well. We've had a great bike season although we were playing catch up pretty much all season. Bikes were in high demand between gas prices and stimulus checks so it will be interesting to see how next season plays out.

Xander started third grade and Amy and I are in the classroom again for our volunteer time. Xander's school requires one half day per week per student commitment so Amy and I alternate weeks. It will take a little time to adapt to a new teacher and new ways of doing things, but it should be a good year.

I also started teaching trumpet at the University of Sioux Falls this morning. I didn't have any students last year, so it's been a year and a half since I taught last. I really am looking forward to it as it will force me to practice more and stay connected to that part of my personality. It's easy for me to neglect the trumpet with everything else that I have going on, but it was my first passionate connection to music and it's nice to return home.

Hopefully September won't escape as quickly as August did, but here it is the 8th already and I'm just reconciling the end of August. Yikes!

Tonight's News

Our local news tonight offered two stories as teasers before the news: there's road construction on the campus of Black Hills State University (a small school nearly 400 miles away) and the cost of paint is going up.

Tomorrow night's news: there are traffic cones in Pukwana and the cost of drapes is going up.

Obedience

Oh how I love lessons in obedience. Unfortunately, I feel like I've been teaching a lot more of them as our free spirited, beauty of a four year old Maia seems to take direction about as well as a compass in a magnet store. A common response to us finally getting fed up when she has ignored our third directive to do something and the threat of punishment is imminent is, "Sorry, sorry."

My standard response to her has become, "Don't be sorry. Be obedient."

I don't know how many times we have had this exchange over the summer, but it's been a lot.

Another favorite phrase at our house that applies to both kids is "Delayed obedience is disobedience." Xander heard this a lot when he was younger and seems to grasp the idea. We haven't used this one as much with Maia yet since even delayed obedience would be a step forward.

She's such a joy (and I mean that in sincerity with all the love a father can feel) and brightens our lives in ways that can't be described, only experienced. Yet, there's the hope that she will grow into a young lady who is not only fun and delightful to be around, but also respects those around her enough to show obedience and grace.

When I look inward, I wonder how many of these lessons I have yet to really embrace myself. If I truly desire a life of Christlike obedience where what I say and what I do are intimately mated, then there's a lot of room for improvement. I find myself with so much on my plate that I keep putting things off until they absolutely have to be done. I'm reminded that "Delayed obedience is disobedience." I trip up in my attitude, actions and heart and am compelled to say "I'm sorry." I hear, "Don't be sorry. Be obedient." I keep learning and praying that God will grant me the grace to put what I learn into practice.

If I'm not carefull I'll develop a reputation

I had a couple of interesting complements at work over the weekend that I thought were rather humorous. The first one is not so uncommon, but the enthusiasm with which it was delivered made it so. I had a junior high kid ask where the skateboard stuff was and after I gave him directions he said (again, enthusiastically), "You rock, dude!".

So, let it be known that I, indeed, rock.

The same day there was a lady in looking to buy a heavy bag (punching bag) and a pair of gloves. She was buying them for her place of employment where, apparently, several women work who carry a fair amount of tension. The customer was buying the bag so that when one of her coworkers needs to let off some steam, they can throw on the gloves, give the bag a beating and go about their business.

When she first arrived in the store, she got a little short with the manager who first tried to help assist her because he didn't look directly at her and she is somewhat hearing impaired and reads lips. I made a point of maintaining eye contact and took a little extra time making sure that communication was happening because it didn't seem like it would take much to piss her off. I think she appreciated it and I was the only one she communicated with that she didn't seem to get at least a little put out with.

I hooked her up with a 70 pound heavy bag and a pair of gloves and after I loaded it into the car she said (I kid you not), "You have pleased many women."

So, let it be know that I have pleased many women.

Wait, I don't think that came out quite right...

I wish I could say I was surprised

I know it's a few days late, but I wanted to comment on the positive drug tests of Ricardo Ricco and the subsequent firing and confession of his teamate Leonardo Piepoli. I expressed my disgust about the arrogance of Ricco last week on the blog and censored myself from saying that I wished he would just test positive so that he'd go away. Unfortunately, I got my wish.

I really was hoping that any doping reports from this year's race would be from domestiques who rarely showed their faces at the front of the race. While Ricco testing positive isn't quite as bad as Rasmussen being removed from the race while in the yellow jersey, you hate to see a stage winner (much less a multiple stage winner) cast such a shadow over the race. The fact that Piepoli (who won a stage the day after Ricco's second win) has confessed to it as well means that we now have three stages of this year's race that were won by riders who I hope never ride a bike again professionally.

If there is any positive from this situation it's the fact that a test was in place for a relatively new drug. When I heard Ricco had tested positive for a very specific form of EPO it left very little doubt as to his guilt. After all, he has stated that he has a naturally high hemocrit level which is often an indicator of performance enhancing and because of that naturally high level, a positive test based on hemocrit levels without the presence of a specific drug would put the testing in doubt. The collaborative effort between drug manufacturers and drug testers to develop a conclusive test so quickly after a drug's introduction to market is something that the cycling community should hail as the sport continues to try to change its culture into one of clean sport.

I think David Millar from the Garmin-Chipotle team put it well when he stated that it will take years to reach a point where there are no positive tests that come from a high profile race like the Tour de France and that we need to take the long view. My hope is that we're working toward a day where we can begin to believe again in all of the performances that we see play out in France in July and I think this was an important step toward that dream. The fact this incident took out an arrogant, obnoxious jerk (it's times like this that I wish I was capable of stronger language) is merely a consolation to the shadow that Ricco and those like him have cast on the Tour.

I will go on record as saying that I hope that Ricco owns up to what he's done, serves out his (assumed) suspension and returns to cycling with the resolve that David Millar showed after getting caught several years ago. Ricco is a talented, young rider with a lot of career in front of him and I would love to see him come back more humble and an advocate for clean sport.

Running, running, running...

Amy and the kids were gone for the weekend for Amy's 18th class reunion and I was overbooked and am exhausted. I think I slept for about five minutes this afternoon, but I think it will take a good night's sleep or two to recover from the weekend. I was stuck working 12-9 pm both Friday and Saturday or I would have gone with Amy. Throw in a trip to The Dark Knight, an extra rehearsal with Mike our drummer and a long morning at church and you have the perfect recipe for me running on fumes.

I can't really complain though. I have been looking forward to The Dark Knight since I first heard about it, not just since Heath Ledger's unfortunate death or since the glowing reviews started coming in. Since the opportunity presented itself, I decided to go on Friday night after work. I don't think there's anything else I can say that hasn't already been said, but it was an amazing movie that lives up to the hype and is of rare quality for a July release. It is a dramatic re-imagining of The Joker from performance to appearance to motivation and immediately places this incarnation of the character among the greatest movie villains ever. An immensely dark movie that easily should have earned an R rating and that I will not let Xander watch for several more years.

I had originally intended to check out Jazz Fest after work on Saturday, but I was already running on fumes and decided to save my energy for Sunday morning instead. With as much time as I spent at work Friday and Saturday I was pleased to have good days in sales to make it worth my while since I missed seeing so many of my friends at Amy's reunion. I'm really bummed to have missed John, but will probably give him a call soon just to reconnect.

With as hectic as the weekend was and as many extra things that I had to do for this morning's services, things went okay. We had some technical issues and I'm thinking I need to take a more active role in training our video volunteers, but in spite of a few hiccups, people seemed to connect through worship and that's what we should be concerned with. I keep hoping that we'll hit a stretch where everything just clicks and I place the blame primarily on myself. Full time ministry definitely makes for better focus and I need to figure out what I can do differently to make sure that ministry isn't just getting what's left of my time and attention after taking into account my full time job, family and hobbies. I may not have more time to give to my responsibilities in ministry, but I have to find ways to more effectively use what I have. I feel like I'm ready for a breakthrough. Hopefully, there will be more to come on this topic.

As for the full time gig, things continue to plug along well. This week will begin the transition from our summer seasons to winter seasons, so we will begin to see less bikes and begin resetting my youth cold weather shop. "What?!!," you say. "It's still July!" Yes, I know, but back to school is almost upon us and we need to get things rolling. I'll spend some time reacquainting myself with Columbia, North Face, Burton and others as we start the process that will carry us through until next March. Nothing like eight months of zipping coats to make you long for the beginning of the next bike season.

Getting back into playing shape

As we start to stare the end of summer in the face, I begin my annual "will I/won't I" ritual where the trumpet is concerned. Usually I spend a little time tryin to get into playing shape only to discover that I don't have any students to teach at USF which allows me to slide back into brass hibernation. I haven't taught in a year and a half and haven't played with any organized group for more than a song on a Sunday morning since 1999, so I flirt with the instrument and begin to reestablish some conditioning all in vain.

This year is a little different though. There are rumored to be two trumpet majors coming to USF (time will tell) which means I should get to teach and there is a faculty recital at the end of October where I will be performing a piece on recital for the first time since my Master's Recital in 1997. I'm planning on doing Enesco's "Legend" which is short, expressive and fairly technical, so I won't be able to fake my way through it. Amy is accompanying me and is ready to begin practicing together. I am not, though I hope to be able to begin working together by the end of the month. She's also preparing for a September voice recital and has been doing great work, so she's inspiring me to get my butt in gear and get down to business.

I have to admit that the recital is good motivation since my philosophy for lessons has been that I only need to play just a little bit better than my students. With everything else that I have going on I simply can't devote the time to the instrument that I would need in order to be proficient, but I keep working to improve in the time I have. Thankfully, I also can teach without having to demonstrate much. Past experience has shown me that I can pull a lot from a student without having to play much, but I would still like to be able to do duets and sightread together which will be a bigger challenge for me this year as I sold my B-flat trumpet and purchased a C trumpet as my only teaching instrument. This means I will have to sight transpose with students and play things in a key other than what I see on the page. I did this a lot in grad school, but that was two lifetimes ago.

On a side note, I did finally finish paying off the trumpet that I bought in March and now I can begin to focus my energies on saving for either another guitar (since Nich moved my guitar playing is having to take on a new importance) or a new bike. I figure I'll save awhile and see what direction I want to take, but I am thrilled that I've got the trumpet payed for without a penny of interest!

Interesting Tour

This year's Tour de France has been fairly interesting to this point and still has many strong contenders in most of the competitions (the overall race win is just one of the awards at stake). Kim Kirchen's race lead has been a surprise to say the least, but he's always been a decent rider and could surprise and hold on for a podium spot by the time all is said and done. You do have to wonder how so much time defending the race lead will effect him and how much it will wear on his team. It's times like that Columbia has to be happy to have a guy like George Hincapie who knows a thing or two about working for the Tour leader (seven times for Lance and last year for Alberto Contador).

On that note, for the first time we have two U.S. registered teams in the Tour. Columbia Sportswear and Garmin-Chipotle are serving as title sponsors for teams that started the year as Team Highroad and Slipstream powered by Chipotle. Both teams were essentially competing under the names of the teams' management companies before new sponsors were announced in June.

Both teams have had a fair amount of success to this point. Columbia not only has Kirchen in the race lead and points lead (a competition that generally awards the most consistent finisher on each day's racing) but they have two stage wins with sprinter Mark Cavendish and had several days with Thomas Lovkvist as the best young rider. Garmin-Chipotle currently has American Christian Vande Velde in third place and actually led the team classification for most of the first week.

It always seems like there is one guy that wins that I just flat out can't stand. Usually it's Robbie McEwen, but he's been out of the picture with his entire team devoting their efforts to helping Cadel Evans win the overall race. Instead it's been Italian climber Ricardo Ricco who has been the most obnoxious winner taking both Thursday's and today's stages. He's a phenomenal climber in the mold of the late, great Marco Pantani who just flies up hills and makes everybody else look like me when the road turns upward (only they're much, much better than I am).

Ricco is a rider that has a tendency to say what's on his mind, for better or for worse, and has managed to alienate a good portion of the pro cycling world. His attitude is arrogant as evidenced by his post race comments from today: "I was impressive, I went very fast [on the final climb]. My directeur sportif was impressed with my power output the last three kilometres of the climb." That sound you hear is me puking. Yes it was impressive, but what a schmuck.

I would say there are maybe a half dozen guys capable of winning the whole thing, but there's a lot of racing left and just about anything can happen. It should be fun.

2 down, 1 to go

In January I set a goal to ride to each of our parent's houses or home towns from Sioux Falls by the end of the year. Last month, Mitchell hosted the Tour de Kota which proved a perfect opportunity to knock that one off the list. On Wednesday, I added Yankton to the list.

Wednesday was my day off and I wasn't due to the store until noon on Thursday, so we decided to take the day to head to visit Jim and Marilyn and spend the night. I kept an eye on the weather and planned to ride there if it would cooperate. It turned out to be almost ideal. I rolled out of the driveway at 5:30 am with no wind at all and headed southwest for what I assumed was to be between 80 and 90 miles.

I rolled through Tea, Lennox and Centerville before the wind started to come up a bit out of the west. Not bad, but just enough to remind me that the day wasn't going to be a total gimme. I stopped off in Irene after 53 miles to get some more gatorade, a couple of nutty bars, a to go pack of Corn Pops and a Starbucks Frappuccino. One of the things I love about longer rides is being able to eat a good amount knowing that I'll still burn more than I take in.

I hit the road again and texted Amy to let her know where I was. It turns out she was probably within a mile of me when I set out again. I headed south to Volin and hit some roads that I got to know fairly well when we lived in Yankton while we made the move from Indiana to South Dakota three years ago.

Once I turned west, the wind was in my face the rest of the way. It still wasn't bad, but I knew I'd have it for 15-20 miles and I was starting to get a little tired. I rolled into Yankton still going strong but still had to head out west of town to the far side of Lewis and Clark Park. By the time I hit the horse camp at the far side of the park I had logged 86.6 miles and was feeling pretty well ready to be done. Amy drove down the hill from the house to pick me up rather than have me ride the last half mile of steep, gravel road where I almost certainly would have had to walk or risk falling down.

The great thing was, I made it in under five hours leaving a good amount of time for hanging out on the boat which is where we spent most of the afternoon and early evening. We then headed back to the house where we lit up the chiminea and watched the stars come out.

Now the only big ride I have left on the radar is the ride to Mom and Dad's south of Hartley. I expect it to be the longest of the three rides at around 95 miles, but it will have the most familiar roads since I started riding some of them over 20 years ago. I'm not exactly sure when I'll get the ride scheduled, but I suppose it had best be soon or I'll have the logistical nightmare of having to work around school schedules.

End of an era for Delirious

I received a press release via email today that Delirious is taking a break from recording and performing after 2009. Whether that break is permanent or not only time will tell, but it does close a chapter on one of my favorite bands and one of the most important groups in the development of modern worship.

Their influence on other artists can't really be estimated as they blazed a trail that so many others have followed. Their live shows were always an interesting mix of artistry, reverential worship and rock and roll energy. Their recordings always sought to be sonically creative and true to what they were hearing and feeling to the point that some listeners tuned them out for not simply producing a career full of "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever" and "Deeper" knock offs.

I had the pleasure of attending a Worship Together conference that they were a part of in Nashville several years ago and still am amazed by the ability of each band member to offer insightful, thoughtful, prayerful commentary on everything from basic musical considerations and worship planning to cultural and theological topics.

My prayer is that God will continue to bless them as they move into other pursuits to spread the Kingdom of God and I thank Martin, Stu G, Tim, Jon and Stew Smith for inspiring and leading me in the worship of my God.

How long has it been?

I finally managed to find a few minutes to write without having to kick Xander off the computer and where my work, rehearsal, riding schedule isn't getting in the way.

Lots of things going on right now. We're a couple of weeks into our "post-Nich" team setting at church where I am now not only lead worshipper, but also lead guitar. Obviously, I cannot replace Nich (now pursuing his music career in L.A.), but I'm doing my best to balance the dual roles that I have within the team. I'm going to need more time to practice and will have to make decisions in corporate worship much faster in order to keep things cohesive. Unfortunately, I'm also beginning to put together a new wish list of gear to help me be able to have all the tools that I need as a guitar player.

I've been riding a decent amount lately both on and off road. I've hit two state parks with the mountain bike that I had never been to before this year and have managed to log my first few "strong" road rides of the year. I still don't feel like I've hit a stride this season, but I'm finding myself riding more for the joy of riding than because of any goals I have set for myself this year.

At work things have been going well. Bikes have been hot between higher gas prices, government stimulus checks and a favorable recreational climate in Sioux Falls for cyclists. We have sold way more bikes by this point than I thought we would and are already having to order mostly 2009 models because 2008 models are out of stock (this didn't happen with much frequency last year at all). I also found out recently that I get to make another trip to Wisconsin to the Trek mothership where I will get to be a part of their "backstage" portion of the annual Trek World dealer show. I'll get first peaks at some of the new product, learn the tech and get to demo ride with dealers from around the country and a few professional riders. Chris Horner and Travis Brown are the early rumored riders, but you never know who else might show up (last year Lance made an appearance).

We're hoping to make a quick trip to Yankton sometime this week to hit the lake with Jim and Marilyn. If the weather is favorable, I might even ride down there from SF and just nap on the boat in the afternoon. Otherwise, we're probably not going much of anywhere for a vacation this year. Time, money and gas are all conspiring to keep us very close to home but by the time you mix in summer day camps, swim lessons and stays at the grandparents, the kiddos should have plenty of memories from this summer.

About the only travel on our minds right now is the trip to Cancun that I am on track to earn from the store for next March. After this past cold weather season, I'm not only looking forward to it for the break from the South Dakota winter, but also because it will be an entire week where I don't have to zip up a coat at the store. I know that seems like something that would be a long way away, but I will start to set my youth cold weather shop in 16 days for back to school ads. Thus will begin the eight months of having coats to sell, restock, mark down, reorder and generally bury myself in. Fun right?

The week that was (part 3)

It's taken awhile to do the recap of the week leading up to Father's Day, but I finally made it. Friday I had to return to work for the day. It was a little difficult to stay focused in the midst of a mini-vacation, but I managed to make it through.

That night, Amy and I hit Granite City for dinner courtesy of a gift card that I had received for helping with the SD Outdoor Expo in Huron a few weeks before. We then headed to C.J. Callaway's for a send-off party for Nich, our lead guitar player. Nich got an offer to move to California to record and tour with someone that he's been playing with for the last year or so and it was too good an opportunity to pass up. We'll definitely miss him at church, but how often do you get a legit chance to chase after a dream like that? We hung out until they closed the place down at midnight and then headed home to get some rest.

Saturday I decided to head out to Beaver Creek with the Rig for some mountain biking. The corporation is doing a contest between all of the stores much like last year and I was selected as an alternate for the team. When Eric dropped out, I inherited his spot and had to make up some miles and time that he missed while he was on a missions trip. This year instead of doing strictly road bike miles, we alternate road weeks with mountain bike weeks where we need to ride for four hours off road (no bike path or street riding). I had four hours to make up for Eric, plus four for myself for this week which I wrapped up this morning. There's also a sales requirement for high end bikes for team members that I managed to wrap up early on.

After getting home and cleaning up, Amy and I had lunch and then went for a bike ride to the church where Amy had a vocal coaching session with someone from the first service. When we got home, we got ready for Josiah's wedding (a co-worker and brother in Christ) in Watertown. The wedding was a great time of worship and I was really happy for Josiah. He's a great guy who I respect a lot and who makes the work environment much more enjoyable.

Sunday was Father's Day (finally) and we started off with services at the church where we did several songs Nich had requested since it was his last service before moving. After church, we headed to Mom and Dad's where a ton of family had gathered. My grandpa, step-grandma, sister's family, aunts, uncles and several cousins had gathered. We hung out in the art gallery where we had lunch and conversation and pretty much just hung out for the day. It was fun conversing on the new patio off the front of the gallery and enjoying a gorgeous day.

Monday finally brought a return to reality and I'm still trying to reacclimate to a regular work schedule again. I get to work today and tomorrow and hope to hit a groove again soon.

The week that was (part 2)

After a disappointing Tour de Kota, we had Maia's fourth birthday party to look forward to. The buildup had been great as her excitement began to grow in the weeks ahead. It wound up being a family only affair which was probably a good thing because we had 18 people at our house for the party from Sioux Falls, Mitchell, Yankton and Hartley, IA.

Maia is nothing if not a grateful recipient of gifts and everything she opened brought a positive reaction, including some of the boxes. She made out pretty well with clothes (everyday and dressup) and toys and got a Little Tykes playhouse that our friends Chip and Kim gave us that will hopefully entice some outdoor playtime for the remainder of the summer. After the party, the kids went with my folks back to the farm in NW Iowa for the rest of the week along with cousins Cassie and Lexi.

Wednesday dawned cool, windy and threatening rain, perfect conditions for a nice six hour drive. We left for Brainerd, MN and the annual Scheels Awards Dinner where I was a fortunate recipient because the youth cold weather shop that I inherited when I moved into sales is the strongest in the corporation out of 22 stores. I couldn't help but think about how much Pam, Deb, Heather and Jill did to help me stumble through my first season running the shop and how undeserving I was to receive anything in recognition for it.

I still gladly accepted the invite to Madden's on Gull Lake, a resort outside of Brainerd, since it meant a good meal, a chance to dress up and a mini-vacation for me and Amy. We rolled in at about 4:30 to temperatures of about 45 degrees and a little rain, got checked in and started getting ready. The events kicked off with a social hour from 6 to 7, dinner from 7 to 8 and then the awards. We had a good showing from Sioux Falls and had a chance to hang out with some of the folks from the store who I don't usually get to spend as much time with.

The next morning dawned clear, still, peaceful and warmer. We headed down to breakfast at about 8:30 and missed just about everyone from Sioux Falls, but enjoyed a great buffet that tided us over until we stopped for lunch at about 3:00. We decided since it was about 60 degrees and sunny, we'd check out and take a little time to hang out on the grounds of the resort before we headed back. We checked out the gift shop, and spent a little time in a little marshy area in the middle of the grounds to watch a turtle flirt with the water's edge and enjoyed the birds singing.

The drive home was entirely uneventful and we got home at about 4:30 with time enough to nap before we had to take off for worship team rehearsal.

All in all, it was a good, if too brief, trip that we might take more time for if I get to go again. I think if I do get to go again, I will feel like a much more deserving award recipient since I have a much more active role in the direction of my shops this year. If the year ended now, I would actually get to go for both my youth cold weather and bike shops. I'm hoping I can hold my leads in the shops, but only time will tell.

Still to come: farewell to a rock star, a worshipful wedding and a Father's Day extravaganza.

The week that was (part 1)

Rarely do we find ourselves with a week of recreational and social engagements that keep us running for an entire week, but last week was a perfect storm that had us bike touring, birthday partying, awards dinnering, goodbye partying, wedding attending and family gathering until we're just about worn out.

Sunday and Monday last week were the only two days that I was available to do the 4th Annual Argus Leader Tour de Kota. I've done at least two days each year and was looking forward to this year's ride, although with a little trepidation. Sunday dawned idyllic with slight sprinkles, little wind and a good, first day of a bike tour buzz as riders left Sioux Falls for Mitchell. Unfortunately, I only got to experience the atmosphere at the check in since I wasn't going to be able to leave until after leading worship for church.

By the time I left, it was 1:30, the wind had come up just a little and shifted so that it would be in my face the entire way. I felt pretty good getting started though and plugged through the towns of Hartford and Humboldt with little trouble. The next stretch was a little windier and I started to regret not having anybody else around. I mean, is it really a bike tour if you are the only one riding? Not only were there no riders, but all of the food stands and communities had packed everything up and there were few signs remaining to indicate what kind of activity had taken place earlier. I met up with Amy to grab some food and top off the drinks and was already pretty knackered from the wind.

I knew that leaving so late I was running the risk of higher winds with no one to share the work with through drafting and that I very well could be the last person into the campground that day. That nearly proved true, but I caught my first "riders" about six miles before Mitchell. They were walking at the time and told me they had left Sioux Falls at 7:30 in the morning. One of the guys was having leg problems and they were plodding along as best they could. I'd ridden the last stretch of the ride late last summer when we were in Mitchell for Amy's grandma's birthday celebration, so I anticipated the valley and final uphill into town and was surprised as I came down the hill on the east side of the valley to see that there were two more riders struggling up the hill on the west side. With a couple of rabbits to chase, I put in a little more effort and managed to pass the two riders about a quarter of a mile before the campground. The last day that I rode on last year's Tour, I wound up being the first rider in by a good hour. This time, I was nearly the last after a late start and 70 miles of riding by myself into a headwind.

I rolled into camp and caught up with a few friends from Sioux Falls and from previous Tours before calling Amy to have her pick me up. We went over to her dad's for dinner in the back yard and then over to Leigh Anne's where we were spending the night. The kids got to sleep on a hide-a-bed which Maia thought was the coolest thing she'd ever seen (she talked about it every 15 minutes that she was awake) and we crashed pretty hard.

The next day was another 70 mile day to Chamberlain with an optional loop to make it 100 miles, but talk of a west wind had made most riders consider bagging the century ride long before they set out. I was more fearful of how my body was going to react after only being off the bike for 12 hours. Leigh Anne got me started with a good breakfast at 6:00 and I left from her house at about 6:30.

The wind was already strong out of the west leaving most riders struggling along at 9-10 mph which was a little slower than I wanted to go. I was plugging along at 12-13 mph and looking for a group going slightly faster that I could join up with to share the load and pound out the miles. 20 miles into the ride, that group had not yet materialized and it was all I could do to hold 12 mph with my heart rate consistently in the 150's. I had the realization that I ride because it's fun and I wasn't having fun anymore. I had already done one full day into the wind and I would be out there for another four hours at my current rate of speed suffering like a dog. I decided that I'd turn around at Plankinton and head back since Amy and the kids were still in Mitchell. I made the turn around and passed about a million riders that I'd already passed from the opposite direction and made them all wonder what glory it would be to ride with the wind instead of against it. I looked down at one point and was riding effortlessly at 26 mph with my heart rate at 129 and for the first time on this year's Tour de Kota, had some fun.

I know, there are those that will deride me for being a quitter, but I've done communal suffering before and have my own war stories to tell and decided that this just wasn't a ride worth finishing. Had I been doing the next day's ride I would have absolutely plugged on and ridden to Chamberlain, but since I was heading back to Sioux Falls that night, it just wasn't worth the struggle.

I arrived back at Leigh Anne's about an hour after I had turned around and hit the shower and hung out for conversation for a bit. We decided to get together with Casey and Heidi and their family for lunch and had a good time hanging out with them for awhile. We then headed back to Sioux Falls. I had the realization that we probably saved about 8 gallons of gas by not going to Chamberlain, so I suggested that we take the kids to "Kung Fu Panda" when we got back to town. The kids were excited and we actually managed to salvage a pretty decent family day out of a pretty crappy bike tour day.

Still to come: Maia's birthday party, the Scheels Awards Dinner, Nich's farewell party, Josiah's wedding and a trip to the farm for Father's Day

Reliving my sporting youth

The Lakers vs. the Celtics in the NBA finals! The Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy) goes over the Gavia Pass! I'm having '80's flashbacks all over the place.

Growing up, I was all about Magic, Kareem, Worthy (pictured), Cooper, Rambis, Byron Scott and the rest of my beloved Lakers. Scott Jacobson and I would go back and forth between my Lakers and his Celtics and for most of the '80's the debate raged on. Of course, I've enjoyed fairly recent success as a Lakers fan, but this is sooooo much better. The gold vs. the green will look so sweet (assuming that I'm actually able to watch any of it).







Needless to say though, I am a bigger cycling fan than basketball, so I can't help but be nostalgic when the Giro d'Italia included the Gavia Pass on today's stage, 20 years after my favorite cyclist, Andy Hampsten, somehow willed himself over the snow covered, gravel road on his way to claiming the only American victory in the history of Italy's grand tour. It's been fun reading interviews and retrospectives from the '88 race over the last month. It's been a great reminder of the early days of American cycling's introduction to the European stage and why I fell in love with this sport in the first place.


This year's Giro will end tomorrow and has been a fun one to follow online (I don't have cable or Direct TV, so no access to any televised coverage). The riders will start tomorrow's time trial stage with only four seconds separating first and second place. The current leader is Alberto Contador who won last year's Tour de France while a part of the Discovery Channel Team and he should fair pretty well since he is a better time trialer than Riccardo Riccò and the next best guy is two minutes back. Even though Contador is Spanish and the team is registered in a European nation and sponsored by the government of Kazakhstan there is still a US connection. The team rides Trek bikes designed and built in Waterloo, Wisconsin!

A bike tip from your old uncle Matt and demo pics

If you have it in mind to buy a bike this summer, you may want to do so sooner rather than later. Many manufacturers run on a September to August production schedule where you would see 2009 models begin to arrive at summer's end, so in terms of bike retail season, we are already nearing the end of 2008 even though summer is just starting. With the new model year, comes new pricing and we are already seeing 2008 bikes becoming unavailable.

I got a peek at some of the 2009 pricing and costs are going up. Quite a bit in some cases. So, if you are interested in a sub $500 bike you may want to buy very soon before the new pricing comes into effect. This is almost in direct contradiction to my usual "buy late season closeout or right after the first of the year" philosophy (which I think still holds true for high end bikes), but I am seeing such a shortage of bikes for that budget minded, recreational rider that I think you're better off buying now if you can afford to.

Doomsdaying aside, I was finally able to get a few pics from the demo that I was able to do a few weeks ago in Huron with the Trek Demo Fleet.


Me setting a couple of guys up for test rides on a Trek Remedy 9 and Trek Fuel EX9. The trailer had about 35-40 bikes in it retailing from about $1700 to $5400. We set up probably two dozen of the bikes for demos while I was there.




Me riding a Trek 69'er single speed. This was one of my favorite bikes of the day primarily because I ride a lot of single speed at home with my Gary Fisher Rig. The nice thing with a single speed is that it's all about picking the best lines, measuring your effort and doing whatever it takes to cover the obstacles in front of you. If you aren't successful, it's your fault for not riding smart.








Me riding a Trek 69'er 3x9 geared hardtail. You can tell that they gave us the absolute best location on the entire fairgrounds with all of the garbage and heavy machinery.

Improvisitory dining and other Memorial Day events

Memorial Day found me at work (again) where we had high hopes with good weather and were running from open to close. The only downside of the day was that I had four customers who I needed to special order bikes for. This on a day when if I would have been able to sell them something that I had in stock I would have received commission and a half (3%) instead of the normal 2%. Oh well. I had a really good day anyway and enjoyed the pace more than I have over the last 10 days.

I did have to build a bike myself for a customer during my lunch break because we didn't have the size that we needed. I had tried to push it off until later in the day, but the customer needed to be on the road before when I thought we could finish it, so I told them two hours and planned to build it myself. I grabbed my lunch (yogurt and granola) and headed to the shop to build. I reached the shop before realizing that I didn't have a spoon. I really didn't want to run back up to my desk, so I improvised and used a Pedro's Tools tire lever instead. I think the shop guys found great humor in the utensil selection.

Meanwhile, back at the homestead Amy, Jim and Marilyn put a coat of paint on the inside of the garage and hung peg racks and some peg board to get the garage put together a bit more. By the time I got home, Jim was putting on the finishing touches and everything was looking great. The only casualty of the day was the beer that I knocked over while putting my bike back on the Thule car that spilled all over the floor and camping chairs. The floor was easy to clean, the camping chairs may smell like beer for the rest of their existence. That should be fun the next time we take them to a church function!

A Day with the Trek Demo Fleet

I had a great time hanging out yesterday at the State Fairgrounds in Huron with Ken from the Trek demo program and Mike our Trek rep. We were there as part of the first South Dakota Outdoor Expo. The store was involved in kayak, bow hunting, air rifle and bike demos throughout the grounds and Josiah and I spent most of our day helping set people up for test rides on high end Trek and Gary Fisher bikes.

We arrived Friday night and took a look at where we were set up. They had built a demo track for the mountain bike stuff that needed some serious modifying. Think of a motocross track on a smaller scale with a simple out and back design. It was way too aggressive with some obstacles being completely unrideable for all but expert riders. We managed to track down a bobcat and tamed it down a bit. Unfortunately, the demo truck was closed up by that time and we had to wait for the next morning to give it a test run.

We arrived at about 7:30 Saturday morning and helped set up the tents and bikes. The demo fleet consists of 30-40 bikes hauled in a trailer by a beautifully decked out VW Toureg and Ken who handles bike demos from Toronto to Manitoba to Arkansas. He had been in Detroit the week before and goes to Winnipeg next. Ken's got a full assortment of tools, his service stand and everything else that you need for a successful demo.

Armed with bikes, Josiah and I headed out to give the course a go. Neither of us was horribly successful as Josiah got hung up between a couple of rises that didn't have enough space between them and wound up on his back and I came off of a table top obstacle and had to bail out when I lost control. Thankfully, I stayed upright and held onto the bike, but I didn't manage to actually stay on the bike. More course modification ensued and we finally had a course that we felt gave riders a chance to really try the bikes out without fear of death.

One of the fears that I had for the event was that it was advertised almost exclusively to the hunter/fisherman crowd and that we would go almost completely unnoticed. This fear was compounded when we saw that we were on the outskirts of the event behind several buildings. You were either going to have to really look for us or stumble onto us to know we were even there.

For the first two hours, we saw nobody and were getting pretty frustrated. Josiah and I had a chance to really work the course on some really great bikes, so it wasn't a complete loss for us. I started with the Gary Fisher Hi-Fi Carbon Pro and Superfly (both about $5000 retail bikes) and rode the Fisher Hi-Fi Pro 29 and Paragon and Trek Remedy 9, Fuel EX 9, geared 69'er and 69'er single speed and was the only one to do a road demo all day with a Trek Madone 5.2 with a beautiful Bontrager Race X Lite wheelset (an upgrade over the regular Madone 5.2).

I enjoyed pretty much everything that I rode, but kept coming back to the Hi-Fi Carbon Pro and 69'er single speed. I've never really had a chance to ride much full suspension, so the Hi-Fi was a whole new experience for me. I own a Fisher single speed, so the 69'er single was a natural fit for me. I did really enjoy the 69'er geared bike as well and know that was probably Josiah's favorite of the day. I don't know how many laps we rode, but I rode everything that came out of the truck and spent most of the day from 8:00 am to probably 5:30 pm on a bike.

We finally started seeing some action late in the morning and wound up doing 53 demo rides through the day where we would set up the rider, give them some instruction and then head out on the course with them. The course was still a bit aggressive for most of the riders that we saw and we had about an 80% crash rate, no injuries (other than pride) and lots of smiles. We had a lot of teenage riders and probably about 20 adults through the course of the day. Most of the riders learned how to navigate the course and wiped out less as they became more familiar with the speed they needed to carry.

We packed up at 6:00 and they are back at it again today, but I had to head home after grabbing some prime rib with the guys so that I could be home for church this morning. I rolled in about 10:00 last night and wanted to watch the news because KSFY had a cameraman at the event that shot some at the mountain bike course, but of course when the story aired, it was all about hunting and fishing. Go figure.

Sickness and Seminary Class

By the time I got home from church on Wednesday night, I was feeling exhausted from too much work, not enough sleep and a few attempts at 5:30 am bike rides to get a few miles in. Throughout the night my stomach was unsettled, head hurt, alternated between being too hot and too cold and found myself wide awake at 3:00 am despite being physically exhausted. I actually got out of bed, grabbed the iPod and listened to a little Rita Springer just letting it wash over me as I tried to soak body and spirit in rest.

Thursday has been my day off for the last year, so I knew I'd have a chance to sleep some throughout the day, but I had a few morning committments that I feared I might have to miss. Thankfully, a little Tylenol, some Sudafed and some Airborne had me feeling well enough to take on the morning.

Amy and I had been invited to be guest speakers for a worship leadership class at Sioux Falls Seminary by Cory Seibel who spoke at Mercy last fall and I really didn't want to miss it. Thankfully, things went well as we talked about our current roles in worship, what we've done in the past and what worship looks like at Mercy Church.

After class, Amy headed off on her new bike to teach at USF and I had coffee with Shel at Black Sheep. The school year seems to make it almost impossible for us to get together outside of church activities, so I was glad I was able to keep the appointment. I think the last time we'd been able to do that was Good Friday and we're hoping that we'll be able to get more face time with each other over the summer.

By last night, I was feeling okay, but not great and decided to skip our Thursday night product meeting at the store and rest instead. This morning, after a good night's sleep and a little food, I feel much better. That's a good thing since I work the next six days straight. I'm hoping this won't start a new cycle of fatigue and illness.

Chewed Out

I have been really fortunate to not have any customer service nightmares to this point in my sales career, but yesterday was a doozie. I had a call from a customer about three weeks ago wanting to order a bike for her son's birthday that we no longer had in stock. I tracked one down at one of our other stores, had it sent to us and when she called a little over a week ago to confirm that it was there, everything looked rosy.

Yesterday morning, she showed up to pick up the bike. The only problem was, we no longer had it. I don't know what happened, but the bike that I ordered for her got sold to somebody else. I don't know whether it was intentional or accidental, but I got to deal with one very upset customer as a result. She had taken the day off from work to come pick up the bike that she had ordered and called to confirm and there was no way for us to send it home with her that day.

She was teary eyed, shaking and asked to talk to a manager. I called Jen over and we tried to move on to the solution side of the problem, but the customer needed time to vent and the two of us were the nearest targets. She was absolutely justified in her anger. I don't blame her a bit for being upset because it was definitely our screw up.

Jen and I offered the best solution scenarios that we could which included trying to order the bike again (knowing it would probably arrive too late) and substituting another bike at the same price which normally we sell for $80 more. After she talked to her husband on the phone, she settled on the replacement bike. I tried talking her into one frame size that I think would be better for her son right now, but that he would outgrow in about three years, but she opted for the next size up which I don't even think the kid will be able to ride. I was not going to argue with her about it, but told her that I would be happy to order the original bike just in case he doesn't like or doesn't fit the one she took home. She declined. After I helped her load the bike, I told her to give me a call if there was anything else I could do for her. I expect I'll probably hear from her soon if her son can't ride the bike because it's too big.

I pretty much expended all of my energy for the day on that one disaster and it wasn't even 11:00 yet. I spent a little time trying to see if I could figure out where the original bike had gone and who had sold it, but wasn't able to make any progress so I decided I just needed to let it go. Hopefully, that never happens to me again.

A New Trumpet

Some of you may remember that a million years ago, I was actually a trumpet player who pursued the instrument all the way through to a Master's Degree. Some of you may have a hard time believing this because you either know me as a guy who does bike sales or a singer/guitar player.

Well, I do still play trumpet occassionally and now it may have to be less occasionally since I finally purchased a new instrument. After grad school, I gradually sold off most of my horns in order to purchase things that were of a more pressing need (guitars, amps, pedals). The last horn I sold off was my Yamaha Bb that I bought in undergrad that was a large bore, heavy walled instrument that was really a great horn, but more horn than my occasional trumpet playing tendencies could handle. I sold it on eBay and bought a Blessing ML-1 Bb trumpet and a guitar amp.

For awhile I thought the Blessing would work out alright for me. After all, it's not like I was getting the chance to play alot. That changed when I started teaching a few students at the University of Sioux Falls for the Fall '06 semester. I quickly learned the limits to the instrument. It would be great as a lead instrument for a jazz big band, but too bright and unwieldy for most other applications. Demonstrating technique or any kind of nuance of sound that required more subtlety or a slightly darker tone was nearly impossible.

Had I been teaching last fall, I probably would have made this purchase sooner, but I held out since I didn't have any driving motivation without regular opportunities to play. I have the chance to play on the USF faculty recital in the fall now and decided that I needed to make the change now in order to give myself time to get back in shape, pick a piece and beat it into a state of performance readiness.

I started asking around about instruments at the local shops awhile ago and just kept checking in over time. Finally, Sioux Falls Music had a French Besson C trumpet at a clearance price that was too good to pass up. I still exercised patience as I had some other things that were more pressing and wanted to play a few times before trying it out so I wasn't making a decision that I would regret like the last one that I bought.

I decided yesterday was the day and Amy and Maia decided to come along as well. I played the horn a bit while the girls looked at other stuff and asked Amy's opinion after awhile. She said it was up to me but that it had a good tone (she knows how I like to sound) and I felt like it blew very much like what I used to play.

Why a C trumpet instead of a standard Bb? I played A LOT of C trumpet in grad school and really got to the point where it was the instrument that I was most comfortable on. I did mostly orchestral and classical solo lit by that time and the Bb was only used for wind ensemble and any jazz stuff I got to do. Since I'm mostly playing in a classical style now and demonstrating to students in a one on one lesson setting, the C trumpet will feel more like home. It may take me a little time to get my skills of transposition back (especially when playing literature written for Bb), but I can't wait to begin to dig in.

Now if I can just get through the weekend I might even be able to play a little.

Guess we're headed to the Cheese

Our family does the NCAA tournament brackets at home with the winner selecting the restaurant of their choice as the grand prize. Xander took the seeding very literally through the entire tournament and destroyed the rest of us since all four number 1 seeds made the Final Four. To top it off though, he also selected the correct participants in the title game and the correct national champ. Out of the 63 games (or 64 if you count the play in game) Xander was 47 and 16 which comes out to a 74.6% win percentage.

Looks like we're headed to Chuck E. Cheese.

Another thing about my run

I realized after yesterday's post that my run yesterday morning was my first 30 minute run since the first Bush administration... As in Bush Sr.

First ride and run of the season

I'd been wondering how long it would take to finally get that first road ride of the season under my belt since we've had so much snow and so little opportunity, but I finally did it over the weekend when we visited Jim and Marilyn in Yankton. Now, Yankton isn't exactly the spot I would pick for my first ride out because of the hills and I expected to hurt a lot on this ride, but temps and precip finally called a truce to allow a few days of decent riding conditions. The wind decided to kick it up to make for less than ideal conditions, but beggars can't be choosers in this part of the country.

I did about 30 miles and left at 10:00 in order to finish up by noon so I could have lunch with the family and be somewhat social for the afternoon. The 25 mph wind off the still ice-laden lake was a bit brisk as I rode through the park, but I got my legs warmed up and readied myself for the first hill section climbing out of the river valley. I was surprised when I hit the first hill section and didn't hurt nearly as bad as I thought I would. I certainly didn't show midseason, aggressive climbing form, but I wasn't gasping and weezing. I even hit 40 mph on one downhill section.

I did a sort of figure eight route that took me out of the valley, into town, all the way through the valley to where highways 52 and 50 meet up again and then back to my first hill section in the opposite direction. I really did have some good climbing sections and returned home really feeling good about the ride.

I got to test out some new gear while I was at it. After borrowing saddles from Bryan all of last season, I got my first ride out on my new Selle Italia Gel Flite saddle. I hated everything that I borrowed from Bryan and really didn't think about my new saddle much (which is a good thing). I still need to break it in a bit, but expect that it will be one that I'll be thrilled with once Tour de Kota hits in June.

I also got to test my new Polar CS200 computer. I was at a training for the store in October and was given a Polar heart rate monitor and was amazed to see what I could learn about the way that I work based on my heart rate. When the bracket on my old computer mount broke, I decided this might be a good season to step up into a heart rate compatible computer. It worked like a charm and I was able to use hrm information to gauge effort and recovery in a way that I never have before. I also got to take the Serfas carbon water bottle cages that I bought from Bryan on Friday for a ride. They are super lightweight and much easier in and out than my old cages, one of which broke, the other of which is now on my Rig.

In a very surprising move, I did my first half hour run since high school this morning. It's still too cold and dark out to ride early and I've about had it with kettle bells which I've been doing since October but really trailed off in January when I had some muscle pain in my left arm, so I checked the forecast and decided to run instead. I actually did better than I thought I would. I did about three miles on the bike trail and was able to settle into a rhythm pretty well. I was not fast by any stretch of the imagination, but I managed to keep it rolling. I'm not sure that this will become a regular part of my life, but it may be something to pick up when it gets cold again in the fall.

This is Spring?

Between selling bikes and scooping snow I'm getting a bit confused as to which season we're actually experiencing. I still haven't managed to get my road bike out at all and have had to settle for putting early season miles on my Rig, most with studded tires.

It seems like every time we get close to having a few days opportunity to ride, it dumps another 3-5 inches of snow. It dumped on us yesterday and the forecast is for maybe a little snow tomorrow, but it looks like things will warm up enough to get rid of all of it by the weekend when we'll be in Yankton. Having my first road ride of the year in the river valley would tear me apart, but it would be well worth it just to get out.

Speaking at church

I had a chance to speak at Mercy on Sunday and the general response was very favorable. I was the first of the staff to fill in for Shelby while he and the fam took a mini vacation. I recycled and refined a sermon that I've done a few times now in order to set the stage well for the other staff who will lead over the next several months. I'm sure there are some that may have a hard time forgiving me for eating a Twinkie in front of them, but it had to be done.

Invite

Anyone who happens to be around Sioux Falls this Sunday morning is invited to come check out Mercy Church. I'll be speaking at our traditional service at 8:00 and our contemporary/emerging service at 10:45. It's been awhile since I've done a sermon, so a few friendly faces would be quite welcome.

Wasn't daylight savings time last week?

DST may have been last week, but I lost my sleep this week instead. We've been really fortunate with our neighbors since we moved to Sioux Falls who have always been courteous and easygoing. But, in both places we've lived (both duplexes) they have had the habit of going out on Saturday night and coming home in the wee small hours.

In our first place, Alyssa's room was right above ours, so when she came home late, we'd hear her overhead getting ready for bed, stumbling around or (just once) having a shouting match with someone. It's been a little better in our current residence with the exception being that Brady and Tamra's garage door opener is right below our bed.

Last night at 1:42, the garage door opened and startled us out of a deep sleep. I actually drifted off again very quickly, until the garage door closed. I stayed in bed, awake, for the next half hour before getting up to get a drink and read a bit. I finally went back to bed about 3:15 and was asleep soon after and am having a bit of trouble getting going this morning.

Ironically, DST really didn't effect my sleep patterns or feeling of rest, but this may be my week to adjust to a lost hour of sleep.

Dad would be proud (I think)

Every once in awhile we will have some merchandise at work that shows up in the break room that employees can bid on for the chance to take it home. Items can range from blemished clothing to gift lodge items and usually sit there for a week or so before bidding ends.

I headed to the break room the other day and there was a print from Terry Redlin (South Dakota's most renowned "artist") up for bidding. Deb asked the question, "What's wrong with it?" to which I responded, "What's wrong with it is that it's a Redlin." Thankfully, Deb and I have had conversations about movies, culture and the performing arts before, so I knew I didn't really need to put the filter on. She argued the "artist giving the people what they want in order to make a living" angle and I argued the "artistic integrity thrown away in order to cash in by creating cheap, pop-art crap" angle.

It was fun and I finally got to vent about one of the gift lodge's cash cows in a way that I have refrained from doing since starting at Scheels.

A bit ironic

Yesterday our temps finally broke free making for a beautiful spring day in the 50's. The fact that it coincided with a day off of work should have been the perfect recipe for a ride. Alas, it was not to be.

With Xander's school musical yesterday morning and Amy's role as make-up artist, Maia and I got to hang out for the day. While we had a good time, it did derail any plans that I might have had for a ride.

Ironically, we went outside and Maia rode her bike for a little bit before we went to pick Xander up from school. When we got home, Xander and I went out and played some catch before he decided to ride his bike for a bit. Perfectionist that he is, we're still working on getting him off of the training wheels. With the training wheels, he's unstoppable, but the second we take one off he gets gun shy and rides so slowly that he can't help but tip over. We'll get there or it will be a long summer with the neighbor boys wanting to ride and Xander retreating into the house.

So, for the first time ever, my kids rode more miles than I did for the day.

All work and no play...

I am exhausted. Today is my day off after nine days in a row at the store and I've decided I'm doing absolutely nothing until rehearsal tonight. I'm finding it a little hard to follow through on doing nothing though. I seem to have such little free time lately that I feel the need to squeeze everything I can out of what little time there is.

Things that I'm having a hard time not doing today include preparing for my March 30 sermon and filling out a doctrinal questionnaire from the Christian & Missionary Alliance for the denomination's ministry licensing process that I kicked into high gear last week. Both are things that are very important to me. Both are things that I will need to devote time to in the near future. Both are things that I need to refrain from doing today so that I can get some rest.

I will get a bit more rest this weekend as we go to visit Mom and Dad's tomorrow night and Saturday. This will be the first time we've had a chance to get over there since they finished converting the chicken coup into an art studio. The photos I've seen look fantastic and I can't wait to take in the finished product. We'll hang out, rest and come home in time to get a good night's sleep (minus daylight savings time) before church on Sunday.

Speaking of, worship at Mercy has been going really well lately. I think I'm finally starting to push into some of the areas that Shelby's been pushing me toward over the last year. We had coffee this morning and agree that two of the last three weeks have been Sundays where the power of the Holy Spirit has been evident and we have engaged as a worshipping community. Now, Shel hinted that while he's pleased, I've really only reached the "moderate" end of the scale as far as charismatic worship goes. I'm very encouraged that things are progressing and I'm growing. I'm also trusting that God will bring about the changes necessary for me to reach my full potential as a worship leader for the community at Mercy Church.