Weekend Round-up

Warning: Long, rambling, mostly pointless.

Saturday I got up at 5, woke Nettie, went back to bed (but not asleep) until Nettie got out of the shower twenty minutes later (wish she'd told me she was going to shower in the morning).

We left only 10 minutes late for the triathlon (Collegiate National Championship). Arrived on campus I pulled my bike off the rack and discovered that despite my checking and pumping up the tires Friday, my front tire was flat as a pancake; riding down the hill wasn't bad. We managed to wind our way to the volunteer tent, get our assignment, and hitch a ride with a family also working in the same area. Then we sat for 30-45 minutes. Then we stood and waved a flag for 3 hours. I was facing the sun much of the time, or turned sideways and allowing my hair to shade my face. I got to chat with a nice police officer who works nights and got 'voluntold' to work traffic control for the triathlon. Getting up at 5 greatly diminished my remembering sunblock and a hat. It was a beautiful day. After the last rider went by we hitched a ride back. We went and ate, then went home. I napped; Nettie (except for about 5 minutes in the car) didn't.

Ellen came over and she and I went to Dillards. Our local store is going out of business. They have some stuff really reduced; some stuff barely discounted; and some stuff not discounted at all. All of it, by this time, is pretty picked over. There was a really pretty pair of shoes that were completely impractical (too high!) and that was the only thing I saw. I could have looked at the men's shirts more but didn't feel like dragging Ellen through there. Then we ate and went to Movie Gallery. I think we wandered around for half an hour and never picked out anything. Then we went back to her house and watched a couple of movies.

Sunday I got up at 6, Nettie came over. We left for the triathlon (Tuscaloosa Triathlon) on time. We worked the swim start this time. Not much to do since there were only two waves - men and women & relays. There were four colors of caps, so I wonder if they started out planning on 4 waves and decided the groups were small enough to just do two. I made Nettie come over and cheer for the swimmers at the swim finish. One guy did the backstroke the whole way, apparently he learned a little more than a year ago. Last year he didn't finish the swim; this year he did. Backstroke is not the best for an open water race because it is hard to see where you're going. I wouldn't be surprised if he swam an extra 50m (over the 750 meters) just course correcting. We stayed and cheered for him (2nd to last) and the grandmother who was last. We watched a little of the bike finish after that, then went home. I napped, again.

About 2, Nettie, Honey, and I picked up her friend and we all went to EarthFest On the Quad. We ate tofu-dogs and a tofu-burger (Nettie didn't like her hot dog.); listened to a reading of The Lorax ("I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues") with (bad) puppetry; the girls got their faces painted; I got two free nice tote/grocery bags from the Sierra Club. Before we went to the Quad we stopped by the park; my flannel shirt/jacket was still where I'd set down at 7:30 in the morning but Nettie's headband was gone. Later, I planted a few veggies, watched The Phantom Menace, and went to bed. I was exhausted.

Yesterday wanted a weekend to recover from my weekend.

Tri-athletes are incredible. And slightly insane. I didn't make it to the dance (and I'll be out of town for next month's). I didn't go because Ellen wanted to hang out and I don't get to see her that much. (I told you there would be rationalizing.)

I'll stop rambling now.


p.s. at least one word in my post tags (all of them) begins with each letter of the alphabet.