Bubba's Life

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/more/specials/tour_de_france/2006/07/27/landis.doping/index.html

LONDON (AP) -- Tour de France champion Floyd Landis tested positive for high levels of testosterone during the race, his Phonak team said Thursday on its Web site.

The statement came a day after cycling's world governing body said an unidentified rider had failed a drug test during the Tour.



I give up on pro racing. :(

Well.. it's finally here. The time of year where I can usually be found on the couch from 9am till noon, nearly everyday. Yes... the Tour de France starts up tomorrow. Three weeks of the most grueling sporting competition on the planet. This year held lots of promise. The first time in eight years that last years champion will not be racing. Last year, Lance Armstrong retired from professional cycling after seven consecutive victories... a record that I don't think will be broken in my lifetime. I must say I was really psyched about the upcoming month.

In the past couple days, however, that excitement has become a knot in my stomach as some of the biggest names in professional cycling have been implicated in a huge doping ring.

( Read more... )

Well... I am still here. Been kind of busy as of late, so I haven't had much time or focus to be able to sit down and update this. We're onto a 10 hour shift at work right now... plus weekends, usually. So I don't get home from work until 9am and by then Jordyn is usually awake, so the free time I had in the mornings to decompress from work and update this and check e-mail is extremely limited. I usually get through my e-mail while she eats breakfast, but then she'd rather have daddy play with her then plunk away at the 'puter. Go figger!

Anyway, I do the work thing, come home and spend time with Jordyn, go to bed around 10:30 or 11 (sometimes after lunch), wake up just after dinner, and spend more time with Jordyn... except on Tuesday nights, which is my night to ride with the club. We're also kicking off our Friday night Ice Cream Rides, which I am co-captain of. Last week I led the "fast ride" and shocked myself by being able to keep the pace up. SWEET!

Really not too much been going on in my life. I'll try to get back into the swing of doing this... I know... I've said that before. But, really... I'll try.

As if the rainy weather we're having today and if the weatherman is right for the rest of the week... and the news I got that most likely I won't be getting laid off work for a week like most of the rest of the guys I work with (was hoping for a week off with my family and my bike (yes, in that order, Rebekah))... now I get this! Ugh!

You Will Die at Age 70

You're pretty average when it comes to how you live... And how you'll die as well.

So last night at work I was reading over the EH&S (Environmental Health & Safety) Committee meeting minutes. It was the usual, accident reports, machine modifications, blah-blah-blah. At the bottom they mentioned that they were going to be doing a self-audit for ISO 14001, an international standard for environmental safety. Apparently, they are going to train four hourly employees to do the audits.. I read through the names... Keith Bryan, Janet Ingersoll, Bob Howland, Rob Gerwig. Wait! Hold on... Rob Gerwig? How the heck did I get volunteered for that? I think I will have to go talk to the HR Manager in the morning about this. I'm not sure I like being volunteered to do things like that.

Meanwhile... did my first ride of the year last week Tuesday. 26.1 miles total. Didn't do too bad but I kind of hit the proverbial wall with about 3 miles to go. That was a struggle.. into the wind and mostly uphill of course. My new pedals worked great, I love them. The new shorts were quite comfortable... but as usual, the first ride of the year resulted in an extremely sore bottom-side for a couple days. OW!!!! Got to toughen up the tushy again for the season ahead. My goal this year is to get in more than 1000 miles... wish me luck!

One more thing, then I have to go... I just wanted to say that I am perhaps the proudest papa in the world right now. The other day Jordyn and I got her new big girl bike out and she took off on her own right away!

Here's a pic...

So a little over two years ago when I applied for my current job at the foundry, a new position that had just been created, I had to agree to stay on the job for two years. Must have had something to do with the month of training in Germany (all expenses paid :)). Anyway, we were told that after our two years were up that they would re-post the jobs, but that if we applied again we would get them. Usually job bids get awarded based on seniority, but because this is a specialized job, it is awarded on previous experience. So there is no reason I shouldn't get it again. Another aspect of the agreement we had to sign, that I apparently had forgotten about was that the Union and company would re-negotiate our pay rate... I figured it would stay the same or get lowered slightly. We have been the highest paid production workers in the shop... by $.08/hr. So imagine my surprise Wednesday afternoon when I saw the jobs posted with an advertised rate $.50/hr more than we were making. SWEET! That extra $20 per week will be nice considering my car is about to die. Just in time. :)

Also, Rebekah and I are working on starting a cycling club at our church. The Director of Congregational Life, fancy title for someone that organizes events, has approached me a couple times now about starting something up. I'm starting to get the ball rolling on that. Thank goodness I have such a supportive wife. Couldn't do half of what I do without her help... THANKS BUBBY! Love you!

Enough for now... keep tuned in for further updates.

So last night, I thought maybe I'd run out to my parents house to get my bike (I stored it there this winter) while Rebekah was gone to choir practice. When I got to my car I noticed a nice bright green puddle under the passenger side tire. About a week ago, on the way to work I watched the temperature guage max out. I pulled over before any major damage was done, popped the hood the next morning and noticed the coolant reservoir was friggin' empty. I refilled it, drove home, and had been driving Rebekah's car since. When I got out to it last night... the friggin' reservoir was empty again... of course it was, I thought, I'm standing in it! Crap! So here I am with a car that's leaking coolant like there is no tomorrow (probably a head gasket, I've been told it was getting bad and was leaking slowly), bills up the wazoo (my car had been running good enough that we had made a couple large purchases of stuff we needed), and no idea what I'm going to do. I'm looking right now at the under $4000 section of Michigan Auto & RV and also contemplating getting a small loan to get the stuff I need to start commuting to and from work by bike. I just can't believe my luck this week... three crappy nights in a row at work and now this... makes you wonder what can go wrong next! I give up! :(

Another day, another dollar. Had another crummy night at work tonight. Everything started out great, machines ran great, Dave brought me the Girl Scout cookies I had ordered from his daughter, it was a good night. Then... the night took a steady decline. I ran out of one part and went to setup for a different one. The cutting wheel was all set up, but the part holders were not. Not really a big deal, but we have a setup man that is supposed to have all that stuff ready for us. He hasn't been getting too much of that done recently, because the new machine operator on second shift, my counterpart, is not catching on. She has been training since December to run the machines and she just doesn't get it. So instead of getting our setups done, the setup man spends most of his night helping run the machines. They had talked last week about bumping the first shift operator and myself up to 12 hour shifts, to "be there for her in case she has problems". This morning I found out that the supervisors still hadn't gotten permission for us to get the overtime, so that deal is sunk. That bites, because I was really looking forward to have a little extra cash in my pocket in two weekends for me & Jordyn, when Rebekah is gone. Now, all I can do is hope they change their minds and get some sense.

Just another day in the life, I guess...

Till Later!

So here's the deal. I work nights during the week, but on the weekends, I try to adjust my schedule so that I can spend more time with Rebekah & Jordyn and don't sleep the days away. It means alot to me to be able to spend the time with them, and I HOPE that it means a lot to them, too. I try to do this by waking up early on Friday and going to bed at a normal time on Friday night. That gives me most of the day with them on Saturday. Then I just catch a nap after church on Sunday and I'm ready to go on Sunday night. Sometimes, though, like last night I have a hard time making through the night without waking up. I went to bed around 12:30am, and by 6:30am I was up and about. I gotta figure that out.

I went to my bike club meeting Thursday night. We had a bunch of the local shops bring in their latest and greatest products and show them off. Let's just say I should have brought a towel for the drool. There were some gorgeous bikes there. My personal favorite of the ones they had was probably either this http://www.serotta.com/pages/ottrott.html or this http://www.scottusa.com/category.php?UID=312. I know I'll most likely never have one like one of these (just slightly out of the budget range), but it doesn't hurt to dream, right? Also, fell in love with a new pair of shoes, http://www.specialized.com/bc/SBCEqProduct.jsp?spid=12781, well, at least they are slightly more affordable. In case you can't tell, I'm getting the bug again... can't wait to get my bike out on the road. I guess it's sort of a zen thing.

Till later! Rob

The Jock You scored 23 erudition!

You may or may not be taking remedial English at this point. It helps if you occasionally show up for class instead of constantly skipping it for football practice. I would also recommend occasionally doing your own reading and writing your own papers instead of relying on the contents of your coach's filing cabinent.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 0% on erudition

Link: The Are You Truly Erudite? Test written by okellelala on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Okay, okay. Now I really suck at keeping this updated. But, what the hell I'll try again.

Life is quite different now that I'm a "third shifter". I work from 11pm until 7am. I get home and have a breakfast date with Jordyn, which is great for both of us. Then it's off to bed for me (which is where I should probably be right now). As a matter of fact, I think that is where I shall head. Look back here in the next couple days as I PROMISE to post an update very soon.

Well, I think I'm officially sucking at keeping up on this thing like I said I would. It's been kind of hard lately. First, I've been kept busy working lots of overtime at work... 10 hour shifts plus trying to spend time with Rebekah and Jordyn doesn't leave much time for computer stuff. And secondly, I had a chance to experience "Dell's award-winning customer service" (he says with a chuckle). The hard drive on my 3-month old computer decided to stop working last weekend. A few calls to Tech Support revealed that Dell, too, had shipped its jobs overseas. Try explaining to someone in India that you know something about computers and you've already run all those tests they are trying to get you to run on the computer... well, forget explaining and just humor them and run it again. Then, after playing phone tag with Dell and the company they subcontract to do their service calls... well, we went a week without the computer, lost pretty much everything, but now we have a new hard drive and are trying to rebuild it. Oh, joy!

Staying on 10 hours at work... probably for another week or two. Makes for a really nice paycheck, but kind of sucks on the family and sleep side of things. So don't count on an update anytime soon... but feel free to keep checking.

Rebekah, Chuck, & Charity took me out last night to celebrate my birthday (3/14). We went out for dinner and then out to the Bresa delRio. Had a really good time... Rebekah had vowed to get me drunk... we almost got there... ;)

Greetings,

Not a whole lot to report today. I'll be on 10 hour shifts next week at work. We're starting to really fall behind only running one machine. Hopefully, the other will be repaired sometime this week so we can start to catch up. Union audit tomorrow morning, so I don't have to go to work. Another night to spend with my family, which I'd really rather do than working nights. I think if I can get onto first shift doing what I'm doing now... I'll definately jump on it, as long as Rebekah isn't working.

We're getting geared up for a Super Bowl party... Chuck and Charity are coming by to watch the game with Rebekah, Jordyn, and I. Should be a good time. Here's my prediction for tonight... let's see how close I can come. I'll pick the Patriots over the Eagles... 28-16.

Check in later.