The World Outside

It seems quite simple to become engrossed in the riggors of our stressful lives. I have lost my debit card, gained 1.37 pounds, missed 1 hour of training time, not slept enough, not found my umbrella in time, and the mundane list goes on and on. However, we are coexisting here in some quite placid times. The weather is blustery and the friendships fantastic. Not much to whine about.

This weekend I got the opportunity to do a solid Team Training camp with up to 20 or our team. The coolest part was completing the Stage Coach 100 century ride with two juniors, the Wright Brothers. However simple it may be, opening the world of cycling fun to these kids was a total blast! We even did skills training on Sunday which only resulted in 5 crashes, three of which were Ian, alone.

Training took a whole new turn at K1 karts in Ontario! What a blast!!

Some of my students think Pink and I are twins. One of them posted this pic on my Facebook account to try and prove the point. Maybe I should donate her one of my helmets...

Sister Julene has made it through 4/6 Chemo treatments with great success! Each treatment has gone better than the last, so now instead of spending many days vomiting and otherwise feeling horrible, she just feels sick. Neither of which i would enjoy. However, the chemo and illness have taken its toll on her hair and she has gone short! Stellar choice sister! Looking awesome as usual! And she is feeling so much better, and getting back to more of a normal life!

Speaking of hair, Nephew Griffyn just went through his ceremonial hair cutting! Its a traditional Cook Island Rite of Passage, at 5, he's now the MAN!! Here are is AWESOME locks pre ceremony! He has NEVER cut his hair in any way!! When I was visiting I got a kick out of french braiding his hair!

Here is the little man and his first of MANY Hawks! Rock it!

And of course, no post of Griffyn would be complete without a picture of Gwen!

Of course there are dozens of current events that are flooding Yahoo and some of them are extremely graffic. A few come to mind that have attachements to me or us. The devestation in Haiti is overwhelming. I have a few contacts that are either there of working on aid that is going there. Here, Andrew Haglund arrived in Haiti yesterday I believe. YOu can check the blog link below which describes what he and the surgical team are doing. He has uploaded satelite images of where they are working and some stories. Amazing. He is doing an awesome job of keeping the blog updated. Cool to see positive things taking place in such horrible circumstances.
Loma Linda University in Haiti!

Yoshio Garcia, a local newly-turned-pro Mountain Bike racer suffered a catastrophic accident while riding his bike to work last week. He is still in critical condition with a semi-induced coma at Arrowhead Regional with severe head trauma. The mountain biking community has banned together in a large way to inform everyone of his condition and needs of his family. An account for donations has been set up through Coates Cyclery, who he rides for, because he has no health Insurance. Fight on Yoshio!!

And this photo just in! Brian's brother, SSgt Nicholas McCulloch, USMC in Afghanistan on an Osprey. He says it is freezing over there!!Sent him a box the other day, I wonder how long it will take to get there! We miss him a bunch! But he is staying busy and taking care of business!