Last night we went down to the Brooksider to say our good-byes to our friend Tommy.  A lot of people showed up, I don’t think they’ve seen a Monday night like that in a while.  We will sure miss our friend and neighbor.

Wow.  Monday again.  How deeply depressing.  Got a (very) little mileage out of the weekend though, hopefully that carries me for a while.  Friday I hit the Brooksider for a short while, but since it was too cold to sit outside I didn’t stay long.  Went down to Jalapenos instead and had some dinner.

Saturday Donette headed out early for the Diva Dash in JoCo with several other girls.  Few hundred women running down the street, probably all chattering.  Yeah, I think I’ll stay in bed for this one.  I got up eventually though, and found myself mulling over a return to the Brooksider for the Border War game.  I didn’t want to go, I had specifically planned not to go…  But it turned out the lure of the free breakfast was just too much for me.  They put a out a big spread to bring people in for the game, and the more I thought about it the better it sounded.  (I don’t really understand the strategy on the breakfast;  It’s not like they weren’t going to be packed anyway.  Hey, why over-think it though, just enjoy the grub.)  Plus, it’s not every day you can go to the Brooksider at 9:00 in the morning, so I hopped on the bus and headed down there.  The decision worked out well for me, as it turned out.  Breakfast was actually quite good, and I certainly couldn’t argue with the price.  The game was good too, despite the unfortunate (if predictable) outcome.  And I hate to admit it, but I got quite a bit of joy out of the whole CBS fiasco.  If you’re one of the few people that didn’t hear, CBS switched the game off for the last several minutes and cut to the beginning of another one.  Yeah, it was sort of a mood-killer, but all the KU fans were so distraught they totally forgot their annoying ritual of running around the place screaming their senseless chant in everybody’s face.  They all just sort of shut up and filtered out.  (Apparently, to read the paper this morning, without settling up their tabs.  Typical.)  Our big mixed-fan table stuck around for a while longer after everybody left, then called it a day.

Sunday I got a good start on the day up at the gym for a few hours.  Spent all my energy early though apparently, I didn’t have anything left for the rest of the day.  We did get out for a little lunch I guess.  We headed out to Barley’s clear out in Shawnee.  Actually it’s only eight miles from the house, but it took a solid 35 minutes to cover that short distance with all the lights.  They were having a “KC Hopps” event, where they took $10 off your bill and put an extra 100 points on your reward card for coming in.  I’m a sucker for a deal.  Had a great lunch too.  We both had some gumbo, then Donette had some kind of fancy salad and I had a big plate of crawfish etouffee.  Too big, as it turned out;  It effectively restricted me to the couch for the rest of the day.  It was worth it though.

Last night Munkirs & I went on the first “group ride” of the season.  We took off at 6:30 from Brookside with the aptly named “Slow Group.”  As was the case about mid-season last year, the pace of the ride made me about half crazy.  Being about a third crazy to begin with, this puts me dangerously near the tipping point.  I honestly don’t understand how you even go that slow.  I have to brake constantly, which irritates me and wastes my very valuable energy reserves.  An object in motion tends to stay in motion, as they say, especially when said object is comfortably north of 200 pounds.  I found myself watching people’s hands to see if they were braking in front of me, and they didn’t seem to be that I could tell.  Strange, I really can’t figure it out.  Well, hopefully we can stretch our legs with this group for a few weeks, get back into the swing of things, and then switch over to the “fast group.”  We’ll see.  Last year I could never quite keep up with them, which I suppose at least provides a little challenge.

Busted out the “big scooter” this morning for a ride.  Last time I was on it was an ill-fated ride on 24 Nov, so it’s sat idle for a solid three months.  It fired up without too much complaining though, with was rather surprising.  I rode it directly up to Quick Trip and treated it to a full tank of $3.55 per gallon gasoline, which must be the best dang gas in the country at that price.  Good thing it only holds three gallons.  The ride was just fine.  A little chilly, and I get a bit nervous with the shiny black slick-looking pavement in the morning, but I stayed upright so all was well.  Maybe I’d feel a little safer if I would break down and replace my six-year-old bald tires…  Nahhhhh, they got one more season in them.

How cold is too cold to ride the scooter to work?  Well, however cold it was this morning, I’d say that’s about how cold.  Whew.  I hope I can feel my fingers in time to eat my lunch.  The 15 mph headwind didn’t help any either.  Brisk.

I finally made it back to the gym yesterday,  for the first time in several months.  It really bothers me to spend all that money on our membership all winter and then never go.  Apparently I’m not bothered enough to leave the couch and head out into the cold though.  And then after a while you think, “Well, it’s been a month now, what’s another week.”  And then another, and then another…   Plus, it’s always a disappointing workout the first several times back.  I take several pounds off the stack, you know, ’cause it’s been a while.  Then I give it a shove and nothing budges.  So I take off more, and more, until it’s at the point you have to make sure nobody is looking out of sheer embarrassment.  This definitely was the scenario yesterday.  I finally gave up in sheer frustration and just called it a “cardio day.”  Of course the word “cardio” hasn’t ever really played into my so-called workouts either.  Heck, I get winded walking up the stairs from the locker room.  Oh well.  It’s a new year, and it’s my annual routine, so why change it now.  They’ve upgraded the gym considerably since I was last there, so it was nice to see all my dues at work.  I didn’t mention it to anybody though, for fear they would respond “Uh, yeah, we did that last November, glad you like it.”