Dancey Dance

Laney got to be in a Yo Gabba Gabba/DJ Lance-Dancey Dance/Vans tennis shoes commercial. It was filmed last Monday. She had a fun time and we can't wait to see it. She has the best camera smile. And she got a pair of shoes out of it.

Thanks to Christian and Shanna for thinking of us and including her.

Sons of Bishops

Back in Early July I emailed Stuart and suggested we seek out another organized ride/race to do together this year. He in turn suggested we do the Salt Lake City to Saint George relay on 21-22 September with an 8 man team. I was feeling pretty good about my cycling this year so in a moment of weakness I agreed to do this.

I was a little anxious to know exactly what I would be doing. After looking at the leg breakdown, I knew there were some legs I didn't want to do. It seemed like I could do most if I had to. But, I really prefer to do just flat or SLIGHTLY downhill.

I bought myself a really good light for riding in the dark and a safety vest and continued my good training. We met the Sunday before to plan out who would ride when and iron out some other details. After this meeting I kinda decided to probably ride a total of 6 legs instead of the bare minimum three.

The team was: my brother in law Stuart Porter; his brother Jason; his son Cody; his sons in law Landon Ball and Clayton Starnes; Clayton's father Ric; and his brother in law Justin Pitcher. The title of my post comes from the fact that two of us (Ric and me) are former Bishops and Justin is currently serving.

I didn't have to start until about 2:30 in the afternoon in the Highland area. We had Ric Starnes starting and Stuart doing the climby leg over Suncrest. Stuart passed me the baton and continued riding with me for the third leg as well. I think that was a good idea. And we should have tried harder to continue the practice. During our leg we really pushed each other and put in a good time. We put our team (Sons and Brothers) 20 minutes ahead of our closest competitors.

I stayed with Ric and Clayton Starnes for the fourth leg. But, we didn't really work together much. I was kinda tuckered and lagged behind a little. Stuart says we still would have done better working together. I believe him. We still put another minute into our lead over those other two teams.

We were doing well and still ahead of those closest competitors (On Your Left and Richfied Riders) until the sixth leg. Landon Ball was riding and had some pesky trouble with flats. Precious time was lost and we never re-gained our place. Later on right before my last leg, Stuart's light battery died and there was a protracted delay in getting another rider on the road.

I rode from Highland to Elberta and then from Salina to Richfield and then from Kanab to 7 miles outside Fredonia, AZ. My light worked great. On my last two legs I stayed even with OYL and RR and then put one more minute into them on the last. The most difficult thing about this race isn't the miles it's the hours and the logistics. I couldn't really rest during the night partly because I was anxious and partly because there was a lot to do to make sure everything went smoothly.

After my second ride into Richfield (right at 10:30pm) my stomach started giving me problems. This sort of thing happened once before after a ride where I consumed some EFS gel (I now think the granola bars might be the culprit.) I got all crampy and could have used a bathroom, especially later in the ride. If not for these problems I think I would have also ridden into transition 11. Justin took the leg into T11 and then Stuart into T12. On both of the those legs we put 10 minute into our rivals. So, all in all we gained at least 40 minutes against them and then lost it all.

It was fun cheering each other on. When we got near the end we were once again closing on OYL and RR and Stuart was really pouring it on. He closed the gap. But, was unable to catch.

The picture above appeared on the SaintGeorge.com website :

I remember seeing the photographer. I turned my head away so that my light wouldn't shine into his lens in case he wanted to take a picture.

Everything went well. The course (on highway 89) was pretty good. But, not the safest, especially at night. We had a guy in Gunnison express his “concern.” He was moreover frustrated with cyclists and threatened to have the cops “gather us all up.” Yeah that wouldn't be a logistical nightmare.

We came in 9th place at about 23 hours for the 462 mile course. I rode slightly less than 80 miles at a slightly faster than 21 mph pace.

When we got into Saint George we took a little break at Grandma and Grandpa's house to shower. Then we had lunch at Olive Garden (while fighting our fatigue.) And then we left for home. Stuart got into Cedar City and couldn't stay awake. I hadn't really slept because I was afraid of Stuart's condition. I got some No-Doz type stuff and then drove the rest of the way home. Stuart and I kept each other awake having a nice chat.

A River Runs Through it Part Deux

Last Friday the Stake had a nice get together evening for the Stake Leadership and their spouses. It was a lot like the handful of Bishop's retreats I attended, only just the one evening.

A dinner buffet was provided at President Daw's house in the ample backyard. There was prime rib and baked potatoes and chicken for those so disposed and other treats. A desert bar followed. We had a very enjoyable time visiting with others. We sat with Mary Williams and a friend, the Maynes, Ernie Smith and wife and Laurie and Randy Carlson.

After the meal we had tickets to go to the Freedom Foundation at Valley Forge concert commemorating the 225 anniversary of the signing of the Constitution held at the Tabernacle. I wouldn't just volunteer to go to something like this. But, I'm very glad I went.

We parked at the new City Creek mall. It was my first exposure. I found it to be as nice as I had been told. A river runs through it, well City Creek. But, I don't expect to spend much time there.

The first two numbers on the program didn't do too much for me, partly because it seemed the choir was not singing at full voice. One of my criticisms of the choir lately has been aimed at this sort of thing. The choir has really developed a very warm mellifluous homogeneous sound. But, I often feel like they are only using the talent of the choir and not the power as well. It's a little like having an 800 horsepower car that you only drive at 60 mph.

After the first two numbers though they did sing out a lot more and I would say it was thrilling and I don't think they were holding back at all. The rest of the program was phenomenal. I typically don't really like Sunrise Sunset or God Bless America. But, it was all thrilling. The Orchestra was phenomenal as well. It was really a treat to hear the Battle Hymn live. They still use their tried and true arrangement, with some slight and welcomed tweaks to set it apart from the favored recording from the 50's or 60's. For the last line of the final chorus Brother Wilberg turned around and invited the audience to sing. It was all quite moving. And now I can say I have sung with the Tab Choir.

Ulcer 2012

Ameer has been after me to do an organized ride. For a day or two I thought we might be able to work him into the Salt to Saint relay with our team. That wasn't going to work. I have never done the ULCER century in Utah County. We are usually in San Clemente when it is held. But, this year we went to the beach a week later than usual and that opened up the possibility.

I have heard that it can be a little gruelling if the weather is really hot and the wind kicks up. As the weekend approached it looked like the weather was going to be great and it was.

We decided only to do the metric distance (about 61 miles.) Ameer has done almost a 47 mile ride with me in the past. But, I didn't want to make the jump to 100. I'm not sure I want to do full centuries anymore.

The morning was great. We got off to an early start, partly so we could make sure we finished before any weather changed. We started out at a good pace and fell in with a fast group for about 10-15 miles or so. But, the course at that point had a lot of turning at intersections and after having to slow down some for each turn and then try to catch up again afterward, I was sapping my energy pretty quick. On a less turney course I might have been able to hang with them longer. I didn't want to just barrel through all of the turns with the big unwieldy tandem and with Ameer on the back.

At one point we came up on a girl who I took notice of. She fell in behind us and stayed for a little while. Then I didn't see her until we were on our way back. Somehow she fell way behind us.

We saw one accident with casualties off the side of the road and ambulances arriving. I was kinda glad then that we didn't try to stick with the fast group. It was probably connected.

At one point on the way back an "older" couple passed us as we neared a light where we needed to make a left turn. Ameer didn't like being passed by these weaker, less virile riders. So, he got a little bit of a bee in his bonnet and we regained the lead and then left them in the dust. I think it was a little hard for Ameer to maintain a high output. More for concentration than for fatigue.

Our goal was a 20 MPH average. At one point we were up around/above 20.5. But, ended up coming in right at 20 mph. It is a very flat course and there was negligible wind.

We stuck around for the food and goodies afterward just long enough to eat a little. Most of the riders were still out (doing the full 100 miles.) So, there were actually very few people there. We had some Fazoli's Alfredo and some Coke on tap (the Coke was very yummy, I think someone boosted the sugar) and listened to Beck on the loudspeakers. All in all a good ride.

Labor Day Weekend 2012

I've checked with others (family members) on this. So, I'm not completely up in the night. It has seemed to me that the mood of the country (now granted my polling methods are a little suspect) has not been very “up” for a couple of years. I can't trace it all to the election of Barack Obama. But, it seems to coincide somewhat closely.

However, we did see a marked bounce in our mood after the RNC. Especially, we all noticed what a nice Labor Day weekend we all had.

We went out with the Youngs on Friday night. We ate at Costa Vida (yummy tres leches) and then went to our theater to see Saints and Soldiers, Airborne Creed. Not as good as the first one. Had lots of story items that were unnecessary or went unused. The French girl didn't look very French and while her spoken French sounded good to me, she did not attempt to affect a French accent while speaking English. Most of the American actors (probably largely LDS) all had the same look, except Corbin Allred, a very good actor. The director relied on the wearing of a beret to indicate that the player was French. The main players traipse out in the middle of an open field, etc. Like I said not as good as the first. But, still.... WAY better than Twilight.

Saturday, I got a lot of things done around the house, catching up from our vacation. We had the annual High Priest steak fry that evening. The weather threatened to be unfriendly all day and when our thing started it was quite windy. But, it calmed down and we were fine. We had some people come out that we have never seen before. So, for that reason alone it was a success. But, the food was also VERY good. The steaks Kyle bought for us at the Main Street Meat Market looked suspect in the packaging (it was just the color.) But, they were very tender and very tasty. The crowd was lots of fun and amiable. A good time was had by all.

Monday we all went to Leslie's for the end of the Summer family get together. All seemed to be in a great mood and getting along well and again the food was very good. A fitting end to a very nice Summer.

San Clemente 2012

Another San Clemente vacation has come and gone.

This was a very nice two weeks. For the most part everyone got along well and worked together to make it nice.

Since Ailsa and Jensen were on their way home from the UK, it was just Lenore and Laney and me in the car on the way down. We had an uneventful and pleasant drive with no problems or even traffic until we got onto the 5 freeway in Irvine. Traffic was backed up because of a truck crash somewhere down the line. We limped into Capistrano and finally got off to find the Costco and do some shopping. We ran into Jeff and Kim Bean and spent a little time chatting with them.

Laney and I REALLY wanted to get down to the beach. But, right after unloading at the apartment, we had to get cleaned up and dressed to go back to Tustin Hills Racket club for Melissa's wedding. While getting dressed, I realized that 1) I had brought a mismatched pants/suit coat set; and 2) I grabbed the wrong shirt and did not have any cuff links. The wedding and dinner were very nice.

To honor Morteza's family the food was Persian and it was quite good, especially the Walnut paste/sauce. We had fun visiting with our family and also with Kris Hendryx and with Doug and Dan Rozsa and their families.

We stopped at the John Wayne Airport on the way home to pick up our weary world traveling kids. It was sure fun to see them again and hear their fun stories. Their bags were extremely heavy. I don't know how they lugged them around the UK for two months. After we got back to the apartment they gave us all some gifts they bought us over there,... and mine was a set of beautiful cuff links. How fortunate. It must have been fate that I forgot to bring some. The set they gave me displays St. Piran's flag, a white cross on a black field, the flag of Cornwall. How fitting. I like them a lot.

The ward we went to on Sunday ends up to be a different ward now, no longer that of Debbie Stapley. It is the ward of Brent Jesse, Larry Wares, and Mark Goings. It was fun to see them and catch up.

True to form we arrived just at the tail end of a bit of a swell. The surf was still nice probably through the first Thursday or so. I had lots of fun bodysurfing. But, I find I have to be real careful about trying to do more than I can. I had a little bit of a cold the first week and so I didn't have the breathing ability that I would normally have. I had to be careful not to get too winded. When I was out in the water Laney was usually right there with me or trying to be. She's gotten quite fearless. One day I went with all of the girls closer to T street and didn't bring my fins. But, I was still able to catch some waves and have a lot of fun.

I was being a little careless and some of the waves were breaking in fairly shallow water. I had already hit my face once on the sand and then on the second Tuesday I did it again. I had taken a smaller wave and was only able to go straight in. I tried to kick out with a flip turn and smashed my face right into the sand. The water was a lot shallower that I had thought. My head stung but I thought I was probably fine since the first time I hit my face earlier the week before there was hardly any sign. But, this time when I got out of the water I had blood streaming down my face. It looked like someone had attacked my forehead with a belt sander. It only took about a week for it to heal over though.

Lenore and I cooked Hamburgers one night and Carbonara another. It was pretty good. We thought we might need to cook another night. But, it worked out that we didn't.

I was supposed to do about 360 miles cycling while in SC. I fell about 10 miles short of that. We did quite a bit on the tandem. Ameer and I got up to 41.1 mph on the one spot where we like to sprint at San Mateo creek. But, we all got the cold at some point or another and we weren't able to average very fast times. I had brought quite a few spare parts and equipment for my bike, just in case. But, my rear shifter broke and needed rebuilding while I was there. The bike shops in town said they wouldn't be able to do the work. So, I rigged the dérailleur to stay on the 17 tooth cog and just rode the last 65 miles with a high and low version of that speed.

For most of the two weeks the water was VERY comfortable and near the end it was in the 70's with a couple of 75 days and one 74. Even Lenore went in the water. It was very enjoyable. Maybe we should plan on going a week later every year. The only problem meteorologic-ally speaking was the last two days were overcast, so it was slightly anticlimactic.

Daniel Taylor brought a friend's soft top 7' surf board and during the second week he had me help him out and show him and Ameer and Laney what to do. I tried the board myself. But, it was quite small and squirrelly for me. I really need a bigger board. First I took some time pushing them into waves and having them try to stand up, first from their bellies. If that was too hard (and it usually is) I had them kneel on the board and do it that way. Most everyone is able stand up from their knees. This gives them some security and confidence and makes it more fun for them.

Then I showed them how to push off from the bottom onto their knees or belly and then stand up. This way they don't have to do a ton of paddling. Because, let's face it those paddling muscles haven't been used for anything else and won't be in shape. They all did this quite well too. After a while they were trying new things on their own. All three did really good. But, I was especially proud of how fearless Laney was. She wasn't afraid to try to paddle out quite aways, almost to the normal lineup and give it a go. She said she really enjoyed it. I know what I will be doing for the next couple of years there.

I spent some time feeding the birds. I know they don't like you to do it. But, hey it's fun. The pigeons are the most fearless. Several times I would have them scrambling over some poor unsuspecting sleeping relative (usually Leslie) in pursuit of the crumbs I was throwing.

For years we have talked about walking from the pier to the Western White House (President Nixon's old residence, it is the last house on the beach before you cross into San Diego County.) I was pretty sure I knew where it was and how far a walk it was. Last year we went about 2/3rds of the way. This year on the second Wednesday we took some time and did it with the whole family and Sarah. It is a long ways about three and a half hours for us to make the round trip. I tried to stay on harder sand. But, the tide was high and we ended up walking a lot in softer stuff and on a fairly steep slope.

There were some guys surfing at Cottons. One of them had a chocolate lab who was just frolicking in the surf. He would get completely engulfed in a shorebreak and then shake it off and go back for more. It was fun to watch him. This is where we found the hut that Laney crawled into for the picture. It has been years since I have been down to this area I forgot about the rocks. I don't know if it does this at low tide. But, with the high tide some of the (football sized) rocks at the tideline get pushed around and then roll back out with the waves over other rocks. It makes a really neat clacking sound when they hit each other. It would be a pleasant rhythmic sound to fall to sleep to. We saw lots of gulls and pipers and some cormorants.

There is an older man whom I have seen running at San Clemente I'm sure every year for the last 20 years or so. Last year our eyes met and I think he recognized me and gave me a knowing nod. I saw him again this year. I wonder how many more years I will continue to see/notice him there.

Diggy and Flowers by Jensen

Racing Head to Head

One of my cycling friends introduced me to a website for tracking rides and performance (strava.com.) I already use bikejournal.com for this. But, this new site lets you upload your GPS info and has some other neat features. Since most people don't do the exact same rides as others (or at the same time), it's hard to compare performance as you could in a head to head race. Strava lets you divide your route into segments that other people cross on their rides. Then you can compare the same parts of your rides with others.

Lenore was laughing at me the other day. There is a segment on my usual ride that I started paying attention to. To begin with my performance on this bit was about in the middle of a 250ish person pack. One of my pals was in second place. So, I decided to see what I could do to come up in the standings. I did pretty good one day (put me up to maybe 14th or something.) Then I noticed there was a “girl” ahead of me in the standings. I decided I needed to fix that.

Well, Yesterday I pushed hard. My speed was 27.4 mph for a third of a mile with a rise of 30 feet and I tied for sixth place with the “girl.” Lenore chided me for my jubilation. I did a little checking on my female nemesis. It appears she does do a lot of racing and stuff. But, I also found that she is 59 years old. That was quite amusing for Lenore and she said that 59 years old is hardly a girl. I said if she is doing better than or just as good as me, she's a girl, not an old woman. Note: I have since beaten "the girl." I pushed my time on this segment to 39 seconds, average speed 30.7.

Google Street View of our Apartment in San Clemente

That's our car in the garage.