BRRRRRR!!!!!!

We are in the firm grips of a cold snap, very cold! Talking a high of ZERO! Yesterday the cycling team did the annual fundraiser for Safe Kids Coalition to put lids on kids and purchase car seats. I was out there for about 3 1/2 hours in the cold, with wind chills -10F. It was a lot of fun and we came close to hitting our goal of $1000. People were pretty generous, giving what they had as well as bringing us coffee and hot chocolate. When I got home I was still shivering so bad that I could not control it. My toes had a bit of frost bite, one blister from the cold. It took about 1 - 1 1/2 hours for me to regain circulation in my toes enough to feel them. I had purchased some thermal booties at a swap show earlier this year to wear for the cold, but they tore out the first time I tried them on, real great quality! One of the biggest problems was food. I did not get a chance to eat much before hand so I got nailed with a horrible migraine afterwards. I really did not eat much the whole night, but was finally able to shake the migraine. The new bike worked like a charm! It was very comfortable and I did not even realize I was on the trainer for that long of time.

Next week is 2 exams, which I really need to study more, but just cannot find the motivation to do so. It's been hard knowing school is almost out. I am looking at what books to get to help me study for the NCLEX, and getting all my ducks in a row to submit all the paperwork needed to take the boards. Both exams should not be all that bad; I have been to class and have done the readings, so that should help a lot.

Well I have to give a huge shout out to my mom Chris, just when I thought spring break was dead in the water she came up with the money to send me! That is so cool; since I have not been any where for any kind of trip other then to a few states around Wisconsin (does Iowa count as a state or a trip?). Bryson City, N.C. is where we will be heading for spring break, a 16 hour car ride! My wife is pretty excited about my getting to go as well, which makes it a lot easier to leave. The idea of leaving the wife and kids for 10 days may appeal to a lot of people, but seeing that I have never been away from them before it will be kind of tough. She says it won't be a problem and things will be alright. I owe her big time!!!

Racing season kicks off next weekend in Indiana, my first race in many, many years. I am hoping things will go well. Not sure what I am going to race, C's or B's. Don’t want to get blown out of the water, but also don’t want the crazy newbie’s taking me down in a crash.

Tomorrow the Tour of California starts, it’s gong to be pretty cool. Lots of top pros will be racing here in the states. We even have a former team member racing with Team Jelly Belly, Nick Reistad. I have gotten to talk with him a few times, a very cool guy. I wish him all the luck.

Hopefully it warms up soon, winter needs to be over!!!!!!

Never Fails

It never seems to fail, once things are starting to go your way you get blind sided by some stupid event. The latest event is the car breaking down. $650 to get it fixed, which means going down to spring break to ride for 10 days is out of the question! The final cost came down for the trip, only $275 for everything. Oh well, I guess it was not meant to be. It just blows though, it's very frustrating because I finally have an opening and the door gets slammed shut, BANG! Now I am forced to go through my basement and see what I can find to sell off to help support the rest of the semester because my hours at work have been cut. I guess when it rains it pours.

The good news it that my bike finally came in! It is amazing, way lighter than my other bike and a lot more comfortable. I am pretty excited to get out on it, but we have 6-12 inches of snow predicted for the next couple of days; go figure.

School is going well. Exams in two of my classes next week, they shouldn't be all that difficult but you never know until you get there to take it. The classes themselves have been pretty interesting; the lecturers have been pretty good. My one professor is a real stick in the mud. She has no professionalism and is constantly asking for our input, but when we give it she rips our heads off. Oh well, hopefully things will start to work their way up again, but who knows!!!

A Little Sick

Well, I have gotten a little sloppy about keeping up my blog. This week has been pretty long, keeping me very busy. Monday I was sick, just a cold but a really bad cold. It was bad enough that my skin and hair hurt. I also needed to get ready for my clinical on Tuesday, so resting on Monday was a good idea. School is going well, the projects have started and the novelty of the new classes has started to wear off. Nothing big happened this week, but I still have to keep up with everything that is going on.

I did get letter back from one of the places I applied to for after graduation, and it looks pretty good. I am not going to take my chances though and plan on applying to a couple of more places. Now all I have to do is graduate, pass the NCLX exam and I am set :)

The biggest news of the week was at the cycling club meeting on Tuesday night. It was a large turn out, which was even more interesting. We discussed the new rule changes for the upcoming NCAA racing season, which is a great big joke. USAC has really taken a great thing and screwed it up. Way too many changes have taken place in one year, and way to many to rant about here, but what it comes down to is taking away the team aspect of the whole thing. The other thing that was great was the talk about the spring break trip. Going to North Carolina for 10 days of cycling is the plan, but I will have to see what the price it first. They are estimating it to be about $300 for everything, one heck of a deal. I talked to the wife about it and she thinks I should find a way to go. It's my last chance to take an opportunity to do something like this so I am going to look into it a bit more. I have been getting back onto the bike latter in the week, lasting about 2 - 2 1/2 hours on the trainer. I did get out last week Friday, it was wonderful and I really enjoyed being outside riding. Hope to get about 7 - 8 hours in this weekend of riding. Kind of down about the bike though, it's still not here and no word about when. I keep being told by the end of the week, but that has been 2 weeks in a row. I checked to make sure they ordered it for me, and they confirmed that they have, so now it's just a waiting game.