Once a source of "Not all you want to know about Texas Adventure Racing," but now just some "leisure" adventure through the eyes of "The K-SPoT"

Friday, September 26, 2008

PQ Badlands?!

who's gonna twist my arm...Oh, Primal Quest, you have betrayed me yet again. You told me you were going international in 2009, giving me a good excuse for not subjecting myself to your pain and suffering. Now you say you are heading to South Dakota! WTF. Need to find a good excuse, soon!

Monday, September 22, 2008

Excerpt Read at Dave Boyd's Memorial

Dave's last photo, bagging Little Bear peak...thanks for taming us...
It was then that the fox appeared.
"Good morning," said the fox.
"Good morning," the little prince responded politely, although when he turned around he saw nothing.
"I am right here," the voice said, "under the apple tree."
"Who are you?" asked the little prince, and added, "You are very pretty to look at."
"I am a fox," the fox said.
"Come and play with me," proposed the little prince. "I am so unhappy."
"I cannot play with you," the fox said. "I am not tamed."
"Ah! Please excuse me," said the little prince.
But, after some thought, he added:
"What does that mean--'tame'?"
"You do not live here," said the fox. "What is it that you are looking for?"
"I am looking for men," said the little prince. "What does that mean--'tame'?"
"Men," said the fox. "They have guns, and they hunt. It is very disturbing. They also raise chickens. These are their only interests. Are you looking for chickens?"
"No," said the little prince. "I am looking for friends. What does that mean--'tame'?"
"It is an act too often neglected," said the fox. "It means to establish ties."
"'To establish ties'?"
"Just that," said the fox. "To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world . . ."
"I am beginning to understand," said the little prince. "There is a flower . . . I think that she has tamed me . . ."
"It is possible," said the fox. "On the Earth one sees all sorts of things."
"Oh, but this is not on the Earth!" said the little prince.
The fox seemed perplexed, and very curious.
"On another planet?"
"Yes."
"Are there hunters on that planet?"
"No."
"Ah, that is interesting! Are there chickens?"
"No."
"Nothing is perfect," sighed the fox.
But he came back to his idea.
"My life is very monotonous," the fox said. "I hunt chickens; men hunt me. All the chickens are just alike, and all the men are just alike. And, in consequence, I am a little bored. But if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life. I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others. Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours will call me, like music, out of my burrow. And then look: you see the grain-fields down yonder? I do not eat bread. Wheat is of no use to me. The wheat fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad. But you have hair that is the color of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat . . ."
The fox gazed at the little prince, for a long time.
"Please--tame me!" he said.
"I want to, very much," the little prince replied. "But I have not much time. I have friends to discover, and a great many things to understand."
"One only understands the things that one tames," said the fox. "Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things all ready made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends any more. If you want a friend, tame me . . ."
"What must I do, to tame you?" asked the little prince.
"You must be very patient," replied the fox. "First you will sit down at a little distance from me--like that--in the grass. I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings. But you will sit a little closer to me, every day . . ."
The next day the little prince came back.
"It would have been better to come back at the same hour," said the fox. "If, for example, you come at four o'clock in the afternoon, then at three o'clock I shall begin to be happy. I shall feel happier and happier as the hour advances. At four o'clock, I shall already be worrying and jumping about. I shall show you how happy I am! But if you come at just any time, I shall never know at what hour my heart is to be ready to greet you . . . One must observe the proper rites . . ."
"What is a rite?" asked the little prince.
"Those also are actions too often neglected," said the fox. "They are what make one day different from other days, one hour from other hours. There is a rite, for example, among my hunters. Every Thursday they dance with the village girls. So Thursday is a wonderful day for me! I can take a walk as far as the vineyards. But if the hunters danced at just any time, every day would be like every other day, and I should never have any vacation at all."

So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near--
"Ah," said the fox, "I shall cry."
"It is your own fault," said the little prince. "I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you . . ."
"Yes, that is so," said the fox.
"But now you are going to cry!" said the little prince.
"Yes, that is so," said the fox.
"Then it has done you no good at all!"
"It has done me good," said the fox, "because of the color of the wheat fields."
...

--Antoine de Saint Exupéry

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Assault and Battery Charges on Ike (the Hurricane, that is)

roadblockSo its almost a week since Ike hit the Houston area and caused widespread distruction and chaos. This was the scariest weather event I have ever sat through, and this is coming from a kid from the Philippines, which always experiences some type of monsoon or typhoon activity. It didnt help that the neighbors tree slammed into the house everytime a huge gust came through. I doubt I slept a wink Friday night/Saturday morning. Trees are down everywhere and signs certainly didnt fare well in the high winds.

yep, its gonna be a whileTo keep us occupied, we have been mostly hanging out at Aaron and Whit's house, sitting on the porch with drinks, harrassing the passers-by. The rub of it all is that their neighbors right accross the street have power while they dont--so we curse them daily. In reality, it isnt that bad for us since we have hot water, a gas stove, and an intact house, which is a lot better than those who live in or near Galveston. We just cant store any fresh food at the house or wash our clothes--we had to visit Caroline last night to get that done!

bad trend!The latest news for our zipcode, 77007, is wonderful: "[these] zip codes have sustained extensive damage, and will therefore have a restoration timeline that extends beyond Monday, September 22." Yipee. It really bites because the houses just a block away have power and we have to drive by their electricity using arses everytime we head in or out of the neighborhood! For those who know me, they know that I like making charts...its the enginerd in me. So here's one of the history of outages for our neighborhood. Notice that the trend looked wonderful for the first half, but then has worsened and stalled for the most part. Does not look good for us.

hm, havent seen one of these in our neighborhood yet...Since Dave Boyd's memorial service has been moved to this Saturday, I wont be racing Terrafirma. It was a mutual decision by the whole team since the hurricane has disrupted all of our lives. So I plan to do that and then just clean around the house a bit. I'm sure we will be well past stir-crazy by then, so we probably will have to do another day trip like we did last weekend. The only issue is what to do with our dog, Rock. He's still a puppy, so he is a bit unruly around new surroundings.

Nothing much else to report. Have been intermittently heading to the park for brick workouts. Planning to head downtown on my bike to take pics of the blown out windows of the skyscrapers. Hopefully life returns to normal soon, for all of us.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

UPDATE: Memorial Service for Dave Boyd

photo courtesy of the Houston ChronicleDavid Boyd's Obituary

There will be a memorial service this Saturday the 20th @ 2 pm.
Emerson Unitarian Church, 1900 Bering between Westheimer and San Felipe.

There are several articles, blogs, and slideshows about Dave popping up on the web, so I will not add to the cacophany. Merely do a search and you'll find it.

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Thursday, September 11, 2008

Dave Boyd's Memorial Service is POSTPONED

Due to Ike's insistance on paying his respects, the memorial service will postponed to a later date. I will post the new date once I hear of more information.

Saturday, September 06, 2008

Dave Boyd: Amazing Adventure Racer, Even Better Friend

Dave Boyd, courtesy of Lori HazelwoodIt is with an extremely heavy heart that I post this blog. Dr. Dave Boyd, the captain of Team MOAT and Houston native, has passed away. His body was found early Friday morning in the Lake Como area in Colorado, after he had summited Blanca, Ellingwood, and Little Bear, all on Sept 3rd. Initial reports from the search and rescue team relayed that it had appeared that Dave fell 150-200 ft before succumbing to his injuries.

All of us in the adventure racing community are in utter disbelief. I had just visited Dave a couple of weeks ago at his house, where he helped me with the lymphatic issue in my neck. He had mentioned he was going to climb the 14'ers and then later meet up with his girlfriend and her kids. I just have no words...only denial, hoping, wishing that this has been just a very bad, cruel joke.

As I have only known him for a couple of years, I can only imagine how his family and closest of friends are dealing with this. But I feel so cheated because I was just only recently starting to get to really know him--I had just got a taste of his loving heart. He was always positive, helpful, and genuinely interested in what you had to say. For a while, I so wanted to hate him because he seemed to effortlessly win all those races. But you could not hate the man--he was just too nice.

Now, I am just so happy that I had the chance to meet Dave. He has touched so many lives. I only hope that God took care of him in those last minutes as that was the least he deserved. In truth, he deserved a lot more than this. We Love You, Dave.

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Please Support Us for the Race for the Cure

I'll be running with the Stress Team in October. Click on the logo below to donate for a very worthy cause! Thanks a ton for your support!

I am a Slug

chicks dig scarsSo its been over a week since my surgery and I'm slowly getting back to normal. My jaw still hurts a bit and the muscle that they cut through is still a bit tight. Saw the doc--Doc Olson this time since Parke was on vaca--and got the stitches pulled. Scar didn't look as bad as I thought it would, but I'm supposed to keep it out of direct sunlight or risk it getting darker. Well, I should be okay there because I'm on orders to stay away from exercising for about another week. Man I feel like a slob. I'm just dreading that first day of training back--it is going to be painful!

the red pillSo to pass the time I've been doing more work around the house, prepping for our engagement party. If you didnt get the invite for some reason, drop me a line and I'll send you the details. Should be fun--its been a while since the last party. Before I knew I wasn't suppose to engage in exercise, I went out with the crew last Saturday to celebrate Lauren's birfday. It started off at Ziggy's, which was odd, and ended up at IHOP. Yes, it was a late night. In between, we were at Uropa for some dancing. I did my best Jabbawokeez impression. I was so out of shape, that the next day my hammies were sore! Nice. It was good to get out tho--I had been cooped up in the house for almost a week and the Home and Garden Network can be entertaining for only so long.

Unfortunately, that's all I have to report. Sadly, I will miss Run Bike Paddle next weekend...I was looking forward to doing that one. If you have any AR news that you'd like to report, send me a note and I will post.