This weekend was....exciting.

Friday, Chris took Freddy to the vet to find out what was causing the limp. It turns out Fred sprained his ankle and in theory shouldn’t be off the leash for 6 weeks. Humph. Right. Our two year old shepherd mix who’s used to a run, if not doggy play, every day is now going to quietly sit and wait for his ankle to heal. (Chris said the vets were amazed at how solid he is! After 6 weeks of sitting around eating doggy treats, that won't happen.) But we’re doing our best with him, and he wasn’t off the leash at all this weekend, so 2 days down, 40 to go.

Then Friday evening we headed off to Cincinnati for a weekend of races. Chris announced for the men’s elite UCI (that’s internationally recognized) race on Sunday. We arrived at the exit for our hotel around 8pm, and that’s when the transmission on the Race Taxy breathed it’s last. But even in our bad luck, we still had good luck. We were two blocks away from our hotel, and as Chris coaxed the car into the hotel parking lot, we went past a mechanic. Saturday morning we spent trying to line up a mechanic (didn’t want to get too crazy on prices if we could avoid it, so Chris called around), get a rental car, and get some sort of plan in place. Chris rode his bike to the rental car place, but I gave him wrong directions and his 6 mile ride turned out to be 17 miles. Then we flung all of our stuff in the car, and headed off to try to catch the race. Usually Chris rides the “B” race, but that started too early for us to get to. So we went with the next plan, which was Chris riding the “A” race. We got to the race at 2:00. The race was supposed to start at 2:00. People at registration were wonderful beyond belief, and the race was running a bit late. So he did get a chance to race, although I’m sure he felt hammered by the time it was all said and done.

Once the race was done, Fred and I went back to the car and mixed Chris’s accelerade. When Chris got back to the car, we started talking to the woman next to us, Ann, who not only turned out to be a friendly, wonderful person, she also lives near the race promoter for the Sunday race, Mitch. Since were staying with him that evening, it made things really easy. We followed her to a nearby restaurant for some munchies, the promoter’s girlfriend met us there, and then we followed her home. There we met Indy, the Jack Russell Terrier. Indy wasn’t pleased to meet Fred at all. So we kept them separated for a while, but eventually, tentatively let them hang out together. They seemed to do ok at first. After about 15 minutes, Indy had enough of this kindness to the intruder, and I can only describe her leap at Fred as resembling the rabbit scene in Monty Python’s Holy Grail. She leapt from about 6 feet away, it looked like a wire was attached to her back, and the dogfight ensued. Somewhat. They were the worst fighters in the world, thankfully, as no damage appears to have been done. Anyway, despite the dogs not getting along, the humans did, so with Freddy snoozing in a bedroom and Indy curled up by Mitch’s ear on the sofa, harmony was restored.

The next morning we were off to the cyclocross race. The weather was fantastic, the high hitting around 75 in mid afternoon, sunshine, crystal blue skies. I cherish these days because the very first cross race I went to after Chris and I started dating was 40 degrees with snow, sleet, and slush. That’s more fun for the racer, but not fun at all for the spectator. It was a really cool set up, with a fabulous course, some trials guys showing off their skills on a bike, free hamburgers, and lots of fans near the start-finish area. The course was fabulous, and we had a great time. Chris did really well, placing 4th, and then wowed the crowd with his skills on the mike. SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! Unfortunately I didn’t pay as much attention to my hydration as I should have, and I was pretty sick and dehydrated when I got home, leaving poor Chris to do all of the work, and bring me a bottle of Gatorade, while I crashed out.

Soooooo…as Chris puts it, after this weekend we’re on a really tight budget, which means no more going out to dinner, we can’t take Fred dog to the dog park to hang out, and we’re ditching the cable box this weekend, so no tv. If anyone needs us, we should be very easy to find.
- posted by cam @ 8:24 AM