Happy Tuba (and No Pants) Day!

For those of you who don't know, there was a time in my life when I played the tuba (sousaphone during marching band season) - primarily during my senior year of high school. I had started as an euphonium player and then switched to also playing trombone, electric bass and then the director told me he needed me to play tuba for concert band. Then during my last fall in Germany I didn't play football because we would be transferring mid-season so instead I joined my friend Ed Trevarrow as the other sousaphonist in the marching band. Now remember, I was 4'11" tall at this point and the sousaphone was almost as tall as me. Ed, on the other hand was 6'5" - it was a sight to behold.

When I moved to Killeen, TX and had to audition for the various bands at Ellison High School, they already had enough trombonage in the jazz band so I ended up playing electric tuba (a transducer was added somehow) for stage band - I think the highlight of my career there was being in the stage band when we opened for Maynard Ferguson;

I then proceeded to graduate from high school and I haven't played a brass instrument since.

However, I have continued with one of the other passions that I found in high school and that Ed and I used to do together - cycling. So the opening shot could be considered a trip down my memory lane of things that Connor used to do in high school!

What else is today? Aparently its National Child Care Provider Day, Children's Mental Health Awareness Day, World Asthma Day, and No Pants Day! Really? We have to have a national decree telling us its alright to not wear pants? I think my good friend The Bikesnob (okay, he's not my good friend but I do read his blog a lot) would relish the opportunity to celebrate this day - as I'm sure nudists everywhere are doing. I would post some pictures of people vigourously and joyously celebrating this holiday but I don't want to lose my PG rating. So Instead, I'll include this posting of an article from a website entitled "We Hate Pants". You can visit them at http://www.wehatepants.com/index.php/Home

Does wearing bike shorts today count as no pants? Hmmmm......

Also, for those of you who have been following this (I realy wish I knew if I had any followers - IF THERE ARE ANY OF YOU OUT THERE, CLICK ON THE LINK TO THE RIGHT AND BECOME A FOLLOWER! Tell your friends to follow it - if I know people are following me and commenting maybe I'll come up with more interesting introspection) you'd know that today is the day that Bicycling Magazine is supposed to list the semi-finalists of the "Win Any Bike" contest. Well they have a posting saying its not going to be announced until May 11. So, go on to their site and view my video and make some comments, rate it, tell them its good and maybe I'll make it to the semis!

But I digress. The IMPORTANT thing is that its still National Bike Month and its a gorgeous day out there so tuba or no tuba find a good time today to enjoy the weather, put your two wheels in motion and try not to run into a parked car!

That's all for now peeps (to quote High School Musical),

Stay well and I'll see you on the road.