I Have Been Changed

So today I was going to write about how I beat my best time ever to get to school - saving the best for last. I rode like the way in to school today was a time trial and I rode like the wind, only to be slowed down on my favorite descent past the Cold Spring Harbor train station because the cars ahead of me were going too slowly.

And then we had our last day faculty meeting. I have sat through these for thirteen years now and I always find myself wondering what would I ever say when its my turn to retire. Well today was no different although in reality I'm probably fifteen years away. However I found myself very emotional today, more so than I usually am. Part of it was the emotions of those retiring. The open tears and the held back ones as well. Three people who have helped shaped who I am today as a teacher gave their speeches - Rich Mancini, Rich Collins and Dr. Jorge Schneider.

Each of these gentlemen have shaped me as a teacher and have had a lasting impact on the program I run and as a result on who I am as a teacher. It was odd sitting in the audience and being singled out by both Rich Mancini and Dr. Schneider for special recognition. I really didn't expect it nor do I feel I truly deserve it. With Rich Mancini I am truly losing one of my main collaborators and one of the people that has helped me develop the production values of our theater program into the astounding productions for which we are known.

However, there were two of the speeches that touched me the deepest. The first was from Dr. Schneider. Truly if it wasn't for his vision and his support of the arts as an important part of the overall education of a person I wouldn't have a job and I wouldn't have the enviable position of being able to work with the most amazing students at Syosset High School. My job is truly a blessing because I get to work with students who are passionate about what they do and they push themselves to the utmost for a few short performances baring their souls in front of complete strangers. And they do it with total abandon and trust in me that I will not make them look foolish. To be able to walk into the Little Theater every morning and see their faces and hear their voices is truly a gift and makes me love my job every day. Again, without Dr. Schneider and his vision I wouldn't have this job so his departure truly left me in tears.

His speech centered on change and that as sad as it is, change is necessary to keep us growing and reaching our potential, otherwise we become static, dull and boring. There is a quote I once came across that goes something like this, "Change has a bad reputation in our society. But it isn't all bad — not by any means. In fact, change is necessary in life — to keep us moving ... to keep us growing ... to keep us interested . ... Imagine life without change. It would be static ... boring ... dull." And that is true. Even the loss of a loved one, and I've had too much of that this year, causes change and it is a change that can help us to grow if we let it.

The second speech that had a major impact on me had less to do with what the speaker said than what he facilitated. Chuck Gleason has been my across the hall neighbor for about nine years now, every since I moved into my new digs. Today he moved out and they started moving in one of the school psychologists in his place (and he did make a few "digs" to that effect). However, at the end of his speech he had some of his SADD Improv kids perform two songs - Jason Lederman and Ally Cohen performed "Everyone's A Little Bit JAPpy" which is a parody of "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist" from Avenue Q (what do you call a parody of a parody by the way) and after that Brittney Rutigliano and Ally Cohen performed "For Good" from Wicked.

	Original Cast Recording - For Good .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

I was in tears for so many reasons, not the least of which one of my students who has changed me for good was singing it. You see, all of you students (and I hope some of you do read this) have changed me and it has been a continuous process since the first day I began teaching here. I think back to some of the faces in my memory and some of the amazing performances you have gifted me with (this year especially) and I know I could leave the profession today and be full of pride in what I've done with you. But more importantly you have taught me the importance of trust, of joy, of love and of support - particularly this year. The love all of you have given me the last thirteen years and the love you have showered my family with has changed me. Your yelling at me for what you thought were bad casting choices have changed me, your thanking me for my good casting choices that your EARNED (you should know I never make pity casting a practice) have changed me, and your amazing performances because you ultimately have trusted my casting choices have changed me.

As I sat there listening to Brittney sing so beautifully the faces of all of you from this year stretching back the last thirteen years came across my vision (no, I didn't quite get 'Connor Face') but I saw you all clearly - as you were then and as you'll always remain in my mind.

At this year's ACT Banquet (hosted by Dan Incalcaterra and his family in their gorgeous new home - thank your mother again for me Dan) I was going to sing for the kids a song that I quoted at the ITS induction. Its a song by Garth Brooks called "The Dance" and once upon another lifetime I filmed a karaoke video for it that I know is circulating because my wife saw it when she was in a karaoke bar in Akron, Ohio but I can't seem to find it on the internet.

Instead, I leave all of you former students, 2010 graduates as well as 1997 ones the following song and instead of the lyrics "holding you, I held everything" replace them with the lyrics I was going to sing "teaching you, I had everything". I miss you all my friends, for you have changed me for good.

	Garth Brooks - The Dance .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Stay well my so many friends and I will see you on the road - someday.

Riding With Jamie!

So I got the chance to do something today that I sort of never thought I'd get the chance to do - ride with Jamie Swan.

Now you have to understand, I have been in awe of Jamie for years - he's just so damn cool! He used to race bicycles and then he was a mechanic for a few teams before deciding to open his own bike shop in Centerport, NY which he eventually moved to down town Northport. (You can read all about it here http://www.jamieswan.net/) The shop always fascinated me and I finally got the courage to go in one day. It was a small little shop in which he did lots of repairs and had a mixture of new bicycle parts, vintage parts and vintage machine tools.

I found that he wasn't unapproachable and actually would talk to me about things and answer my questions and I learned a lot from the few conversations I had with him. However, I've still always been in awe of his amazing life and have always secretly wished I could do what he did - open a bike shop (this of course is not to take away from my sponsor Chuck Adams and the great place he runs. I knew that lived in Northport and that he and a friend of his often did rides around the area. We even saw them in Port Jefferson a few times for the Fourth of July parades. But I would never in a million years dream of saying, "he let's go for a ride".

Well, today I had that opportunity! As I was commuting in today I saw someone stopped at one of the intersections I travel on as part of the 25A alternate bike route. It wasn't until I passed through the intersection (okay, I may have pushed the laws of motor vehicle observance a bit) that I noticed the rider had a Centerport Cycles jersey on. Well, there's only one person I know who might wear one and I had just passed him. I kept going knowing that there was a long light waiting for us up front and sure enough, Jamie rolled up next to me. We exchanged hellos and we talked about our rides and I explained how I was running late and he shared that this was the first time he had ridden to work at his new job (since he closed the shop in 2007) at Webb Institute in Glen Cove. As the light turned he said I don't want to keep you and I started out.

Now, it must be mentioned at this point that my average mph was hovering around 20 mph (see my previous posting "20 mph - Booyah!") so not only was I running late, I was also hoping to perhaps better my previous average. As a result I was humming along at about 22.7 ish when I look down and notice my shadow is stretching out in a different way - Jamie's on my wheel!!!!!

So I keep pulling and watch as our average picks up to about 23 and change - and I keep pulling. Knowing this particular stretch as I do I point out the obstacles to him as we pull up to the intersection of West 11th and West Oakwood Road ( I have to say, isn't technology cool!);


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At which point I signalled to turn right and he said he was continuing forward onto W. Rogue's Path. At this point I started cranking (not racing - as my in-laws would say) and I knew that if I could just keep my pace without blowing up I would meet him again at the intersection at the bottom of the hill as it gets ready to go to Cold Spring Harbor train station. Sure enough, as I came bombing down the bottom I saw him waiting at the traffic light to cross and I waved and kept on going.

Now you have to understand I know that there is no way I could ever "race" Jamie Swan and win - not even on one of his worst days. However, I was time trialing in the sense that I knew if I reached the bottom of Stillwell and was averaging at least 21 mph I might beat my fastest time so far this year. At the bottom of the hill I had 20.9 - there is still a chance!

So I start spinning on the way up the hill. I didn't want to blow up but I needed to keep it at a high cadence so I could ride my own ride and finish perhaps with at least 20 mph showing on the computer. Of course, I also kept checking over my shoulder since I was convinced that Jamie would come barelling up the slope behind me and pass me up. He never did but I kept cranking. At the top of the hill - much to my chagrin - the computer read 19.9. Agggghhhhhhhh! So I really had to push it to get it back. By the time I got to the intersection of Cold Spring Road I had gained back to 20.0. Now the race was on, could I get it up there to 20.1?

I just dropped my head and started cranking away reaching speeds on the flat of 24+ (not bad since I was still tired from cranking up the hill) and I saw the odometer creep up the 20.1 just as I got to this point (again, I love technology! I'm not good at it, but I love it);


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The entrance to the teacher parking lot!!!!! I had done it and I made it to school just a few minutes late - oops! Oh well, there is always tomorrow to make a run at an even faster average and time!

Now, its off on my way back home and this wonderful sight;


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Tonight we are taking Sarah out to Sushi Park for her birthday (its so hard to believe she's 11 today!) and we're telling her all about her trip to Alaska! She is going to freak! I'll tell you all about it tomorrow

Stay well and I will see you (in about 30 minutes) on the road!

Booyah!

So as I promised yesterday I was going to get back to the blogging about bicycling and this morning's ride was the perfect incentive. Now, its no secret that I'm not this guy;

But I'm not quite this guy either;

I'd say I fall somewhere in the middle although I have been working to reduce some of my spare baggage around the middle in an effort to climb better and ride faster. My goal is to ride with the group again and not get chewed up and spat out;

	The Kooks - Ooh La .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Well, today I took a step (or should I say a revolution) in the right direction. I've found that I have much better rides after a day off and I think I've learned that I need to give myself a day off before my next group ride.

For you see, today my average mph for the 12.75 miles to good old SHS was (trumpet fanfare please) 20.0 MPH!!!!!! My time for the ride in was 38.25 and that's what I'm talking about! Yeah, its geeky and its way to cycling centric but I don't care - I'm getting faster. Now, I won't lie, I wish I would have one a new bike in the contest and I could have chosen a bike that was a little bit lighter (hence creating a faster ride) but honestly since I would be getting a cyclocross/touring bike I don't think it would be that much slower.

No, I think the reason I'm getting faster is that I'm losing weight. Again, I'm not quite to the point of the guy in the second picture but I have been carrying a little too much extra weight - the results of my habit of eating after 8 o'clock. Slowly but surely I've been shedding that weight and when I weighed myself today I found that I was 166 - the lightest I've been since November. That alone is enough. You see, I don't need the latest, lightest or most expensive road bike ever (click on this link for the world's most expensive bicycle http://most-expensive.net/bicycle) - although I won't lie that a lighter bike would be great.

No, I need a lighter, more efficient engine - namely me. So, I'm embarking on a quest to get down to under 160 pounds by the end of the summer. I'm cutting back on the late night bingeing, eating breakfast to jump start my metabolism (something I have rarely done in the last few years as I really hate eating in the morning), eating more fruits and fibers and cutting down on empty calories. My reasoning is this - if I can lighten up the engine and gain some power from riding more maybe I can keep up with the big dogs - well that's the theory anyway.

So I now have a more immediate goal.  Every year I do the Gold Coast Ride (Official Gold Coast Link) and the fastest I've every completed the 100 miles is about 6 hours and 40 minutes.  This year I'm hoping to get my fitness level up  so I can do it solo (no trying to pace or keep pace with others just me and my ipod) in six hours.  I figure this will give me some perspective for the cross country ride I'm hoping to do in the summer of 2011. 

Now the plan is to keep this fitness level up and blow the lid off me previous pace - and become a lean, mean cycling machine in the process - BOOYAHHHHHHHH!

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

Pride Becomes Them

So its Wednesday and I've been riding all week - except for today. I've had some good rides and there is nothing like the feeling of taking a descent at 40+ mph at 7:00 in the morning and only slowing down because the cars are going too slow. Okay, maybe a nice MLT - ya know, mutton, lettuce and tomatoe sandwich (skip to 2:47 if you don't want to see the entire thing);



Yes, these have been some great days for riding. However, that's not the main reason for writing tonight.

From my wife and my in-laws I have learned some interesting phrases one of the biggest (although I don't quite pronounce it properly) is qvell (or as it is sometimes spelled kvell).

Main Entry: kvell
Pronunciation: \ˈkvel\
Function: intransitive verb
Etymology: Yiddish kveln to be delighted, from Middle High German quellen to well, gush, swell
Date: circa 1952
: to be extraordinarily proud : rejoice

And that is exactly the feeling I had watching the girls from Advanced Dance do their project this evening. I was hoping to have a video from youtube to put here but I haven't been able to find it yet. I do have this clip from facebook; http://www.facebook.com/?sk=messages#!/video/video.php?v=1344528098045&ref=mf at least you can click on that and see if for yourself.

All in all it was a hectic year and I have to apologize to the girls for it. Getting myself motivated for first period (i.e., 7:40 in the morning) dance class was not easy this year and it was made doubly hard when the girls weren't into it either. I think next year will be much better with the classes being 3rd and 4th periods. Be that as it may, I feel like I let the girls down this year in that I never really got as excited about the class and therefore they never got as excited either. Next year my goal is to make it fun and interesting for all involved.

Part of how I'm going to do that is start wit my classes this summer at Sunrise Day Camp. As many of you may know I've taken a decidedly different path this summer. Since I have to take two college courses this summer I wasn't going to be able to work at Park Shore for the summer and devote all the time I would need to do the job so I contacted Sunrise about working with them for the summer. I've just attended my third orientation session with a few more scheduled over the next week. There are a lot of orientation sessions but its for a reason. They are really working on us creating a real sense of community not only for the kids but for the counselors as well. Already I know about 15 of the counselors by name and I can only imagine that number will grow.

I also feel like this summer I'm going to make a real difference in the life of a child in a way that will be immediate. If I can get these kids to be motivated and have fun in dance and drama, then I can do that with my kids next year.

So you see, I don't look at this summer as a drain and as if I have to work - my hope is that the rejuvination that these kids will also rub off on me and I'll be ready to bring a sense of fun back to SHS and my daily classes as well.

Okay, enough waxing philosophic and kvelling all over the place - next post will be about riding, I promise.

Stay well and I'll see you out there!

Mr. Mom!

Okay, so through the years some people have said I bear a resemblance to various actors. There have been Michael J. Fox; Or Gary Sinise;
Or even Michael Keaton: I really don't see it. Okay, with the haircut maybe a bit of Michael J. Fox or Gary Sinise but I think its either the haircut or the fact that we're all vertically challenged. To be honest, I'm nowhere near as good looking as those guys as you can see from the photos below;
Although my wife and kids look fabulous as they always do! They obviously have all the good-looking genes in the family.

Anyway, Amy was busy today selling our family possessions as she took part in a community garage sale. We loaded up the cars and got everything (including the kids) into the cars and at the site by 9:00 - even breaking mamma's cardinal rule of no food in the Subaru! Of course, this created conflict as the kids "helped" unload and saw so many of their "favorite" (yet unused for years) toys. We finally talked them down "off the fence" and got them back into the cars to go home and assault the day - and what a day it was!


Let's see, the boys had a pool party and we prepared by singing this song over and over;

	The Aquabats - Pool Party .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

But in our joyful musical rendition, we also had work to do - because both Sarah and the boys had games today! I know Amy doesn't think I "get it" (her daily routine and her daily planning of the assault of the day) but I really do get it. In a sense I felt like Michael Keaton in that great movie Mr. Mom. I only wish I had a trumpet so I could wake the kids up like this;
How much fun would that be? The kids' rooms don't look like this but their playroom sure does!

Well we got everyone and everything loaded up and the boys to their party. I got them ensconced in their swimwear and gave them instructions not to go into the deep part of the pool, left instructions with the lifeguard on duty and took Sarah to get her photos taken before her softball game.

We got Sarah there and got her registered for her photos. I stayed around until I knew there were other people there and she would be okay to start (which I really hated because I was going to miss her team playing The Golden Nuggets - the best team in the league) and then I had to go back and supervise the boys at the party.

So after about 45 minutes at the party with the boys I had to trundle them away (at least they had a chance to eat cake) before I had to get them back to fields because THEY had a baseball game. So, I drag them away (under duress), take them back to the field and change them in the bathroom at the field. Now, from start to finish, all of this has taken about two hours and change - wheeewwwwww!

So I get the boys to their game (did I mention I'm an assistant coach? I have the hat and the shirt so I guess I'm official) and we get them all lined up and ready to go. Fortunately, because it was a Saturday chock full of birthdays, conflicting soccer games, and other fun events the other team only had five players so the innings were quick. However, before we even finished Sarah was there saying her team had TIED the best team in the league! She would have been the winning run but another player was thrown out on a forced run to second - it was that close and I missed it!

So we all went and got ice cream to celebrate at one of the two competing Mr. Softee trucks (its like a school of sharks I tell you) and we went home to prepare the house because on top of it all it was movie night!

At the end of the day I was Mr. Mom - I got all the kids through their day, no one got seriously injured, the house was cleaned up and we all had dinner and a movie! The joy of raising kids!

That's it from the Connor house, and I promise another cycling blog soon.

Stay well and I'll see you on the road REAL soon!

How Lovely to be a Father

Okay, so today's post will have nothing to do with bicycling. Okay, maybe a little bit at the end but really that's not the main jist of this post. Although I will apologize cyberly for my Irish temper a little later as well.

Yesterday was a day we've been looking to for a long time. Yesterday, being Memorial Day is one of two very big days at the Connor Household - the day we sell lemonade for a worthy cause. For those of you who don't know me as well (AND AGAIN, WHY AREN'T YOU PEOPLE SIGNED UP AS "FOLLOWERS" - okay, no more yelling, be how nonplussed do I have to get to get some followers around here? You know, officially register, get your friends to register, maybe I'll start using this as a political forum to discuss important political theory - oh wait, time to get back on task) might not know that Sarah has been running a lemonade stand twice a year since she was five years old. Just follow the link to your right and you can go to her website. Recently she was awarded the EPA's highest award, the Environmental Quality Award and she has had many write ups for her efforts (http://www.tonic.com/article/girl-sells-lemonade-to-plant-trees/ and http://www.newsday.com/long-island/northport-girl-raises-money-to-plant-trees-1.1481191 to mention a few) and I can't tell you how proud I am that she does this all on her own.

Well, this year there was a bit of a problem as the neighbors two doors up decided they were going to sell lemonade as well to raise money for children's cancer. Now, I'm not saying that one cause is more worthy than another and in these economically difficult times ever dime we can raise for non-profit efforts are important.

However I did take umbrage over the fact that this is something Sarah has been doing for six years now and the daughter of our neighbors has even helped sell lemonade in the past so its not as if they are unaware that this is something that Sarah does. However, to just go ahead and do it I thought was unneighborly. We weren't going to say anything but then we noticed Sarah was getting upset over the situation, especially when people bought from the other stand and would tell Sarah, "oh, we thought that was your stand". It was then that Amy (the calm one) decided to go speak to the parents a second time. You see the first time she went the six or seven girls selling (it must also be mentioned here that they were selling friendship bracelets as well and that seemed to be the biggest thing they were selling with lemonade an "also") seemed to be okay with not selling anymore and the husband was saying, "oh, okay, let me talk to my wife about it".

Apparently, the wife didn't think too much of being "neighborly" and so when Amy went back a second time I heard loud conversation coming from two doors up the street and my impression was that it wasn't working out. At that point I had had it and even if I didn't look like it, I felt like this;
I stormed my way up the sidewalk and I really wish that I had listened to Amy when she told me to stop and turn around - she's almost ALWAYS right (and yes, I do hereby proclaiming it publically on the internet for all to see) and this was no exception. However, I was by this point in this state:
and turning me around was going to be problematic. So, to make a long story short, Amy had reached a sort of tentative truce but all I heard as I walked up the street was the neighbor loudly saying, "fine, we will sell lemonade for children's cancer and you will sell yours for whatever". At that point I started yelling and ended with shouting, "what a great lesson to teach the children".

When it comes to my children I will defend them against anyone to the death - don't mess with my kids. Amy, of course is the more rational one and I too often give into my fiery Irish temper.
Needless to say, I mortally embarassed my wife - not me so much - but my wife was fit to be tied. Never mind I was defending the emotions of my child who has been so much with the exclusion of her classmates and the intellectual/emotional bullying she has been through this year - I was not going to let it happen again!!!!!!!!

On top of that, she was being interviewed by two different news crews - Fios 1 and News 12 - to feature what she does and the fact that she had recently received the Environmental Quality Award. Now that was an interesting predicament - you see Fios 1 was supposed to arrive at 9:00 and News 12 at 10:00. Well, Fios 1 didn't get there until close to 9:45 and News 12 was on time. As a result it was like dueling camera men trying to get the perfect shot and we did a round robin of interviews as each of us spoke to the interviewers in turn - it was wild. Part of me just wanted to go up the street and be very petty and say, "yes, I know YOUR children have had newspaper articles written about their lemonade stands but do you have THIS?". Petty, yes but give me a break people, do the right thing.

Anyway, so today I had to do the right thing. I have to say, Amy was terribly embarassed and she was going to go and apologize because she knew that if the neighbor said anything caustic to me I would get into it again. But after riding to and from work today to get it out of my system (see, I told you cycling would figure in later - IT IS MY THERAPY!!!!!) I came home and told her that I would apologize myself - its only right.

So with my hat in my hand (its a metaphor people) and wearing my best sheepish expression of humility;

(okay, so this looks more like my sheepish look of stupidity)

I went up the street to apologize. I swallowed my pride and I didn't try to defend my actions, only apologizing for the rudeness of my behavior. My therapist would have been proud - not of the outburst, but for taking responsibility for my actions and apologizing without getting myself worked up into anger again.

So what does the title of this blog have to do with anything? Well, sometimes the hardest part of being a father is doing the right thing for your kids, even if it means apologizing for being a jerk so the backlash isn't taken out on your kids. My children are wonderfully incredibly people and they are growing so fast and now that they understand more of what momma and daddy do and say - modeling the right thing to do is even more important.

So parents I'm sure you sympathize with me (although you, like my neighbor and myself, may think I'm a big doofus) in that we'll do whatever we need to protect the feelings of our children - yet we have to remember that sometimes we just have to make it right, the best way we can.

And with all of that, I think I need a good long ride!

I'll see you on the road!