A Lead Sail is Not Always a Bad Thing

So for the last few days I had been very nervous.  You see, I had made a cycling "date" with a riding friend of mine, Michael Foresto, to go for a ride.  Of course, this was not without a small amount of "negotiation" with the family.  Weekends are family time and there is often a lot of things for us to do together.  However, my wife realized that it was a good thing for me to get out and try to ride with others, at least once in a while.

So Michael and I had been going back and forth for about a week trying to figure out when and where we would ride and we finally settled on yesterday and we still weren't sure exactly where we would go but we agreed we would try to tackle a bunch of moderate climbs. 

Now there were a couple of reasons that I was very nervous about this, not the least of which was the fact that I think I'm not in the best of shape right now.  The first is that Michael is an amazing athlete.  All you have to do is look at a listing of his accomplishments to know that he is a pretty damn intimidating cyclist.  Back when I rode somewhat semi-regularly with the AA group of the Huntington Bicycle Club he was always one of the ones that would be off the front leaving us all panting in his wake.  Okay, maybe not ALL of us, but almost always I would be huffing and puffing.

The second reason I was nervous about the ride was because he had invited a friend of his, Glen Corso who just happens to be a world class ice speed skater (although I didn't find out about this until a little bit into the ride).  As it was, Mike and I had been facebooking back and forth and bemoaning our lack of fitness.  Since we were planning to do some hills I thoroughly envisioned myself looking like this;

(Can you see them?  I think they're over the next hill! *puff, puff*)

So I did everything I could to prepare for the ride.  I laid out everything the night before (shoes, shorts, jersey, pump, etc.), I cleaned and lubed my bike, I hydrated like crazy, and I got a good night's sleep.  We were meeting at the Dunkin' Donuts in Greenlawn (which it turns out is only a really good baseball throw from Michael's house) so I left a bit early so I could get a hit of caffeine to give me energy on the ride.

Michael and Glen got there and we rolled out and I immediately knew I would be hurting - these guys are serious riders!  We even ran into a couple of other riders who had been following us and then as they passed us up the hill Glen took off saying, "I can't just let them pull away from us like this" or something to that effect.  I thought, "Crap, I'm going to be dropped next".  It was then that I realized Michael was suffering too.  He was showing pretty classic signs of dehydration even though he had been drinking a lot of fluids.  Now you have to understand, Mike has been through a hell of a lot physically.  He was a extremely serious body builder (and you can find the pictures online to prove it) when he was in a serious accident in 1993.  He lost his left arm above the elbow but he still managed to compete in body building competitions and even race his bicycle on the track.  He is also diabetic and has some other complications that have started to hit him lately.  Yet I am in awe of him as a cyclist and with what he has been able to accomplish both as an athlete and as an exercise physiologist.  However, he was hurting and he kept apologizing by saying, "sorry to be your lead sail and your paper anchor."

Now I was not really doing much better and I was happy with the fact that we were hitting some hills but not sprinting up them the way the Open guys of HBC would be doing..  I'm still trying to get my fitness base back (yes, I know its VERY late in the season) so I was happy to just spin up the hills.  But he kept apologizing and although I am a font of useless knowledge, I never did get the reference.  Well, now that I have done some research I find it is the title of a song by a band named ATREYU and here it is;

	ATREYU - Lead Sails Paper Anchor - Track 1 .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

It may not be to the tastes of some of you since it is what is considered "metalcore" but I like it and I think I'll put it (and a few more of their tracks) on my iPod in my cycling playlist.   It certainly makes me pedal faster.

Afterwards we found ourselves back at Mike's house and we had some coffee and chatted a bit.  The more I learn about him (and Glen for that matter) the more I was humbled that I was riding with these guys.  They truly are inspirational.  Mike in particular has come through so much and still finds a way to keep pushing forward and finding better ways to do things.  We should all have his spirit and his fight.  And as for Glen, now knowing his palmares in the ice speed skating world, I'm glad I didn't challenge him to a sprint!

What does all this have to do with Connor's Army, the mission and how we can help Sunrise?  Well, basically, we can't stop fighting, we cant' stop pushing and we can't stop searching for the answer to the question, "how can I/We beat this?"  For it can be done.  It may not happen overnight and it may not happen in the time that we want it to but we can get it done if we keep pushing ahead.  We won't always feel on top of our game and we may even feel like we are holding others back, but you never know who you're going to inspire and who is going to want to push a little bit harder because they see what we are doing. 

We (and by that I mean I) can only hope that such will be the case as we go cross country next year.  There will be days when I will feel like I'm just on a treadmill and that I'm not getting anywhere but if I just tuck my head down and keep climbing/pushing/pedaling through it I can get through.  Its my hope that my example will not only raise some much needed funds for these kids but also raise some awareness to the battle these kids face every day and yet they go on and they fight through and they embrace life - so should we all!

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

Happiness is......

"What is the meaning of life?  To be happy and useful."

                                                Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama

So with all of this talk about recession and debt ceilings and the doings (or not doings as the case may be) of our government it makes me wonder what it takes to be happy in today's society.  One school of thought is that you need to have more stuff and have all the toy and luxery items you could ever possibly desire and once you attain them you'll have happiness.  Unfortunately, the pursuit of "stuff" can lead you to feel like a rat in a maze:

(And we keep on going....where's the cheese?)

But what happens when you do get all the money and the stuff?  What would you do with it?  Would you purchase the world's most expensive yacht?

(At least gold doesn't tarnish!)

However, as I have a tendency to get seasick - a fact that causes my wife (who grew up sailing) no end of chagrin - that probably wouldn't be so feasible for me.

Or possibly you could purchase the world's most expensive home?

(I always wanted a home where I could park my 160 bikes cars)

And I have to say it would be great to have all that space but as it is in Mumbai, India it would be a real pain to commute by bike.  I'll have to pass on the house.

Ahhhhh but what about the bike?  Despite Lance Armstrong's assertions in his book, sometimes it is about the bike! And this sweet little ride, priced at a mere $102,417.60, is a gold fixed-gear from Aurumania;

(Forget the teeth bling, ride this through the 'hood)

Now I have to say I was hoping Andy Schleck would be able to pull it off!  I was really rooting for him and his brother to pull off the 1-2 on the podium of the Tour but alas it looks like Cadel Evans (yes, of "touch my dog and I'll kill you" fame)



will be the winner.  Despite Andy's amazing ride on Thursday he and brother Frank will take the podium 2-3 instead.  So its clear that all their money and the backing of the new Leopard-Trek team did not bring them happiness.

Or, for those of you with the 160 bicycles to park in the house in Mumbai, would you prefer to have one of these little babies custom installed on your property?   Would that make you happy?

So its clear that money can buy you lots of stuff?  But will all the stuff make you happy?

(This guy is obviously in search of some minimalism)

Its' truly hard to tell which side of the fence George Carlin is on;

Now according to my wife, I fall into that category of having way too much stuff.  Of course, I don't quite fall into the "Mythbusters" category of happiness that can be summed up in this Marine Corps bumper sticker;

(Not practical but I sure would like to shoot one - at targets, of course)

No, I think I adhere more to the warm puppy and surrounding yourself with family school of happiness.  Its taken me a long time to get there and I really am trying to be more "content" with what God (or fate, or karma or the Great Spirit or Earth Mother) have given me.   Perhaps a trip back to our youth and the simplicity of "Peanuts" would be a helpful reminder;



14 Happiness (From _You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown_).m4a

Powered by mp3skull.com

Perhaps its as simple as that.  To have someone who you love to be with and not worry about all the stuff and the what, just the who!

I'm reminded of this every day this summer at Sunrise as I go into the building we call "The Cooler".  There is a sign posted outside the trooper room (which are the kindergarten aged campers) that says, "Happiness is not something you experience, its something you remember".  And maybe its as simple as that, its about making memories of happy times that can last you when all the stuff loses its charm (or gets lost, broken, sold, worn out, boring).

For instance one of my all time favorite riding moments happened just this morning as I was riding back home.  I was about 18 miles into a 30 mile ride when a rabbit that was on the side of the road got startled by my presence.  I was cooking along at 25 miles an hour so I thought he (she?) would just hop into the bushes and that would be the end of it.  However, my bunny friend ran along side me only three feet from my bike for a good 50 feet.  Ultimately, in our impromptu drag race I think the bunny one, but only becuase it jumped into the bushes.  I've had lots of great bike memories and many of them are chronicled in the pages of this blog (including gorgeous sunrises, climbing mountain passes and finishing my first century) but of the memories that will cause me to smile for a long time this has got to be up on the list.

I'm hoping that next summer we'll have a lot more of them to show as I replay the greatest hits in my mind.  We are getting closer every day to our departure date from San Diego.  Right now I'm in the process of starting to use all the gift cards I've been given over the years to outfit Pearl for the journey.  I'm still hoping for an angel or two to come forward and help us with our sponsorships but I know we'll be able to get Pearl ready for her journey.

In my many eclectic readings I have come across another quote that I think describes the missions of Connor's Army perfectly.  It is by the writer Leo C. Rosten and he writes, "I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be "happy." I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above all, to matter and to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all."

My fellow counselors and specialists at Sunrise do this every day during the summer.  I'm hoping to take it one step further next summer and make just a bit more of a difference that I have lived.  If I can do that and make some memories with my family on the journey, then that will be happiness.

Well that's all for now.

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

Far Too Long - The Long and Winding Road

So all I can say is I'm sorry!  Looking at my blog I see that June 8th was the last time I wrote anything.  Tha'ts not to say that so much hasn't been swirling in my head, its just finding the time to sit down and put it down on paper, er, cyberspace.  I think part of my issue is that I feel like EVERYTHING I write has to be meaningful when in reality the purpose of this blog is not to provide enlightenment but rather information.  This blog was really conceived as a way to keep those of you who support Connor's Army updated on how things are going with our various fundraising efforts in fighting cancer.  Somewhere along the journey I got it into my head that if I wasn't scintillating or incredibly entertaining people would read my blog.  I think in the last few days I've realized that although we only have 52 OFFICIAL followers (and you incredibly special people know who you are), chances are there are many more people who do follow our blog (or at least did) and just didn't sign up.  Maybe some of you check periodically but have seen that nothing much has been going on.
Well, that is all going to change today.  First of all, A LOT has been going on in the last six weeks.  Too much to put all into one large blog entry so I'll break it up in installments as the days/weeks go on.  If you are new to our reading this blog, you can catch up on where we are by reading some of the older postings.  There are a lot (though not as many for 2011 as I really should have) and they can really tell you a lot about who we are and where we've come from.

Secondly, you can now sign up to be notified by e-mail whenever a new entry goes up so you don't have to keep wasting your time checking back to see if there is a new update - but of course, if that has been your personal cure for insomnia, I don't want to deprive you of that simply joy.  Speaking of which, here is a nice recording of it for those of you who missed it when I posted it before;

	Beautiful Small Machines - Simple Joys - MASTERED .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

A little electronica remix by the group Beautiful Small Machines - check them out if you've never heard of them at their website.  They describe themselves thusly on their myspace.com profile;

Beautiful Small Machines may be synthetic, but they’re not stupid. Caught somewhere between the 70’s, 80’s and deep space, this electro-pop duo (Bree Sharp, Don DiLego) learned about comedy from adult swim and heartache from Philip K. Dick and they’re spewing it all back out at you like a bunch of mandroids on whiskey and psycho-pharmaceuticals. Fun, Sad, Creepy and Clever – Beautiful Small Machines is the retro-future.

But I digress - which, if you've followed my blog is not that uncommon - my friend Danielle and I (actually she's a former student whose become a family friend now) usually go into these long rambling stream-of-consciousness correspondences so I think I've discovered that my brain just works that way - I make connections and my mind follows.  It might be a Gemini thing, I'm not sure.

Anyway, back to the point.  An incredible amount of exciting things have happened in the Connor household since my last blog entry.  The first is that (as it is for most everyone) it is summer vacation!!!!!!!  Now I love my job and I think I'm one of the luckiest people in the world to be able to do what I do with students who are so passionate about creating art and to be able to raise a family doing it.  But I do enjoy the (only slightly) more laid back pace of summer.  I don't have to worry about attendance or schedules or grades - I can just enjoy the days.

Now, my enjoying the days is different than someone elses.  Of course, given my own devices I would be either riding my bike all day or reading (right now I'm rereading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in preparation to see the last movie and in case you - like me - are wondering why Tobuscus hasn't done a parody of the trailer yet, here is a fairly good substitute).  Or watching movies like this one;




But I am fortunate in that I do have a great job for the summer as well - one that rejuvenates me and reminds me what life is all about - working at Sunrise Day Camp!  To see the difference this camp makes in the lives of these campers is truly a humbling experience.  This year is a little different in that I'm only teaching drama instead of dance and drama but in doing so, I work with EVERY single camper in the entire camp from ages 3 1/2 (the Acorns) to 16 (the CIT group) and to see these kids have fun with drama and see them create and play really reminds me of why I do what I do during the year!  It makes next summer even more important.

And the second reason for the title of this blog now becomes clear - it is going to be far too long before we get on the road!  It will be a long and winding road to get to where we need to go and I appreciate all of you that have supported us.

For those of you new to reading this blog, we have had a few "missions" over the years since Connor's Army was created.  We've raised $13,000 for The American Cancer Society, we've held a few Victory Rides (the most recent one to benefit Sunrise Day Camp) and we've even enlisted Sarah to help in our efforts.

Our latest mission is our most important one yet - we are going to raise $50,000 for Sunrise!  It won't be easy and we still have a lot of underwriting sponsorship we need to procure to make it completely happen but we're well on our way.  We have some supportive sponsors already, we have 780 followers on our facebook page (yes, you can click on the blue to add us to your likes or just click on the button in the upper right of the page), and today we just had our first article in a national bicycling magazine - Bicycle Times.  They are now one of our sponsors and we're hoping to reach even more sponsors now.

Why "far too long"?  Because as of right now we are not scheduled to leave San Diego until June 23rd, 2012.  Its a long way off and there is lots of work to be done but part of me can't wait to get started with the riding.  This past year we lost three of our Sunrise campers to this damnable disease.  I've lost another couple of friends to the disease and one of my colleagues, Jeff Rozran, is now fighting his own battle with lung cancer.  This journey cannot begin soon enough for with every pedal stroke I'll be fighting this disease for my family, my friends, my colleagues and my campers.

We have a little less than a year now and we still need sponsors.  We keep hoping that a few more "angels" will step forward and offer to help us.  Its become very frustrating becasue we keep reaching out to various businesses but we never receive an answer.  Not even a "no" just silence.  And although the sound of silence can sometimes be a wonderful thing and can help you reach that state of inner peace;



(Everybody say Ommmm)

or maybe yours looks more like this;

(Everybody say Kung Fu Panda)

However, the sound of silence has not brought any inner peace to us.  It has really perplexed us and left us wondering what we have to do to find the truth of the matter is that we need help to be able to make this happen.  If any of you reading this have any ideas, let us know as we are willing to try any angle to help us raise the funds we need to make this happen.  We know that now we are starting to make the PR connections the donations to the camp can start to flow into the camp.  Our hope is that people will see what we are trying to do and will open their hearts and their purses to these children.  I mean, if we could raise $12,000 with me just commuting 2,000 miles in an entire year, we should be able to generate $50,000 for me doing the same thing in just 70 days.  But we need to find an angel (or two).

	Thrice - Send Me An Angel .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

And that is part of why this is far too long.  The mileage doesn't bother me - I know we can do it.  I just want us to get started, to get started in fight and to get these campers the funds that will make an incredible summer possible for them.

And now one last song to get us all in the mood.  Every day as they cross the camp, a group of campers called the Timon Boys sing their own version of a classic Queen song, "We Will Rock You".  Instead of "We will" they sing "Timon Boys" will rock you!  So bear that in mind as you listen to an oldie but goodie;

	Queen - We Will Rock You .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Stay well and I'll see you on the road (and in this blog MUCH more often)!