Totally Awesome

So I just thought I'd share the coolest thing that happened to me this weekend...

I was running a project at work all weekend long, which means I was getting up at 3:30 so I could be at the plant at 4:30 to open it. Yes, they have a 3:30 in the morning too. Anyhow, I was letting Tycho out for a tinkle at about 4 in the morning and as I was waiting on him I heard something strange. My house is near the top of the ridge and with the leaves down you can hear a pretty good ways. So what did I hear that was so worth you reading this post?

I heard the lions roaring. Yes, it's true. For some eerie reason the lion(s?) at the zoo were roaring up a storm. I can imagine how it would be unsettling if you were out on the plains somewhere... Tycho just wanted back inside.

More Updatin'

I've been nearly banned again by all of the people who link to my "blog" so here we go:

I've spent the last month and a half domesticating the new dog, working, riding, and getting into trouble in general. Here are some recent anecdotes:

Trek did a demo day at Haw Ridge last Sunday. Lots of folks went out, and I got to ride a new Fuel EX with Abby and Boogy. That's an awkward scene - correction - I rode the bike, Abby rode her own, and Boogz just ran. We got back to the parking lot and I went for another lap with Jennifer Allison, giving her some coaching tips along the way. We had a fun time and Jennifer found her mountain biking nemesis: bridges (which she later conquered). We got back to the parking lot again and hung out with the stragglers. The nice thing about stragglers is that they are all there for the beer, especially Dave, who drank half of his weight in it. It's alright though, because it made him a lot of fun. Not more fun mind you, as Dave is always fun, just different drunk Dave fun. Other than that the only festivities were related to Rachel making fun of us.

I worked the last UT game against N. Illinois with the rescue squad. We actually got some calls in our mini ambulance (a modified mule with a stretcher mount on the back, lights, and sirens). The toughest one was an ETOH patient who was also hearing impaired and combative. We had to calm him down, package him up, and transport him to a full sized ambulance. I'm glad we got some excitement, because the people at the game didn't get any.

The weekend before we did the black bear rampage. It's a 40ish mile mountain bike race on the Tanasi trail system at the Ocoee. I did it last year and it was a hellish swampfest of persistent light rain. This year it was as dry as a bone and super fast. Gary Fisher showed up, and Floyd Landis was supposed to come but he got scared after he heard I was coming. I gt a free entry from the B.D. unit the day before the race; who could turn that down? It was a lot of fun although it was a bit tiring...

I've got nothing else. I'm going to bed.

The house is getting fuller

So I've been looking for a dog for a while now, and I finally found one that I connected with. He's a pretty cool guy and very laid back. I got him at the Young Williams animal center, which I recommend to everyone. I get to go and pick him up on Tuesday after he gets tutored!



I think I'm gonna name him Tycho.

Finally - I have the internet! And it's time for an update. For all of you that have a link to my blog, please refrain from deleting it as I will try to keep things a little more fresh around here.

Last Monday I had the bright idea to commute to work, which is pretty standard. It was a beautiful day at 4:55 as I looked out the window just before the end of the day. By 5:05 when I had changed my clothes, the weather had done a 180 and turned into a monsoon. I decided to wait it out, but the radar showed little hope and at 5:45 I decided to go ahead and brave the torrents. I think it was one of the more miserable commutes I've made, mostly because the rain actually hurt.

I got the nerve up to ride again on Thursday, and it was nice enough only to rain in the middle of the day. I did find out exactly how great the Knox county road management was when I came upon this on Asbury Rd.





Yes, my feet were wet for the next 7.5 miles.

Life and timely updates

Hmmm, I haven't updated in mass e-mail form since last summer. Here's what's in the news!

Housing:

This one is on the top of my list and for good reason. It's been an interesting time since my last update in June. My former roommate of 2 years and friend of 8 years got married in September. Good for him. As such I was forced to find a new roommate or take over the entire rent. I resolved to find a new place of residence with a roommate that I had met only a few times. Upon taking residence in our new apartment, my newly found roommate requested that I move out as soon as possible. I'm still not sure why, but I guess it's all for the best. I moved in with Jeremy's brother Chris and we had a great time living up on top of Cherokee Bluff. But wait, the moves aren't over. I moved after three months there when I was afforded the opportunity to move into one of the rescue squad stations. The beauty of this is that it presents almost all of the benefits of apartment living but with no rent of utilities. The only requirement is that you staff four shifts a week if there is a truck available. There has not been a truck available since December!

That makes 3 moves in under a year's time. Let's go for one more. Moving is fun, right?

Living at the rescue squad station allowed me to save a little extra cash in preparation for stage II. What is stage II? I'm glad you asked. I have been using the mortgage crisis as an opportunity to buy into the housing market. After a few months of searching, I found a great place and got a contract on it! Here comes the beauty of irony. Due to the mortgage crisis, investors are pulling money out of the marketplace. Last Thursday several banks realized they didn't have enough cash on hand. They've been talking about it on NPR with all of the government bail-outs and such. Anyhow, even though my credit is excellent and my loan was a breeze to write, there were no funds available to transfer when we were supposed to close last Friday. We still haven't closed, but they assure me that we will... someday. While this isn't much more than a disappointment and an inconvenience to me, I'm sure the sellers are furious. They were silly enough to move their stuff into their new house even though we didn't close. Now they're staying with friends and waiting it out like me. In conclusion, at some point in the future I will have bought a house! Picture attached!

Work:

I'm still working at Melaleuca. Things are going well for me there and I enjoy it a lot. We got a new maintenance coordinator and a new electrician last spring and since then we have been improving by leaps and bounds. Things are still changing rapidly and we will begin construction of a huge new building (in addition to our current one) this year pending our president's final approval.

Rescue Squad:

I actually don't have any good rescue stories. I suppose that's good as nobody has gotten hurt, but they're fun to recount. I did take my watermanship test for the water team and made a record breaking perfect score! The test consists of a 400 meter swim, a 500 meter kick with flippers and no arms, 15 minutes treading water, and 100 meter towing a victim. I wasn't the fastest in each of these categories, but I consistently finished each segment in under the allowable time limit. Yay!

Racing:

I did the Icycle cross country mountain bike race again this February. I've done it for the last two years, and this year it definitely failed to measure up to its name. The day of the race turned out to be a wonderful 50 degrees and the ground was dry and fast. It was cold enough last year that I got frost nip on my big toe! With a fully recovered toe it turned out to be a great weekend!



Until next time,

-Derek-

Not enough lovin'

Abby says I don't have enough content on my blog.

Here you go abby.



Enjoy!

Don't you want something to love?

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