An Unfortunate Side Effect of Life

An unfortunate side effect of life is that we have to deal with death, and today I am mourning the loss of my friend Mike.  While Mike’s death was not unexpected, I am nevertheless filled with sadness to know that someone for whom I have so much respect and affection is no longer with us.

Mike is someone who I have had the good fortune of knowing for the vast majority of my life.  In fact, I don’t remember the exact year Mike and I met (although I bet he would have!); all I know is the first time I saw him I was just a pesky little kid and he was the funny, happy guy marrying my aunt’s best friend Casey. 

To some who read this, the guy marrying the friend of someone’s aunt may seem a bit distant in terms of friendship, but Casey isn’t just my aunt’s friend – she’s part of our family.  So, essentially, Mike was the guy marrying into my family, and, thankfully, he fit right in!

Mike was a sweet, funny, thoughtful and incredibly smart person with a thirst for knowledge and a wicked sense of humor.  If you ever wanted to win a Trivial Pursuit game, you wanted him on your team.  He possessed more factoids about more things than most of the people I know put together.  Mike was also very creative occupying his free time working in his garage tooling beautiful things out of wood.  Last year, he made us beautiful Christmas ornaments and each had its own unique story.  In our case, the ornament he gave to Chad and me was made of pink ivory wood that was considered so precious by the Zulus that mere possession of it was punishable by death…and I have a sneaking suspicion that he got a kick out of the idea of giving a lawyer something considered illegal.

In addition to making intricate things out of wood, thankfully, Mike was always game for a home project (although Casey claims our home projects were met with much more enthusiasm than her “honey do” list).  In recent years, all Chad and I had to do was mention that we wanted something built and he was on it.  The next thing we would know, Mike would be crawling around on the floor measuring things and taking notes and, in what seemed like record time, our dreams were reality.  We “employed” him with lunches and drinks.  No matter how big or small the project, he always attacked it with excitement.  In fact, the last time we saw Mike before he got sick, he and Chad were upstairs discussing the built-in cabinets we wanted in our den.   Unfortunately, Mike never got to start that project, but I imagine he had great plans in the works.

Happily, I am the recipient of one of Mike's final projects, which I will treasure.  Here's my new hammerhead shark:

As I contemplated what I wanted to write, I “googled” quotes about woodworking and I found this one.  It seems apropos.

“Have thy tools ready. God will find thee work.” -Charles Kingsley

I will miss you, Mikey.

Re"cycling"

On this Earth Day celebration weekend, I have read quite a few articles about recycling.  What's clear to me is that recycling does not have to only mean reusing old jars and putting used newspapers in the bin to be picked up and turned into cereal boxes.  Recycling can also include making old ideas new again.

Throughout our marriage, I have wanted to find something athletic that Guido and I could enjoy together (I don’t think marathon consumption of food and wine counts).  Our first attempt at a “couple’s activity” was racquetball, which quickly ended after I hit the poor guy in the head with the racquet.  Next was running.  Unfortunately, that didn’t last long either after we both remembered that I don’t run. 

After we tried quite a few other things, we settled on buying bikes.  To us, that sounded like the perfect activity to do together.  In my mind, riding bikes sounded so sweet and romantic.  Anyone remember Kermit and Miss Piggy riding their bikes in Central Park while singing a duet?  While I do not think we look like Kermie and Miss Piggy (heaven forbid!), I do love the idea of wearing a cute dress and heels while gently rolling through the park on my shiny bicycle.

Here’s the problem: Guido does not share the same vision.  I imagine his version is something more like this:

Okay, so I added the sunflowers, but you get the idea.   Over time, his ideas about cycling have probably evolved quite a bit, but, in general, Guido is looking to emulate Lance Armstrong and to burn as many calories as possible while riding his bike at breakneck speeds.  

Our first adventure on our bikes was about 13 years ago.  We went with his friend Adam to ride the trails at Lake Grapevine.  Guido and Adam took off ahead of me and I was doing great until I hit a wet spot on a bridge and lost control.  Before I knew it, I flew off the bridge and landed in a dry creekbed.  Battered and bruised, I decided that was the end of mountain biking for me, so I hobbled back up to the trail and walked my bike back to the car.  Some people can take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’, but I’m no Timex when it comes to off-road cycling.

A year or so later, we relocated to St. Louis and decided to dust off our bikes again.  This time we were going to ride them on the Katy Trail.  To me, it had everything to offer and more.  One, it was relatively flat, because the trail was originally a railroad track.  Two, it was groomed and there was minimal risk of me taking flight from my bike.  Third, there were lots of vineyards along the trail where you could pull in and enjoy a sip of wine.  Fourth, there were all kinds of interesting wildlife to see.

We really did enjoy riding out there, but we didn’t necessarily ride “together.”  Guido and I would start out at the same time and then I would slow down to gaze at the bluebirds and smell the flowers while Guido discovered he could achieve great speed on such a flat expanse of trail.  He would whisk away with the wind in his hair and, eventually, loop back around only to find me picking poppies and catching butterflies.  Okay, so I wasn’t really stopped to pick flowers, but I wasn’t exactly burning rubber down the trail to catch Guido either.

We took a bit of a bike riding hiatus and then, about five years ago, we decided to do a sprint triathlon together.  The morning of the race came and Guido assured me that my bike was primed and ready to go (he also serves as my pit crew).  We got to the race site, completed the swim, and set out on the bike leg, and, within a matter of minutes, I thought I was going to die.  We only had to ride 12 miles and I thought I was going to pass out at mile 4.  My face was beet red and my legs were burning - it felt like I was riding through sand.  Guido was incredibly patient and stuck with me through the entire thing.  As I collapsed into the front seat of our car after the race, I heard Guido loading up our bikes while cursing a blue streak. As he was putting my bike on the rack, Guido realized that my tires were extremely low on air.  Yes, I rode 12 miles on what were essentially flat tires.  It has taken me quite awhile to recover from that day -- about 5 years, give or take a few days.

Within the past couple of years, Guido has upgraded his bike and taken his riding to a whole new level.  He's completed the Hotter than Hell 100-mile race two times and, last September, he finished a Half Ironman.  I, on the other hand, sold my bike to a friend's wife and have been pursuing other things...until just recently. 

I now have a shiny new bicycle and, once again, we're giving this cycling together thing a whirl.  I, too, have evolved and, as a result, I've abandoned my dreams of holding hands while riding our bikes through a field of flowers...and I couldn't sell Guido on the idea of getting a tandem bike.  We're trying to strike a happy medium by riding together certain distances and then each going our own way.  Guido is pushing me to become a stronger rider and to increase my speed, which is a good thing, because I'm planning to do another triathlon in August and then we're going to ride 47 miles with my aunt in the Tour de Cure in Houston in September.  Miss Piggy and Kermit we will never be, but here's to us trying to ride off into the sunset together.

Wish us luck with our recycling efforts!  Happy Earth Day!