Busy Summer...

So its been a quite a while since I posted anything, which is kind of ridiculous since I am at home pretty much every night. Regardless I suppose I have a few months to catch up on. Towards the end of June I went to the Ozarks for the first time ever and outside of the long drive in the car it was pretty awesome. As usual, the trip has biking on the agenda as I went with Tarble and Berry. We got down to Osage Beach late on a Friday, got up early Saturday and rode just under 60 miles and then went on the lake to find somewhere to eat. Tarble has three boats down there, so we had plenty of options. There are tons of restaurants right on the lake and we place we stopped was crazy will tons of people and this terrible musician who was only playing the first few minutes of every song, but we got pizza and loaded fries and it was pretty good. Sunday we got up early for a shorter ride of 40 miles or so followed by some more time on the lake and stopped at a place called Dog Days, then headed home. Overall it was a pretty awesome trip even though it was only for a few days. Trips with Tarble and Berry are always a riot. You've got to love people that laugh at everything.

The last few months have take me to two very good concerts. In the beginning of August I drove up to Alpine with the Noonan's to see Jimmy Buffet. We met up with the other half of the heirs to the HKI fortune (Joel and Keely). We got to the venue between 2 and 3 and I remember thinking this is going to be a long day since the concert didn't start until 8. Tailgating actually went very quickly as I pounded four or five bottles of YooHoo. The costumes and get-ups there were pretty crazy and I saw too many overweight women flashing their goods… of course… one of those would have been too many. The concert was pretty awesome. I was a completely different atmosphere than any other concert. There were a least a hundred beach balls fly around and everyone was carefree… but that was probably because half of them were high. It was pretty overcast all day long, but the rain held off until 30 minutes after Buffet finished up. Then a week and a half ago I ended up at a Stone Temple Pilots concert at the US Cellular Coliseum. STP exceeded every expectation, or lack thereof, that I had set. They were unbelievable. Weiland came out in a leisure suit with sunglasses and hat. It was quite the show, definitely one of the best I have seen. Well worth the scrambling we did to round up $15 tickets.

In between there I had my college coach's retirement/ reunion party. It was a lot of fun. One of my buddies is taking over at EIU, so he has move to town after being in New Zealand and San Antonio for the last 5 years. Friday night was a pretty big cookout at Scott Ebinger's house in Charleston, which was a lot of fun. My coach has had a mustache for the last 30 or 40 years and he had shaved it off and it made him look 20 years younger. It was good to see some of the people that I swam with and talk with older swimmers and hear there stories of Ray and swimming in general. Friday night left me going to be at 3 in the morning followed by riding 40 miles with Berry at 8, then off to Sullivan for my niece's 1st birthday. I left Sullivan just to make it back to Lantz, soon to be renamed later that night Ray Padovan Pool. Bos, Dore, Spitz, and I swam about 3,500 yards or so, only to find out from Bos and Dore that I have been swimming wrong for the last 20 year… I've been living a lie. Since these fancy New Zealanders have worked with some of the best coaches and swimmers in the world, apparently they learned a few things, which included the best techniques and training methods. Its never too late to switch things up right? Anyway… that night was the banquet for Ray. It was very good and it was announce that the pool was going to be renamed for Ray, which apparently was totally unexpected by him. If I coached somewhere for 43 years I would have expected it, but its just another example of how humble Ray is. You would never know they guy was the fastest man in the world at one time. He actually gave a speech in which I thought he was going to cry, which in turn almost made me cry, since he has been such an important part of my life through my time at Eastern. Following the banquet everyone went to Styx and then to the swimmer house, which ultimately left Schmidt and I eating salsa from County Market at 3:30 in the morning. One final breakfast at What's Cookin' and I was on the road back to Bloomington. All in all the weekend at Eastern was awesome and Ray was well deserving of everything.

And the final note this weekend I drove up to Madison to swim in the US Masters Swimming National Championships which is a 2.4 mile open water swim. I ended up going by myself which was cool since it kind of forced me to meet new people. I took all day off on Friday to drive up and check out Madison. I just happened upon two pretty huge bike shops, so I spent some time there and then walking around downtown for a bit, before I met up with Berry's niece for some Afghani food. What was I thinking? It actually wasn't terrible, but I wouldn't recommend it. Wisconsin's campus was really nice and there was a lot going on. State Street in Madison is similar to Green St. in Champaign, expect there is a lot more going on and the road is blocked off from through traffic. There were all kinds of shops and local restaurants. Saturday morning at 8 was the race, which by the way caused me to miss the 7:00 start time of the continental breakfast where I stay, which fired me up. Water was a good temperature and the water was fairly calm. The race was pretty close throughout and ultimately ended with me creating a little space about ¾ of the way through the race and holding everyone off. So up until the point that I pulled away, I was with small group of people which I later found out included a girl who at some point was 4th in the world in open water swimming and guy who swam Olympic Trails two months prior. Needless to say I was in good company. It took all I had to finish in the time that I did although I think the course was slightly longer than 2.4. I ended up getting a pretty ugly "trophy" but its pretty sweet (check the pictures) and a patch that says National Champion which is kind of amusing. After the race I ended to a Farmer's Market that Madison has every Saturday and then walked around in the Capitol Building before I headed home.

So yeah I have had several pretty fun things going on the last few months, but not overwhelmingly so. No real thoughts or observations today since this post is already going to be super long. Thoughts of the day… Do you best to stay humble… there I always some one who can do something better or faster. Have fun, take time off and enjoy what you do. You never know what you are going to be dealt. Much love.