Our trip to NYC

NYC is like Zingo.  It is constant forward movement and sensory bombardment to the max.   It is both exhausting and exhilarating at the same time.  But, I like it a lot.

Our first night, Saturday, we went to Times Square.  Like Bell's amusement park, NYC has it's "junkie kid's stuff" and Times Square is it.  This area is probably what you think of when you think about the city.  Huge TV screens and lots and lots of people.  On the night we went the Occupy Wall Street protesters had decided to take it over.  This made it even more crowded than usual.  The police were out and they made it so the protesters could march.  This made it a lot more crowded than usual for the tourists.

On Sunday morning we went to the Hungarian Pastry shop which is across the street from my favorite old church, that I've seen, in NYC, St. John the Divine.   Walking to the church we found a really cool very small sanctuary garden with this statue in it. 

Next to the church is a really large and wonderful statue.  It has characters from Noah's Ark added to the rope like fencing. 


Then we found a restaurant where Seinfeld was filmed. 

 Next we went to Central Park, where there was a walk for breast cancer.

 We saw the Guggenheim Museum, which I wanted to go to, but they were in a transition for a new gallery show, so I didn't get to, next time, perhaps.

 They were making a film near the park. 

 Central Park is amazing.  I read it costs 38million to maintain, every year.  There are so many beautiful fountains. 

My First Mini Triathlon Completed!

It was a cold day in Buckner, Kentucky and even colder in the water when I swam the required 400 yard serpentine laps, but I was smiling all the way.  Then jump out of the pool and be sure to drag your foot across the blue mat so your time is recorded.

On to the transition area where I put shirt and jacket on over my bike shorts and swim suit I wore in the pool.  No time to change clothes, just layer, bike shoes and go.  Then walk your bike out of the area and cross another blue mat to begin the bike ride, 10.5 miles around the morning mist covered hills of Kentucky.  This race had 2 really large hills and a few progressive climbs.  Horses and cows and spectators were cheering us on.   Bringing up the rear an ambulance screamed past me.  There was actually someone BEHIND me, that needed some help.  Coming back into the transition area, a careful dismount and drag your foot across another blue mat.

Remove jacket, put running shoes on and take off across another blue mat and begin the 2 mile cross country run.  I'm smiling and tired.  I love the outdoors and Kentucky has some pretty beautiful parks, Wendell Moore being one of them.

Then across the finish line and into the building for pizza and socializing.

What fun!  I'm onto another new hobby.  I now have an outdoor hobby, triathlon training and an indoor hobby, quilting.  Life is pretty good.

Bike Riding Poem

The Gears

Damp swirly roads make my bed
Patty Griffin in my head
Low gears are friendly and happy

Arcade Fire lifts it up
climb those m'r f'n hills
Pushing and pulling
the high gears command

the dimension is near...smile.

Well, it's coming down to the wire.  My first triathlon is going to be next Saturday, September 10.  I received my letter from the organizing committee addressed to Dear Triathlete!  I'm number 224 out of somewhere around 300 entries, I guess.  Maybe there are only 224 entries!!?  It's all gaged on my swimming time.  All those years at the Collinsville pool, growing up I guess created a love for swimming.  It's so sad they had to fill the pool in in my hometown.  The costs are heavy on small towns where the jobs are drying up.  Running a pool proved too burdensome.  I have so many fond memories spent there. We would find empty pop bottles and sell them at the grocery store for a nickel and walk to the pool and spend all day there.  I used to be able to dive off the high dive.  I'd probably break my back now.  If I had an extra million dollars, I'd go to Collinsville and open that pool up again.

I digress, I might do okay in the swimming portion and possibly the biking portion of the triathlon.  Everyone will pass me on the running trail.  I am a participant/finisher for my first race, so it's okay.  This is a goal I have set, and I hope I can make it and compete and finish.  Everyone needs some goals in their life.  It's an important part of our lives.  Setting goals and accomplish them gives me something to look forward to.  Reading over what I've written, I  need to set a goal and make myself not end so many sentences in prepositions!!

If you want to come and cheer me on, I'm in the water at 8:11am.  Then out and on a bike, for about an hour and then I run for around an hour.  I doubt I'll be going too fast after getting off my bike, when I've rode for 10.5 miles up 2 pretty challenging hills.  You can enjoy one of the many beautiful parks we have here in Kentucky.  This is the Wendall Moore Park, with the John Black Aquatic Center and then on the bike along the beautiful hills of Kentucky, highway 393.

I will collapse at the finish line and say Go Cards!!  That's really for Collinsville Cardinals, but, everyone here will think it is for the Louisville Cardinals.

Triathlete! That

I've been