Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Turning the corner, part 2

A few years ago we rescued a couple cats. In that first year, one of them was killed by a neighbor's dog. The other, Socks, was the one that made a trip to the church under the car and another car trip out where she apparently bailed along the road. She dislocated her hip and always had a limp. She was a little grumpy but pleasant. When we rescued two more cats, she always kept her distance. Earlier in the week she didn't show up at feeding time which was not like her. I saw her later when it looked like she was stalking something (cat's are little assassins!). Another day went by without her eating. Then Sunday afternoon she was asleep on the deck. She looked sickly but not in distress. I figured I come home Monday and end up taking her to the vet.

I came home early yesterday to meet a driver delivering a load of crusher run. I did not see her all afternoon. While I was fixing dinner, Brock was outside playing while Shelly was clearing a flower bed. I suddenly hear Shelly yelling. I rushed out to see Brock sobbing. I assumed he must have found a wasp nest since he was playing under the porch. Instead it was "hey I found Socks, oh, I think she died". Indeed she had. Shelly took Brock and I took care of wrapping her up in a blanket and burying her near the old ash tree where Rocket (Ethan's cat that was killed by dogs) is also buried. That was rough.

Continuing the comments about talent in our school from the last posting:
When I was a senior in school I was in the drama production. I don't actually recall the name of it, but it was small. Props were a couch and table. Lights? They were either on or off. Audio? Speak loudly. Singing? Nope.

We attended Alexander's musical production of A Little Mermaid. The school is lucky to have a few individuals that are passionate about the arts and drama in particular and volunteer tremendous amounts of time and energy on this. Much like we expect from our coaches and athletes, these folks have raised the bar for theater. The kids stepped right up too.  The result was a professional production. One that developed and showcased talent, not just of the "stars" but the crew as well.

Not that we didn't work hard when I was in school, but the arts were (and still are in many cases) something you did as a child, nothing to be serious about. Draw some pictures, get out some water colors, squeak on a recorder, maybe bang some cymbals, and when you grow up you also grow out of it.

I am happy to see the rise of the arts.

Bike tires:
Maxxis is a Team Athens sponsor. I will say that I am very happy with every Maxxis MTB tire I have used (even before they were a sponsor). This year I also picked up a pair of 700x25 ReFuse tires for my road bike. I really don't race the road so I didn't need a fancy racing tire. More, I needed a tire to ride broken chip and seal, something tough with some volume. I put them on a couple weeks ago and have a few miles on them now.

Narrow. Like crazy narrow. My last tires were a set of Michelin Pro 4 Endurance in 25. Even with the brakes opened up the tires would squeeze through the pads. Not these. I can literally remove the wheel without opening the brakes. They also feel stiffer, though it could be all because of the volume. Really, I can't get over how much narrower they are than my Pro4's. Can't comment on rain worthiness though, haven't been caught out in it yet.

I had over 2k miles on the Pro4's. The front still had some life left but the rear was pretty square so I finished it off with the trainer over the winter.

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