I've put my foot in it this time....

Well. Hello again. It has been a very long time since I have been on here, so I might just get this thing started up again.

Now I get to enter the 'be careful what you wish for category' as I am now the proud leader of the O'Brien Sketch Club.

One of my ideas over the past few years is that I would like to, at some point, teach. Don't know if I would be good at it, but I thought I would give it a try. So, I had the bright idea of combining one of my favorite things to do with the opportunity to try teaching, thus the Sketch Club.

I decided to approach my boss on the subject of creating a lunch time club that would go out twice a month and sketch locations close to the office. It seems the idea went over pretty well, so I am now the proud owner and operator of the office sketch club.

One thing I have found over time is that if you want to do something and can never seem to find the time to do it, then make someone dependent upon you doing it, then you have to do it or disappoint those who are counting on you. So, I now have to follow trough on my promise! Keep checking back here to see what comes of it and maybe I can post not only my onw work, but the works of my fellow sketchers.

So, here we go.....

Again, Things never go as planned.

Well, good intentions often get derailed. You get the job you want with people you like and doing the kind of work that you are best suited for. You even have the opportunity to complete with other firms and WIN projects that are meaningful to society. Then the Economy goes to hell. Never thought that I would get laid off. Well, hoped. I made two cuts, but got it in the end. Oh well. Such is life.

So, though I have more time on my hands than I did befre, I still have troble getting on this thing to post. Nothing like emasculation to take the impetous out of your life.

So, instead of using this thing for my therapy, I have been busy doing things to improve my house, my life, and my marketablility.

I the pattern of doing more with less, I studied for and passed my LEED exam for attempting to get this world, or at least Texas on trac with the motto: Reduce, Recycle, and Re-Use!

Next on the list is to get on with studying and taking my ARE's. It seems that having a job always gets in the way of getting that done. Well, I am now studying for and getting ready to take them all. Hopefully, I will have them all passed by the end of the summer. The thought is tht I could find a job now and possibly get paid less than what I am used to or I can get this out of the way while waiting for the economy to turn around. Once it does, I will have he ability to get a better position with more credentials.

In the meantime, I will be heading to Italy to work in Castellammare di Stabiae with my Alma Mater, the University of Maryland, at documenting annd creating a 3D model of the existing ruins covered by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. (Yes, I know that today people like using B.C.E. and C.E. for before common era and Common Era, but I prefer B.C. and A.D. I believe in Christ, so sue me.)

Thus, I will be switching to posting on another site. So, if you accidentally happen upon this site, I will be posting messages for the next couple of weeks on the following website:
http://restoringancientstabiae.blogspot.com/

I will be back to this blog when I return.

Things never go as planned.

At the beginning of every year most Americans take the opportunity to reflect on the previous year: what went well, all the good things that happened, or what went wrong.

Basically it's the "what the hell happened?" moment or "it's got to get better this year!"

The next thing we do is make lofty promises to ourselves and if we have no sense at all to others about some wish, task, or commitment we want to make. These are known as New Year Resolutions. Generally, things like:

I'm going to be nicer to everybody I meet this year, or...
I'm going to spend more time with family and friends, or...
I'm going to enjoy life more, etc.

If you are really unrealistic things spout out like:
I'm going to quit smoking, or...
I'm going to quit, er, um, reduce my drinking, or the most popular of all...
I'm going to lose weight this year, yeah right.

Historically statistics say that we tend to make these promises to ourselves and our loved ones and begin the year really well at accomplishing these tasks. However, they re generally out the door by the middle of February.

Well last year I did just that. I made some New Years Resolutions. Two in fact. Lose Weight and ride more. Now I know what your thinking. These are pretty simple. However, there are a couple of additional pieces of information that you need to have.

My office decided that they would have a Biggest Loser Contest. Three months to lose as much as you can or gain as many fitness points based on the Weight Watchers scale of activity.

Added to this was the desire to ride 5,000 miles on a bike. No. Not all at once! That was my intended yearly total. Now some of you might might think that the effort was either monumental or minuscule depending on your annual activity level, but for me this was a big time commitment. My usual average was bout 1,200 or so with my best effort being about 2,500 miles or roughly a flat version of the Tour de France over the period of a year rather than 23 days. Hey, it works for me.

Well, I lasted through he whole three months and won the office contest riding off into the sunset, literally. I rode away with the activity points and lost 35 pounds in three months. In their infinite wisdom, the office pool even dropped the activity level of bike riding to keep me from winning again. Funny how the mind works when it comes to exercise: If it seems easy, it can't be true. I must run until my knees ache, spend hours on the StairMaster, etc. in order to lose weight. Or, thee are he ones who want to either starve themselves or take a magic pill, anything not to have to exert effort.

When it comes right down to it, riding is the easiest, safest, less demanding on your body form of exercise there is. But main people refuse to see the benefits. (I will elaborate more on my exercise/weight loss process in a later post)

Bicycling Magazine has actually profiled five riders who each lost more than 100 pounds getting out of their office or home and riding a bike. Some started commuting to work. Others rode in their neighborhoods or local parks. All, however, started with whatever they could muster, 1 mile, 5 miles, 30 min., 1 hour, etc. Each increased their distance or time as they were able. Nothing more nothing less.

My friend Fred started by forcing himself to ride just a little more than the last time. Sometimes that would be a few miles, other time nothing more than a few feet. He will tell you that it saved his life.

Well, I did last past the Feb 17th normal un-success date, but I only lasted until Dec. 11th. It was then that I realized I would fall about 800 miles short of my stated goal of 5,000 miles. Preparing a house to be sold, negotiating on the new (old) house, as well as packing, moving and unpacking all combined to overtax my resources and hampered my efforts to get to the final mileage total. Still, for me 4,200 miles was nothing to sneeze at and I had attained a higher level of fitness and comfort on the bike than I had ever had previously, all at the age of 41.

Some of these stories including my best ever Hotter 'n Hell Hundred are guaranteed to show up in future posts, generally when I have nothing better to write about.

So long for now.

It's all in a name.

Ok. There comes a time when things must be explained, such as the title of this page: "All things Skippy".

Well we all have a youthful past. If you knew me you would know that I pretty much have never met a person who was not my friend. I am a very lenient person that pretty much gets along with everyone I meet until as the song goes, "he done me wrong". It takes a bit of effort to get on my bad side. With that said, in my youth, that being high school...(insert dark age remarks here)...I had friends from all over town. Many of whom I spent more time with than those from my own school, which happened to be well know for kids with a privilaged upbringing. So much so that it was locally known as "the bubble". Therefore, many of the kids were a little stuck up and the epitome of the preppie attitude that pervaded a certain part of the city at that time. For many of my contemporaries it was a source of pride, one that set us apart from the rest of the kids in town.

Though I am proud of the education that the school provided me I was not too much onto driving the right car or wearing the right clothes or having the most poplular friends at the expense of being friends with other people whom I enjoyed. Therefore, I hung around with lots of different people.

Well, I started playong softball in a league about this time. It was an all guys squad, but we had a number of girls, ranging from girlfriends to just friends, that would come and cheer us on. Well, they had the bright idea of having our knicknames added to our jerseys instead of our real names. I had never gotten a nickname before...

My name does not lend itself to easy alternatives such as: Roho for Rozales, Arod for Alex Rodriguez, Mighty Mo for Mike Madono, etc.

Or my physical stature such as: Too Tall, Manster, Chubs, or thankfully, Shorty, Little Big Mouth, etc.

And since nicknames are never created by the individual but are given by their friends, or sometime detractors, (One famous example in the cycling world would be Marco Pantani, who wanted to be called "il Pirate" by the media for being a Pirate on the bike. Instead, he was know by many as "elephantante" or "little elephant" for his rather widely projecting cranial appendages...his ears.), I could not give myself one.

Therefore, for the lack of better options and from my schools reputation, I got the name Skip (much better than Biff or Buff) and it translated into my other passion, sailing, as Skipper. However, kids being kids, it degenerated into the girls calling me Skippy.

There it is. Good or Bad. I still have freinds that in weak moment or drunken stoupers still call me by this name. And, I am still freinds with the two girls that initiated that name. Oh well. Terms of Endearment, I guess.

Back in the saddle again.

Well, I haven't exactly bee good at keeping this up. Time for a belated new years resolution, to write on this thing a little more.

I had a great year last year on the bike. The year 2008 started with a bang as the office started the year witha biggest loser contest. I prepared well for it ahead of time by pigging out during the holdays while begining to ride nearly everyday to get my legs in shape before the sart of the contest! I know rotten, huh. Well, it allowed me to start with 208 pounds and five hundred miles or so in my legs. So, I began with an edge. However, I was determined to win. I did it all. I removed all of the high sugar, carbohydrate rich foods from my diet. Cokes only on occasion and NO Pasta! No pasta? Yes. I forced myself to ride often without the pasta. This allows the body to find its nutrition where it can instead of quick burning carbs, it looks for the fat in the body and pulls from there.

I snacked on natural almonds and low sodium pretzels. However, I allowed myself a treat once a day. A Skinney Cow Ice Cream Sandwich. Every now and then I would also eat a couple of squares of Ghirardelli Chocolate. Dark with no additional flavors.

Three months and fifteen hundred milesw later, I had shed 35 pounds. This was en route to my best cycling year ever. It was great! All the hard work was definitely worth the effort as not only did I lose all of the weight, but the benifits on the bike allowed me to push my buddies on every ride...

More about dieting in the next post.

Until then, GET ON YOUR BIKE AND RIDE!

New Year - New Training Season

Well, I know that I have been away for a long time. It was a busy end of the year for me and a trying time. I FINALLY finished my Master's Thesis in Architecture (which is why I have not been witing) just in time to get home and get the last of my shopping done before Christmas arrived. And, if you're marrried, you know the rest of the story...shuufling between house holds, making sure that you please everybody but yourselves. We had Christmas Eve at the church with the family (my Sister was in from France...) then we headed over to spend the rest of Christmas Eve with Eva's Family. Christmas morning, we had a few hours by ourselves before headin up to my Parents place at Lake Kiowa. Where we spent most of the week, save two days at home unpacking, trying to stay out of each others way. New Years Eve was rather uneventful. We cooked Blackeyed Peas and Cornbread for the Happy New Rear Ride on New Years Day.New Years Day brought about a cold and windy day. The wind was out of the North at about 15-20 mph and for those riding the 28 or 38 mile courses it made for a windy second half of the ride. Having developed a problem with my back over the last two months, I decided to take it easy and only rode the 28 mile route. I started off fast and only had one group in front of me and continued to try to catch them. I decieved myself into thinking that I was catching them because as they topped of every rise they appeared closer than they actually were and I ended up using a lot of energy in vain. At the split, most of them took the 38 mile turnand I took the 28. Coming around the west side of the loop, there was a slight mix-up with some of the directions. If you new that you were supposed to be on Hwy 1827 and looked up to see the sign then you new that you were supposed to turn left, however there were no pavement markers, they had spray painted every ohter corner telling us wher to turn, but had missed this one not knowing that some of us would be out there riding blindly without knowing the route.....not totally there fault I have some blame in it as well. I had them call SAG support to go out and fix it after I finished. So, just after missing the turn I started to stop and look at the map, when I saw a ridier I was trying to catch earlier still in front of me and thought that I was ok and followed on. I soon cought him as he finally figured out and confirmed my fears that we were not supposed to be on that road. Undaunted, we rode on and found pur way back while riding a close match to the intended mileage. And, we were the first 28 milers in.Since then, it has been slow going on the bike, mostly on the trainer. I got one more ride in before our anniversary trip to Steamboat Springs and have done five more sessions this last week. I can feel the loss of endurance and power from the time off of the bike, but I am now trying to build that back up and loose the weight that I have regained over the Holiday Season, That I swore I was not going to gain, but loose.For the Back Problem, It hurts when I walk or stand for a peroid of time. If I bend over at the waist it slowly realeases the muscle tightening in my lower back adn all the way down my leg, kinda like a Sciatica Pain. I am seeing an Orthopedist, my next appointment is Tuseday, while seeing a Chiropractor 3 times a week. Hopefully, between the two of them we can get this thig liked so I can go back to the gym and work the treadmill, elliptical, and the weights. It has really put a kink in my off season training.I am going to try to get in a recovery ride today after some big gear spinning yesterday.......P.S. On our Anniversary we found out we were expecting....Woooohoooo!

A Blustery Ride.......

It seems that the only chance I get to go out and ride these days are on Saturday's. It seems that everything just gets in the way. Sometimes you just have to make the time and do it. A friend of mine that I have not gotten to ride with lately, we'll call him Crash. Though he hasn't had a wreck that I have witnessed in a few years, he has yet to live down that name. I have witnessed, or been victem in two of them, and have heard of at least another. Anyway, he lives on the route I rode last weekend to Las Colinas, and so I thought I would get him out for a ride. I was glad to have somebody to meet at a specific time, because on mornings like this I have a hard time getting up and out. So, after two snoozes and spending a few minutes waking up with my wife, I forced myself to get out of bed an start the morning coffee. Let the dog out and a quick frying of to eggs, bacon, and coffee and I'm dressed and out the door. With cloud cover, the threat of rain, and the temps in the low 50's, I opted to wear the cold weather jacket instead of the arm warmers, since I had been a little chilly on the ride last weekend. A pair of leg warmers completed the ensemble. I was glad to have made that decision as the whole ride stayed in the 50's and a south wind around 15 mph with a few slight gusts. Anyway, I was about 8 min. late to meet Crash, and found him in the parking lot airing up his tires. He had overslept and hadn't had anything to eat, so we headed to Mickey D's to get him some sustenance for the ride. After a quick break, we were on the road again. We followed the same basic course from last week. A quick trip down to Luna road and turned south. Right before the turn south we met up with a bunch of GDBer's coming out from Preston Forest Shopping Center. Fighting the wind to the south, we wound our way through the lowlands and park areas to Las Colinas. As we reached Hwy 114, we crossed over to explore the Hill Option listed on the ride map. However, after reaching Tom Braniff Blvd, we turned west through the area around the University of Dallas. After turning around once we finally found ourselves at Tom Landry Stadium (aka Texas Stadium for the part-timers) and dodging a turning eighteen wheeler, headed back north on Hwy 114. We took a quick rest at Beltline and Valley Ranch Parkway because Crash also forgot his waterbottles and I needed a pain killer for my aging and constantly aching back. Luna Road brought the fight into the wind back and the uphill climb back to REI took whatever was left in us, out of us. Another 3.2 miles and I was home. I like heading down Midway home, because those idiots that just have to pass me rushing up to the light usually have me looking in their rearview mirror again whle waiting at the light. I generally leave whatever strength I have left on the road on that short ride home and cruise at about 22+ mph, even into the wind. It's nice to see them look with wonder that I caught them at the light. The numbers were not quite as good as I would have liked, but against a stiff wind, I guess I'll take them. Time: 3:15:31 Distance: 51:00 miles (even, kinda strange when that happens) Max: 32.5 mph Average: 15.6 mph