Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Choices!

Something to think about. Life is all about the choices we make every day of our life's.



John is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!" He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?" He replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or ... you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood." Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or...I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or... I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life. "Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested. "Yes, it is," he said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood.

The bottom line: It's your choice how you live your life." I reflected on what he said. Soon hereafter, I left the Tower Industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it. Several years later, I heard that he was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back.

I saw him about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins...Wanna see my scars?" I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place. "The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-be born daughter," he replied. "Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or...I could choose to die. I chose to live." "Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked. He continued, "..the paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared.

In their eyes, I read 'he's a dead man'. I knew I needed to take action." "What did you do?" I asked. "Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me," said John. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes, I replied.' The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Gravity'." Over their laughter, I told them, "I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead." He lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude... I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything . Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:34. After all today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Elite Nationals wekend!

I think I e-mailed rish on a Tuesday telling him I may go to Chicago with him. Caylin was sick and Becky may need to stay home with her. Friday came along and Caylin seemed back to her self in no time at all. Becky had a little bit of a cold and I was feeling run down a bit. We all made it out there Sat. night. Becky's Mom and Grandma went as well. Saturday's race was at 4:30 so we enjoyed staying in bed till 7:00 am. Caylin got up early as she always does on the weekends away from home.

Today I woke up in horrible shape! Bathroom all day! no joke it was not pretty. Biggest race of the year and I felt bad real bad. I didn't want to share it with my teammates so I tried to keep quiet about it. Lord has other things for me to do until another day. In sat race Jim lead me out for a 50 dollar prime and some guy came around us before the last turn. I tried to get him but couldn't. I blew up after that and couldn't do anything in the race. My legs didn't recover at all after a short effort.

So Shawn asked me if I wanted to move up I said no... then Yes.... then noooo... but it was to late Shawn took off so I jumped on his wheel and he passed half the field fast but by the time we did that I couldn't go anymore so I told Shawn I can't go anymore. I felt horrible I couldn't do anything, nothing hard at all. I was mad!

Sunday I went to the bathroom once today and felt ok. Got ready for the big race and everything was going good this morning. Race started and I had 4 bottles with E-Load and 2 bananas ready for the race. While we were in the race I heard someone mention how is he going to eat that banana? The other guy said I don't know. SO I took the banana and put it in my mouth went around the last corner of the race stood up and pealed the banana and stuffed half of it in my mouth. Later on I ate the other half and Marco asked me how I was doing? I told him ok, then started to choke on the banana. He said you ok I said no I am choking on the banana, as we laughed. I drank some E-Load and was doing good and said I am ok now.

Later on in the race I saw Marco move up. With about 17 to go I felt like I couldn't do anything. I would move up and then get passed cause I couldn't recover at all. I kept trying all the 2nd half to mave up but nothing was working. 8 laps to go and I moved to the top 20 and then nothing. I was done. I thought I had a chance and it was all taken away in less than a lap. I had nothing left in my body and finally got dropped with 4 to go. I saw Hekman, Harper and Marco on the front behind another team. I told Becky they had to make the move on the downhill as hard as they could. Hoping they would lead Marco out. Sometimes in races the pressure is so high and hard all you can do is just go with the flow. The race went good we did finish 3 riders in the top 15. But everyone at the race knows we had the best chance to win that one! Next year will be different and I hope that all will work out better which I am sure it will.

Thank you Lord for a very hard and dissappointing weekend. Things could have been alot worse and I thank you for all the exciting times out there and I pray that you will continue to change my life more each day. I pray that you heal all that were hurt this weekend. Thanks for keeping me safe and help me to recover from this sickness I have in time for this next weekend if it be your will.
Amen.

Friday, August 18, 2006

Somedays are out of sorts but God is there!

Sometimes we all are wanting other things or have something different on our minds. It's a good thing God puts people in our lives to knock some since back into our worldly minds. When my Christian brother wrote this to me I felt like I should be writing these things to help get me back on track. What am I doing I asked myself? Be happy do what God wants you to do not what I want to do. I am so far away from doing things right but I am trying. Trying to let people know that there will always be someone there for you, someone to pick you up when things are going the wrong way and you don't see it right away. God is there always and He will help you even when you don't know you need it. Do not ask to receive ask how can you use me God to help others come to know you more. God Is Love!

This is what my Chrisitan Brother wrote, Thanks Brother:

Hey, maybe it's just me, but you seemed out of sorts Saturday. I'm
guessing you were just a bit frazzled from being so busy, but I wanted
to check and for sure let you know that I was thinking about you.
-----------
I don't know if this applies, but I was just thinking about this so I'll
share it with you. Take what you will from it... Mostly, I like to
type out my thoughts from time to time. You happen to be the "lucky"
recipient. These exercises mainly help me refocus, but I like to email
them just in case they become meaningful for others. Put it in the "for
what it's worth" bin. Unfortunately, I also happen to be a fairly fast
typist, so these things get lengthy. Feel no need to reply, unless you
just can't help yourself.
You know, it's so easy for us to unconsciously protect ourselves from
the outside world. We don't want them to know that we're weak or frail
or broken or suffering. It's particularly bad for males, but even worse
for cyclists. We're used to pushing ourselves up to and beyond our
limits all the time, day after day. Even when our bodies break down, we
don't want to admit it and recover. Well, when we don't face up to our
frailties, when we always "need" to be in control, to have things
figured out, to stay on top of things, "be a man", we miss a golden
opportunity to trust God.
Now, I'm not talking about giving up or doing nothing, but the first
(and I believe most important) step is to put God in control of our
lives. Many times when we talk to God, we ask him to do this for us or make that clear or fix this situation. But, not as often do we put a situation in his hands and just trust him with it. How do you do that? Well, I think that means that if we are trusting him with the situation, we act like it. We don't walk in worry, we don't fret, we don't lose sleep, we don't keep begging God for something that we really, really, really want. Yes, we're supposed to present our requests to God. And, I'm very thankful that God gives me wonderful and precious gifts and that he loves doing it. I just think sometimes we're too focused on what we want and not enough focused on what God may be trying to do at the time.That's a really hard lesson to learn. We go to God and we feel pretty good that we asked God for what we wanted. But many times, we're simply treating God like a credit card or a bottomless bank account. Oh God, work this situation out in this exact way and make everybody involved happy to be doing such a great thing for me. I'm exaggerating a bit, but is it so far from the truth?So what should we do? First, go right ahead and tell God what you "think" you want. I say "think" in quotes for a good reason. Realize that what you think you want, may not be best for you. So, the next thing you do is look to see what God is actually doing. If something about what you want seems to be frustrated, search your heart through listening to God to see if maybe God is in that frustration. Maybe he's trying to redirect you a bit. If you are trusting that he wants to give you good gifts, he's probably trying to protect you or bring you to a deeper level of trust or provide you something completely different that will be even better.
Now, when I use the word "better", don't necessarily think I mean a better material blessing. Sometimes "better" is discipline. Sometimes God wants to refocus us, to sharpen us, to change us. That's OK. Go with it, baby. If you need changin', resisting it will only set you back. There's that thing you really want, but God knows your motives. He wants to soften you, to prepare you for good works. He wants to give you good things, but he so much more wants to use you, to make your life count, to see you live out his plan for your life. Don't miss the great things God wants to do in you and through you just to seek out those temporal things, those things that will fade away and won't ever be remembered.As I said, these are my ramblings from what God has placed on my heart. If you find something of value to you, fantastic. Pass it on, if appropriate.Jimbo

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Painful Weekend

This past weekend was the Ohio State Criterium Championships. Friday was the first race at Worthington. Kirk Albers from Jelly Belly was there and a couple others. This course looked like it was hard as I warmed up on it. My legs felt good going into the race. The race started out hard and fast, it seemed like everyone was going to gang up on A&F. Tim and Jim from A&F were also there. Nate Z. took off and Tim went after him. Those two road together for a couple of laps. Tim had a mechanical running over a cat on the course. From then on Nate was out there alone until the last 5 laps. Kirk and Jeff bridged up to Nate with 5 to go. Kirk won the race, Jeff was 2nd, and Nate was 3rd. I barely hung on for 9th. I pushed myself really hard the whole race. I felt like I was going to die. Caylin made it all better she said, "Good job Daddy!" as she patted me on the back.

Saturday's race was at Hilliard. This was the Ohio State Criterium Championship for elite riders. We had 5 A&F riders there, Todd, Jimmy, Tim, Shawn, and myself. My legs felt horrible going into the race. That hill payed its toll on me yesterday. Today we had 2 180 turns and a round about. The race started out pretty quick. I sat in for a little bit and I then decided to make a go at it. I felt like I had a little bit more power than I thought I would have. Once the field caught me, Nate took off. I rested while Todd pulled the field along to keep Nate in check. Once I felt better I went after Nate. It took me 2 laps to catch him and it hurt BAD! I felt a sigh of relief when I caught Nate. So I rested on Nate's wheel for a lap, then I started to work with him. We had a great gap from the field until Shawn and Dan came up. After that it was ballgame. Once those 2 caught up with us it didn't take long to move away from the field. We almost ended up lapping the field. I am glad we didn't though because I was hurting the whole time those 3 were pulling. Since my teammate was in the break with me I didn't pull as hard as the other 3. My legs were getting weaker and weaker as the race went on. With 3 laps left, Nate attacked and fortunately Shawn jumped up to his wheel and I followed. Dan caught back on after one lap. If Shawn wouldn't of got Nate's wheel Nate would of won. Shawn road a perfect race and we won because of his hard efforts and perfect decision making. I waited on Nate's wheel til the last 100 meters to come around him. I beat him by only a half a wheel. Great job to Shawn, Nate, and Dan. Great racing boys! Caylin wanted to come up on the podium with me. I told her to raise her hands like Daddy! If I can figure out how to download pictures on this blog without taking so long I would do it.

Sunday's race was in Grove City. This was the Master's 30+ Ohio State Criterium Championship. This is the best course I have ever done. Thanks to Ten Speed Production for putting on this great racing series. This was a very technical course with 8 turns and it was all flat. My favorite! My legs didn't hurt at all. I just didn't have any power all day. I tried to get away at least 3 times. Everytime it seemed like I blew myself up where as my legs could go for at least 3 or 4 minutes at a time. Also my jumps were slow so I used the corners to accelerate. I got to race with Dave Tingler and he gave me words of encouragement while we were racing. Thanks Dave for believing in me. I wanted to beat that one guy, Joe Whitlock, Andy wish you would have taken 2nd instead. Or I wish Tingler could have won instead cause he is the Man! Joe seems like a nice guy off the bike, but when we were racing I clipped my pedal in the turn when I attacked and my rear wheel came up off the ground. I told Joe, "I clipped my pedal there." Joe said, "Yeah, next time go down." I thought about it after the race and I wished I would of said, " Well with you behind me the whole race I would of taken you down with me." You see Joe was a wheel sucker that day and he never did any work at all, that I saw. But, that's how some people play the game. It just wasn't my strategy that day. My strategy worked I ended up winning. Nice guys do finish first. It is amazing how well the bike handles compared to other bikes I have ridden. I clipped my pedal pretty hard that day. It must of scared Joe pretty bad so he must of thought I was going to wreck. Not once all weekend did I think that. My problem is I take chances when other riders don't. I am sure there will be a day when that happens to me. Thanks to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for keeping me safe again and also to my Mom, Dad, Becky and Caylin for being there with me all weekend. Love all

Monday, August 14, 2006

Harvesyburg Race

I have been very busy getting ready for Nationals and I hope I find a new pair of legs in the next 4 days. Caylin just went down for a nap so I have some time, she is the greatest gift of all thank you Lord. Becky is also, she went shopping cause I am always hungry and also we only have a few days left to fill up with cheap gas for our car. I think we get 50 cents off for each gallon, I love Becky so much she is the Best.

So my Mom drives, Dad, Becky, Caylin and I to the race. Thanks to my brother and his wife we stayed only 35 mins away from the race. They are the best, I think we owe them like for a whole years payment for there home, thank you guys so much. Dad is already at the race out in the heat, we dropped him off so he could race and I could go eat at Wendy's with our family. It's all about the food for me. It's been a long time, since like yesterday, but I think I had a Chocolate Frosty cause they didn't have vanilla, I thought I was going to do horrible.

Mom, Becky and Caylin dropped me off at the race after we ate and went shopping. I told them not to come back till the end of the race since it was so hot! It had to be over 100 and no shade trees. Abercrombie & Fitch had great success today! From the start of the race Hekman took off and we went around the first turn going 30+ mph. Everyone got clipped in finally and then I took off, they caught me then Rish took off! Wow we were flying! Bell rang and Rish set me up perfectly for the prime. I went flying around Rish in the turn and took whatever they had to give me and my teammates. So then I kept going and blew up.

At one point in the race our team (Abercrombie & Fitch) had 3 riders up front and I was praying we could keep it that way. Can't remember when the bell rang the 2nd time but I got that one too, more stuff for the Team. I remember I took off before we heard the bell at the line. So I was attacking and I kept going . Mike Busa grabbed my wheel and we took off from there. He worked real hard and I sat on him for the prime. He wanted to work together so we did for almost the rest of the race. We headed into turn 3 and I came up on the outside of Mike, at this point the field is 30 sec. behind us. I thought I had enough room on the road so I didn't hit my brakes. I slid out on the old grass clippings on the side of the road. I bounced up off the pavement like a bouncy ball and grabbed a water bottle that fell out. The other bottle was 30 feet behind me. I made it into the field and Hekman said take a free lap. There was my Dad waving me down with his bike in hands just in case, thanks Dad. I got a free lap and felt so stupid for wrecking just because I didn't want to hit my brakes, and I was also overlapping his wheel.

Mike kept the break alive and I joined him again. Since he was out there for one lap pulling I said to myself I better give him a break. So I pulled for a whole lap as well. I think we did that twice and we had over a min on the field, we gianed 30 sec in 2 laps. Next thing we know one of each of our teammates were coming up to join us. So we just slowed down a little and the gap was closing fast. Going up the little knoll I was breathing really hard and Mike looked over at me. The next time we went up the knoll he attacked me. I jumped up to him and then went around him leaving a big gap between us. Mike kept closing the gap so I slowed. I knew I was stronger then so I attacked again before the knoll, this time Mike was dropped for good.

Then I had to keep going cause Mike's teammate was right behind us. So I have about 20 sec ahead of Mike, Jeff and my teammate Hekman. Hekman is waving his arm at me yelling go go go... I tried hard to hold off Mike and Jeff that I blew up and my lead was now down to 8 sec with 2 laps to go. 2 Very long Laps left, I dug down deep and Prayed that I would make it across the line first. One to go and the gap is still 8 sec I can do it, maybe... I gave it everything I had and it worked Thank You Jesus! Hekman finished right beside me almost taking the win.

Hekman won a prime when Jeff and him were closing in on Mike and I. I told Hekman thanks for letting me win. We took 1st, 2nd and 9th that day, and it was a great day for A&F.

Thank you again Lord for no broken bones and my wounds are almost healed now. Thanks for a fun day in the heat. Also thanks for cooling it down at the start time of our race, a couple of clouds came out to hide the sun and the wind was blowing nicely. Mom, Becky and Caylin missed my wreck thank the Lord for that and they saw the finish, perfect timing. Thanks to all yelling at me to go harder when I had nothing left, that kept me going. Hope this will hold you over for awhile Dave? Your the Man! Thanks for pushing me to type this down, what's it been 3 weeks?
Later....