Normal Morning?
2008-04-16, 12:30 p.m.

Day 1334

I�m starting to think Cindy is being offended by my insisting that I get to sleep early on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Ideally, I�d like to be drooling on my pillow by 10pm (or very shortly there after) She seems to get a trifle offended as I defuse any sort of advances she makes after 10.

Like I claimed earlier (and I still believe this to be true), 4:50 am comes mighty early. Getting to bed (to sleep you pervs) by 10 provides not quite 7 hours of sleep � the amount I feel allows me to be a functioning human the next day.

Actually, I think she�s resenting the fact that I still like to get to the gym early and get in a solid cardio work out in the mornings. Last night she was all �well you could burn off some calories with me in the morning . . . � To which I HAD to respond, �An hour of spinning burns up 800 � 1000 calories. Can WE do that?� Not for nothing, but if you can burn 800 calories doing the horizontal Olympics for an hour, you are a STUD! Granted, I�ve gotten all hot & sweaty in the amore arena before, but I know what an hour of spin class feels like.

OK, ok, I went and got all partially analytical on the subject. But go do the research. Bumping uglies doesn�t burn up all that many calories (certainly not as many as you�d like to think, stud muffin!) and the people that can keep it up for an hour (pun not necessarily intended, but what the hey!) are few and far between.

Anyhow. When we do that elephant talk tonight, that might be another subject to slide into. �The talk� will likely be after her AA meeting - no spin in the morning, no kids, no parents, no excuses? And yes, she did mention going to it last night. So yeah, I should cover the subject of extra-curricular activities and why I really don�t like to get started after 10pm. Got to at least let her know it isn�t her, unless she�s got booze breath, but that�s point #1.

So this morning. I get up early to go to spin class. See that bit about 0450 hours up above. I have my gym bag packed the night before. Also have my clothes at least picked out (so I can pack matching socks in my bag ya know). So I get up, pee, then pull on my gym socks & shirt I intend to work out in. Also put on the clothes I intend to wear the remainder of the day with matching shoes. (Yes, some straight guys actually match their shoes to their outfit. That�s why guys shoes come in two colors; black & brown. What more do you need? Oh yeah � white tennis shoes sometimes.)

Anyhow. Get dressed, grab all the rap that needs to be in my pockets (wallet, comb, change, thumb drive, pen & pencil), grab my (already packed) gym bag and head downstairs. Once in the (newly floored) kitchen, I grab my lunch, if packed, than head for the powder room and brush my teeth. This morning, I just grabbed the brush out of the charger base, wet it, squirted the paste on and went to town. While I was brushing (4 minutes) I went to the kitchen, grabbed my water bottle, gave it a rinse and re-filled it for the morning session. As I was headed back to the powder room to finish up, I thought I sensed a wee bit of toothpaste drool that had escaped. Checked real quick, found nothing. Lucky break. Spit out the toothpaste, reached to take the head off the toothbrush and noticed that the slot where I keep MY head is already occupied. Cindy�s little nest was empty. Oops. Rinsed and got outta Dodge. At least I put her brush head back nicely.

Grab my gym bag, lunch, laptop case, jacket & keys. Hit the unlock button on the fob, hit the garage door opener button and head out into the great big world.

Load up my gear. Plop down into the drivers seat and head for the gym. On the way there, I realize I left my work pass in the kitchen. Oops. Decided I�d just head back between gym & work & pick it up. It�s almost on the way even.

Pulled up at the gym, got out of the van and noticed that it looked like a bird shit on my shirt. That�s kind of odd because there are VERY few birds out at 5:15am. Came to realize that the toothpaste drool I thought didn�t happen? Did. Well, at least it wasn�t on the new kitchen floor. Since I was already stopping home to get my pass, I figured I may as well change my shirt too.

Did spin class. Patty was doing speed this morning. Got pace? Well, if you don�t, Patty has some to spare. Survived class. Showered. Tried to get the toothpaste off my shirt, just for grins. Surprisingly, it came out pretty well. Got my mug o�java for the road and headed home.

Guess Cindy just thought it wasn�t worth staying in bed without me, as she was already out & about. Her car was in my spot in the driveway and she was in the garage puffing on a butt, so I assume she went out and refilled her nicotine supply. Before 7:00am. Sucks being addicted to that nicotine shit. Makes you do weird things like get up early and go buy more.

Aaaaanyhow. After surprising Cindy, I got my pass, got her opinion on my shirt (she couldn�t detect any drool) and refilled my coffee. No, I didn�t tell her about the toothbrush. Yet. Maybe tonight.

Got taxes completed lat night. Well, mine were done & filed on the 14th, but I got The Bob�s finished last night. He got pounded. I�ve really got to get his withholding adjusted. His brother in law had him set up to have nothing withheld from his pension or social security payments. Then you add to that the interest he�s earning on the proceeds of his house, 401k distributions, stock dividends, all those other little sources of income he has and well � he came up a little short. But at least it�s paid.

No kids over last night. Poor Zach got stuck working late on a project. Kinda like I�m going to be doing if I don�t cut this short. Now we have two extra servings of chicken parmesan (homemade style � Cindy made a marinara sauce from scratch, I charred the chicken) sitting in the fridge. Guess what�s for dinner Thursday?

Outdoor riding season is officially here. Just got the schedule for the Tour de Cure training rides. The first one is a 15 miler tomorrow night over on my side of town. It starts at 6:30, so it�s conceivable that I could get home, change, ride my bike to the starting point, do the ride, then ride home. I checked last night and I�m about 9 miles from the starting point for tomorrow ride. That�d give me a solid 33 mile first ride for this season. The only danger is that if we get back to the park at 7:30ish, I�m not sure how much daylight will be left for the ride home.

Hmmm. Weather channel says sunset here is 7:55 tonight. Tomorrow won�t be much different. That leaves 25 minutes to cover the 9 miles home. Pretty aggressive. Of course, official sunset is when the bottom of the solar disk touches the horizon, so there are several minutes of perfectly good sunlight left. Might be do-able. Better check it over with Cindy too. Bike ride, late dinner, spinning in the morning? Might not go well. On the other hand, I�ve sacrificed a bit for this kitchen re-do, maybe I�ve earned a bit of training time. We�ll see.

If I don�t show up here Friday, it�s for one of two reasons. 1 � I got splatted by a truck on my way home last night or 2 � I got splatted by an angry spouse after arriving home from this training ride. If I DO show up here Friday, I can tell you how close a call it was (or wasn�t)

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