Why does the family pet always have to play involuntary dress up?

Huntington Beach
Originally uploaded by Red Eyed Vireo

Relaxing with my son at the beach

NYTRO MULTISPORTS HAS A FANTASTIC SWEEPSTAKES GOING ON RIGHT NOW. A NEW CERVELO S3 WITH SRAM RED OR A P4 WITH SRAM RED CAN BE YOURS. THERE IS NO CATCH! HEY PEOPLE THESE ARE $7,000 BIKES!!!! JUST REGISTER TO WIN HERE!!

I don’t know how I ended up on this “social network”. But I want out!!! I was getting killed with notices so I took a look at the options. I can’t believe the default had all of the options below selected “for my convenience”. They start off ok but then the notices verge on the ridiculous. Like I care that I get Bonus Gold, Superpokes me, or gets a new pet. This is a very annoying “social network”.

Rant over!!

Edit Email Preferences
Birthday Reminder – Let me know when my friends have birthdays
Friend Requests – Let me know when someone wants to add me as a friend
New Comments – Let me know when someone leaves me a comment
New Messages – Let me know when someone sends me a message
New Photo Comments – Let me know when someone comments on one of my photos
New Tags – Let me know when someone sends me a Tag
New Gifts – Let me know when someone gives me gifts
New Winks – Let me know when someone winks at me
New Friends – Let me know when someone accepts one of my friend requests
New Viewers – Let me know when someone views my profile
New Luv – Let me know when someone gives me Luv
New Bonus Gold – Let me know when I get Bonus Gold
Tagged Newsletter – Find out about new features, contests, and other cool stuff on Tagged
Partner Offers – Find out about contests, prizes, free stuff, and other cool offers from our partners
Alerts Reminders – Let me know when I have pending alerts each week
New Compare Message – Let me know when someone has compared me
Meet Me – Let me know when someone wants to meet me
Meet Me Match – Let me know when I have a match on Meet Me
Meet Me Suggestions – Send me periodic Meet Me suggestions emails
Tags Suggestions – Send me periodic Tags suggestions emails
New SuperPokes – Let me know when someone SuperPokes me
New Pets – Let me know when something happens to my pets or me on Pets

Ride of Silence start
Originally uploaded by Red Eyed Vireo

T-Mobile

Just wanted to give a big thanks to one of my sponsors, Hawaiian Island Creations. They’ve kept me set on sun protection since my 2008 season and Brandy just called to tell me that another shipment has arrived at the house. Brandy and I have both tried out a number of sunblock products over the years with disappointing results. We needed something that was sweat-proof and could hold up for an all day epic ride on the bike. Hawaiian Island Creations has outperformed all of them and our search for an effective ultracycling sunblock has ended. We found the best and we’re sticking with it! Thanks again!

I wanted to thank everyone for their patience, I know that you’ve all been waiting for photos from our RAAM adventure. Our extremely talented photographer James Vogl handed off a DVD containing 1300+ high resolution images yesterday and I’m starting in Atlantic City and working my way back to California in my uploading efforts. Keep checking our flickr site, I hope to have all of them up on the site by this weekend. For now, all of the finish line photos are there!

The crew as a whole did a fantastic job supporting Rick and I. They were a green crew and they learned lots of things on the fly. I commend them on a job well done.

Furthermore, I wish to acknowledge Brandy for being my primary support person. She kept up on my nutrition, my supplements and provided care to my hemoroids–not exactly a task anyone would want to sign up for. She was there to console me during my lows and very painful times (bowel movements) and shared in my heights when my riding was back to normal. I would not have been able to get through it without her personal support. She was gold and I would have her on my crew again. Thank you Brandy.

I also remember coming in from cold and rainy pulls and someone handing me a cup of soup. This activity was repeated over and over again. I remember Reggie, Herman and Shari everyone chipping in to comfort me after a pull with a soup or a sandwich or a cup of Ensure. Thank you Reggie, Herman and Shari.

To everyone who washed bottles, made bottles, prepped my bike, aired up my tires, ran around looking for headlights and tailights that worked at every night pull you guys/gals were great. Thank you.

To the drivers and navigators who kept me safe and on course. I want to say thank you for protecting as we entered Interstate Hwys and metro areas. I felt a level of comfort and safety knowing that you were there shielding me from the crazy road rage drivers. By and large people were supporting me as they drove by with thumbs up but it took nerves of steel to flare out wide enough to protect me from 18 wheelers that were bearing down on me at 4x my speed. Many of you did your duty while sleep deprived and yet I wasn’t ever lost or run off the road. Many crew reports talk about that very thing and that didn’t happen to us. Thank you I am home safely because of you.

It goes without saying that this massive undertaking, racing across America, could not be done without the support and dedication of the crew. I can’t imagine why they would volunteer for what always ends up being a thankless job. Their dedication of support to complete strangers was amazing. I am so glad there are selfless people out there because without them Rick and I would not have finished. Thank you crew!!

It had been pre-arranged that the crew chief would fly back because she is a single mom to the three children. Unlike many of the crew the crew chief has three children: Marcellus age 4, Avery age 6 and Gavin age 8. All three of the children are out of school for the summer so they need a lot of attention. She had arranged child care until the Thursday June 21st.

We began to run behind schedule and that caused a lot of stress on her and her home life. The father is non-existent he comes around once a week and only for a couple of hours. Many of the crew are not married, no children and quite a few are college students off for the summer months. Many of them if not all are unemployed, retired, semi -retired, laid off or between jobs. There is a huge difference between the crew chief’s responsiblities at home than the rest of the crew.

The children were being watched, reluctantly, by the children’s grandmother, who was displaced from her home in Arizona and more than anxious to get home. The sooner the crew chief could get home the better for the children, the grandmother (that didn’t want to be there) and issues between the father and her would be.

We appreciate the financial support from zamcharles and for allowing me an opportunity to explain the crew chief’s restrictions.