After Wednesday off, due to a school field trip with Max’s fourth grade class, I was working in McBaine again. After multiple trips there and back, I finally have it figured out.

I fueled up with high fiber cereal, two squares of chocolate, an apple, a hard-boiled egg, a cup of coffee, and lots of water.

I herded the kids out the door for our daily ride to school. After a heated discussion (a.k.a. – Gina’s tirade about cycling and cars – watch for the transcript here soon) with fellow cycling parent’s after which my friend, Esther, gently teased me that I really need to get an issue I feel passionate about. I stopped by the bank to deposit a check, set my stopwatch, and headed out for McBaine.

With a Camelbak full of water, my ipod playing my favorite tunes and my passions stirred with memories of my morning soapbox exposition and related thoughts. After my tirades, I always find myself reviewing everything, and regretting of, what I said thinking about what I said wrong and worrying about who I offended wishing I would learn to keep my big mouth shut. Hasn’t happened yet. Unfortunately as I move deeper into my forties the chances of my suddenly gaining control and composure are looking slimmer and slimmer. I was stoked and ready to ride hard. It is amazing how a fire in your belly can make you perform better physically. It was great to get out on the trail and just crank. Surprisingly, the trail was quite empty and I was able to ride fast without passing many folks along the way.

I made it to the jobsite in 40 minutes; 4 minutes better than my fastest time! That included the long steep third mile climb up the gravel driveway from the river bottoms to the top of the bluffs over looking said bottoms. As well as one major slow down to let an oncoming cyclist pass while maneuvering around a retired couple and their dog on the trail. This is an average of about 20-mph. It’s amazing what you can do when you aren’t pulling a tool-laden trailer. I ran to tell Tim and the guys about my amazing time. They weren’t as excited as I was, go figure.

I took my milk crate of work clothes, boots, and sunscreen out of the shed and went around back to change and slather up with sunscreen for a day of working in the sun. This jobsite is in the country; it is one of only four houses on a family farm of 150+ acres. When changing from cycling clothes to work clothes, I find a secluded spot behind an out building or a clump of trees, strip down and change. In case you hadn’t figured it out, I am not high maintenance…multiple seasons fighting forest fires greatly decreased my dependence on modern ‘conveniences’.

I spent much of the day hauling supplies, 2x8s, 2x6s, 4x4s, and bags of mortar for the deck construction. Steve, Mike and I found a shady spot and sat on the ground for lunch. Tim was at Lowe’s returning some extra lumber and picking up more joist hangers. He took the truck; the lumber returns were too long for me to haul in the bike cart. I had packed a high protein, complex carb laden, low fat/low sugar lunch. High performance foods for the ride back to town. As I unpacked my lunch Steve said "Let me guess. Sardines, almonds, cheese, hard boiled egg and an apple."

Stupidly stunned by my culinary predictability, after all this is what I eat everyday, "Close," I replied somewhat defensively, "But I have oysters, not sardines, and don’t forget the crackers."

Tim returned with joist hangers, deep-fried chocolate puddings pies, and ice cold Cokes. Yummy. The pie brought back fond memories of fire camp. Firefighting is labor intensive, the forestry service advises you to consume at least 5,000-6,000 calories a day…not as easy, nor as fun, as it sounds. Everyday in fire camp they gave us these sack lunches made of high calorie, highly processed (fresh fruits and vegetables don’t keep well), government surplus foods. One year, they packed frozen burritos wrapped in foil each day with little packets of salsa. We couldn’t figure out the logic, were we supposed to put them in the fire to cook? Partially thawed freezer burritos are really yucky; you should try one sometime or you can take my word for it. But I digress. I didn’t want to risk being sick to my stomach for the ride home, so I had half a Coke and a small part of a chocolate pie.

The ride back to town was almost as good as the ride out, I made it in 43 minutes, my second best time, despite the heat and fatigue from working all day. Woo-hoo. Picked up my kiddos and headed home.

We stopped at Main Squeeze for smoothies and cookies. They have a new vegan peanut butter cookie with little chocolate kisses all over the top. It is amazing…great flavor, soft but not gooey cakey texture. You have to try one. Unless you have a peanut allergy, which could be dangerous; in that case, stay away from them. After Main Squeeze, we walked across the street to 9^th Street Video…the best video shop in the world. They have just about every movie you could ever imagine; not like the big chains that have 20 copies of every block buster film of the last six months but not much else. After getting our movies (Triplets of Belleville, The Buster Keaton Collection, and Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd – in case you were wondering). We headed down to the tunnels and home with a detour at the new park between Locust and Elm. It’s a big hit with all of us. Thanks City.