PTA-Safe Routes To School Recap
This PTA group was, as I expected, the best and well received crowd yet. I engaged them with some of my planned ideas as well as a couple videos that I have posted HERE.It's going to take a coordinated effort of many people to make this happen and I really feel that the PTA will be fully on board supporting this project. After I left the presentation, they voted to donate money to help offset expenses starting the project. I was VERY pleased with this.
It is all coming together, albeit slowly. If there were not these little things called a job, family, and "personal sanity time" this would be a piece of cake!
Next up: Talking with Vermillion PD to get an idea of areas that need safety improvement, places for kids to meet to walk/bike to school, and any other input they have on the project.
Filed under: Bicycle Advocacy, Safe Routes To School
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Safe Routes To School - PTA Meeting
Continuing my speaking circuit which has included a speech to the school board and discussions with city hall, I will be talking the the local PTA tonight about the benefits of the Safe Routes to School Program tonight. I think this will be by far my most receptive group, but I am well prepared nonetheless.One thing that stuck with me from Gary Sjoquist's from Bikes Belong speech at the South Dakota Bike Summit was that the more advocacy you do, the less riding you do. That is proving to be quite prophetic as I find my mind thinking about what needs to be done to get others involved with my advocacy efforts and much as I think about riding now.
On another note about Safe Routes to School and overcommitment, I am probably going to be doing a great deal of the writing of the grant. Lord help me there as I've never actually written a grant. I'm hoping to call in some favors helping me out with it. I only have a month or so to accomplish all this!
Filed under: Bicycle Advocacy, Safe Routes To School
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The Weekend That Was
With Laura gone this weekend, many chores were completed around the house. I'm pretty sure that the kids will beg her never to leave again. Considering that my youngest was not feeling good yesterday and was pretty clingy, we got quite a bit done.The "done" list:
* clean up and vacuum bedrooms (no small task, even for Mom & Dad's room)
* six loads of laundry, including bedding (5 folded and put away)
* pick up and vacuum living room
* took/picked up Austin from a "Heros" event that he went to.
* pick up, vacuum, and mop kitchen (scooba doo performed most of the mopping)
* visited with my Mom who came down for a funeral
* give the dog a bath
* washed pots/pans from the weekend and ran the dishwasher.
* all trash has been removed from the house.
* rebuilt a computer with Austin - replace bad hard drive and set up Windows XP from scratch. Yeah, I could have done a ghost of it, but I wanted him to appreciate the full experience. Since I image most computers nowadays, it never occurred to me that there were WELL over 100 updates since XP came out.
* watched a couple movies with the kids as a reward for their work.
* ripped a few CD's that my Mother-in-law dropped off so I can make a mixed CD of certain songs she has (sorry RIAA, she owns them all, no need to call in the hounds)
* played a little saxophone with Austin
* all kids homework complete
* answered the question from Marissa "what are we going to have for __________ (lunch, dinner, supper, snack)" approximately 50 times over 2.5 days.
On the bright side, Laura shouldn't have much to worry about for housework for a couple days. I try to NOT be the man who, along with his children, destroy a house the weekend Mom leaves.
Filed under: Bike Trails, Family
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I Am NOT a Babysitter to My Children
It's been awhile since I've had to post on a pet peeve, so it's about time.My wife and her mother went to see my nephew in a national piano competition in Denver, Colorado this weekend (good luck Nicholas!) so I am in charge of the three precious little angels that contain substantial portions of my DNA.
Last night we went to the PTA Carnival at the high school, which is a fund raiser for the PTA and a fun night for the children. Once that some knew Laura was gone for the weekend, I had more than one person comment, "So you get to babysit for the weekend, huh?".
I don't "babysit" my children. I'm a Dad. It comes with the territory. If you are a Dad and you "babysit" your children, you are not a real Dad in my humble opinion.
Being a Dad is a commitment to:
* Play with your children
* Teach them right from wrong
* Help them with their spiritual growth
* Prepare them for the future
* Discipline when necessary
* Being a mentor
* Showing them respect and expecting the same
* BEING THERE
Sure the list goes on. Being a Dad is a never ending learning experience. It's a growing process. It should never be seen as babysitting however. It should be a partnership with your children.
What do I say when somebody asks me if I'm babysitting my children? I say "No, I'm being a Dad to my kids". Usually with a look of stupor, they walk away, hopefully realizing the err of their big mouth.
Now if you'll excuse me, Dad is being paged by his children. We have a weekend to experience together.
Filed under: Bicycle Advocacy, Pet Peeves
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Week of Tough Decisions #2 - Summer Cycling
I'm selfish. I readily admit that. Last year I selfishly went after a goal of riding 10,000 miles and I put far too many things in my life on the back burner to make that goal. Although I didn't miss a single game my kids played, except when they played at the same time, I still put biking ahead of far too much in my personal life. This summer, while I will still be selfish and bike my fair share of solo or group rides, I also intend to have more family rides. However, there will be some concessions made to my cycling this summer, one of which will undoubtedly be a shock to some, but I feel it has to be done.1. Tour de Kota is definitely on for the full week. Laura told me she needs the vacation away from the kids AND we are taking the tandem so we can put in 30 miles or so a day together after I'm done riding from town to town.
2. MS Bike Tour - Pedal the Plains is definitely on. I could never give this up. I'm too passionate about the cause now. A new passion will happen this year on the MS Bike Tour as this will be the target of Laura's first big group ride. I'm very proud of her goals and will do everything to get her ready. Laura will join me on the Tandem often this summer and I look forward to riding more with her.
3. Hwy 212 Gut Check - with apologies to Snakebite - is off. Mr. Bite, I'll still work on getting you and your bike to the start as I'm going to be out that way for another purpose (see below). CDV and I both have too many events that are happening this summer to make enough training time for this year. We (well...I anyway) will do my best to be back in one way or another for Gutcheck 2009. Below are a list of excuses. Choose your favorite:
3a. Cost - Last year it is estimated that with registration, gas, food, and other expenses, Gut Check cost $1000 plus for us. With the price of gas going up, this isn't going to be any better. If money were no object, sure, I'd go on the principle of it being another great cause that I believe in. Unfortunately money IS an object.
3b. Family Harmony - Laura's family is having a family reunion in the Black Hills the same weekend as the Gut Check. The "selfish me", at first, decided to go through with my plans to bike. After all, I had my event planned first. However, family should not come second in an event like this. Some members of the family are getting up there in years, and I'd hate to be the person that kept my family from seeing ANY family member for the last time. I don't mean that to sound morbid, but I think you catch my drift.
3c. Training - CDV and I simply will not have enough training time together on the tandem to pull it off. CDV has kids in various sports and so do I. He has two and I have three. Try arranging FIVE KIDS SCHEDULES to the point to get two Dad's together often for training. All the activities that my kids will be involved in this summer is deserving of its own post and will duly be posted after the kids are signed up.
3d. Other family fun - The other night I was going to ride 50 miles after work. I rode 30 instead. In lieu of the other 20 miles I managed to squeeze in playing catch with my daughter, a short bike ride with my youngest, and help my oldest with his homework -- okay, two of the three was fun. Last night I rode to the recycling trailer with my youngest and he helped me throw things into their proper bins and I played saxophone with my oldest and got some yard work done -- again, two of the three was fun. At any rate, there may be slightly less biking and more family activities. I'll only have one shot at being with my kids while they are kids. I'll have years to ride.
Filed under: Bicycle Advocacy, Bike Trails, Family, Rides
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Week of Tough Decisions #1 - Kindergarten
Our youngest will turn five on July 27 (first person to tell me what other important event happened on July 27, 2003 wins a prize of my choosing) and is technically eligible to go to Kindergarten. Our oldest was born on July 4th and we did send him to Kindergarten when he was five. It was hard not to send him because he scored very high on the Kindergarten Roundup testing the local school district did.Of course, now we regret it a little. He's in 6th grade and struggling at times. Some of it might be maturity. Some of it might be the transition into middle school. Some of it might be attitude. Whatever the case, we now feel like we made a err in judgment when we sent him. We are getting him back on track, but he gets frustrated.
Fast forward to Carson. While more social at his age than Austin was, he didn't score well on his kindergarten roundup and we wasn't surprised. I'm not saying he isn't smart, he is, but he's busy being a four year old. He is starting to understand letters and such, but at this point it is just getting in the way of him being a kid.
So, while he's starting to pick up more and more on things necessary to be ready for kindergarten, we decided to allow him to be a kid another year and not rush things. Too many people have told us that we will never regret NOT sending him, but that we might regret sending him. Which only leaves one question: Where were these people when we were ready to send Austin?
Stay tuned for tomorrow's post: Week of Tough Decisions #2 - Summer Cycling
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South Dakota Bicycle Coalition Website Is Up!
Big thanks to Happy Rider for getting the South Dakota Bicycle Coalition website off to a good start. He has been busy with a newborn and a potential upcoming move, so the fact that it's this far along is impressive!We own two domains that go to the same place, but we prefer you remember http://www.southdakotabicyclecoalition.org (although sdbicyclecoalition.org will work as well).
Make sure you email Happy Rider or leave a comment on his blog if you have newsworthy happenings or upcoming rides.
Filed under: Bicycle Advocacy, Bike Trails, South Dakota Bicycle Coaltion
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Tuesday - Let There Be Ride!
Tuesday weather - 72 degrees - winds 5-10. I'm riding. Are you?
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LBL 2008 Wrap-up
The journey started Friday night when I was picked up at the interstate by B-BiLLy and Dirk. In the self-appointed "Bike Box" was the MuSCLe, Snakebite, and the kErnEl. We trekked to Fremont, NE where we met up with eDLoNNie at the Windmill cafe for a bite before crashing at the lake house.After driving to eDLoNNie's house in Lincoln on Saturday morning we met up with eDBiLLy and two more inductees into the BiLLy's - K-20 and K-40. After an awesome egg bake and an equally awesome New Glarus Hearty Hop I.P.A. we hit the bike paths of Lincoln where we came across the greatest single sight of the day which Dirk amazingly took a picture of on the fly.
We went to Spilker's brewery in Cortland, NE to get a tour and sample Foggen Lager and Hopluia (and sample, and sample). I picked up a sixer of Hopluia and shared one with a hopeful future BiLLy in CDV today so he didn't feel totally left out.
The day itself couldn't have been much better as it was around 70 degrees and the winds were 10 or under most of the day. Friends old and new turned this into a great time. To prove we actually DID ride, I give the following evidence from my Garmin. Unfortunately they started rolling before my Garmin finished getting it's signal and I didn't turn it on so I missed the first 10 miles or so.
And check the weather!
Filed under: Bicycle Advocacy, Rides
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Initiation Into the BiLLy BRoTHeRHooD
In a couple short hours I'll be making my way down to Nebraska for my inaugural LBL (Lincoln-Beatrice (pronounced Bee-At-Risssssss)-Lincoln) ride. This is bound to be a memorable ride and I'm glad I don't have to miss it (sorry CDV...maybe next year).I've been choked up and emotional about it all day, and then the CiTyBiLLy blog had to go and bring me to tears with the following picture of what awaits us.
I'm sorry...I have to go. I'm tearing up again.
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