13 heures sur Samdi en la vie de Rowdy

Burn and Crash
BURN
As you all know, I got out of a week in the hospital on Thursday evening and went to jiu jitsu for a few hours. Friday I basically did easy stuff at home and went to the movies in the evening. Saturday was going to be a different story!

The IV started in the emergency department was the same one left in the whole week so it was no surprise I noticed a large section of plebitis and/or thrombis in that vein. To help "dissolve" it I took a dishtowel and soaked it in hot water and wrapped it around my arm. Then I took a millet bag/bed buddy and microwaved it for 2 minutes and place that on top of the warm wet towel. This was all held in place with an ace bandage. It felt great! My vein went from feeling like a stick in my arm to merely ropey.

In typical rowdy style my treatment gave me a second degree burn on my arm. Red, dry, partial thickness, blisters.

CRASH
Oh and did I tell you I was on my way to a mountain bike race. Racing, not watching. On the PBOD (pink bicycle of death). When I hadn't been on my bike but twice in two months. Recipie for success? I'll let you cook it up and see what you think.

My crew. Killer and Tenacious D, plotting my strategy or playing video games?


Rowdy style pre-race preparation.


I had sold my personal race bike on Friday so Tenacious let me ride her aptly named PBOD. As I ride motorcycles more than bicycles I always switch my brakes on the bike to right for the front, left for the rear. Tenacious' bike did not have that set up.

:How To Crash A Mountain Bike recipe by Rowdy Style:
1 bike you have never ridden, with a very worn front tire and brakes opposite your normal set up.
2 months of not riding a bike
4.5 hours of sleep pre-race evening
6 days hospital bed rest due to illness immediately preceding race day
12 pounds should be lost in this time
1 never seen to you before race course
0 protective gear beyond helmet and gloves

Combine and mix all these ingredients into a course containing 3 sandy, downhill, off camber corners. Add stop watch, increase competition and wait. Soon your crash will be coming along spectacularly!!

And it did. I got thrown down on the ground hard twice. Huge endo over the bars into a forward roll. Hitting my head hard, filling my new burn with dirt and very mildly tweaking a wrist and knee.

So what did all this get me come race time? Second place, men's Sport in Super D in the Racers and Chasers race held at Cahuilla Creek MX Park!



I was quite off the winning time, but I have run times close to him before, so when I get my own bike again and can train, IT IS ON! Now in your best Penguins of Madagascar Skipper voice say, "Burn and crash boys. Burn and crash."

Manger et Rier Avec Moi
As the title alludes to, if you can read basic French, I am going to take you into 13 hours on Saturday in the life of Rowdy. Driving from San Diego to Anza for a mountain bike race doesn't take that long.

MANGER
From there you have to then drive to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles and go eat at the birth place of my favorite sandwich, THE FRENCH DIP!
So that means a trip to Philipe's Original. Oh my freaking goodness! Is there something wrong with me I would drive hours and hours again tomorrow for such a delicious, perfect, original French Dipped sandwich?




Get the turkey, the beef or the pork. No cheese, double dipped or even better drenched. Don't believe me?Man VS Food does!

RIER
The funniest, frantic, frenetic, Gallic stop motion movie you've never even heard of, Panique au Village!

I'm not even going to try to explain this to you. If you first don't like foreign film, if you don't like random funny and if you would never drive to Orange County just to watch a movie you'll never get it anyways!

But if you do, or are curious...... enjoy the Youtube goodness below.


And there you have it, 13 hours on a Saturday in the life of Rowdy.

Race, Identity and the Movies.

Or I could have titled this post Rage, Rowdy and Oh-So-Not Cinema. But let me just tell it to you in chronological order and you will figure it out.

Earlier in the day I had bought tickets for the new Wolfman movie to make sure that I could get us in on an opening night/holiday weekend. I really enjoy movies and I like to see them soon after they come out.

I stroll up to the employee to give my tickets to, at which he stops and just stares at me. So I start to stare at him and notice he is a younger black kid whose name tag says "Rage". This doesn't phase me at all, after all look at my name....

So after giving me the up and down he says, "you look like someone...." OK, you're right, I do. Go on, elucidate me. He is struggling to find the connection and I am waiting for the classic 'race' line of "all you red heads look alike to me." HA! That would have been a funny switcheroo.

With a little prompting he gets to Conan O'brian. Not Conan the Barbarian, which I am albeit in 3/4 scale and with a better command of English inflection. Though I do strike a mean Terminator pose as well!

I've gotten similar things in the past. Occasionally even asked if I am "famous" or "somebody". It is a short list as I am hardly the classic example of male attractiveness or stardom, but here is who I get most often:
Rick Schroder
Conan O'brian
Seth Green
Sean W. Scott (especially when I am scruffy)
David Caruso

I don't know... do you see my famous twin in any of these? (This is soooooo last week Facebook!)

As it is a busy weekend we end up in the second to front row at the edge. Not my first choice. Another couple comes up and we move over a spot to make room as the girl was whiny about sitting in the front row.

Ahhh, the front row. Here is where I thought I was in trouble. When I go to the movies I like to...... watch the freaking movie. Not listen to you. At all. So, now it being my turn to fall into a race trap the whole front row is black. (A simplification and not PC, I know) I was sure at a monster movie with that row in front of me..... Well let's just say it could have played out like the Ralphie May skit about Open Water and 'cuba diving. Norkeling. (all trace of this act seem to be removed from the webz.... sad)

Instead it was the early 20's goth couple next to me who I had to actually turn to and tell them to shut up. There is a social contract people! I made room for you to sit where you thought was a better seat. You provide me with a reasonable amount of privacy, but when your girl is sitting facing you rather than the screen and is talking about how she doesn't know to tell the difference between clergies; who is a friar, a father, a pastor, a priest and so on she needs to STFU right now!

The boyfriends reply was a slightly indignant raise of his voice, "Oh, am I talking? Too loud?" And I made the small pinching hand gesture of 'a little' and said please. A few glowering looks and she was a little better the rest of the show. Which of course then got my all riled up and all I could think about was fighting this guy. My maturity level may not be any higher, but I can at least keep it under wraps better than most. (I would have taken him I'm sure of it)

Ah, the movie. I can see why it received C grades lots of places and RT and MC reviews in the 40's. As a lover of the original Universal monster movies I feel I am an educated, ok let's just say it I am a fan-boy of these types of movies. I can just tell this movie was made by committee. It needed to be stronger, more artistic and some of the pacing corrected. His howl was totally wrong too. But the CGI was seamless and well done. I wont give any plot or spoilers, you'll just have to watch for yourself.

And be careful where you sit.

life

I had a really close friend years ago, AD. We shared everything and knew soo much about each other. It really was a natural bond. Eventually there was a falling out and our friendship, based on certain in retrospect not worthwhile things, ended.

AD had a girlfriend early in life when he was hopeful, vibrant and optomistic. Youth and love. Until the words came, "I have cancer" from her. She died in his prescence in her early 20's.

This experience lead AD to believe that all human existence will end in tragedy, so what does living really matter? Why bother with a moral compass? Everything is situational, relative and probably driven by chance anyways.

Developing those attitudes defined him and drove him in his relationships with women, drugs, extreme sports, jail, music and everything else that happened in a wild, vibrant and ultimately sad life.

I know another person with a similar story. Like all intensely personal people the internet was a boon to the dating and flirting side of his life.

He meet a girl online. The emailed non stop, IMing till late in the evening. Then the constant phone calls. Sending gift packages back and forth. The heady lovey dovey stuff of 'what could be'.

They were both attractive, compatible in religion and politics and with a small age difference.

Geography seperated it them, but it could be overcome. Plans were being made for jobs, houses, rings. A 3 year long distance relationship.

And then the words came from her, "I have cancer." Her family shut him out. An ex came back into the picture who lived closer.

Then she died. In her 20s from ovarian cancer.

But this guy, he seemed to take it differently. The stages of grief were tempered, lessened. He mused on God, mercy, medicine, fairness, love, lonliness. So many unanswered questions.

But he found comfort. In faith and hope and trust. The natural beauty of life, kindness to others. The promise of other relationships. Her transition from a painful mortality to an eternal rest.

Horrible things happen in life, even to those who seemingly on the outside are blessed. The difference between my friend AD and the other person is in how they sought comfort and explanation. In how they choose to react.

What will your choice be?

Walk Like A Warrior

4:50pm I get discharged from Kaiser.

5:55pm Fabio was cutting my hospital ID bracelet off for me before I went on the mat to train.

8:01pm I felt fantastic and "new motorcycle" level of happiness.

And now the theme song for tonight:

2010 motto: Kill or be killed.

Looking forward!

-getting out of the hospital and eating and working out and hitting jiu jitsu again. regaining my health and muscles.
-going to two movies i want to see badly
-Valentines Day. Valentines Day candy.

-starting Russian and Brazilian Portuguese lessons
-Porsche performance driving school

-competing in the Pan-Ams as a purple!! yikes...
-my first cruise, a 3 day Mexico one

-super d race season starting again
-good motorcycling weather
-JMB's graduation!!

-filling up my passport completely with the trip to England, Norway, Poland and Russia.

And this is just the first half of the year!!! Now that I am getting my mind right and sticking with a good program I think it could be amazing. A 180 from how I felt in January.

I was having a dream I was back in Iraq and they were mortaring where I was and then I heard a loud whooshing noise here in the hospital....

My freaking heart rate skyrocketed and I jumped outta bed.

Breathe Rowdy, breathe.

pimpin' and gimpin' aint easy!

A leather AND rabbit fur AND rhinestone AND Rowdy hoodie?? Pimpin'!!
(copy and paste the link)http://cgi.ebay.com/ROWDY-RABBIT-FUR-LEATHER-RHINESTONE-HOODIE-XL_W0QQitemZ250555293602QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_CSA_MC_Shirts?hash=item3a56425fa2
Man I wish I could find this in my size............

I'll settle for this though

Walking the halls at 2am. Gimpin'!!
same bad place, same bad channel
yes, that is my sleeping mask on my head. it is 2am after all...
$4.99 black corduroy old man slippes
ng tube=no good tube


Rowdy hospital math/stats 101.

23 laps around 2North equals one mile.
Average hours slept per night, 3.6.
One meal of solid food in 5 days.
128lbs is the weight of one currently hospitalized Rowdy (I was 141 two months ago!)
The cost of one month of Cricket Broadband wireless internet, $80. (Thanks PJ!!)