MTN Biking on New Year's Day

New Years Day (2009) Mountain Biking in Mercer County Park

Like many people around the globe, I was happy to see the back side of 2008 and wanted to start the year off right - on the bike.

It was a cold day (23*F at the start), so the "sensible" option was to stay in the woods. We met at Mercer County Park at noon. Chris brought some CMCs (Chris Made Cookies). It was Mary's first time out with us, but she didn't hesitate to take Chris up on his offer of a CMC.

We had a great group. Mike B., Laura, Chris, Mary and myself. It was also Mike's first time out and he was on a borrowed bike. It took a little time to get him set-up, but then he was off without ever looking back.

We stayed on the West side of the park. (Chris and I had been out a couple of day's earlier and had stayed on the East side of the park. Many of the trails were submerged under 5-8 inches of water. It was impossible to keep your feet dry.) Chris led us through the "Hall of Mirrors." This trail is through a ridiculously tight stand of young oaks. This trail really tests/develops your bike handling skills. There are many spots where the trail is book-ended by a pair of oaks spaced closer together than the width of your handlebars.

Mary has had a great year on the road -- over 10,000 miles before she found out that her frame was cracked at the beginning of December. She was struggling to keep warm, even though we were in the woods. Fortunately, Mike had some hand-warmers that she was able to add to her gloves.

Laura, after being up late hosting a wonderful New Year's eve party, was doing great in the woods. I wish I had done a better job of capturing her jump over the log pile, but she was just moving too fast!

Eventually we found the "playground". Someone has been busy building a number of obstacles that are beyond me. Mike, even though it was his first time in the woods, didn't hesitate to try to make it over the see-saw. No, Chris didn't push him over. Chris was just trying, without success, to keep Mike from tumbling over.

The only downside of the entire day was that Laura's shoe failed her.

In spite of the "wardrobe failure", it turned out to be great way to start the year!

Nearly all of the Cousins

This past September, my nephew David married his sweetheart Jess in Nashville (they are both Vanderbilt grads.) We had a great turn-out. The picture above includes my parents, 14 of their 15 Grandchildren (only missing Jimmy), the two ersatz grandchildren (Helene and Caro), and, of course, the bride. My father likes to claim that his good looks bypassed his children and went straight to his grandchildren. He may be right.

Dr. Phil

Thank you Facebook.

We had all been at Duke together. After graduation Phil seemed to be more interested in piloting large pieces of equipment (moving vans across the South, seismic explor-ation equipment in Montana) than being a captain of industry. A few years later, I was a young father and Ed was a rising Congressional staffer. Phil was making noises about going to medical school. None of us took him too seriously - at least not any more seriously than he seemed to take his poly sci classes at Duke. Shortly afterwards, Ed got married, and somehow we lost track of Phil.

Fast forward 20 years. A few weeks ago, Lizzy receives a Facebook "Friends" invitation from Phil. It turns out Phil had gone to medical school and now is an anesthesiologist in Northern Virginia. After some schedule negotiation, we decide on a date to meet in DC.

Ed let us know that he bought a set of tickets for a Wizards game at a Diabetes charity auction and asked if we'd all like to meet at the game. He didn't bother to mention that the tickets were for a luxury box!

Phil kept us waiting -- he is a doctor after all, but did show up by half time. I always think it is going to be awkward to meet up with a long lost friend. But Phil showed once again that it is really pretty easy to pick up where we left off. Yes, there we spent a part of the evening catching up on the last 20 years, but soon we were back in the same routine of just enjoying each other - we are still the same people with the same senses of humor. It was a great evening.

After the game we retired to a trendy, crowded wine bar (what recession?). Late that night we said our farewells to Phil and found the Metro out to Bethesda.

On Saturday we visited the Pompeii exhibit at the East Wing with Ed, his wife Angie, and his beautiful teenage daughter Madeline.