Personal Update: There's not a jar big enough.

So that I don't have to respond to a ton of e-mails and phone calls about why I wasn't at the first local cross race of the year... Or at any cross races over the next month, here's what’s going on.

Over the Labor Day weekend I slipped a disk in my lower back. But like an idiot I didn’t see a doctor and kept riding the bike, which made the problem worse. Eventually the pain got the to point where I couldn’t ride any more and this past Monday my body had said ENOUGH! The good news is that after one chiropractor visit and three visits to a physical therapist that I now call “Jesus” my back is starting to feel somewhat normal. The bad news is no cross racing until the end of October.

At this point I’m not sure what hurts more… My back or the sick feeling in my stomach from training since the beginning of March, losing 14 pounds, and getting in some kind of race condition so that I wouldn’t embarrass myself in the B’s all so that I can miss a WHOLE MONTH OF CROSS!!!

Trust me on this, there’s not a swear jar big enough for how I feel right now.

Yehuda Moon: Confirmation through humor.

For the longest time I've felt that the worst drivers are those that get behind the wheel of any white cargo van. Whether it was a conscious or artist choice to make the van white, it still feels like validation to what I've been saying for years

Fleet Foxes: One of my new favorite things.

White Winter Hymnal from Grandchildren on Vimeo.

The Pennsylvania clothes dryer.

While visiting family in Pennsylvania over the Labor Day weekend I had the opportunity to use a technology for drying clothes that is hard to come by today. This environmentally responsible technology is found in areas considered to be fly over country where the people cling to their guns and God.

Yet these people should never be so easily dismissed. They are the heart, salt, and soul of this great nation. Instead of talking, they are working hard by the sweat of their brow every day to make change happen for their families, friends, neighbors, and community regardless of who’s living in the White House.