A few years ago I stumbled upon a company called Rivendell Bicycle Works and I knew that I had found a home for my bicycle interests. No glitz, no glamor, just good bicycle stuff that works. I identified with their philosophy immediately because it was just like my own when it came to cycling. If you’ve been a reader of this weblog, you’ve no doubt heard me refer to Rivendell more than once and I look forward to their catalogs in my mailbox. I pour over each page and read all the details about the products that they offer. Surprisingly, Rivendell sells more than just things related to bicycles. If they find a product that strikes their fancy they try to add it to their catalog. One of the items that has always caught my eye was Grandpa’s Pine Tar Soap.
I was very excited when I received my new 
A few days ago, I was presented with an interesting opportunity. I had to take my Mother to an appointment today which meant that I would have about an hour to myself while I waited for her. Knowing this ahead of time, I packed some treats to help make the wait a little time out for myself. A chance to get away from the hectic pace of the day and do a little writing.
I have really done a poor job of writing for the past few months on this weblog. There for awhile I was in a good routine where I would write almost every day, but the past few months I’ve been near speechless. Only one entry for September and four for October, so what gives? Well I’ve been thinking about my lack of content for the past week or so and have come to the realization that it’s not just one thing that has kept me from publishing. It’s several things that have caused a cascade effect of writer’s block.
Holly and I weren’t planning on doing much of anything this past Halloween. We usually try to do something kind of special to scare the kids that come to trick-or-treat, but this year we’ve been so busy that we hadn’t given it much thought. Saturday morning we discussed it and decided that we weren’t going to do anything but hand out candy. We felt like we were wussing out a bit, but doing nothing sounded more favorable than trying to throw something together at the last minute. As we headed out to run a few errands later that afternoon, one of the kids from down the street asked us what we were doing this year. We explained that we weren’t planning on anything, to which he replied, “Aww, that’s to bad. Last year was really scary and I was looking forward to what you were going to do this year.” Nothing like a guilt-trip from a child to get your butt in gear.
As I sit here typing this entry, I’m enjoying a fresh cup of Peet’s Guatemala Coffee (thank you Ken, Ken and Chris). I’m enjoying this fantastic coffee in a new Alterra coffee cup (thank you Mike), while I download free songs from Napster (thank you Holly). My new 40GB iPod is currently syncing 18.9GB of music upstairs on my main workstation (thank you Mom) and my new Scott eVest is hanging on the back of my chair (thank you NPUG). I don’t mean to gloat, but a little over a week ago was my birthday and I have to say I made out like a bandit!
I’ve entered this weird state of limbo. I’m having a hard time defining my self-image because I don’t have my usual reference points. I’ve been through the South Beach program, I’m cycling more than ever, clothes are hanging off of me, yet my scale doesn’t yield. I seem to be hovering at the same weight even though by every indication, I appear to be losing weight. Couple that with other changes in my life and it’s become more and more difficult for me to “size myself up”.
On Monday