Easter...and the 57 mile bike ride.

" Why do you search for the living among the dead, He has been risen and has gone to Galilee before you just as he said."

or in a more frank term

" I'm baaaack!" - Jesus of Nazareth.

Like I said I don't know the exact Gospel ( either Luke or Mark's) but pretty much Last night and Today the Church celbrates JC rising from the dead and giving all the guys who were responsible for nailing him to a cross a giant middle finger ....( ok so it was JC he didn't have a vindictive bone in his body, and technically he was the forgiving merciful sort that didn't hold a grudge ( man this guy is light years above me.) but hey I know if I was savagely put to death and came back I might show my self in public to freak the my asslaints out....but that's just me....) and supposedly saving us from eternal death, and the weight of our sins and all that happy good stuff.(So smart alec smucks like me don't end up roasting over a spit for eternity, when we embark on the big sleep.) But anyway the whole resurrection story shows us this JC dude was in shape. I mean seriously what would his workout log say:

Friday:

6am-3pm Give Blood

11:00am-12:00 PM Carry 100lbs. Beam on a hill workout,

12:00PM Get Piercings

12:00-3:00pm Hang around

3:00 lie down for awhile.

Saturday:

Absolutely Dead

About mid-night Got up got dressed Rolled 250-500lbs. boulder a few feet. Also some dudes from way up north came down to chill and tell the homies I'll be going North to meet them.

Sunday:

6Am Bump into Mary on morning run to Galilee

12pm bump into 2 homies on road to Emaus slow down talk, chill eat dinner, run back to Jerusalem

7pm Chill with mama and the crew, except for Thomas, apparently he's still a little upset over the pirecings.

ok so maybe the JC workout log is a little sacreligious but I hope trying to break down the tridum into athletic terms might get a few laughs as well as give a little more understanding. ( Suffered, died, was buried, rose from the dead, went on a long run doing the whole I'm back from the dead tour of Judea, chilled with the crew.) Also I would really like to find a priest who would play ACDC's Back in Black for Easter mass ( that could probably get me excommunicated) because seriously that's the sentiment of the whole Easter thing. Anyhoo all the religious stuff aside.This is my last Religious post until Christmas so don't worry about me doing anything crazy like joining the Roman Collar Club ( there are two big reasons for this one of them is a girl.), or showing up on a Saturday morning saying " Have you found Jesus yet?"...trust me If God was willing to raise someone from the dead, I don't believe he/she's going to condemn anybody who is trying to be a descent human being, regardless of religious affliation or lack thereof. ... ( in Gregorian chant) Bob-o's Holy rant is over......AMEN!

In spite of my getting in touch with my inner good Catholic-boy self over the past few days, I managed to jump in on Speed Racer's personal Half Iron. On Saturday afternoon after an insane rush at the Bank ( made even more insane because only 3 of us were working, and only 2 of us were tellers.) I hauled out to Woodbury to Help give Speedy a good Butt whipping workout Connecticut Style. Our route was pretty hill. There were a couple of little ring climbs and a few descents but for the most part, it was a good day. The only major problems : The freaking 25mph Crosswinds. At times on the bike I felt like I was going to be thrown to the asphalt. But the route we took was pretty quiet except for some traffic on 202. We rode up into the ( Washington)Depot (,CT) and did 3 loops of the lake. We shot the shit most of the way up there, Speed's main concern was on the type of bike she should get Option A speed uber amount of money on pimped out road bike and throw aero bars on for tris.

Option B Get 2 moderate priced/equipped bikes one Tri decked out in full aero and one road.

My answer it depends on what you're going to be using the bike for. I believe she'll most likely go with option A main for the following reasons.

WSD ( Women's Specific Design) bikes have steeper seat angles than Men's/ Unisex bikes.

She's doing a lot more of the pure roadie stuff, including one major 5 day AIDS tour.

New England tri circut = hilly so unless you ride pure aero on climbs a road bike might be a safer option. irregardless I'm of the two bike school but its her cash and decision, and it will be what's right for her competitive sprit and checkbook.

The other discussion was about my decision to try and return to NZ next March/ Disney.

Right now Disney is on the back burner until I have fundage for marathon entry, ( IMNZ opens registration in April so I'm putting $500 aside to get in. It's the 25th Anniversary so I'm going to commit early. also I'll have a whole year to train.....) granted it will probably be sold out by then so I might go down just for moral support and bandit the last 10 miles .....yeah.....that's a plan....I can do that, despite rapid Disney security dogs ( down Pluto, Down Goofy.)

The reason I'm returning to Taupo in March ( in addition to my Schawrtzeneger-esque statement of " I'll be back!", The wonderful people of Taupo, the atmosphere and course that suits my strengths, as well as I want to get into cut, rapid dog shape to compete with the big guys, and qualify knowing I am damn worthy of that Kona slot. ) Is quite frankly to see mystery girl again. ...I'm not going to lie on that one.

Anyway we manged to get the ride done in about 3:28 averaging about 16.9 mph. Not bad for staying aerobic and the endless amount of climbing involved. Speedy will have a more indepth report as well as how her run went. (My intial plan was to atleast get 10k on the run with her but a call to pick up groceries ended that.) She looked strong when I left but like I said she'll finish that story.

Yeah so that was my weekend. A lot of time at Church and a lot of time on the Bitch Stomper.

Happy Easter everybody ( for those of you in the Orthodox faiths Happy Easter a few weeks early.)

R.D.

Good Friday/Looks like I'm getting publicity up here too....

Warning This is a long one. Also Graphic Image below.





"Father forgive them, they know not what they do......"


I believe those words are from Luke's Gospel but I'm not really sure. Sorry for the graphic image but since today is Good Friday I though it was appropriate to show the reason why most of us got the day off from work or classes. For those of you that are Western Chrisitains ( shout outs to my peeps in the Eastern Orthodox faiths who are just going into Lent.)Today was the day the party essentially ended. JC the hippie carpenter of Nazareth just got killed in the most dreadful fashion. (Crucifixion was considered so horrifying that Roman Citizens could not be subjected to it under Roman law.) I could go into theories of who's really to blame (The Romans or the High Priests although I think Pontius Pilate is the real bad guy in the story....at least from the research I've done on him...and after all if I'm Caphias the high priest I'm not going to want my butt nailed to a cross, so I'm going to crack down on any dissidents even if they are peaceful and if they been pissing me off for the last 3 years it's an added bonus.Caphias and the high priests condemning Christ could be the one of several examples of a religious group trying to CTA (cover their ass)with the government.) I could go into the whole Judas thing, Possessed, ignorant, wanting to rebel rouse take your pick although I don't really think that he knew they were going to Crucify the guy, he proceeded to hang himself after the fact....needless to say alot of things happended to get to the gory spectacle above, and it holds alot of truth to Today's society. Are we any less selfish or violent then we were 2000 years ago? Are we really in a better situation? Was the crucifixion just one of another spectacles in a sad history of human violence, when innocent blood was shed because of irrational hatred, greed or a trival show of political strength? Do we continue to witness several smaller scale crucifixions as people are enslaved in sweat shops, slaughtered like cattle in Dufour, kept from life saving drugs and treatments because of corporate greed, repressed when they demonstrate for human and civil rights, emotionally and physically destroyed fighting in senseless war, struggle to make ends meet because some CEO somewhere might make less than a $300 million bonus or might have to reduce the company profit margin to do the right thing.
Do we continue to drive nails into the hands and feet of humanity, when courrpted servants of God desecrate a sacred office by harming innocent children, when we care too much over the "fluff" in religious doctrine and forget the main message to "love one another" without qualifiers, without terms, without conditions. Do we scourge humanity when we argue a gay person should be deprived civil rights yet claim to value seperation of church and state and equality for all, or condemn women who get abortions yet we expect everyone to follow some 1950's esque status quo and provide no saftey net for single parents, when 200 years ago we oursleves were fleeing religious and civil persecution, yet now feel that we can persecute others?
Is indeed The crucified Christ not only a symbol of God's love and selfless compassion, or human suffering in one man
but for the AIDS patient, the single mother, the Palestinian Arab, The Israeli Jew, The Sweatshop worker, the Tibetian Monk, The Burmese civilian, the victim of genocide and/or domestic violence, the harassed altar boy, the Lab researcher searching tirelessly for a cure fo Cancer, ALS, AIDS, and the other ills of humanity, The innocent man on death row, the Iraqi civilian, the US soldier, The reformer, the peace keeper, the homosexual, the orphan, the widow, indeed all of us......

On a lighter note:

This morning I noticed my picture once again on the Front page of the Waterbury Paper, this time in my whole Eucharistic Minister garb ( well it was during the whole washing of the feet thing, no caption and I was the dude taking all the dirty towels.)...that aside , nothing really on tap. Tomorrow is a busy day for me. I'm in the branch until 12:30 then out to Woodbury for a ride with Speed Racer, then Mass at 8Pm at the Shrine, then home to help clean up and hide little plastic eggs filled with cavity giving treats, for my siblings. Then Sunday dinner with the fam and trying desperately to do the work I procrastinated doing all week. have started job searching for positions on the West Coast, because Ideally I'd like to move out there after graduation. My Parents have mixed feelings on this. While they have stated that "hey do what you have to do" I believe that is their secret intention that I get a real estate license, become part of the family conglomerate, and live at home until I marry a nice local girl and move next door. While I admire the plans for a family commune, I feel that Connecticut is not the place I want to live out the rest of my life....granted I know I would be missed if I moved....regardless it is at least a year before I have to start worrying about that.

Sorry if this seems to be an ADD-esque distraction, I started typing this before the deep reflection posted above so if this seems trival in comparision I aplolgize deeply.

The World famous overglorified Altar Boy.

R.D.

I

The Freeze/Thaw your Beans 50 miler.

Where: Mitchell School, Woodbury CT
When: Saturday March 22,2008 1:30PM
The route: Going up CT 47/ 109 to Lake Waramaug, followed by 2 to 3 loops of the Lake then heading back to Woodbury Aprox. 48 miles to 56 miles.
What to bring: Climbing legs, gu, Sports drink, water, your own tools and spare parts, ( Sadly I don't own a SAG wagon.) Tights and gloves maybe required ( High Temp forecasted as being 45F)
Rain plan: Wear a rain coat. If it's really bad then we'll drive to the lake or substitute with a 7-13 mi run.
Directions: leave a comment or email me @ BobbyDoogs@hotmail.com

The only thing is I need to finish this ride before 5:30PM because I have to serve Mass at 8:00PM in Waterbury ( I'm a Eucharistic minister and I need to be at St. Anne's at 7PM to get ready for the Vigil all are welcome to attend.) Also as with any training ride with me I am not liable if you do something crazy and get hurt, If you try to sue me this was a loosely organized training ride, ie RIDE AT YOUR OWN RISK besides all I own are 2 bikes and a computer, so you won't get much. (ok Covered my Arse.)

Hope to see some people out there.
R.D.

Spring Break/ Holy Week/ summer bookings

Sadly there will be no debauchery on Spring Break for me, for those in the Western Sects of Christianity ( ie Catholics, Anglicans, Baptists, Lutherans, in general the Catholic Church and the Protestant offshoots. The Eastern Orthodox don't celebrate the end of Lent for another month.) Sunday marks the begining of Holy Week (Palm/Passion Sunday) which means from Thursday - Sunday the Shrine of St. Anne will become my second home for the weekend.

Thursday night we have the Mass of the Lord's Supper so pretty much we comemorate the first time the Apostles recieved Holy Communion, as well as the whole happenings of the Last night JC was "alive". Pretty much it's mass as usual accept for a lot of incense, washing 12 high level parish member feet, benediction, and stripping the altar bare.

Friday they do a Good Friday Service but I'm still at work like a good capitalist. Pretty much this is one of two days a year Fasting is highly encouraged due to the fact a pretty peaceful guy died a most violent and painful death.

Saturday: the Easter Vigil This is probably my favorite mass of the year for 3 reasons
1. Lots of music.
2. Everbody gets to play with fire.
3. It fufills my obligation for Easter Sunday so I don't have to cram in to a pew on Sunday with everybody who's like " Holy Shit it's Easter, time to go to church for the year." (technically up until 1904 this was the only Sunday Catholics were required to go to mass. If you went every week and feast day it was icing on the cake, granted that all changed with Pius X.)

This one tends to be a long one, all the adults who weren't baptized, communicated ( I know pulling out $2 words) , comfirmed as kids, or are just entering the faith recieve their sacraments

There are a lot or readings, we enter the church its dark with only the pascal candle lit then everyone gets a lit candle and finally once the priest does his whole opening we turn the lights up in the joint, a truly amazing experience. Also the opening and closing prayers are sung, depending on the priest and the deacon, this could be a good or tramuatizing experience.

Sunday: All hands on deck!
Easter Sunday tends to be one of the busiest Sundays in the liturgical year, apparently even in our secular material culture we still equate Easter with religion, although some people use this as a time to show one up man ship on how much they spent on Easter clothes. Hint: You can tell the people who go to mass fairly reguarly from those who goes once a year, those of us that go fairly reguarly aren't as decked up, the yearly's have the huge hats, bright new dresses/ suits, decked out to the 9's (my philosophy hey God saw me naked, and a bright shade of purple the day I was born it can't get worse than that. Easter and Christmas I might throw on a nice sweater or polo.)
Anyhoo it won't matter because all servers and EM's are on staff because if its packed we're going to need everybody. So if anyone goes to St. Anne's onThursday, Saturday or Sunday I'll be the rather tall fellow in red, with a white frilly thing, playing with incense.

Ok now that I have gone on about theology and ritual way too much I'm going to go get intouch with my secular self.

I booked my Hotel for Eagleman and took Angry's advice (You can't go wrong with marriott.) I'm looking into Hotels for the Patriot and Providence. ( just because I'm bringin' my entourage and I don't want to eat Claire out of house and home.)

Also I got an email back from Catherine and she is now finding herself in the market for a new road bike ( let the bike pjorn start flowing.) for a couple of long rides in Nov. and Feb. Possibly an Ironman in March? Time will tell. Also perliminary investigation of my poll sense most of my readers seem to think I will not be able to limit my spending to a $150 crank set, sadly I am starting to agree with them , and have not gone along with it as of yet. Aero wheels are tempting, dura ace is screaming, carbon fiber.....ok Bob cold shower you'll buy a full carbon Stomper when you graduate and get a real job.....or you stomp the field at Eagleman and get sponsored by Specialized ( maybe possibly, hopefully, I start riding again in t-minus 9 days.) But as of now I am not throwing down on a new bike, although an ultegra crank and aero wheels are tempting.....it will only happen if I get my debt to income ratio back to a semi-comfortable level.

Also to answer a comment made on if I'll be doing a North American Ironman in 09 I'm debating doing Placid or Louisville but I definitely plan on going back to Taupo. (saving as I speak) (I'll most likely end up doing Placid, but Louisville might suit my cycling style a little better, also cost Placid I can shoot up for a weekend and drive home, unlike Louisville where I'm looking at a week and airfare. If I qualify for Kona or have a shot to qualify then cost will win out.) There might be a possibility of 3 IM's for Bob-o in 09 but the economy/ Job promotion or upgrade/ income to debt ratio are the deciding factors in that one.
Well that's my daily rant.

The long winded one.
R.D.