This and that

First a little 'cross commentary regarding worlds: Congratulations to a certain B. Matter for making the team and representing Wisco. Cool indeed. That's just about all that was cool about worlds though as the race itself turned out to be pretty boring. Now, if it was me in a race that won nearly from the start, that wouldn't be boring a'tall but that's not likely to happen.

Second a short team update: we had our first of the year Cafe Hollander team meeting on Monday evening at Headquarters. Lots of excitement is building for the upcoming season as we have some fresh Masters blood and have started a women's team. There is new kit on the way too, which I must say is very "pro" looking. We even have matching gloves and shoe covers this year to go with an already impressive amount of clothing. I can't wait to roll out as a team with twenty of us two by two.

Be sure to check out our website in the coming months as we have a new webmaster who promises to update it (not me.....). Also, in case you haven't heard, June will bring the opening of the new Cafe Hollander in Wauwatosa. The plans are for outdoor seating on the bridge across from Noodles. The restaurant will be in the building that now houses Zimmerman Architectural Group next to the Chancery. Eric and Mike plan to gut remodel the interior of the building and add a fountain out front where the sculpture is now.

Third is my dilemma over a new road bike this year. My business is still going strong, but the daily doses of nasty economic news have me pretty nervous. We have a sweetheart of a team deal from Specialized that I would love to take advantage of but I think I'd better hold off. I would guess that I'm not the only one in this boat...

See you on the road

Proud to be an American

I have never been, am not now, and will never be a nationalist or a big hoo rah rah the US is the best type of person. That said, I am today proud to be an American. 'Nuf said.

It's good

Those of you who know, know: it sure feels good to be back on a bike after an extended break. A few times on the trainer in the last week, one eventful roller ride that reminded me just how mad skilled I'm not, and a nice winter ride with the Shedmaster. The latter (yesterday) was thoroughly enjoyable and reminded me that I can sweat my butt off even though it's only 15 degrees.

So I have this Bosnian guy that works for me, and whenever I ask him a question of any kind, he answers "it's good". Doesn't matter whether I'm asking how he is feeling, if he wants a donut, or if he would like it if I kick him in the shin, the answer is always the same: "It's good". I think it's going to be my new motto.

Mad Men?

So last Friday night my friend Dean had a "Mad Men" party. Don't know what th at is? I didn't either. It's a show about an ad agency in the early 60's in Manhattan. Check out my appetizer in the pic below: FLAMING CABBAGE! Does it get any better than that?

The host with the most posing with Jackie O

Yours truly having some "back seat time" with Jackie. Now I know what Jack saw in her.

The host. See this look? He lives it.

Oh yeah, flaming cabbage. The sterno in the middle is for cooking your weenie! (the olive is so you don't burn your fingers when you're drunk and mistake them for the business end of affairs.)

Blowing off the cobwebs of this blog

Hello? Anyone ever stop here anymore? Besides the Sugs I highly doubt it... and that includes me. If anyone gives a rip, I'll recap the last six months in a few sentences. I gave up the blog pretty much the way I gave up cycling after the fun in summer, but maybe I'll approach this blog with a little of the renewed enthusiasm that I have for cycling and life in general.

Anyway, here goes:

July: back in Froedtert for a week. More bad news after another, larger stroke took my left leg out from under me.

August: rare adverse reaction to the drugs left me with only one option which was to go on an injectable anticoagualant. Didn't figure that would be too bad as it would only be for a month or so.

September: another angiogram and more bad news. Sorry pal, another four months of drugs and restrictions, racing is over before it started. Just to fu*k with my not-so-bad-ol-self even further I decided to try a case of Shingles on for size. If you ever had it you'll know what fun it is.

October: blah, blah, blah. I couldn't even haul my sorry ass to watch my team mates race. My attitude sucked.

November: just for a good measure, my brain misfired and gave me a scare but another MRI showed no further damage so the docs figured it was residual affect from previous damage. Whew.

December 23rd: Merry Christmas to me! Angiogram showed clean artery and I went off the drugs. Time for my pincushion to heal. Can't imagine how type 1 diabetics feel.

January: now it's time to get back to business. I've got 15 pounds to drop and some serious catching up to do. It's gonna be a great '09.

Postscript: Thanks to Steve Roeder and Hollander for sticking by and for everyone's support; I needed it. I figure that the only direction I can go now is up! I learned some valuable lessons in the whole process that I will not soon forget and that is the bright side to the year.

See you on the road...

Oops, I forgot...

The long term prognosis is that the brain will work around these dead spots. My doc told me that I dodged eleven bullets to the brain, and to consider myself more than lucky. I do.

My list of restrictions includes: no racing, no roller coasters, and NO chiropractors. He also said no tackle football and no getting so drunk that I'd fall down.

Over and out, amigos.

The end of the story

So, to pick up where I left off, eventually they figured out what was going on with this whole stroke business. The MRI showed eleven separate events; five more major, six less so. The five more major ones showed brain tissue death of areas ranging from the size of a large pea, to the largest at the size of a marble. The smaller ones ranged from the size of a bb to the size of a small pea.

Here's what happened: Somehow I developed a dissection, or small tear, in the right side carotid artery going from the heart to the brain. As near as I can tell, it may have happened when Cece jumped on my back at the same time I was standing up. Apparently, it doesn't take much force in a certain way to cause injury to the artery. Anyway, this little tear started to allow blood clots to form, which then would break off, float up into my brain, and get stuck there, causing the strokes. In the investigation of why this was happening, they asked me a series of questions looking for the cause. The first was asking whether I had been in an accident recently, but the second question threw me: had I been to a chiropractor? The answer was no, why? The neurologist explained that this type of artery injury, while not exactly common, can be caused by upper neck manipulation. Hmm, I think I'll stay away.

In the end, the prescription for fixing this problem is to thin my blood long enough for the dissection to heal. That means a few weeks of twice daily Lovenox injections while the regular stuff, Coumadin, gets normalized in my system. Every third day, I have to go to Froedtert for a blood test for the Coumadin until the dosing is nailed down.

All of this goes back to why I can't race this summer: thin blood. I actually rode with my doc yesterday and he said as long as I was riding with him he'd be able to plug the leaks if I crashed, but that he'd much prefer I didn't do that. It would be difficult to plug a leak inside my skull...

So try not to crash me on the Beat Down as I'll blame it on you if I bleed out.