Hello Everyone,
Last week my hockey team went from 7 wins 1 loss to 7 wins 4 losses. 3 losses in one week! Compound that with a couple injuries and some sickness and lets just say we had a bad week. We traveled to “the county” to play two of those games and we had to spend the night in Presque Isle so I figured I’d have some interesting stories to tell when I got home. Apparently the kids sensed that I was not happy and not one of them tried the old, lean a trash can, half full of water, on someones door and knock trick! 26 kids and not one incident. Either I have them well trained and they had an off week, or well…. lets just go with the first one. I really wanted to write a Sunday night e-mail but I was not only blank but pissed at the team. So I put it off. Monday, Angela gave me a honey do list, which made my mood that much better. Part of the list included a dump run because Mackenzie had seen a couple field mice or moles roaming around the garage. When we first built the house I saw a mouse and within an hour I had modern pest out here with traps, mice bait, sonic sound waves, you name it, I didn’t want any mice around. I guess now I’ve mellowed with age. I had seen a little brown mole earlier last week but he looked pretty innocent and I figured he was just getting out of the snow, so I left him alone. I loaded the first bunch of trash bags in the trunk of the neon and rather than make two trips I threw the last bag on the back seat. I had gotten almost to the dump when guess who makes an appearance. Yup, in my peripheral vision, I saw the cute little brown mole run across the floor of the neon. By instinct my knees were now above the steering wheel but I needed to stop to get the hell out. I’m doing 30 mph, my choices were limited, jump out of the moving vehicle, or put a foot back down to apply the brakes and risk getting bit or eaten. Then with my quick thinking I remember and pull up the emergency brake sliding the neon sideways to a stop, and jump out. Problem solved. Except I need to finish my task and get home. I stood there for a good 10 minutes before I decided to risk it. I got to the dump, unloaded the trash and got home without anymore problems. OK I know its funny now but it wasn’t then. Problem is I don’t know if he’s still in the neon. So now I had something to share with you. Funny thinking back, standing outside the neon the thought went through my mind. I’m 5’11 at well over 200 pounds and a 3″ long mouse weighing mere ounces just intimidated the crap out of me, yet I had been criticizing my players because they weren’t be physical enough with the oversized county kids. Lesson learned.  Needless to say I switched vehicles with Angela.

The excitement of summer cycling is starting to build. Up until now the only thing building was my weight. I got out my rollers and today I got on and rode for 20 minutes. Yes, I know it’s not that big a deal, but its a start. I was so excited that I took myself to McDonalds and treated myself to a quarter pounder with cheese and super sized it! ATTABOY! I’m starting to get in my Trek mode. Usually this time of the year I have a few bikes and training junk laying around the hockey store and people ask questions and we get talking about the Trek and the anticipation starts to gain momentum. Next week is the Trek team recruitment week. The lung association gives out prizes to the team that gets the most team members to sign up on any one day of the week. Central Maine Cycling Club is shooting for our riders to sign up on Friday (1/29). If we win that day we will put all of our Trek registered riders names in a hat and give away those prizes. They range from a bike computer, to Sea Dog tickets, to a $50 bike shop gift certificate & more! So if you haven’t signed up, Friday is the day. Here is the link to our teams page. http://www.mrsnv.com/evt/e01/team.jsp?id=2643&tid=36249 If you have friends that ride and aren’t on a team ask them to join us. If they are signed up and not on a team let me know and I’ll have them put on the CMCC team. We need 4 more registered riders to qualify for the Colby team tent city. I am working on a pretty cool fundraiser for anyone that is interested or needs help with the Trek fundraising. I will have more details about that soon. If you have any questions feel free to give me a call (485-0955) or e-mail me at cmcc@roadrunner.com

I have been listing some hiking and snowshoeing excursions on our club website as well as some spin classes and upcoming events. We have confirmed with the Maine Time Trial Series that we will host the Hinkley Time Trial on Sunday July 18. The Sukee Arena indoor ice racing World Championships will be Sunday March 21 and that will also be the date of our first scheduled outdoor group ride. All in all it looks like the cycling season is already taking shape.
OK I’ve gone on long enough and by this point Angela will be reading this at work and thinking I’m too long winded, Hey honey, on your way home, be careful, there may be a mouse riding with you!

Happy Pedaling
Dave